Response to ‘Desired and Feared—What Do We Do Now and Over the Next 50 Years’ by Xiao-Li Meng

Abstract

Xiao-Li Meng has written a remarkable article that mirrors well the poor situation of statistics and of all of science. It contains the revolutionary statement that science needs help and should be controlled by a police in order to prevent wrong discoveries. My response aims at further clarifying this statement, which seems to be necessary in view of the question ‘What Do We Do Now and Over the Next 50 Years?’. The global warming, the financial crisis, and the international terrorism and wars show that something is wrong with the decision making processes in human societies. These deficiencies must be identified and removed. Science plays a key role in decision making, and according to Xiao-Li Meng science is characterized by a fundamental weakness with respect to thinking—or in other words with respect to approaching reality. He states: ‘We statisticians, as a police of science, have the fundamental duty of helping others to engage in statistical thinking as a necessary step of scientific enquiry and evidence-based policy formulation.’ My response focuses on this statement and contains a proposal that differs from that of Xiao-Li Meng.

Keywords:  :

• Logical thinking
• Science
• Statistical thinking
• Stochastic thinking
• Stochastics