Cybrpnk's Rantings

I am very excited to announce that I have received a major research grant from the National Institutes of Health to study a new methodology I have developed for use in bio-medical research. Intended to counter the biases that inevitably intrude themselves into the analysis of complex scientific research, the triple-blind methodology enhances traditional scientific methodology by ensuring that not only do the active participants in a research program not have the ability to distinguish between test and control subjects, but that those evaluating the research results are also unable to make such a distinction. The adoption of this methodology should remove any incentive that pharmaceutical companies, or other corporate interests, have for suppressing vital research. Since no one will be able to determine whether or not the research indicates the efficacy of commercial products, there is no longer a potential corporate downside to free proliferation of scientific results.

In approving this grant the NIH reviewers indicated not only their enthusiasm for the revolution this methodology will hopefully spur in medicine; but their hopes for a complete overhaul of the interaction between scientists and corporate and government sponsors. Not even government agencies will have any incentive for suppressing triple-blind studies in such diverse areas as environmental degradation, national defense, and electoral studies. Noting the application of the triple-blind methodology in recent presidential elections, the NIH notes that this is just the beginning. The success with which two candidates failed to discuss any substantive issues, voters made their decisions based on false impressions, and vote counts were calculated without reference to actual balloting is a stirring vindication of this new methodology.

Following the publication yesterday of the recent Presidential Commission report on pre-war intelligence, I can now divulge that this was also an early application of the triple-blind methodology. Intelligence professionals were kept in complete ignorance of both the desires of the executive branch, and the actual situation within Iraq. They were nevertheless able to produce seemingly high-grade results which, even today, are indistinguishable from political 'placebo' propaganda intended to achieve a specific political result. I sincerely hope that these results are just the beginning of my work being used to further the hopes and dreams of all mankind, and the continued blurring of the distinction between 'hopes' and 'dreams.'