Today, the solitary inventor, tinkering in his shop, has been overshadowed by task forces of scientists in laboratories and testing fields. In the same fashion, the free university, historically the fountainhead of free ideas and scientific discovery, has experienced a revolution in the conduct of research. Partly because of the huge costs involved, a government contract becomes virtually a substitute for intellectual curiosity. For every old blackboard there are now hundreds of new electronic computers.
- General Dwight Eisenhower 1960
President Eisenhower warned us almost 60 years ago that computers would become an excuse for not thinking. That is exactly what happened. Climate scientists rely on completely useless computer models, and turn off their brains. It never occurs to them that what they are saying makes no sense.
