“Finally, I would remind you to notice where the claim of consensus is invoked. Consensus is invoked only in situations where the science is not solid enough. Nobody says the consensus of scientists agrees that E=mc2. Nobody says the consensus is that the sun is 93 million miles away. It would never occur to anyone to speak that way.”

— Michael Crichton

Aliens Cause Global Warming (2003)

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Michael Crichton 121

American author, screenwriter, film producer 1942–2008

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“Let’s be clear: the work of science has nothing whatever to do with consensus. Consensus is the business of politics. Science, on the contrary, requires only one investigator who happens to be right, which means that he or she has results that are verifiable by reference to the real world. In science consensus is irrelevant. What is relevant is reproducible results. The greatest scientists in history are great precisely because they broke with the consensus.”

Michael Crichton (1942–2008) American author, screenwriter, film producer

Aliens Cause Global Warming (2003)

“There is consensus as long as I agree.”

Dmitry Pietrman (1963) Businessman/football chairman

Sid Lowe, 'There is consensus as long as I agree' http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/2006/feb/20/europeanfootball.sport.

“Art is not science. Even when art is about science, it is still art. There cannot be consensus, in the sense that science strives for meaningful consensus.”

Caitlín R. Kiernan (1964) writer

(15 June 2007)
Unfit for Mass Consumption (blog entries), 2007
Context: Art is not science. Even when art is about science, it is still art. There cannot be consensus, in the sense that science strives for meaningful consensus. And unlike science, art is not progressive. Personally, I have my doubts that science can be said to be genuinely progressive, but I'm pretty dammed certain that art is not. Which is not to say that it is not accumulative or accretionary. But the belief that sf writers are out there forecasting the future, that they have some social responsibility to do so, that's malarky, if you ask me. Writers of sf can only, at best, make educated guesses, and usually those guesses are wrong, and clumping together to form a consensus does not in any way insure against history unfolding in one of those other, unpredicted directions. People love to pick out the occasional instances where Jules Verne and William Gibson got it right; they rarely ever point fingers at their miscalls.

“Ultimately a genuine leader is not a searcher for consensus, but a molder of consensus.”

Martin Luther King, Jr. (1929–1968) American clergyman, activist, and leader in the American Civil Rights Movement

"Remaining Awake Through a Great Revolution" https://web.archive.org/web/20060314095859/http://www.stanford.edu/group/King/publications/sermons/680331.000_Remaining_Awake.html, an address at the Episcopal National Cathedral, Washington D.C. (31 March 1968)
1960s

“Historically, the claim of consensus has been the first refuge of scoundrels; it is a way to avoid debate by claiming that the matter is already settled.”

Michael Crichton (1942–2008) American author, screenwriter, film producer

Aliens Cause Global Warming (2003)
Context: I want to pause here and talk about this notion of consensus, and the rise of what has been called consensus science. I regard consensus science as an extremely pernicious development that ought to be stopped cold in its tracks. Historically, the claim of consensus has been the first refuge of scoundrels; it is a way to avoid debate by claiming that the matter is already settled.

“Sanity is a matter of consensus.”

Robert Sheckley Options

Source: Options

“It (1992 consensus) won't work even if Taiwan accepts the consensus, as (Mainland) China won't accept a free interpretation of 'one China.”

Chen Ming-tong (1955) Taiwanese politician

Chen Ming-tong (2018) cited in " MAC head brushes off '1992 consensus' http://focustaiwan.tw/news/aipl/201805250028.aspx" on Focus Taiwan, 25 May 2018.

“Human consensus does not generate reality. Were it able to do so, the Sun would have taken to orbiting the Earth some time ago.”

Ursula Goodenough (1943) American biologist

On the scientific worldview in "A Setback to the Dialogue: Response to Huston Smith" in Zygon: Journal of Religion & Science Vol. 36, Issue 2 (June 2001), p. 201 http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/0591-2385.00350/abstract

“A book is as private and consensual as sex.”

Chuck Palahniuk book Haunted

Source: Haunted (2005)

“In any group endeavour, there are practical and effective, or impractical and ineffective, ways to manage a complex system. Impractical, frustrating, and time-consuming systems are those governed by large boards, assemblies, or groups (seven or more people). These "meetings" have a chairperson, agendas, proposals, votes, or use consensus, and can go on for hours. Consensus, in particular, is an endless and pointless affair, with coercion of the often silent or incoherent abstainer by a vociferous minority. Thus, decisions reached by boards, parliaments, and consensus groups either oppress some individuals (votes) or are vetoed by dissenters. In either case, we have tyranny of a majority or tyranny of a minority, and a great deal of frustration and wasted time. The way to abolish such systems is to have one meeting where the sole agenda is to vote to abolish decision meetings -- this is usually carried unanimously -- and another where a consensus is reached to abolish consensus -- this too shouldn't take long.”

Bill Mollison (1928–2016) Australian permaculturist

Source: Permaculture: A Designers' Manual (1988), chapter 14.10

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