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Comment by longtimegoogler | Hacker News Reader

He also wrote an article called the "Death of the Proof" that was widely rejected by mathematicians and was also mostly hog wash.

He seems like a guy who likes to make edgy but wrong statements.

https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/cross-check/the-horgan-...

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This is far from the first time, so let me state this more explicitly: John Horgan is a provocateur with no knowledge of any field, whose only claim to fame is that he is so breathtakingly and publicly wrong that he gets people with real expertise to engage with him. Then he disingenuously frames the result as a real intellectual controversy with him at its center.

He is one of the top reasons I don’t take anything from Scientific American seriously anymore, and a great example of how the incentive structures in science popularization ruin it. I find that I can tell how savvy an online community is by how much it likes his work.

> Mathematicians named a mathematical object after me. It’s called the Horgan surface, or, alternatively, Horgan non-surface. The term was intended as an insult, but I’m honored anyway.

Neatly summarizes this guy’s motivation for writing provocative bullshit. To him, infamous == famous.

> He is one of the top reasons I don’t take anything from Scientific American seriously anymore

Some people have started calling it "Two Lies, One Title".

It's turned into the BuzzFeed of science journalism.

I knew I kinda knew that name! Good reference, thank you!

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