What are the effects of crackpot addiction on scientific discourse?

In summary, crackpot addiction is the obsession and belief in unfounded theories, which can negatively affect scientific discourse by promoting misinformation and hindering progress. While its prevalence in the scientific community is difficult to determine, it is a known issue that can be harmful to individuals by leading to the rejection of evidence-based information. Scientists can address crackpot addiction by promoting critical thinking, respectful discussions, and actively debunking pseudoscientific claims with evidence-based information. Improving science communication is also important in combating the spread of misinformation.
  • #36
Borek said:
of Mentors.
Hey, I was trying to be subtle!
 
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  • #37
In my experience being subtle on internet doesn't work.
 
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  • #38
Borek said:
Feel free to do so, http://crackpot-corner.com/ seems to be available.
Now there's an idea. I'll have look into that. I can even bring Bandersnatch on board to pick the most beautiful posts. I can then have them placed on the front page as the "Featured Threads", just like PF. But we cannot use a name like http://crackpot-corner.com/ because true crackpots don't believe they are crackpots. It would have to be a charlatan science forum. But wait... the internet already has those. Never mind.
 
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  • #39
There was one earlier today, who drew a diagram of a magneto(i.e., a bicycle dynamo) and wanted to send it to space where, he claimed, no air drag would mean it'd never stop producing electricity. He called it "vacuum energy". Because it involved energy and vacuum, obviously.
 
  • #40
TurtleMeister said:
Now there's an idea. I'll have look into that. I can even bring Bandersnatch on board to pick the most beautiful posts. I can then have them placed on the front page as the "Featured Threads", just like PF. But we cannot use a name like http://crackpot-corner.com/ because true crackpots don't believe they are crackpots. It would have to be a charlatan science forum. But wait... the internet already has those. Never mind.
I think the idea was to present selected crackpot theories there. You don't need the actual crackpots on the site.

Bandersnatch said:
There was one earlier today, who drew a diagram of a magneto(i.e., a bicycle dynamo) and wanted to send it to space where, he claimed, no air drag would mean it'd never stop producing electricity. He called it "vacuum energy". Because it involved energy and vacuum, obviously.
And because you cannot create a vacuum on earth. And because all power plants just use fuel to counter air drag. Funny thing.
 
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  • #41
I remember one that made me cringe tears. The claim was that water refracts light because light travels slower in water than in air <...so far so good...>, and that's because water has mass and due to Einstein's general relativity the light undergoes gravitational time dilation when in water and thus travels slower <gahhh! cringe Ahhagggg :H>.

Fortunately, it was on a different site than PF.
 
  • #42
< --- Possibly off topic post --- >

Bandersnatch said:
There was one earlier today, who drew a diagram of a magneto(i.e., a bicycle dynamo) and wanted to send it to space where, he claimed, no air drag would mean it'd never stop producing electricity. He called it "vacuum energy". Because it involved energy and vacuum, obviously.

That reminds me of wonderful experiment that should be taught to children in science class.

Materials:
  • Dynamo (could be a magneto system attached to a wheel, or could be a hand crank dynamo system).
  • Light bulb (an incandescent light bulb might work best: something with relatively low resistance and is not too sensitive to varying voltage. If necessary, connect the bulbs in series and/or parallel such that the combined rated voltage roughly matches the dynamo's voltage when cranked really hard. I.e., you want the bulb/bulbs to light up, but you don't want them to burn out).
  • Switch and wires (allowing you to connect the dynamo to the light bulb, and switch the circuit open and closed).
Instructions:
(a) Have the student crank the dynamo with the switch open (no current flowing to light bulb/bulbs). The student will likely say, "oh, this is easy! :)"
(b) Flip the switch, closing the circuit, all else being the same (now the light bulb lights up when the cranking occurs). The student now has to apply significant effort to turn the crank, and likely says, "oh, this is not so easy anymore. :eek:"​

It might be the first time the student realizes that leaving the bedroom, kitchen and/or hallway lights on means that somewhere, someone or something needs to put a lot more effort into turning a crank.

</ --- Possibly off topic post --- />
 
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  • #43
collinsmark said:
</ --- Possibly off topic post --- />
No way! It's a "two-fer"! :)
1) It truly is an excellent demonstrative - I agree with the "wonderful" and "should be taught" parts.

2) But it can be viewed on topic if you take a moment to remember how crackpots view the world.
With his creativity fueling the addiction, I can see B'snatch posting a video of this experiment, ... with the knife switch strategically oriented vertically upward rising above the wiring platform, and the light bulbs pointing downward so filaments are below the platform. The demonstration is done just as you've described and the proper explanation provided.

O.K. Hook is baited and in the water. Time to sit back, smile, relax, and... How long do y'all think it would it take someone to post their alternate theory, that the electrons didn't have to be pushed up the hill until the switch was closed?
 
  • #44
I read an old thread yesterday that had me laughing.
The author asked if energy was "flat", based on the following argument:
E=Mc2 implies E=M m2/s2
And since distance squared defines a plane, energy is therefore flat.
​
I suppose by that logic, mass can be considered time squared?
M = E * s2/m2

So mass is flat time?

o_O
 
  • #46
  • #47
Hmm, I wonder, does a programmer who just needs "an equation" describing 3-dimensional time evolution of a cyclic universe, so that he can casually lend his skills to write a program calculating the totality of the past and future history of the universe/multiverse(it's a bit hard to follow), qualify as a crackpot or is just somewhat naive?

He did drop the phrase "Einstein's idea" a few times, which is as good an indication as any, but his demeanour was so confusing, that I'm not sure if my junkie bone is justified in tingling.
 
  • #48
Jimmy said:
Try a web search for skycentrism.

*gasps for breath*

I did it... oh god I shouldn't have but I did... what has been seen cannot be unseen!
 
  • #49
Never forget that crackpots are the forefathers of science.
 
  • #50
HomogenousCow said:
Never forget that crackpots are the forefathers of science.

No they aren't.
 
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  • #51
HomogenousCow said:
Never forget that crackpots are the forefathers of science.

Actually, I think they are the foreSKIN of science ... best cut off and tossed.
 
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  • #52
Jimmy said:
Ha! I was a little surprised Dale went along with it.
Yeah, normally I would just have deleted it, but Bandersnatch's plea was surprising enough for me to leave it visible.

Sorry Bandersnatch, crackpots tend to have a very short half-life here and the usual decay mode is deletion. That is part of the design of the forum and, by design, is not likely to change. Engage with promptness if you desire, but recognize that your responses to the nonsense will generally be deleted along with the nonsense.
 
  • #53
No worries, I understand. I actually like it the way it is - it feels like being on a safari among dodos. I get to see them before they go extinct.
 
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  • #54
Bandersnatch said:
No worries, I understand. I actually like it the way it is - it feels like being on a safari among dodos. I get to see them before they go extinct.

Crackpots never go extinct. They're like gussied up cockroaches...
 
  • #55
Drakkith said:
Crackpots never go extinct. They're like gussied up cockroaches...

Oh! Halloween is coming up. I've never seen anyone dressed as a gussied up cockroach.

hmmm...

per google; No results found for "gussied up cockroach".

Yes!

:D
 
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  • #56
Bandersnatch said:
As if it was a good-hearted, bening thing.

Well, in all your highfalutin and erudite arrogance, nobody has seemed, after even 50 posts, to catch that our hero has misspelled "benign" in the original post. Especially since "I even stooped as low as to sneer at his horrible, horrible English." :p
 
  • #57
Curses! I am undone.
 
  • #58
Bandersnatch said:
Curses! I am undone.
I'm sure it was just a typo..:D
 
  • #59
Bandersnatch,

You missed getting a response into this thread before it was closed ...
https://www.physicsforums.com/threads/my-dad-proved-string-theory.788260/

Definitely the best one for Dec 2014, maybe the whole year ;)

Dave
 
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  • #60
davenn said:
Bandersnatch,

You missed getting a response into this thread before it was closed ...
https://www.physicsforums.com/threads/my-dad-proved-string-theory.788260/

Definitely the best one for Dec 2014, maybe the whole year ;)

Dave

Greg really needs to upgrade the "timestamp" thingy.

+/-60 seconds really doesn't tell us how entertainingly fast that thread was locked.

:blushing:
 
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  • #61
davenn said:
Bandersnatch,

You missed getting a response into this thread before it was closed ...
https://www.physicsforums.com/threads/my-dad-proved-string-theory.788260/

Definitely the best one for Dec 2014, maybe the whole year ;)

Dave
Yeah, this guys dad is definitely a tin-foil hat kind of guy.
 
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  • #62
hahhaha

cant stop laughing ... there's tears in my eyes hahhaha

the mind really boggles with what some of these people come out with huh :)
 
  • #63
phinds said:
...a tin-foil hat ...
I know what a tin foil hat is but haven't been able to figure out what the speaker implies. :(
 
  • #64
Silicon Waffle said:
I know what a tin foil hat is but haven't been able to figure out what the speaker implies. :(
A guy who wears a tin-foil hat does so in order to be able to communicate with aliens who tell him all kinds of interesting things that no one else knows.
 
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  • #65
phinds said:
A guy who wears a tin-foil hat does so in order to be able to communicate with aliens who tell him all kinds of interesting things that no one else knows.
Oh that guy should be suffering from some sort of schizoaffective disorder.
 
  • #66
Silicon Waffle said:
Oh that guy should be suffering from some sort of schizoaffective disorder.
Or, as it is more commonly called in layman's terms, he's a fruitcake.
 
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  • #67
phinds said:
A guy who wears a tin-foil hat does so in order to be able to communicate with aliens who tell him all kinds of interesting things that no one else knows.
no no no you have it around the wrong way
they wear tinfoil hats to stop the aliens reading their minds
classic example ... the movie "Signs"
 
  • #68
davenn said:
Definitely the best one for Dec 2014, maybe the whole year
Oh, I disagree. It seems almost benign (see, @DiracPool I spelled it right this time, you cheeky git!) when compared to others I've seen, and what's more teeming with a Christmas spirit and filial love.

I like how what the son said ties in with what was mentioned in the thread about what makes people cranks - a smart person, often on the autistic spectrum, with nobody qualified or informed enough to challenge his ideas.

Thanks for spotting that one, though! I feel like one of those pokemon kids - got to catch 'em all.
 
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  • #69
davenn said:
no no no you have it around the wrong way
they wear tinfoil hats to stop the aliens reading their minds
classic example ... the movie "Signs"
Actually, it happens both ways. The prevention form is usually for the CIA and the antenna form is for aliens
 
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  • #70
Facing a crackpot is a good test of your knowledge. I guess if we were going to have some kind of a "Knights of the Calabi-Yau table" for the real science guys, it would be good to have a crackpot test among the qualification tests for letting people in.
Special for Bandersnatch
I'm currently struggling with a crackpot claim(although the guy telling it isn't a crackpot, he's just reciting from someone else and wants to know why should the thing be wrong). Its about perpetual motion machines and how they can get electricity from them. One design is having cylinder with magnets mounted on its surface and a block with a cylindrical hole in it with magnets mounted on the inner surface of the hole. Then the cylinder is placed inside the hole of the block such that it can rotate around the hole's axis. The point is, because of the repulsion of magnets(the same faces are placed outward), the thing rotates and rotates and rotates and apparently there is nothing to stop it. He even showed me films of such a device while it rotates really fast. I tried to deal with a simplified case mathematically. I assumed there is only one magnet on the inner cylinder and two magnets on the inner surface of the hole but I got two complicated differential equations filling one page which I couldn't think of even solving numerically. One of my friends suggested that the magnets will lose their magnetic properties and the device will stop. Till now, this is the best answer.
 

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