The term DeSci (Decentralized Science) is gaining ground in the blockchain industry by covering issues that directly affect us and bringing us closer to the concept that conveys the closeness of the science of the future, aligning itself with the solar punk ideal already established in the community. Although it is still under construction, the participation of more people is needed to take a more robust structure and expand.
To understand the importance of this movement, the first step is to deepen into how science influences basically all aspects of our daily lives by providing the foundations to improve our lives with a systematic and methodical approach with the scientific method for the acquisition of knowledge about the world, based on observation, hypothesis formulation, experimentation and data analysis to understand and explain phenomena and patterns in reality. If you stop to observe, it contributes to the progress of society by covering a great diversity of disciplines and basic aspects of our daily lives, just look at how it has been a boost for economic development by generating new industries such as blockchain, and clearly the Technology is also a direct result. But approaching areas in which we are directly related, scientific principles help diagnose diseases, develop treatments and discover vaccines, improve food production, address problems related to the conservation of biodiversity, and contribute to the understanding of the effects of climate change.
Usually, it is imagined that the science of the future will lead us to an improvement in society in general, however, observing the current panorama, we are far from calling science something that benefits us all, food production, drugs and almost everything, is controlled by a few companies, in addition to the fact that with today's technology one would expect constant progress in all areas of science almost daily, which is not observed.
The system is not designed correctly
If we look deeper we can list some of the big problems we face:
The data, not only its storage but also its authorship, and the great challenge of analyzing it in an interconnected and open way to reach more solid results,
The need to explore an improvement in how the scientific method is carried out, which is affected by biases, whether personal or interest in the interpretation of data and the formulation of hypotheses, the error of simplifying natural phenomena that are extremely complex, or factors such as financing that affect objectivity.
The barrier for those who seek to make contributions and work in some aspect of science, since in the current system for a scientist there is a very rigorous process to obtain investment, have research approved, achieve peer validation of the results, reach a proper publication and distribution.
Let's understand with a closer exampleImagine that you visit the doctor and they diagnose you with an illness. What is the complexity in this situation?
First, how can you be sure that your symptoms and tests were analyzed correctly? It is likely that they have been seen by a limited number of experts, whose source of information is restricted despite the existence of thousands of daily cases around the world. With the constant generation of new information and the daily loss of validity in health studies, a diagnosis could be erroneous due to recent data obtained in another part of the world, without you being aware.Second, when given limited options for treatment, how can you be sure that there are no alternatives that are more suitable for your case or at a lower cost? Research may have been carried out somewhere on a case similar to yours, and its effectiveness is being tested, but this information is not widely disseminated due to existing limitations in scientific dissemination. There is also the possibility that there is more updated and precise machinery software than the one used for the diagnosis, but due to high costs, little disclosure, and more limitations, we are not aware of it.Thirdly, taking into account the massiveness of the production numbers, the concept postulated by statistics "the larger and more representative the sample, the smaller the sample error will be" becomes more valid, since a greater range is provided. , genetically, greater variability is included, this is already happening at a time when the topics covered by big data imply enormous complexity and interconnection to have to be summarized.
However, a large number of the studies on which scientists rely have been carried out with small samples of people who do not follow this parameters, the best example is how it is said that the symptoms that women present in most diseases are different from those of men but there is no standardized record of this fact.
The lack of representativeness raises questions about the reliability and applicability of the results in contexts that encompass current diversity.
Centralization
Centralization has several reasons to continue working in industries, since any research statement or conclusion requires evidence that passes through rigorous filters, in addition to allowing better coordination of efforts and resources, providing efficiency in research planning and execution. of scientific projects, standardizes processes and methodologies essential for the quality of scientific results.
The problem is that the current academic rigidity is part of a model that worked well before the expansion of the Internet to facilitate large-scale processes and communication, today with the Internet and new technologies, there is enormous potential to improve this method. collaboratively in the community, but institutions present objections to this change, since there are many variables and complications to take into account, which we can address in future articles.
Now, how do we get to Desci?
It is essential to mention the movements that founded the foundation on which DeSci is based. Since the last century, there has been discontent over limitations in access to scientific information, but during the expansion of internet use, bills for free online publication were initiated, which generated protests against the main scientific journals, and in 2018 The manual for open science training was created, formalizing the OpSci movement. A gradual migration began towards a more open way of working with blogs, citizen participation, open pages, establishing the Fair principles advocating open data and software. And throughout this time the branch of metascience has been present, which has been responsible for analyzing and studying the same scientific method and which can be improved. All these movements led a group of people to explore the use of new technologies, reaching blockchain and NFTs, understanding the opportunities and potential they offer.
Currently this movement can be established as something relatively new and growing, in general DeSci raises the need to build a space where science is closer to everyone, where the first steps to get closer to that future are that you can manage your data, know what happens behind research projects and have a voice in scientific issues that affect you.A large number of projects focus mainly on the financing of scientific projects, and by applying blockchain technology they have provided tokens as incentives to participate in projects, strengthened communities that have a common objective or interest, and used NFTs for information processing. We can divide the ecosystem into Dao's, ecosystems, depending on whether their focus is publishing, data storage, science and art, foundations or institutes.
I dare to say that the biggest challenge currently facing is that the scientific community is still reluctant to adopt this technology (and related movements), to make changes and improvements to traditional science. It is possible to help them understand the importance of the proposed changes, but only if you first understand in depth the reason for this reaction and cover topic by topic.
This is why l want to share and start the discussion about this topics, bringing ideas and solutions together as a community to improve science :)
