Oh god that was awful. I think my nose started bleeding around the third paragraph…
Oh, that ended? Awesome. 
New Deal Democrat. I just noticed he got banned. Yay! Also, let’s not forget good ol’ Brazil84, who had the lovely fortune of being both a racist and and a climate denialist!
Was Kozmik the one with those “miniature flying objects” threads, or was that some other guy?
Don’t you want to trip like I do?
That might have been the best thing to come out of the whole New Age thing: crystals! Geodes! Gem and mineral samples! Yeah, they drove the prices up, but they also made a lot of really pretty things widely available.
I like Crystal Light. It’s tangy.
We had the phi-guy here too The Great Phi Theory. - Great Debates - Straight Dope Message Board
The problem with these great thinkers who are on the OUTside of academia looking IN is that they fancy themselves Galileo or Copernicus being persecuted by irrational backwards thinking muppets. It’s the 21st century. You should be so lucky to have a theory that revolutionizes everything the way the heliocentric universe did. A working theory with proof that would shatter perception on that magnitude would not only bag every single prize in existence, it guarantees you a spot in the pantheon next to Einstein. Past Feynman probably. Yet it’s the scientists that are sheep and “afraid” of new things.
I said it in the actual thread. I feel sorry for these people who clearly have a passion for science and either lacked resources or ability to properly study it. Now that failure has turned into resentment which has turned into a powerful reservoir of manic energy. Imagine the manhours these psychopaths have dedicated to the propagation of their home-worked theories. Would it rival the number of hours a college student puts into HW?
Except the hours they’re putting in aren’t actual work. I think that’s one thing that irritates me about people like this. Science - REAL science - is HARD. It takes a massive amount of work. It can take years of working 60 hours a week to collect the data for one single paper that nobody will read. I’m a grad student right now, so it’s a bit of a sore spot.
Idiots like this come swooping in and declare that they have invalidated vast swathes of stuff that has been proven to be true by hard work and real evidence, then are just shocked when people don’t immediately bow down and accept them at their word, without a single shred of evidence. You don’t get to do that. Nobody gets to do that. Scientists don’t get to do that. If you want to convince me of something, you have to put the work in to proving it. That attitude, in and of itself, is proof that people like this don’t know the first thing about what they’re talking about.
That’s just it. You don’t get anywhere by declaring a theory (or stating it as a fact) and then getting butthurt at the very first sign of disagreement or mockery. It’s a good rule of thumb that anyone who does can be safely dismissed as an inconsequential loon.
I very much doubt that Anthem (0) actually believes a word of his theory.
You are being played guys.
Yeah, quite possibly. After 12 years on this site, I’ve more or less quit worrying about it. Anyone here could be trolling. There’s no real way to know. I’ve decided not to care, and just treat it like an underlying assumption.
Ok, here’s a sample :
Now compare to the compendium of crank websites, http://www.crank.net/
Anthem is somewhere between “Fringe” and “Illucid”. But where?
This guy is Cranky: http://www.cosmosview.com/cosmos.htm
I’d say Anthem has gone beyond his work.
Here’s a crankier sampling: Hardly few realize the fact that the foundation of science has broken and has come one circle, to the beginning point. It started by isolating matter from mind and consciousness. However, with evolution of science and the advent of uncertainty theory and quantum science, it became clear that matter could not be understood in isolation of mind and consciousness. Science evolved from the study of interaction of matter to the interaction of fields and concluded that quantum fields is the physical reality and this physical reality, arises from a unified field. Today Scientist’s on one hand is faced with task of bringing up the unification of different fields they invented, on the other hand they are faced with the task of explaining the mental and conscious fields, how they exist and interact with matter field. In a way, science exists and works on absolute ignorance of interrelationship and oneness of nature." That fits. Anthem is crankier.
However, he is not crankiest: “Why do I believe Planet X will be returning in 2003? A combination of in depth research and life experience. In the mid '70’s, at age 19, I started work with a solar cell corporation. It had technology that could undercut the cost of fossil fuels and nuclear power. Twelve years later it became clear that there were people that controlled the energy cartel, banks and media that were engaged in a combination of underhanded financial and legal maneuvers to stop us. I wasn’t looking to find that these controllers existed. I had no interest in them. I did become acutely aware of them first hand, having watched as they slapped the company I worked with down and effectively shelved the technology.”
Often it’s impossible to tell. But not, I think, when the OP makes a casual implicit claim that he can travel between dimensions, and also chooses to share his magnum opus on a site called lunaticoutpost.
With the ones I’m unsure about, I try to post the simplest possible debunking, then remind myself that getting into any discussion is unlikely to be productive.
I mentioned in the other thread that he appears to imply that very thing in an exchange he had after posting the same OP on another board. In one post on the other board, he said:
[QUOTE=Anthem(0)]
Please assure me YOU aren’t the shining example of a “great mind” of your species.
[/QUOTE]
I just wish he would tell us exactly what kind of overlord he is, so we could properly welcome him.
Well, everyone likes cupcakes. Although a Baked Alaska might encapsulate his theory better.
the kid is a really good troll OR mentally ill. either way, I’ve got to stop reading his thread.
I understand that university physicist encounter his type with some regularity. If he is a troll, he is merely imitating a crank.
Via crank.net, visit Are you a quack? (I disagree with that nomenclature actually. To me quacks are insiders using dubious methodology while cranks are outsiders using dubious methodology.) At any rate: This page is dedicated to the many people who have occasionally drifted into my office, or sent me e-mail, or even mailed me their books, eager to tell me about their new theory, which they know will turn all known physics on its head, even though they have only studied an infinitesimal fraction of the latter. Some of them are just ignorant or naive, but are willing to learn; this page is not about them.
…
Quacks (also known as “crackpots” or “cranks”) want only to talk and not to listen. They are paranoids with delusions of grandeur: Their theory could never be wrong; therefore everyone else’s must be. No one will listen to their self-contradictory claims; therefore there must be a world-wide web of conspiracy, lasting generations (apparently even between opposing sides through the World Wars & Cold War) to promote fantastic theories which, for some unexplained reason, seem sufficient for the design & operation of modern technology.
It is easy to distinguish the quacks; although they may seem reasonable at first, they degenerate into absurdity progressively with any conversation. …
Mental illness is common, but most of the afflicted can still function in today’s society (although often this is because they are retired).
It’s really weird; so many cranks seem to have the exact same personality, exact same quirks, etc.
Conceding a point is just not even a remote possibility. No matter how insane they are, they will never, ever, ever, ever admit fault or acknowledge a problem with their theory. And there’s a reason why: Their theories are usually unfalsifiable. When your entire theory is based on metaphysics, you can pretty much say whatever the hell you want. Doesn’t make it true though.
Of course, when they try to defend it using science we DO know, they get all that shit wrong. But to them it isn’t a huge deal because the scientists are just snooty elitists trying to silence free thought or whatever have you. Toss in heaping mounds of condescension and you’re on your way!
It’s not that weird. Mental illness tends to be formulaic. I’ll save the math for another thread.
Anthem is impenetrably fucking stupid. And a liar. And possibly out of his damn mind. That, or he’s a shockingly persistent troll.
Fuck that guy.
…that felt nice.