Re: Woo Peddlers, Visionaries and Cranks!

Posted by Steve Smith on May 06, 2013; 9:06pm
URL: http://friam.383.s1.nabble.com/Woo-Peddlers-Visionaries-and-Cranks-tp7583094p7583097.html

On 5/6/13 2:16 PM, glen e. p. ropella wrote:

Saul Caganoff wrote at 05/05/2013 09:58 PM:

http://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/scienceshow/why-listen-to-weird-ideas3f/4666056

I like her comment that mainstream science (or did she say physics?)
consists of _collective_ theory.  It re-raises our question of the
importance of consensus to science.

It is an interesting paradox to compare "what things are" and "what things aspire to be".   I do agree that Science(tm) *is* a collective/consensus model with some self-limiting features that help it to be relatively coherent.   But it *aspires* to be a little more objective/universal than that (yet the methodology acknowledges the need for and therefore dependence on fallible humans).

I also enjoyed that she lumped Wolfram in with the "cranks" ... [ahem]
... "outsiders".

I have met Wolfram twice.  Once at the 1983? Cellular Automata Conference at LANL when he exposed his classification scheme for (1D) CA (I think it was Doyne who demonstrated the equivalence of CA of any higher dimension or topography to a 1D equivalent with sufficiently complex neighborhood/rules).   The second time was when he rolled out his New Kind of Science.   Oddly he as no more strange nor arrogant 20 years later, he just had a slightly bigger portfolio to justify it  at 22ish he already had nascent Mathematica and the CA classification work under his belt).  I would say he is a (self-established) outsider though not a crank.  He has a lot of features of a crank, however.  

I also met my favorite "self-declared" Crank at the CA conference in the person of Ed Fredkin who was putting forward his own "Digital Information Mechanics" alongside "Reversible Computation" (with Tomasso Tofolli).   Fredkin is now something of a "high priest" of "Digital Philosophy".  Fredkin's affect was not dissimilar to Feynmans but Fredkin is nearly an *entirely* self-made man.   College dropout (Caltech 19).  USAF Fighter Pilot.   MIT/Caltech/BU/CMU professor (sans formal degree?!).  Founder of III (early film recorder manufacturer).  Inventer of the Fredkin Gate (reversible computation) and the "Trie".    He owns his own (125 acre) island as well.  He has presented himself *as* a Crank, I suppose to steal the thunder of those who might try to use the term to whip him with.   Fredkin is the kind of crank we should all aspire to be (IMO).

- Steve

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