The article below about how astronomers are making effective use of public volunteers on the Internet reminds me of the humility intended by Dylan Thomas's famous poem, "The force that through the green fuse drives the flower."

First, bravo to Astronomy!   Scientists are drowning in observational data, and computers can't (yet) help them analyse it fully, so many clever (and PR-minded) researchers are outsourcing their excess work as digital data adventures for willing volunteers across the globe.  Brilliant!

If only other science disciplines could see this light!  The best inspiration isn't that real people can help, it is that raw data - which is practically inedible even for scientists - can be treated and packaged in interesting and nutritious ways for general consumption.  Adding such value isn't a trivial thing to do - astronomers are just a few giant steps ahead of their colleagues in understanding and employing people power.

However, as smart as harnessing parallel public processors might be, science could benefit even more from the social web.  Let's start by being a bit sceptical about science itself. From grade school on we're taught an incorrect theory about how science works. The model in our heads is that each new generation of scientists discovers evidence that helps them correct the mistakes of previous scientists. We’re taught to imagine Truth as an objective mountain that humankind is slowly climbing.

But that's not what's actually happening.  The simplest evidence refuting this theory can be found in any university library by browsing scientific journals from a century ago.  It becomes immediately apparent that past researchers weren't "wrong" so much as that we simply don't care anymore about most of the big questions that motivated them.  Human culture has moved on at least as much as science.  In other words, Truth is an evolving quest borne from a strange loop relationship between Ourselves and Nature.  Human culture is the force that through the scientific fuse drives discovery.

Once we realize this fact, we can connect it to the biggest push in modern business: social media analytics.  Companies used to be able to wait for months or years to understand consumer trends, but not now.  Having your finger immediately on the public pulse is good for every bottom line.

So, could scientists stay ahead of competing labs by monitoring Twitter streams?  Absolutely, but the opportunity goes much deeper than this.  The cooperative Astronomy described in the following article is really about “participative sensing”, or applying the special skills that every average human being has to perceive patterns as a means of augmenting the performance of computers.  Those same special skills also enable each one of us to perceive patterns of meaning on much broader spectra, so that completely average people could also augment the performance of the scientists themselves.

How?  Scientists aren’t as objective as they think.  Their daily existence allows them to absorb popular culture, albeit inefficiently.  It’s difficult to appreciate how a random social event, such as a family conversation and a simple question about your work, can easily inspire your most profound revelation. 

Social networking is about engaging a global conversation.  Scientists and science projects can therefore cultivate such conversations in order to absorb and resonate with culture in a systematic way, applying the network effect to their currently serendipitous, individual inspiration pathways. 

And no, it isn’t easy.  But it isn’t rocket science either.  The scientists that figure this out first will go a long way.

David

Citizen astronomy

A new world in your bedroom

Amateur astronomers join the ranks of the planet hunters

Oct 1st 2011 | from the print edition