Something that has bothered me for quite some time is our reliance on “science” to determine guilt or innocence. This happens in a number of settings, DNA matches, paternity tests, drug testing for employment, background checks, all these new and improved ways we think we have a determining guilt of innocence, fit or unfit.
We elevate the idea of science to an unrealistic height and tend to put too much value and emphasis on expert testimony. We’ve created this somewhat elitist culture, where we hire experts, consultants, alleged professionals, to tell us things that common sense used to.
So, the headline FBI admits flaws in hair analysis over decades, caught my attention. It joins all the other articles I’ve read over the years where the so-called experts have got themselves caught and exposed for engaging in a bit of deception. Drug labs fabricating results, paternity testers selling results, DNA for sale, the chain of evidence mangled.
We often hear on our TV’s that DNA is 99.9% accurate, implying that it is nearly full proof, that there can be no doubt that we have caught you red handed. Science says so. Expert witness says so. End of story. It isn’t the end of the story, however. There are some people who can have double sets of DNA, an oddity for sure, but it’s a real thing in the world.
Not long ago there was a mother who gave birth to a child that was determined to not be her own. She went through quite a nightmare, and what struck me as so strange about the whole thing was that we refused to believe our own lying eyes, and instead took the word of “science.” Common sense should have kicked in and shown someone that this child passed through this woman’s body, so obviously he was her child. What was eventually discovered was that she had two strands of DNA within herself and it wasn’t until they dug much deeper that they encountered the strand that she had passed onto the kid. At first glance however, that was not her child.
DNA can also be planted at just about any crime scene. People are forever dropping bits of themselves and their bodily fluids about. Just as we can plant finger prints at a crime scene, there’s probably a thriving underground market for DNA too, just as there is for clean urine for drug tests.
I suppose I find this issue so compelling because I have watched us move from a common sense approach where an employer would interview you and hire you based on human interaction and judgments, to a more detached approach where today we tend to rely more on some employment screening process, drug testing, psychological tests conducted online, and experts making determinations before you ever encounter a real live person.
We use lie detector tests in criminal investigations, profiles, forensic psychology, so-called expert witnesses, and laboratories as if they are full proof, and all these new technologies must be perceived as the absolute truth of all things.
True, it’s not quite as serious as being on trial for your life or something, but I have lost several job opportunities due to clerical errors. Once I had a background check come back with theft on it. Somebody had transposed my SS number, but it was too late for me with that job. Once I had a drug test come back inconclusive. There are a lot of things that can make that happen, but it nixed me out of the hiring pool. I spent about 3 years trying to repair my credit report once when it didn’t even belong to me. I lost another opportunity when none of my previous job experience would show up on a computer.
To do my simple, mediocre job, now requires digital fingerprints and a federal background check. I wasn’t too happy to have my fingerprints released into cyberspace for anybody clever enough to access them. Really bizarre that the company who regulates our credentials is a foreign country. A few years back they lost my license renewal and left me unemployed for three months. Where did all my personal info go? I don’t know, into the abyss of cyberspace with my fingerprints.
There’s a push now to get us to all submit our DNA to a national database. I don’t like that idea one bit. We’re quickly approaching a sci/fi world that reminds me far too much of Enemy of the State.
This line from the article linked above should really haunt us, “The cases include those of 32 defendants sentenced to death.” Were those people guilty? I don’t know, but flat out the FBI admits it lied. For those we trust to outright lie in criminal cases is pretty serious.
I don’t know if anyone has ever tried to go up against bureaucracy and the system, but it is an absolutely maddening and powerless feeling, made all the more difficult because so many people seem to believe science is God and therefore incapable of error. They tend to forget that the god of science is also heavily tainted by the god of bureaucracy, and they are both usually having an affair with the god of human error.
**a special shout out to the The Praetorian Writers Group who first alerted me to this issue.
K. Q. Duane said:
The ever maddening crowd!
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Paul said:
Very true IB. Did you know that if someone has a bone marrow transplant that the DNA of their blood will always remain that of the donor and will be different than the DNA of their tissue? That blew me away. And like you said, we drop our DNA all the time, even something as simple as a drop of sweat that can be transferred can be tested for DNA. It requires a smart person to interpret DNA – you could have left it months before and it does not come with an age stamp.
I watched an old movie – the China Syndrome – tonight and it made me think similar thoughts as what you have presented. There was an accident at a nuclear reactor and one supervisor realizes that the X-rays of the welds when the reactor was built were faked to save money. The reactor had a flaw that no one was aware of and the owners were willing to kill to keep the information from the public – the cost of repair would be more than the reactor was worth. I was wondering just how many short cuts are taken in projects when no one is looking in order to save money or make things easier. Same idea as how many wrong DNA results lead to the death penalty or life in prison.
i think that it all boils down to ethics and truth IB. Whenever we lie or are careless we create situations that are potentially disastrous. Even when we don’t see the possible outcomes, it is a dangerous habit.
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insanitybytes22 said:
” I was wondering just how many short cuts are taken in projects when no one is looking in order to save money or make things easier.”
Many, I suspect.
Our legal system however, relies heavily on an honor system, a commitment to integrity. Even then it is extremely flawed and prone to make mistakes. I can just imagine judges, prosecutors, witnesses, wanting to “improve” upon it, make it more reliable…by rigging the system. The moment we do that, justice completely loses all value.
That idea of trying to “improve,” to rig the system to make it more fair, is something that bothers me all over society. You can make a sound moral argument that the good guys just wanted to ensure “justice,” to make sure things were “fair.” Our own perceptions of what is fair however, are often skewed. That’s where human perceptions of morality get a bit limited, because we often cannot see the full consequences of our own actions.
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Paul said:
Very true IB. When I went to B-school there were a lot with same degree who were going to jail – internationally. Ethics was the problem (lack of, combined with greed). The unversity pooh-poohed the fact that they did not teach ANY ethics in a two year programme that was directed at Executives. they said it was not their problem. then the guy that sat next to me was arrested and imprisoned (he had a computer and software company and was in cahoots with a gov’t employee whose job it was to order repairs and verify invoices – it was sweet. until the gov’t auditors noticed that this division was extremely busy with repairs, contacted the manufacturer who said it was not so. A few set-ups uncovered the scheme.) The university then said that they included ethics in every course and added a few lines to each course. the arrests continued until the university’s image started to suffer. Then they cried and added a course in ethics. that went poorly and so they started giving the students a tour of a maximum security white collar prison – which coincidentally happened to be in the same city. this taught students how to avoid getting caught but did not stop the fraud.
It is interesting IB that these people were being given knowledge of how to manipulate financial markets and all things business, to the level where no one else could follow them. And then they were not checked and they were trusted. it is too much temptation for many humans. The worst of it was that they felt entitled. In my class of 50, there were two of us who had done blue collar work in our lives. the rest had parents who were white collar and got their kids white collar jobs. 48/50 had been white collar from their first job. They had been taught that they were better than the average guy and were entitled. it is scary IB. they made me want to throw up sometimes. We got into some wild arguments.
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insanitybytes22 said:
Good points, Paul. Yep, I remember those ethics classes and thinking good grief, people aren’t stupid, it’s not like they don’t know these things are wrong, it’s that they feel entitled. They do it because they believe it is acceptable and they think they can get away with it. I’m not sure if you can really teach things like ethics or morality in a class, on an intellectual level.
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Paul said:
Perhaps, much as Socrates said that wisdom could not be taught. i think he was wrong – that it can be taught, just not using the Socratic method. It has to be taught using leadership and by example. i suspect the same is true of ethics.
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insanitybytes22 said:
I suspect you are right, Paul. Kids for example, don’t learn very well from what is being said, but rather from what is not being said. It does little good to try and teach them to “do as I say, not as I do” for example. Ethics, morality have to be seen and lived in order to resonate. These are human behaviors not really based on reason.
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trotter387 said:
Same all over the world – I share the same name as a notorious child sex offender in my line of work and although he was dead I couldn’t prove I wasn’t him because an “expert” hadn’t done basic research. Although it didn’t hurt me financially it damaged my reputation and ensured I was interviewed under caution.
Science is God today but so error prone we are prepared to forgive it for the greater good.
Great article
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insanitybytes22 said:
How frustrating these situations are! Reputations used to mean so much in the world and perhaps they still do, it’s just that we haven’t got much control over it anymore.
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rennydiokno2015 said:
Reblogged this on My Bloggerdiok.
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insanitybytes22 said:
Thank you for the reblog, much appreciated.
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higharka said:
Cultivating that mistrust of the Pharisees’ secret police is a good path to follow, IB. We must learn to not trust the father of lies, no matter how sweet any given lie sounds–they are a completely honorless source.
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insanitybytes22 said:
Trust no one, the truth is out there 😉 The pharisees secret police are easy to distrust, but what I fear is the way we have all become their minions without question. Question these things, darn it all!
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irtfyblog said:
“They tend to forget that the god of science is also heavily tainted by the god of bureaucracy, and they are both usually having an affair with the god of human error.”
So true, IB! Why can’t people recognize that humans are capable of error and corruption including scientists. The bureaucracy that you speak of is very powerful and influential in the fields of science and technology. Their power isn’t absolute, but they perceive it to be because of the amount of money they tend to throw at their own interests, forcing the scientific world to worship them for financing and in return they worship the field of science because it provides them with the “proof” they require to manipulate the rest of the world.
Too bad the “proof” isn’t always accurate and can be filled with lies. It’s those lies that deceive the nations and cause the unsuspecting followers of the world to bow in their ignorance.
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insanitybytes22 said:
Absolutely! You said it all. 😉
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Citizen Tom said:
Great post!
The problem with the FBI having its own lab is that it regulates itself. That is the problem with the government running anything. It regulates itself.
That obvious, problematic, and damnable conflict of interest is why we have no choice except to keep our government as small as we can keep it, but it is a terribly frustrating problem. If the government is not powerful enough, it cannot protect our rights. If the government is too powerful, it threatens our rights.
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wiseblooding said:
Wise, wise words here, IB, but it’s a complex can of worms you’ve opened! As to your MIA personal info? You might have better luck phoning Snowden. When it comes to keeping people’s info separate (especially when they share the same name), I’m guessing he’s more meticulous than the multiple databases (giant mixing bowls) storing (and stirring?) our data.
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Queen_Cassiopeia said:
According to my Psychology and Forensic Science class, DNA is accurate, but there are cares where investigations and lab technichians made a mistake or accidentally contaminated the tests. We studied that what happens in the CSI series and other shows is not always accurate in real life.
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