The Grandfather of Alt-Science
I&#x27;ve crossed paths with the man, and attended a &quot;Doctors for Disaster Preparedness&quot; conference that he ran. He&#x27;s undeniably brilliant, but that whole scene is filled with people whose primary emotional motivation is a sense of grievance that the scientific community does not share their personal theories.<p>Every talk at that conference was framed as a brilliant insight that was being suppressed by the scientific community. Highlights, by my recollection, include that climate change is false, radiation is good for you, and most alarmingly in my opinion that HIV does not cause AIDS.<p>Not surprised at all that Dr. Robinson has since got tied up in vaccine denial, and been extensively funded by the Mercers et al. Nor that he has since become a perennially losing congressional candidate in Oregon.<p>There&#x27;s a great quote at the end of this article, in which he says that science is fundamentally a populist endeavor, and that one man can be right and all others wrong. I&#x27;d point out that science is also fundamentally a human endeavor, and that those who practice it cannot escape their own motivations or cognitive traps.<p>Perhaps Dr. Robinson and his crowd really are onto something the scientific consensus is blind to. But they&#x27;re also creationists, climate deniers, and anti-vaxers. We know what cognitive biases drive people to those opinions, and we judge their research output accordingly.