Intellectuals vs Committees?

Question

Globalization diminished the importance of intellectuals. Now you need committees to address global problems effectively. But don't you think these committees would soon become a power sphere on their own? Organizations where intellectuals are uselessly bickering? If so, can you give me a real world example?

Answer 1

I work in research and development as a manufacturing engineer specializing in processes. I work with a bunch of people who are as smart or smarter than I am.

I identify issues with processes and then turn the issue over to another "scientist" to research.

What I have seen, over and over again, is that when something seems to violate the expectations the results end up being skewed to prove the expected result.

Every scientific issue is kind of like playing a game of survivor. You build relationships among your peers, establishing support for your ideas. This works well when the results are as expected.

If, for an example you place different size pans of water on a stove and then turn the stove heat on at different levels and you time how long it takes to boil the water the expected result is that the pans will boil at different times.

IF the results are all the pans boiling at the same time AND the experiment is repeatable you have a problem.

No one who understands the conservation of energy is going to accept the results until they themselves do the experiment and then they will challenge the experiment. If they don't they will lose their reputation and no one will fund them. (The first five minutes of the movie "Star Gate" is a realistic view of what happens when someone puts forth a crazy idea, even one that can be proved.)

This is why dramatic changes, like Einstein's Theory of Relativity are generally not accepted and are in fact ridiculed for years until they are accepted. Einstein was a patent clerk and had no reputation to lose and everything to gain by publication. One of the few reasons his ideas eventually became accepted.

At the same time, not everyone who puts out a crazy idea is right so by filtering ideas through committee you get rid of quite a few crazy ideas AND usually the good ones hang around, like Einstein's ideas did. Not always though.

In the end committees make the best sense.

Even when they disagree with me and I, of course, am right all the time :-)

Answer 2

Committee: Eight bodies, sixteen legs and no brains.

Camel: A race horse built by a committee.