The ID Report

Post details: Part Four: Conclusion - How will we know if a more open system works better?

11/15/06

by Denyse O'Leary 08:49:28 am, Categories: Commentary - Announcements, 375 words

Part Four: Conclusion - How will we know if a more open system works better?

by Denyse O'Leary
ARN correspondent

The fact that the peer review system broke down was nobody's fault in particular. Rather, it was a classic example of the law of unintended consequences: Actions have unintended as well as intended consequences - and unintended consequences make just as much difference as intended ones.

The overwhelming flaw in the traditional peer review system is that it listed so heavily toward consensus that it showed little tolerance for genuinely new findings and interpretations. The print and postage-based technologies of the mid-twentieth century greatly increased the significance of this flaw because only a few parties could afford to operate publishing systems. A small like-minded cabal can easily get control of such a system and run it into the ground, without significant challenge. By contrast, Internet-based technologies permit widespread low-cost access. The Internet may help to restore a more open and creative conversation - though it certainly won't sound pretty at first.

Tipler recounts the approach of the great quantum physicist Niels Bohr:

..., the great Danish physicist Niels Bohr said, according to Abraham Pais (The Genius of Science, p. 307), that if a physicist has an idea that seems crazy and he hesitates to publish so that someone else publishes the idea first and gets the credit, he has no one to blame but himself. In other words, it never occurred to Bohr that referees or editors could stop the publication of a new idea.

As Yukon gold panners might well say, no pebbles, no nuggets. So here's a test: if the new system really is open and dynamic, expect to hear complaints from all sides that "garbage" is now published that formerly would not be. But so? Before forming a judgement, wait to see if useful new findings and interpretations come forward that would not survive the peer review of Podunk U. That will tell us whether the new system works as intended.

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Toronto-based Canadian journalist Denyse O'Leary (www.designorchance.com) is the author of the multiple award-winning By Design or by Chance? (Augsburg Fortress 2004), an overview of the intelligent design controversy. She was named CBA Canada's Recommended Author of the Year in 2005 and is co-author, with Montreal neuroscientist Mario Beauregard, of the forthcoming The Spiritual Brain (Harper 2007).

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