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Friday, July 22, 2005 |
Computer-generated scientific papers delivered live and in person. Cory Doctorow:
Jeremy sez, "A while back you guys ran a story about our program, SCIgen, which generates fake computer science research papers. One of these papers was accepted by WMSCI 2005, and we were trying to raise money to make it down to the conference and give a randomly-generated talk. Well, we raised plenty of money, and as promised we posted a video of the random talks we gave. Thanks to everyone who helped out!"
This is some funny, funny video.
Link
(Thanks, Jeremy!)
Of course it was accepted! The standars in science are varied and some conferences really are about money, they have no measure of scientific worth or the measure is given by individuals who want to push an agenda (is it surprising to read this explanation? Is it surprising who wrote it? SInce the author has a venezuelan relation, I should point out to this complete deconstruction of the story). What they do is this: They push their friends and backers to the front-lines of plenary or longer talks and then they accept anyone to Poster sections or shorter talks. Poster sections are particularly dangerous, one literary put the paper as a poster in a wall and stand there for a few minutes fetching questions (if you are lucky!). By accepting everyone the organizers justify themselves and avoid criticism and scrutiny. The last conference I wanted to go to was one I have attended for 8 years (IWOTA). But the main organizer that year, a famous Russian mathematician by the name of Nikolskii, invited me only to a poster section, I was not part of his club, obviously. After giving 20-30 minute talks all along those 8 years of supporting the conference, I rejected this offer as ridiculous, didn't go to the conference, and decided instead to leave the field of research mathematics (in all fairness, this is but one of the reasons, but all of the reasons have similar content). It took me five years to publish that paper, even though it is the best I've ever written. Why? Because science is not inmune to corruption and fashion. And, seriously, if there is going to be fighting and corruption the logical thing is to have a lot of money involved. As someone said (George Bernard Shaw?) "The fights in academy are so bitter, because what is at stake matter so little."
6:04:50 AM 
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© Copyleft 2005 Alfredo Octavio.
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