Tyler Cowen: evaluation

Transcript context

…I think, yes, there’s always going to be politics involved, and we always come to any problem from a unique single perspective, and institutions are going to have their biases. Yes, that is true, but in the long run, the scientific method will figure it out, and there will be one right answer. That institution — whatever their bias is — will be proven wrong in the long run. Now, those people might be dead and won’t be able to apologize at that point. We’re not in the long run now. Like the food pyramid — it used to tell us, in essence, eat more carbohydrates. It’s not obvious that was the right thing to say. It’s probably the wrong thing to have said. It was our best guess at that moment in time, based on the available evidence. That’s all science is. It’s our best guess based on the available evidence. Once that evidence changes, then we could all be wrong. I think the best scientist is the one who says, “This is how I do it now, but I could be completely wrong. If you can show me better evidence, I will change my mind, but based on what I know now, this is what I’m saying.”…

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