Posted: Mar 09, 2011 12:13 pm
It's really option 1 in your list.
If you don't have a physics background, but still want a bullshit detector, then I would say any claim that goes along the lines of
"There's this complicated theory that is mainstream physics, but I have a much SIMPLER theory that explains the same stuff"
then that should ring a loud alarm bell. Theories are complicated for a reason - they're that way because that's what they have to do to explain nature.
Theories do not get "simpler" over time:
Geometric optics ->Maxwell's Equations->Quantum Electrodynamics
Newtonian gravity->General Relativity
They may be elegant, but they're not "simple".
Practicing physicsts will have seen so much of this stuff that they just can't afford to spend the time refuting it. It's a waste of effort.
If you don't have a physics background, but still want a bullshit detector, then I would say any claim that goes along the lines of
"There's this complicated theory that is mainstream physics, but I have a much SIMPLER theory that explains the same stuff"
then that should ring a loud alarm bell. Theories are complicated for a reason - they're that way because that's what they have to do to explain nature.
Theories do not get "simpler" over time:
Geometric optics ->Maxwell's Equations->Quantum Electrodynamics
Newtonian gravity->General Relativity
They may be elegant, but they're not "simple".
Practicing physicsts will have seen so much of this stuff that they just can't afford to spend the time refuting it. It's a waste of effort.