Science for the People Event Goes Viral

Professor Emeritus, Noam Chomsky speaks out about special labs funding at MIT

You may be wondering what The-Regular has been up to since our last blog post.  Well we've been very busy over the summer helping new clients, filling custom orders and covering important issues for The Real News and Food News pages.

One of our most notable recent projects was with a group at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology called Science for the People.  Together with students, scientists and concerned citizens, we organized seminars including, "Science at MIT:  From the Cold War to the Climate Crisis."   MIT's Radius, formerly known as the Technology and Culture Forum, also helped sponsor the lecture.  The event featured Noam Chomsky, once named the world's top public intellectual, and Subrata Ghoshroy.  They covered the history of special labs funding at MIT and how it has affected the trajectory of science in general.  The talk drew a crowd of over 450 people; overflowing the main lecture hall under MIT's iconic dome.

Now the talk took place on April 28th, which was right around the time Fossil Free groups were holding sit-ins at major college campuses so it created a lot of buzz.  MIT's TechTV captured a great video of the event.  When the student group Fossil Free MIT got a hold of it they edited it into clips.  One of those clips went viral with over 93,000 views once it was shared by 350.org!  In the clip below, Noam implores that the divestment opposition's arguments are, "irrelevant."  See for yourself.  Here's to getting the truth out there!  

1969 Logo

What are the Facts?

Subrata Ghoshroy was the first to speak.  In his presentation he details the problem through a comprehensive compilation of data.  It seems most of MIT's special labs funding comes from classified defense projects and special interests; the likes of which led to the Aaron Swartz tragedy.  You can view Subrata's slides and analyze the data for yourselves here.  

See the FULL video:  http://techtv.mit.edu/videos/31775-science-at-mit-from-the-cold-war-to-climate-change​

What is Science for the People?   

(taken from Wikipedia;)  "Since Fall 2014, an effort has been underway to revive Science for the People at MIT (SftP-MIT).  Inspired by the original 1970s-1980s group, as well as MIT's tradition of campus activism, SftP-MIT aims to explore MIT’s larger social purpose, determine how well it is fulfilling that purpose, and work towards a research community that is more diverse, ethically informed, socially engaged, and democratic.  Inspired by the historical SftP group's view that science and technology aren't always neutral, SftP-MIT aims to explore the interaction between the science, technology and society. In particular, SftP-MIT provides a forum for a critical discussion of the social, political and ethical consequences of science and technology, through a seminar series and reading groups." 
​
Read more - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Science_for_the_People

It is an honor to work with some of the world's most brilliant minds at the world's top university.  This great work is proof positive that staying true to yourself, hard work, and integrity really do pay off.  

---