This thread actualized something I’ve been thinking about for a little while. The Time Cube Guy is clearly crazy. But it’s a particular kind of crazy, one that can be found in many corners of the Web; indeed, it seems to proliferate there. The author of the free role-playing game Hybrid clearly suffers from something quite similar, and the characteristic writing style of these people is very recognisable. We had one of them here a while back (he kept overusing ~ and wrote rather similarly to both the Time Cube Guy and the Hybrid Guy).
So, my question is (placed in General Questions because I hope there is a factual answer but possibly better suited for In My Humble Opinion): What precisely is wrong with them? What’s their diagnosis? Are they a bunch of trolls imitating each other (or possibly a bunch of trolls imitating the one genuine article) or a bunch of people who truly have the same mental illness?
The mystery person responsible for the Toynbee plaques writes that way as well even if it is only a small sample.
Some types of schizophrenia can cause stream of consciousness type writing with subjects that aren’t easily connected by outside observers. It often looks like gibberish but I suppose that some really smart ones might produce writing that looks profound in that crazy kind of way.
Oh, man. I was wondering what happened to C++. I remember many a day spent arguing at him (“arguing with” never seemed to happen- he was always invincibly ignorant) on the RPG newsgroup way back when. I remember the day we all started making ludicrously simple RPG systems in C++'s style… eventually, I suggested the game called “i” (it’s imaginary, get it?).
Good times.
I also ran into someone else who had much the same worldview as Gene Ray and C++… it was on a dog training newsgroup, and he called himself the Michael Jordan of Dog Training. Seriously nuts.
They definitely predate the Internet, but it’s easier to come across them now.
I used to collect from friends who published in pop science magazines like “Scientific American” copies of weird rants that people would send them. Topic didn’t matter. Write an article on computers and someone will send you their “article” on antimatter proving God exists.
It just got way too scary so my interest waned after a few years.
When Usenet hit it big, then a lot of groups got stuck with resident nut jobs. Not as bad as spammers, etc. But the amazing thing was the number of people who responded and tried to reason with these people. The best way to handle them is to not feed them. Sheesh.
And now we have the web. Sheesh[sup]2[/sup]
As to the mentality of it. All people believe things that aren’t true. It’s human nature. There is a scale. For some people, only a small percentage of their beliefs are false. For a few people, they are are so far along the bad direction that up seems like down to them. You can throw out labels from DSM IV all day and some might work for a few people, but you’re probably going to miss on most. We just don’t understand the brain all that much. Wiring, chemicals, etc. Nowadays, there’s a lot of “if you give them drug X and it works, then they are Y.” thinking. Give them Lithium, they get better, then they are bipolar. (And hope that no one finds another condition that Lithium fixes. Too late?)
Just be patient. Maybe in 200 years the brain people will have worked it all out.
In the meantime, I’m going to try to stay as far away from them as possible.
He got overloaded, had to virtually destruct himself before he broke his template.
On Usenet they’re traditionally called kooks or net.kooks. Some of them got quite famous in their time, at least by Usenet standards, and became part of the culture of some groups.
Having actually interacted with GR in real time-space, he seems to fit the classical psychotic dx, in that he seems perfectly normal in routine conversations, until one hits a topic of his particualr fetish, then he’s off in a different place…
One thing that is less emphasized in his webspace is the full strength and extent of his racial beliefs. It adds a definite “Ick” factor to his otherwise amusingly odd perspective.