5 ms·

Agreed. However, at some point in time remember Galileo was also called a crank. Be careful in that respect.

by kelvin0 11y ago

TeMPOraL 11y ago
Indeed. He was totally a crank, and also an asshole (which is what got him under house arrest). He was rightfully rejected by contemporary scientific community for pushing a model that didn't even agree with empirical data about planetary motions they've accumulated so far, as opposed to the commonly accepted models. Yes, be careful in that respect, because the story of Galileo is one of the common historical misconceptions. EDIT: Sources - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10878748 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10878748.
- kelvin0 11y ago
  Could you please give me some citations, papers or any reference? Was he not an advocate of the Heliocentric model accepted today, that almost got him killed? Please correct my historical misconceptions.
  - TeMPOraL 11y ago
    Added a link to sources to my original comment.
    - kelvin0 11y ago
      Will definitely be reading that thanks. However this does not change my initial point: some forward thinking individuals are ahead of their time and are sometimes ostracized for the wrong reasons.
jordigh 11y ago
I agree that some crank-looking people end up being Ramanujan, but the vast majority are not. When you look at the lunacy that most cranks put out, you start to see that there is a sea of weirdness out there, and doubtlessly a lot of mental illness. The old http://crank.net http://crank.net still seems to be up (hah! "powered by GNU m4"), so take a stroll to get a sample of the common thing that maths and physics profs have to wade through in their inboxes.
- kelvin0 11y ago
  I have no doubt the signal to noise ratio is disconcerting. Not all shells contain precious perls...
- cmurf 11y ago
  Keep in mind for the vast majority of human existence thus far, humans sometimes just flip their shit and become untrustworthy. So some percentage of humans always expecting this from everyone is probable. So which is the mental illness, expecting a fellow primate is or will become bezerk, or that fellow primates non-deterministically do in fact go bezerk?

Agreed. However, at some point in time remember Galileo was also called a crank. Be careful in that respect.

by kelvin0 11y ago

Agreed. However, at some point in time remember Galileo was also called a crank. Be careful in that respect.

Indeed. He was totally a crank, and also an asshole (which is what got him under house arrest). He was rightfully rejected by contemporary scientific community for pushing a model that didn't even agree with empirical data about planetary motions they've accumulated so far, as opposed to the commonly accepted models. Yes, be careful in that respect, because the story of Galileo is one of the common historical misconceptions. EDIT: Sources - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10878748 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10878748.

kelvin0 11y ago
Could you please give me some citations, papers or any reference? Was he not an advocate of the Heliocentric model accepted today, that almost got him killed? Please correct my historical misconceptions.
- TeMPOraL 11y ago
  Added a link to sources to my original comment.
  - kelvin0 11y ago
    Will definitely be reading that thanks. However this does not change my initial point: some forward thinking individuals are ahead of their time and are sometimes ostracized for the wrong reasons.

jordigh 11y ago

I agree that some crank-looking people end up being Ramanujan, but the vast majority are not. When you look at the lunacy that most cranks put out, you start to see that there is a sea of weirdness out there, and doubtlessly a lot of mental illness. The old http://crank.net http://crank.net still seems to be up (hah! "powered by GNU m4"), so take a stroll to get a sample of the common thing that maths and physics profs have to wade through in their inboxes.

kelvin0 11y ago
I have no doubt the signal to noise ratio is disconcerting. Not all shells contain precious perls...
cmurf 11y ago
Keep in mind for the vast majority of human existence thus far, humans sometimes just flip their shit and become untrustworthy. So some percentage of humans always expecting this from everyone is probable. So which is the mental illness, expecting a fellow primate is or will become bezerk, or that fellow primates non-deterministically do in fact go bezerk?