Steemit Poll: Quantum Magic or Pseudoscientific Crackpottery?

in #funny8 years ago (edited)

The year is 2016 AD. Science is entirely occupied by the Quantum Magicians. Well, not entirely... One small group of indomitable Aetherists still holds out against Quantum Madness. And life is not easy for the magicians' legionairies who garrison the fortified camps of Dark Energy, Dark Matter, Quantum Entanglement and Virtual Fields...

By Arend Lammertink, MScEE, October 2016.

Introduction

Quantum Magic is a currently popular cult, which is involved in what could be called modern alchemy. It's proponents are often brilliant men and women, yet they actually and seriously believe that the following (obviously wrong) statements are true:

  1. particles can exist at two places at the same time;
  2. two particles at different locations can be magically "entangled", requiring "spooky action at a distance", on it's turn requiring infinite forces propagating at an infinite speed;
  3. the mere act of "observing" is enough to influence the result of a measurement;
  4. "virtual", by definition "imaginary" or "non-existing", "fields" and "particles" make perfectly sense in explaining the workings of the Universe.

Needless to say, hardly any arguments are to be found to distinguish Quantum Magic from Pseudoscience, the fruitless art of trying to explain the workings of the Universe without the use of testable proposals which "make possible the verification by experiment".

Pseudoscience

In the mid-20th century, Karl Popper put forth the criterion of falsifiability to distinguish science from nonscience. Falsifiability means a result can be disproved. For example, a statement such as "God created the universe" may be true or false, but no tests can be devised that could prove it either way; it simply lies outside the reach of science. Popper used astrology and psychoanalysis as examples of pseudoscience and Einstein's theory of relativity as an example of science.

All right, we can live with that. Einstein's relativity theory falls within the realm of science, because it is falsifiable. All one needs to do is measure the propagation of a signal which travels faster than light, and we're done. Piece of cake. Charles Wheatstone already did so in 1834 with virtually nothing but Leyden Yars and some long wires. And we got all kinds of experiments with "fast light", which show that propagation speeds (much) faster than the speed of light have been measured, so no problem there.

The good news is that we can still refer to Albert Einstein as one of the latest of the great scientists on this planet, before the pseudo-scientists came in and gotten us into the mess we got today, even though his theory has actually been falsified by the above experimental data. Heck, even GPS contradicts relativity according to Ron Hatch, an expert on GPS:

GPS evidence reveals logical faults in standard relativistic theory and points toward the true underlying physics.

That is what science is all about. It's about the quest for answers in order to make this world a better place. "Question everything" was Albert's motto, and that is what distinguishes a scientist from a pseudo-scientist. So, let's give Einstein a break. It wasn't his fault Lorentz came up with his freaky mathematical transform that put uncle Albert on the wrong foot.

But what about "virtual particles", "dark matter", "weak nuclear forces", "strong nuclear forces" and even "10 to 26-dimensional string theories"?

  • What tests can be devised that can prove or disprove the existence of, by definition non existing, "virtual particles"?
  • What tests can be devised that can prove or disprove the existence of "dark matter", which is called "dark" because we have no way to measure any trace of it?
  • What tests can be devised that can prove or disprove the existence of either "strong" or "weak" nuclear forces, knowing that particles are some kind of electro-magnetic phenomenon (as implied by wave-particle duality) and are therefore governed by electromagnetic forces?
  • What tests can be devised that can prove or disprove the existence of a physical multi-dimensional hyper-space, while we live in a 3D Universe?

It is clear that all these "things", "forces", "fields" and what have you, which have been invented for the single reason of filling up the gaping holes in the current "main-stream" theories, are not testable and therefore do not fall within the realm of science. They are a mass of error and deceptive ideas violently opposed to the teachings of great men of science of the past and even to common sense, to paraphrase Tesla:

The theory of relativity he described as "a mass of error and deceptive ideas violently opposed to the teachings of great men of science of the past and even to common sense."

"The theory, "he said, "wraps all these errors and fallacies and clothes them in magnificent mathematical garb which fascinates, dazzles and makes people blind to the underlying errors. The theory is like a beggar clothed in purple whom ignorant people take for a king. Its exponents are very brilliant men, but they are metaphysicists rather than scientists. Not a single one of the relativity propositions has been proved."

Now what?

While I posted this article just for the fun of using the argument that aether science is typically considered "pseudoscientific crackpottery" against the Quantum Magicians for a change, there is some seriousness here, too.

Actually, there is something very wrong with our current physics and aether theory deserves a serious consideration, because it can actually be shown to solve the problems caused by Maxwell's hole in a simple, elegant and straightforward application of textbook fluid dynamic vector theory.

From that point of view, it's all the more #funny that Quantum Magicians actually believe the above 4 statements are true!

Poll

What do you think?

  1. Quantum Magic is Pseudoscientific Crackpottery;
  2. Aether Physics is Pseudoscientific Crackpottery.

For option 1, upvote this article.
For option 2, upvote reaction marked "Aether Physics is Pseudoscientific Crackpottery" below.

Sort:  

If you've enjoyed this article, you may also enjoy my comments on this video by Sabine Hossenfelder, author and theoretical physicist who researches quantum gravity. She is a Research Fellow at the Frankfurt Institute for Advanced Studies.

If you enjoy my posts over there as well, please give me a thumbs up.

Last time we had a conversation, she deleted my post with the following comment:

http://www.tuks.nl/wiki/index.php/Main/AnExceptionallyElegantTheoryOfEverythingNotesFAQ#Hossenfelder

" Everyone:
I'm getting a lots of comments to this post in which people propose their own theories for what dark matter might be. You are wasting your time. I do not approve such comments. If you want to discuss your own theory of something, please do so elsewhere.

2:58 AM, October 14, 2016"

Let us note that, apparently, "a lots of"[sic] people have a problem with the "dark matter" idea...

Very interesting article @lamare.
Alchemy was and is the father and mother of modern chemistry.
I would not negate their claims nor I will tell that they are correct, beacause like Isaac Asimov said : all new science is called magic in the begining
(note it was not a quote but a short fraze in my words of what he was saying)
Just because we dont know yet what tests to perform that doesnt mean a particle or element doesnt exist...and here I mention what olso Galileo Galilei was claiming and many people said at that time that he is a heretic, a quak a sarlatan...
But time passed and we learned that he was right.
That being said I come back to Quantum Magic
My belif is not to go back in time and resurect alchemy, but make something better for the good of human kind...
That cult in my opinion is not on the right path but then again is they do discover something good with there old beliefs that will be awesome!
Thanks for such a wonderfull post!

#Aether #Physics is #Pseudoscientific #Crackpottery

Upvote this reaction if you believe the above is true...

А, собственно, зачем?
Ну считает кто то что то псевдонаукой, просто враньём или заблуждением... Какая разница?
Мир настолько огромен, а мы, человеки, настолько малы, мало оснащены телесно (не видим и не слышим больше доступного диапазона, выживаем в узком спектре температур, ну и прочие ограничения... Даже измерений, что нам доступны только четыре (включая время, которого как бы нет).) и умственно (хоть и обладаем головным "суперкомпьютером" используем то его процентов на 5 не больше), что мы даже представить не в состоянии всех возможных вариантов бытия. То есть, мы всё это огромное Бытие пытаемся втиснуть в тот малюсенький диапазон человеческих ощущений, возможностей и пониманий...
Изучать нужно, но можно ли объять необъятное?

Congratulations @lamare! You have received a personal award!

Happy Birthday - 1 Year on Steemit Happy Birthday - 1 Year on Steemit
Click on the badge to view your own Board of Honor on SteemitBoard.

For more information about this award, click here

By upvoting this notification, you can help all Steemit users. Learn how here!

Congratulations @lamare! You have received a personal award!

2 Years on Steemit
Click on the badge to view your Board of Honor.

Do not miss the last post from @steemitboard:

SteemitBoard knock out by hardfork

Support SteemitBoard's project! Vote for its witness and get one more award!

Congratulations @lamare! You received a personal award!

Happy Birthday! - You are on the Steem blockchain for 3 years!

You can view your badges on your Steem Board and compare to others on the Steem Ranking

Vote for @Steemitboard as a witness to get one more award and increased upvotes!

Coin Marketplace

STEEM 0.18
TRX 0.16
JST 0.029
BTC 64050.44
ETH 2502.78
USDT 1.00
SBD 2.65