• privately developed
• partially opaque
• statistically excellent
• poorly understood by the humans overseeing them
In other words:
competence without accountability.
No villain needed.
2. Risk managers, not scientists
In a defunded environment, decision-making migrates away from expertise and toward:
• liability minimization
• variance reduction
• reputational risk
• budget stability
These people don’t need to understand the phenomenon.
They only need to see that:
• resisting it creates noise
• deferring to it creates calm
That’s enough.
3. Middle management survival logic
This is where your antagonists should live.
Not:
• senior scientists
• heroic meteorologists
• visionary leaders
But:
• acting directors
• compliance officers