“Academia vs the public”? – Part 1 of X

In our hours-long discussions, my friend Alex and I often bring up the importance of the relationship between academia and the public and how bad it is currently.

The discussions get somehow heated because there is no one to blame it on really. Is it “the mob” who are ignorant, unwilling to listen and learn something meaningful? Or is it the scientists in the notorious “ivory tower” who are not able to communicate their knowledge and make their work accessible – or meaningful at all?

As soon as we determine one factor, we see immediately that it is more complicated than that and more often than not we argue against our own statement (We are just two dudes high on maté, but we are good at steelmanning).

It’s an Hen Egg Problem, I guess. I will keep you up to date on this one.