Thursday, July 28, 2005

The Crackpot Index

My advisor constantly receives emails from certain, how should I call them?, crackpots, who advertise how they have figured out the universe. The emails contain no equations, no logical connection between the ideas, and most of the time refer to many layman books as authorities in the subject. In fact, I have seen one of these, what was that term?, crackpots, interrupt our group meeting with ideas of how, although he admits does not understands fundamental quantum mechanics very well, it is all wrong. It is always fun to talk about these people, but now their crackpotness can be quantified thanks to The Crackpot Index. Some of the ratings:
5 points for each word in all capital letters (except for those with defective keyboards).

5 points for each mention of "Einstien", "Hawkins" or "Feynmann".

10 points for arguing that a current well-established theory is "only a theory", as if this were somehow a point against it.

20 points for every use of science fiction works or myths as if they were fact.

40 points for comparing those who argue against your ideas to Nazis, stormtroopers, or brownshirts.

50 points for claiming you have a revolutionary theory but giving no concrete testable predictions.

That last one would mean that String Theorists are crackpots. So it goes.

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