States of Fear: Science or Politics?
This is a talk by Michael Crichton. While he only coins the term once, the talk’s focus is on “information casualties”. These are casualties caused by acting on incorrect information. He starts by talking about about how the news tends to sensationalize, misinform, and cause fear over fickle problems. He then goes on to give examples of how we tend to view problems in the world as being simple, linear problems, and we try to apply simple, linear solutions. When in fact, the world is unpredictably complex and we can only hope to manage it rather than control it. Managing the world with minimal information casualties is a trial and error process that requires not over-simplifying, not focusing on short-term, fickle problems, being able to admit when we are wrong, backtracking, and not being afraid.
JamesD says:
June 11th, 2009 at 11:58 am
Thanks for the useful info. It’s so interesting
Rob says:
June 23rd, 2009 at 6:54 pm
Amazing stuff!!
How says:
June 30th, 2009 at 2:26 pm
Cool post, just subscribed.
derekpm says:
July 12th, 2009 at 11:45 pm
Rather interesting. Has few times re-read for this purpose to remember. Thanks for interesting article. Waiting for trackback
Николай Конев says:
November 27th, 2009 at 4:39 pm
Реально удивили и даже порадовали
Не поверил бы, что даже такое бывает 
matt says:
December 14th, 2009 at 11:27 pm
Hey, the above person has a Russian name which translates into “Nicholas Koney.” His message is; “really surprised and pleased even
Would not have believed that even this happens 
As far as I can tell it’s gibberish full of various medical terms. 
I don’t think his website is legit.
Maybe I’m wrong, but try Google translating it yourself.