Hacker News Reader

Comment by audleman | Hacker News Reader

In high school my friend's Dad thought he had found a flaw in modern Physics understanding that would change everything. Physicists, he claimed, refused to see the truth because they were too loyal to Einstein. He sat me down and showed me flaws in a bunch of equations, which was duly impressive until I went to college and took Physics 101. Turns out he was ignoring things like redshift of light; when I plugged in the right equations the classical model held.

I tried to argue with my friend, but I had just proved that I was brainwashed by Big Phys. I learned that his Dad cornered anybody he could to evangelize his theories and had been doing so for years. He developed a theory that women and children were more receptive to his revolutionary ideas, so was in the process of writing a book that was more conversational in tone.

Last I heard he was still at it.

View on HN

it's sad that he tries to validate his idea by evangelizing to laymen instead of trying to convince "big science" of his ideas.

My dad was and is the same way -- everyone is in some massive conspiracy plot to misguide the public. Typically there are demons or other some suches that are pulling the puppet strings. A few months ago he was convinced the world was flat.. It's this whole Dunning-Kruger effect that seems to affect so many people.

I think there are generations of people who missed out on a proper education and a healthy skepticism.

That sounds more like mental illness than a lack of education.

"I think there are generations of people who missed out on a proper education and a healthy skepticism. "

I don't think it's education. Most conspiracy theorists I have met seem to have a deep discomfort with our world and this is their way of explaining it. I think other people turn to religion for the same reasons.

I'm going to inject some cynicism and say that what a number of them find unsettling is how famous they aren't.

They always think they have a big idea. It's never some minor correction to a big theory, which a PhD would be happy with (as long as it's major enough to be publishable); no, it's Shatter The Foundations or nothing. Therefore, they're being done out of their fame and fortune by some grand conspiracy, which, in itself, proves how important they are: If they weren't right, They wouldn't be conspiring against them, now, would they? That mindset certainly sells books, and helps on the lecture circuit, too.

I'm sure there are some honest crackpots, but I wonder how honest you can be when you come upon a bit of well-accepted physics you can't understand or simply don't like, and conclude that everyone else is wrong, and you're the only one who's correct.

That's not what Dunning-Kruger effect is. Dunning-Kruger effect does not cover people thinking they are more talented than experts, just that they think they are more talented than they actually are.

> My dad was and is the same way -- everyone is in some massive conspiracy plot to misguide the public.

My dad was never this way until Youtube. It took him down the rabbit hole and spat him out onto informationclearinghouse.info .

I love my dad, but sadly these days I avoid discussing controversial topics with him.

It's impossible to judge without listening to both sides, but it's very unlikely that he found a flaw in an equation. Equation are easy to prove with experiments. It's why whole physic science is so addicted to predictions, because numbers cannot lie. If he found a flaw in a equation, then he can just calculate, measure, and publish.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com