Executive VP Report -The Truth About Facts

Mal Heron, Executive VP  

There is a strong debate going on in Australia, and in many other countries, about misinformation and falsehoods in the media. I was alerted by a columnist who had the opinion that some facts are “contestable.” If this is the case then the word “fact” seems to have taken on a meaning that differs from the Oxford Dictionary. On the surface this looks like a self-contradiction (an oxymoron), but I think in general culture and politics we have indeed come to accept that facts are not necessarily aligned with truth. At this point let’s segue into science where we have axioms – that is fundamentals that are supported by evidence, but we know that they can be challenged and sometimes discarded in favour of a new discovery.

The beauty of science is that observations and measurements prevail over theory and prediction, and even the empirical observations can be challenged by repeating the measurements. It is quite amazing that, even with this uncertainty in the very fundamentals, we have made huge advances in science and engineering for the benefit of all people. There is an analogy here with quantum mechanics where uncertainty and chaos can be engineered into precise and useful products.

One challenge that is growing in our modern world is the rise of deliberately fake information. This is a social problem exacerbated by the wide uptake of social media. But it is a challenge to IEEE-OES members when we strive to uphold the highest ethical standards in advocacy and publications. For example, we have seen much criticism of the way some scientists presented advice on COVID management. And in some disciplines (thankfully not ours) there are claims that up to 40% of published papers have results that are not reproduceable and have to be withdrawn. At one level this indicates incompetence, but at another level, when results are biased either deliberately or by personal convictions, it becomes an issue of professional ethics. There is no place for biased advice to the community or policymakers. Advocacy should be driven by science and not the other way round, so let’s not have advocacy and ideology driving science.

There are many instances in science and engineering where personal ideology has biased the results and misled policy makers and the community. We are all human beings with emotions and feelings but as professionals we need to be aware of our own personal biases and be alert to advice that is not based on evidence.

To put this in perspective, the IEEE Code of Ethics: Section 1; subsection 5 states that IEEE members agree:

“…to seek, accept, and offer honest criticism of technical work, to acknowledge and correct errors, to be honest, and realistic in stating claims or estimates based on available data, and to credit properly the contributions of others;… “.

And this is not only a challenge, but it is our professional duty.