Latest news with #CarlSagan
The Guardian
16-07-2025
- Science
- The Guardian
Brian Fagan obituary
Science is continuously revealing astonishing insights into ourselves and our world. Transmitting those advances to a wider public, while reminding specialists whom they really work for, is a rare craft. For the past half century, Brian Fagan, who has died aged 88, did that through his writing and speaking, shaping public understanding of ancient human history. Unlike Carl Sagan or David Attenborough, who brought cosmology and nature into millions of homes, Brian never fronted a television series. But his well-researched output was prodigious: including revised editions, he wrote or edited the equivalent of two books for every year of his life. Nine textbooks covering world prehistory and the practice of archaeology have been through a total of 83 revisions, most in recent years co-authored with the British editor and archaeologist Nadia Durrani. Books for a wider readership range in subject from human origins and the early Americas to the search for Tutankhamun. His first, The Rape of the Nile: Tomb Robbers, Tourists, and Archaeologists in Egypt (1975), won a California book award gold medal. The Great Warming: Climate Change and the Rise and Fall of Civilizations (2008) was his New York Times bestseller, and Climate Chaos: Lessons on Survival from Our Ancestors (2021, with Durrani) won Italy's Cosmos award for popular science writing. It is an immense challenge to bring the ancient past to proper life, informed by no more than broken remains and highly technical science. Brian's approach was to focus on the human and the global, throwing in contemporary references – notably in a number of books that dealt with climate change and rising sea levels – and fictional vignettes. A millennia ago in California, 'Flickering hearths and blazing firebrands highlight dark windows and doorways on the terrace of the great house that is Pueblo Bonito.' Describing two stoneworkers in 7000BC Belgium 'camped in a sandy clearing', he noted that one of them was left-handed, before explaining how that observation was obtained. His first rule of writing: 'Always tell a story.' Like Sagan, Brian was a university professor with his own research experiences. Born in Birmingham, he was adopted at birth by Margaret (nee Moir) and Brian Fagan. His father was a president of the Publishers' Association who worked in partnership with Edward Arnold, founder of Edward Arnold & Co, where he was responsible for school books and the university arts list. His grandfather, Patrick Fagan, was a fellow of the Royal Asiatic, Royal Astronomical and Royal Historical Societies. Brian was himself an honorary fellow of the Society of Antiquaries of London. He was later to learn that his birth mother was a teacher. Like his father, he went to Rugby school. He did national service with the Royal Navy, before studying archaeology and anthropology at Pembroke College, Cambridge (1956–59). He then completed his Cambridge MA and PhD in Africa (1959-65), principally when keeper of prehistory at the Livingstone Museum, Zambia (then Northern Rhodesia), and conducting archaeological fieldwork in that country and Kenya. In 1960 he had a short stint lecturing at the University of Cape Town, South Africa (he returned there as a visiting professor in 1982). He decided early on that his forte lay in teaching and popular writing, not primary research; he left Africa, he said, exhausted by the logistics of excavation and survey, and as 'a sound, but second-rate excavator'. He had thought of joining the family publishing business. When offered a visiting position at the University of Illinois, Urbana, however, he happened to lunch with Mortimer Wheeler, then a powerful archaeologist and media star. Wheeler advised him to write about archaeology for the public, saying, 'We need a new voice.' Brian spent a year at Urbana before moving to the University of California Santa Barbara (UCSB). Newly faced in 1967 with a class of 300 introductory anthropology students, and no books to support his teaching, he set about filling the gap. Within seven years he had published two introductory readers, and two textbooks: In the Beginning: An Introduction to Archaeology (of which a 15th edition was published this year), and Men of the Earth: An Introduction to World Prehistory (currently, as People of the Earth, in its 16th edition). Told he could teach 'anything I liked', it was nonetheless a difficult time. Two influential and charismatic archaeologists, Lewis Binford and James Deetz, had left the department just as he arrived. That year, Ronald Reagan had begun his first term as governor of California, on a mission to stamp out campus protest (UCSB was notorious for its anti-Vietnam war activity, and in 1969 a caretaker was killed by a bomb), cut university spending, and bend curriculums towards conservative thinking. The anthropology department, Brian said, was 'reeling from the impact'. Nevertheless, unperturbed, and gifted with confidence, drive and vision, Brian stayed at UCSB, writing one book after another. He retired in 2003 as professor emeritus of anthropology. The Archaeological Institute of America recognised his books with a lifetime achievement award, and the Society for American Archaeology awarded him three times, for his public writing and media work, and his book Before California (2003). Beside books and teaching (in which he was an early adopter of new technologies, encouraging his students to think freely), Brian busied himself widely as university dean (various posts 1970–76), consultant (for the likes of the National Geographic Society, Time/Life, Microsoft and the BBC), magazine columnist and editorial adviser. He would have liked to have presented TV films, he once told me (though he claimed not to watch any), but that call never came. He was an impressive and charismatic speaker, however, in more recent years teasing his audiences with humour, and with the presence of an ageing Shakespearean actor who was fit enough to bicycle 100 miles a week into his 80s. Occasions ranged from Munro lecturer at the University of Edinburgh (1967), through to guest speaker at Flinders University Museum of Art (2014) – and many more. Other awards included recognition for his teaching, and the Cruising Association's Hanson Cup (he once crossed the Atlantic in his own boat). As a keen sailor he enjoyed California's coastal waters (and, naturally, published well-received cruising guides). He was working on new book editions, and a new title, when he died. His first marriage, to Judith Fontana, ended in divorce. He married Lesley Newhart in 1985, and she survives him, as do their daughter, Anastasia, and his daughter with Judith, Lindsay. Brian Murray Fagan, archaeologist and writer, born 1 August 1936; died 1 July 2025
Forbes
14-07-2025
- Science
- Forbes
The Dreck Equation: A Drake Equation For Mapping The Hidden Universe Of Federal Regulation
Joe Biden's 2024 regulatory big bang—106,109 Federal Register pages—shattered cosmic records. But the 3,000 notice-and-comment rules chronicled there every year and archived in the Code of Federal Regulations (CFR) comprise a fragment of the regulatory universe. The notice-and comment rulemaking so many emphasize as 'regulation' is light years from encompassing the full sweep of federal intervention in the economy, business and households. Andromeda Galaxy, M31, with the Lunt 80mm f/7 doublet apo refractor for stack of 5 x 15 minute ... More exposures at ISO 800 with Canon 5D MkII and Borg 0.85x flattener/reducer. Companion galxies, M31 and M110 also shown. Taken from home. Field is roughly 4 x 2.5. (Photo by: Alan Dyer /VW PICS/Universal Images Group via Getty Images) To the observable final rules total one must add 'rule equivalents' stemming from other corners of the legislative and administrative state galaxy. These include: I have a fondness for astronomy and for astronomical analogies regarding the unknowable, and federal interventions beyond fiscal outlays, debt and conventional regulation fit the bill. The Drake Equation, created in 1961 by astronomer Frake Drake, is a way researchers guesstimate how many alien civilizations might be chatting out there in the Milky Way. Drake's approach was multiplying the likelihoods of key junctures in the progression of extra-solar planets potentially harboring life capable of communications. Carl Sagan on the classic television series Cosmos explained Frank Drake's equation to estimate 'N'—the number of talkative alien civilizations—by multiplying the following terms: Probabilities decrease the further to the right, but multiplying terms gives one a rough guess of who's out there yakking it up. Tiny changes in assumptions yield a universe teeming with life, or a humanity cold and alone. Sagan sketched out an optimistic take of millions of civilizations in the Milky Way—and a pessimistic yet still thrilling guess of 10. TALLAHASSEE, FL - 1984: Astrophysicist Carl Sagan poses before a Florida State University ... More Distinguished Lecture Series speech at the Turnbull Conference Center in circa 1984 in Tallahassee, Florida. The original background of the image has been replaced by a NASA photo of the Cosmos. (Photo by Mickey Adair/ Michael Ochs Archives/ Getty Images) Dreck Invasion: A Drake Equation For Detecting Alien Rule Equivalents in the Administrative Universe Official measurements of regulation and burdens of intervention are rare and sketchy – more astrology than astrophysics in the best of circumstances. Even rules themselves were not counted until 1976, when they stood at a whopping 7,401. Whether in terms of effect, scope, or (most significantly) dollar costs, we simply do not possess particularly useful additive units of regulation the way we can reckon dollars of federal spending. Counting numbers of rules, as we do here like everyone else, is crude since rules' effects are all different. But rule counts are what we have. So with that in mind and with apologies to Messrs. Drake and Sagan, we present a 'Dreck Equation' for framing a more universal portrayal of rules alongside the heretofore invisible 'rule equivalents' capable of eclipsing the countable rules observable by the naked eye. While today's 440-plus agencies issue over 3,000 ordinary rules (thankfully not the 7,000 of yesteryear), the vastness and complexity of more abnormal forms such as dark matter, federal contracting conditions, subsidies, pass-through grants-in-aid to states and localities and more generate unappreciated rule equivalence. A preliminary, simplified, crude, average 'Dreck Load' (DL)—rules plus effective rule equivalents that everyone obeys in a given year —may be expressed in like this: The Dreck Equation would actually need to be a matrix capturing agencies individually as well as recognizing variations in the burdens of their individual dreck components; not a mere average. This discussion aims only at countdown and launch. Term 1: Rulemaking Vector in the Dreck Equation The term 'R' is simply the 3,000 or so rules published in the Federal Register each solar system year (sometimes fewer under Trump administration). For modeling, analysts might use an average over 10 years, or the prior average of the party in power to loosely capture a Trump deregulatory or Biden regulatory culture, respectively. Researchers could isolate rules from select agencies, narrow exploratory emphasis to significant rules, or some other interest. One could also expand 'R' terms to investigate the likes of number of new core priorities or policy imperatives a particular administration might intend to address with rulemaking (for example, infrastructure or immigration policy). Other approaches might emphasize number of new proposed rules, the chance the proposal is finalized, fractions of rules repealed, fraction of rules deregulatory, and so forth. These are all important, but for our first crude pass we'll just stick with 'R,' knowing that rules vary infinitely in their effects and aren't inherently additive. If notice and comment rules fully captured regulation and intervention in the economy, there would be no Dreck Equation. Despite being the most commented-upon and analyzed when it comes to costs and burdens, ordinary shiny-object notice and comment rules may comprise the least of federal intervention. Where the Drake equation depicts the bottlenecks that narrow probabilities of life for an entire galaxy, Dreck is adding back the extant uncounted alien rules, those whose burden's origin is otherwise than the agency's rulemaking process. Dreck is intended to highlight that rules are not alone in the regulatory universe, and urge that policymakers recognize and be held to account for the laundering of regulation by non-rule means to influence outcomes or inflict obligations, whether intentional or not. These will include the big bang of guidance documents and policy statements, the procurement and contracting hypergiant, and astronomical spending and subsidies—for starters. Term 2: The Regulatory Dark Matter Vector in the Dreck Equation (DM × β) Unlike rules (R) in term one, there's no centralized or mandatory reporting structure for guidance documents, policy statements, bulletins, circulars, memoranda, manuals, letters, advisory opinions, administrative interpretations and other assorted variants of regulatory dark matter. Therefore, the numerical quantity of 'DM' is unknown, as of course is how it all translates into rule equivalents. Guidance can proliferate since it skips the formal notice-and-comment process, perhaps deliberately so. It's just easier. The Regulatory Group asserts that "In most agencies, the volume of guidance material usually far exceeds the volume of legally enforceable regulations,' but one finds no official reckoning, making guidance worthy of the 'dark matter' moniker. For our Dreck purposes, the estimated or expected number of guidance documents (DM) can be multiplied by the probability (β) that guidance on the whole acts like a 'rule' (such as 0.3 for 30 percent chance affected parties treat the missive as a must-follow) to 'tally' rule equivalents. For simple reference, a weighting of 0.1 would imply that 10 guidance documents are equivalent to one rule. We're talking gross numbers here but naturally a better treatment would consist of guidance by agency and type utilizing appropriate probabilities (the 'matrix' referred to above, to be invented by future galaxy-brains). While estimates for the amount of guidance in existence or birthed yearly may not be as speculative as extrasolar planetary life, the magnitude remains bathed in the radiation of indifference. To begin exploration of this space, regu-nauts should know that even in the wake of Joe Biden's recission of Trump's executive order 13891 ('Promoting the Rule of Law Through Improved Agency Guidance Documents') requiring agency online portals, one can still access a subset of over 108,000 documents, up from a few thousand a decade ago. The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), including the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services and the Food and Drug Administration, can issue thousands of guidance documents yearly. The likes of Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) environmental compliance guidance and Department of Labor (DOL) advisories are also prolific. The list goes on. The weighting beta (β) for the entire inventory of guidance in terms of impact, scope or enforceability is even more unknowable than the numerical inventory itself, but that's why Dreck is here, to speculate and urge policymakers to cope with this neglected frontier. In terms of weighting guidance, at one extreme, purely advisory or informational guidance—which is supposed to describe the totality—would be close to zero. But some guidance can be high-gravitational, de facto binding with rule-like effects. Such guidance could be weighted closer to one (β of, say, 0.8–0.9). Examples might include Department of Education "Dear Colleague" letters, or EPA guidance tied to permitting giving the impression of being binding and enforceable due to the threat of audits or fines, such as EPA "Waters of the United States" (WOTUS) guidance interpreting the Clean Water Act. In tax policy, the Internal Revenue Service relies heavily on notices attempting to interpret tax laws and clarify compliance for business and individual taxpayers who tend to treat them as binding despite nominal non-regulatory status. In immigration policy, Deferred Action for Childhood arrivals was implemented through a mere Department of Homeland Security memorandum that Trump ultimately could not reverse. Other guidance might be regarded as more moderately gravitational (β of 0.4–0.7, let's say), such as labor and employment announcements on workplace policies, wage standards and anti-discrimination enforcement. The DOL's administrator interpretations on independent contractor status and franchising policy had significant implications for gig workers and small businesses that are still being ironed out. Healthcare policy guidance addressing issues like drug approvals, reimbursement policies, or pandemic emergency measures might fit here. On the other hand, healthcare guidance can be enforceable and approach a rule-equivalent β of 1.0 if tied to funding mechanisms like Medicare or Medicaid. Financial regulators also liberally issue guidance on risk and, consumer protections and in endeavors such as payday loans. Term 3: The Contracting/Procurement Vector in the Dreck Equation (C × β1) When an agency uses a contractor to fulfill a project or provide a service, the terms of that contract may include regulatory compliance requirements such as environmental or labor adherences. These can be enforced through the contract itself, committed to by the recipient(s) in response to the conditions attending a Notice of Funding Opportunity (NOFO) or other avenues. The contractor assumes responsibility for adhering to 'regulations,' but the agency's public notice and comment rulemaking is not involved. The $42 billion 'BEAD' (Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment) program administered by the Department of Commerce's National Telecommunications and Information Administration is a striking example. Thise vector is really a category of dark matter, but the presence of the massive federal contracting and acquisition regime (that boasts occasionally of being the 'world's largest purchaser of goods and services') lends itself to isolating it conceptually. The GAO notes that the federal government committed to $755 billion in contracts in fiscal year 2024. One important DOGE (Department of Government Efficiency) legacy has been the raising of awareness of the number of contracts and their costs. Along with their number, the β1 weighting can help portray the proportion of the overall contract load that includes or induces rule-like terms (such as a probability overall of 0.2 for a 20 percent chance). Every agency and every contract will be different, of course. Term 4: The Subsidies/Grants Vector in the Dreck Equation ($ × β2) Recent legislation – such as the CARES Act, the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, the Inflation Act and the CHIPS and Science Act – entails spending that is highly regulatory and interventionist (not to mention in disregard of enumerated powers) even before downstream agencies begin writing rules. The U.S. Grants website points to '38,302 funding programs and $1,000,090.45B allocated funding to date," and the presence of over 78,000 'funding and grant opportunities.' Meanwhile, in a newly updated report, the Congressional Research Service affirms that 'In FY2024, the federal government provided an estimated $1.1 trillion to state and local governments in federal grants, funding a wide range of public policy initiatives such as health care, transportation, income security, education, job training, social services, community development, and environmental protection.' That's over a trillion dollars in one year alone, and each of those categories sports their own sets of often regulatory conditions to receive funding. While there is no direct way of translating the number of grants or the dollars into a countable numerical rule equivalents, the chance (β2) that dispensations on the whole have rule-like conditions (such as 0.1 for a conservative 10 percent chance) can be applied to the number (or dollar amounts of) of grants, subsidies and funding awards ($) for exploration. The point is to at least stop disregarding potential rule-making vectors. Outer Space Explorations: Other Vectors Of The Regulatory Big Bang The foregoing is intended to set policymakers on the path to recognizing a sweep of regulation/intervention and displacement of free competitive enterprise far more substantial than that captured in notice and comment regulation, and to do something about it. There is much more to add to this simple Dreck Equation, however. Tariffs, government loans, antitrust regulation, green treaty sign-ons, prescriptive R&D, government takeovers of swaths of retirement and health care, and public-private partnerships (PPPs) are – like all the foregoing – rarely recognized as regulation but deserving of their on rule-equivalency β transformer regime. In PPPs, for example, privatizations (such as of infrastructure grids and government-owned lands,) that should have long since been achieved under a system of free enterprise and limited government are abandoned and replaced by the fusing of public and private sector entities to fulfill government pursuits. That makes future light-touch regulation even more difficult and unlikely. The emergence of smart cities is particularly vulnerable to such regulatory capture. Ultimately, Washington may simply elect to govern a sector outright, such as in space projects, leaving no privatization alternative intact for our descendants. This points up one of the flaws in cost-benefit analysis in conventional regulation; if certain parties want government to fully control a sector, recognizing incremental regulation as costly simply does not figure into the worldview (a New York mayoral candidate's call for government-owned grocery stores illustrates an example of this phenomenon). The Dreck Equation is an appeal to policymakers to recognize that unwarranted regulation of every sort, not just notice and comment but realms beyond can sacrifice startups, employment and wealth creation. Looming on the event horizon is the potential for regulatory 'dark energy' enabled by the Internet of Things, exemplified by remote automobile disabling technology birthed in the IIJA. Businesses and homes are just as vulnerable. The Dreck Equation as Policy Warp Drive Naturally, the β weighting actor shifts upward when administrations are inclined to treat guidance as binding (such as Biden's numerous DEI initiatives). Conversely, these higher-β rule-like features can be wrestled downward toward 0.0 or 0.1 by motivated policymakers. Judicial scrutiny such as recent SCOTUS decisions limiting agency authority can have similar liberating effect. Congress's most important steps entail abolishing agencies, banning private aid, an emergency law banning sub-regulatory guidance, ending antitrust regulation, disavowing and restricting PPPs and other forms of business model control, terminating grants-in-aid and leaving funds in the states where they originated, and more. Incremental steps to lessen β include legislation like the Guidance Out of Darkness (GOOD Act), the Guidance Clarity Act, and a genus-and-species classification system for guidance (like the U.S. Code for laws and the CFR for rules). Executive orders, such as a strengthened re-issue of Trump's 13891 purging, reducing use of, and disclosing guidance are important. Executive actions reinterpreting rules like WOTUS or emissions standards are options, avoiding lengthy rulemaking battles and legal challenges with the same fervor usually found on the other side. Deregulatory guidance prioritizing flexibility or waivers for businesses, streamlined approvals or eased compliance burdens all reduce their respective sectoral βs, and ultimately the universal one captured in the simple, general Dreck Load. But the congressional actions are most important for permanent change. This author's annual Ten Thousand Commandments report, despite typical characterizations, is intended to depict not regulatory costs, but what we don't know about regulatory costs. Similarly, the Dreck Equation does not capture all intervention but is intended to inspire policymakers and interested observers to recognize rulemaking equivalents and end their abuse, and for galaxy brains out there to take Dreck Load transparency to the next dimension and help them in that quest.
Yahoo
24-06-2025
- Science
- Yahoo
June 23-26, 2025 Sky Watch: Venus Morning Star, Mars in Leo, Saturn-Moon Worth Watching
Here's the thing about astronomy writing - it can get a bit…breathless. You know the type - everything is "spectacular!" and "once-in-a-lifetime!" when honestly, half of it is just Tuesday night in space. (Side note: The universe is genuinely amazing without us overselling every single planetary alignment like it's the Super Bowl of space.) "The cosmos is within us. We are made of star-stuff," Carl Sagan said. And that's profound enough without adding exclamation points to everything. Here's the truth about this week: The summer solstice has passed, and frankly, the sky looks pretty much the same as it did last week. Venus is still doing her morning thing, Mars is still hanging out in Leo, and Saturn is still there being Saturn. But you know what? That consistency is actually kind of beautiful. These aren't flash-in-the-pan celestial events - they're the reliable, ongoing cosmic rhythms that have been keeping humans company for millennia. Sometimes the best stargazing happens when you stop waiting for something "spectacular" and just... look up. Venus continues her role as the Morning Star, and honestly, she's been doing this exact same thing for weeks now. She's not suddenly more exciting than she was last week, but here's the thing - she doesn't need to be. Venus is reliably, consistently gorgeous, rising 2-3 hours before sunrise and outshining everything else in the pre-dawn sky. Speaking of Venus, today June 23 marks the birthday of Nicholas Shackleton, the geologist whose atmospheric research helped us better understand how different gases behave in planetary environments - knowledge that extends far beyond Earth to worlds like our brilliant morning companion. Venus's atmosphere is 96.5% carbon dioxide, creating what scientists call a runaway greenhouse effect. This means the planet traps heat from the sun so effectively that surface temperatures reach 900 degrees Fahrenheit. So while Venus appears as this beautiful, serene beacon in our morning sky, she's actually a showcase of extreme planetary physics. It's a fascinating reminder that sometimes the most beautiful things in the night sky are the most inhospitable up close. Pre-dawn, about 2–3 hours before sunrise | low on the eastern horizon The waning crescent moon continues its monthly dance with Saturn, and yes, they'll be relatively close on June 23 and 24. Saturn's rings are still tilted beautifully for telescope viewing. The moon will look like a thin crescent near Saturn in Aquarius. It's pretty, peaceful, and exactly the kind of thing you might enjoy if you happen to be awake anyway. Pre-dawn, about 1-2 hours before sunrise | eastern sky in Aquarius Mars is still in Leo, still looking distinctly red among the lion's stars, still visible in the early evening. The thing about Mars in Leo is that it's actually quite beautiful if you take the time to notice - that color contrast, the way the red planet fits into the constellation's pattern. It's not flashy, but it's genuine. Early evening | western sky The Milky Way core continues its seasonal appearance in the southeast, and if you have dark skies, it continues to be genuinely breathtaking. There's something to be said for the Milky Way's reliability. City lights permitting, it's there, night after night, this river of ancient light stretching across the sky. No special dates to remember, no precise timing required. Late evening through dawn, weather permitting | Southeast Here's what I love about late June astronomy - it teaches you the universe doesn't operate on our need for constant novelty. The same Venus that dazzled ancient navigators is the one lighting up your morning sky. The same Saturn that fascinated Galileo is the one you can see through your backyard telescope. There's profound beauty in that continuity. You don't need a rare eclipse or planetary alignment to justify looking up. Sometimes the best stargazing happens on the most ordinary nights, when you stop waiting for something "special" and start appreciating what's always been there. Climate Change Is Shrinking Space For Satellites To Orbit Arctic Is Now Releasing Carbon Dioxide Instead Of Storing It
Time of India
21-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Time of India
Dating? That's turning out to be a tall order for shorter folks
Dating? That's turning out to be a tall order for shorter folks Ketaki Desai TNN Jun 21, 2025, 18:37 IST IST The arranged marriage market was always skewed against short men and tall women. Now, height filters are taking biases into the app age Carl Sagan once described the depth of love as something that 'can be calibrated by the number of different selves that are actively involved in a given relationship'. But what about the height of love? How does one measure that? According to some modern Indian daters, it's somewhere around 6 feet tall. Height has long played a role in dating and attraction. But with apps ruling dating and shaadi prospects alike, this preference is starting to feel more like a requirement for some daters. Tinder recently announced that they're testing a height filter, which allows premium users to only see matches in the height range of their choosing. Other apps, like Bumble and Hinge , have similar filters for paid users.
IOL News
20-06-2025
- Politics
- IOL News
The PhD Crisis: Are universities sacrificing quality for quantity in education?
About 1 500 graduating students at the University of KwaZulu-Natal's spring graduation. The writer says today we mass-produce doctoral graduates like factory widgets, sacrificing quality at the altar of quantity. Image: File/Supplied I WOULD like to address an aspect which has been bothering me for quite some time now. I hope that it will be read critically without necessarily creating any unnecessary consternation. If it does, I would let John Stuart Mill, in his book On Liberty defend me when he posits that: 'The peculiar evil of silencing the expression of an opinion is, that is robbing the human race; posterity as well as the existing generations; those who dissent from the opinion, still more than those who hold it. If the opinion is right, they are deprived of the opportunity of exchanging error for truth: if wrong, they lose, what is almost as great a benefit, the clearer perception and livelier impression of truth, produced by its collision with error.' There was a time when the words 'Doctor of Philosophy' carried weight — a sacred trust between society and its thinkers. Today, I watch with growing dismay as we mass-produce doctoral graduates like factory widgets, sacrificing quality at the altar of quantity. The brain, as Carl Sagan reminded us, 'is like a muscle. When it is in use, we feel very good. Understanding is joyous.' Yet, where is this joy in our current academic landscape? Mediocrity has become our unwritten curriculum. It manifests in doctoral theses that contribute nothing but recycled platitudes, in supervisors who prioritise speedy completions over substantive work, and in universities that measure success by graduation statistics rather than intellectual impact. I recall one particularly egregious example: A doctoral candidate whose entire thesis concluded that 'corruption will never end'. This wasn't scholarship — it was intellectual surrender dressed in academic regalia. Video Player is loading. 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Advertisement Next Stay Close ✕ Alfred North Whitehead saw this coming nearly a century ago when he warned: 'The race which does not value trained intelligence is doomed. Not all your heroism, not all your social charm, not all your wit, not all your victories on land or at sea, can move back the finger of fate.' His words haunt me as I review dissertation after dissertation that fail to meet even basic standards of original thought. The problem runs deeper than individual failings. We've created a system that actively discourages excellence. Consider these disturbing trends: The Funding Paradox: Universities receive more funding for higher graduation numbers, creating perverse incentives to push students through regardless of quality. I've witnessed committees approve subpar work because 'the department needs the numbers'. Universities receive more funding for higher graduation numbers, creating perverse incentives to push students through regardless of quality. I've witnessed committees approve subpar work because 'the department needs the numbers'. The Death of Mentorship: Where once professors guided protégés through years of intellectual development, today's advisors often view students as administrative burdens. The art of nurturing thinkers has been replaced by the mechanics of processing candidates. Where once professors guided protégés through years of intellectual development, today's advisors often view students as administrative burdens. The art of nurturing thinkers has been replaced by the mechanics of processing candidates. We're increasingly governed by those who 'discount principle in favour of expediency, subordinate ideas to utility, and equivocate while critical issues swarm about them.' This managerial class has turned our universities into degree mills. The Rise of the Administrative Mind: The great social critic Neil Postman saw this coming when he argued that television had transformed education into 'edutainment'. His warning applies equally to our current digital age: 'Our bewilderment has resulted from our notion that salvation depends on information. The remedy may be a return to the process of rational thought.' Similarly, Nicholas Carr's research in *The Shallows* demonstrates how 'the internet is literally rewiring our brains and inducing only superficial understanding'. Is it any wonder our doctoral candidates struggle with deep, sustained thought when their entire education has conditioned them for distraction? All is not lost. We can reclaim academia's soul by: Reinstating Rigour: As E Grady Bogue insisted, we must restore 'the hallmarks of quality' — participation, expectation, risk, dissent, ambiguity, optimism and compassion. These cannot be measured by metrics, but they define true scholarship. As E Grady Bogue insisted, we must restore 'the hallmarks of quality' — participation, expectation, risk, dissent, ambiguity, optimism and compassion. These cannot be measured by metrics, but they define true scholarship. Valuing Time: John Henry Newman understood that true education requires immersion: 'The general principles of any study you may learn by books at home; but the detail, the colour, the tone, the air, the life which makes it live in us, you must catch all these from those in whom it lives already.' We must give students time to breathe, to think, to fail, and to grow. John Henry Newman understood that true education requires immersion: 'The general principles of any study you may learn by books at home; but the detail, the colour, the tone, the air, the life which makes it live in us, you must catch all these from those in whom it lives already.' We must give students time to breathe, to think, to fail, and to grow. Honouring Purpose: John Gardner's words remain essential: 'People would rather work hard for something they believe in than enjoy a pampered idleness… We want meaning in our lives.' Our doctoral programmes must be about more than degrees — they must be about the pursuit of truth. To my colleagues: We became academics because we believed in the life of the mind. Let us have the courage to demand more from our students, from our institutions, and most importantly, from ourselves. The administrative machinery will always push for more graduates, faster completions, and easier standards. We must be the counterweight.
