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Tenured college professors often become cranks? I thought crankhood was reserved to those who had not achieved a legitimate doctorate. What about string theory
by giardini 15y ago
Tenured college professors often become cranks? I thought crankhood was reserved to those who had not achieved a legitimate doctorate.
What about string theory? It seems a specialty designed for cranks: you can't do experiments, it's "a piece of 21st-century physics that had fallen by accident into the 20th century." and that, as the joke states, requires 22nd-century mathematics to solve. Are string theorists cranks?
- adw 15y agoNobel laureates have been known to crank out. No-one is safe, seriously.
- burgerbrain 15y agoArguably yes, though in practice they tend to lack numerous qualities cranks have. "you can't do experiments" That's really the one issue, and speaking as an experimentalist it is a big one. Proponents of string theory generally tend to be quite reasonable in discussion however (recognizing the experimental verification issues for example), and don't practice the many logical fallacies and whatnot that cranks seem to love. You don't hear them arguing about how "big [somebody]" is keeping them down for example. And yeah, once someone reaches tenure they pretty much have full reign, including being able to be a crank. There isn't all that much people can do about it at that point. Being formerly sensible isn't fullproof protection against crank-ism, some people just... snap (or move on to other topics they were never scientific about in the first place).
- giardini 15y agoI had no idea. But I guess Isaac Newton's later religious ideas were the product of a wondrous intellect gone astray.