Re: To the Tesla list from Elihu Thomson regarding Perpetual Motion... (fwd)

["Tesla list" <tesla@xxxxxxxxxx>]

---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Fri, 29 Jun 2007 00:19:47 -0400
From: Kendall Young <kendallyoung@xxxxxxx>
To: Tesla list <tesla@xxxxxxxxxx>
Subject: Re: To the Tesla list from Elihu Thomson regarding Perpetual Motion...
    (fwd)

While I share Colin's comments regarding 'pseudoscience', I also see  
some merit with these peripheral ideas. ('Peripheral' as opposed to  
'fringe' - which has a negative connotation).  The grand ideas always  
come from, let's say the 'edges'.  As an example, Fourier was  
initially boohooed by the mathematicians of his time.  (I forget the  
reference, but I will find it so that I can add it to Wikipedia.)   
This, even though his presentation WAS mathematically rigorous.

I've taken a cursory look at www.16pi2.com.  Again, Colin's comments  
are appropriate.  There is no mathematical rigor.  No discussion of  
Hilbert spaces, Hermitian operators, or even Shroedinger's  
equations.  However, it advances novel ideas that are, perhaps, at  
least as palatable as String Theory, which admits no hypothetical  
basis other than throwing a 'string' object into the Lagrangian and  
investigating the behavior of the mathematical formalism.  The  
satisfactory results of this approach are wildly exaggerated by the  
'scientific community'.  Yes, the mathematics is mind-boggling, but  
where're the predictions?  In order to conform to the Standard Model,  
there are several "versions" of String Theory, and then, of course, M- 
Theory was introduced to consolidate the mess.

At least www.16pi2.com posits a rationale and develops that  
rationale.  I think that we have very little science to argue from a  
factual basis many of the things that we do.  In my opinion, we  
should not be stomping on ideas.  If there is a 'unified field  
theory', I believe it is a fundamental theory and not a 'pieced- 
together' theory of gravity and electromagnetics.

Kendall

On Jun 28, 2007, at 10:03 AM, Tesla list wrote:

>
> ---------- Forwarded message ----------
> Date: Thu, 28 Jun 2007 12:05:44 +0100
> From: Colin Dancer <colind@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
> To: 'Tesla list' <tesla@xxxxxxxxxx>
> Subject: RE: To the Tesla list from Elihu Thomson regarding  
> Perpetual Motion...
>     (fwd)
>
> www.16pi2.com is a particularly good example of the advanced  
> pseudoscience
> style, with as Matt says, a pinch of Tesla mixed in for effect.
>
> The key characteristics are:
>
> * claims of a near complete replacement for all of modern science, but
> without providing a framework for _quantitatively_ describing even  
> some of
> the most well understood physical phenomenon (period of orbital  
> motion,
> shape of magnetic fields, refractive indices, special relativity,  
> etc.)
> * frequent use of scientific terms but in the wrong context
> * frequent "chains" of formula apparently proving a point, but with no
> proper mathematical derivation
> * large numbers of arbitrary constants which allow certain  
> measurable values
> to be "predicted" but in fact with the constants just bodged to get  
> a close
> result
> * claims to provide strong evidence for one or more of the following:
> Existence of god, aliens, near limitless energy, lost secrets of  
> the ancient
> (or Tesla), telepathy
> * registered under the US 501(c) rules to allow extraction of money  
> from
> gullible fools with limited taxation http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ 
> 501(c)
>
> I'm not going to claim that some (or even all) of today's mainline  
> science
> might not eventually be superseded (or at least extended), but any  
> complete
> _replacement_ will need to have a solid mathematical framework  
> which can
> allow anyone to replicate the majority of existing results.
>
> This website (and many others) is so far from doing this that it  
> would be
> laughable, were it not such a damning indictment of the general  
> lack of
> scientific education.  Like spam, these sites will be there while  
> there are
> poorly educated people who keep sending their money.
>
> Colin.
>
> --
>>> Great find, Jeff,
>>>
>>> For a Tesla-related modern dose, check out these sites:
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> _http://www.16pi2.com/_ (http://www.16pi2.com/)
>>>
>>> _http://www.16pi2.com/blog/index.htm_
> (http://www.16pi2.com/blog/index.htm)
>>>
>>> _http://n.webring.com/hub?ring=granduniverse_
>>> (http://n.webring.com/hub?ring=granduniverse)
>>>
>>>
>>> Matt D.
>
>
>