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Somehow I knew it would be Thunderf00t from the title alone. I used to watch this guy religiously (lol) back in the day, and while I still occasionally see wha
by ravenstine 4y ago
Somehow I knew it would be Thunderf00t from the title alone.
I used to watch this guy religiously (lol) back in the day, and while I still occasionally see what he has to say about certain topics, I find him hard to watch because of what seems to be a lack of humility. Last year I unsubbed.
Yeah, some of the stuff he critiques is really stupid (ex. solar roadways), especially when it comes to Kickstarter scams, but his general attitude suggests that no one should ever test insane ideas for the sake of it. I get that reusable rockets have already been achieved, for instance, but Thunderf00t seems to think that's a reason to dismiss the efforts of SpaceX, as if nothing could have possibly been improved upon since the 1990s. He has a real bias towards governmentalized academia, and he's even admitted it more or less in the past, which is why he frequently criticizes commercialization of technology.
It's too bad, because he's a really smart guy, and used to make very good points against organized religion. He could be inspiring more people to get into science, but he's now in the business of mocking, which isn't a compelling reason to actually become scientifically literate.
The really odd thing about his critiques is that he doesn't actually attack the heart of the problem, which is the media. As long as the mainstream media is scientifically illiterate and is so bereft of ethics that it just wants to sell attention, people will invent cockamamie ideas like the "sky hotel."
- audunw 4y ago> It's too bad, because he's a really smart guy Is he really? I've yet to see a single video where he applies a significant amount of intellectual rigour. I've seen him make so many basic mistakes in his reasoning that he's either incredibly lazy, intentionally misleading (a real possibility since "debunking" gets him views) or just not that smart. I dont understand why so many people take him seriously. I suspect too many people get a kick out of feeling smart/smug from "debunking" videos.
- chasil 4y agoHe announces a set of physics exercises relevant to spin launch on Brilliant at the end of the video. I wouldn't discount his STEM knowledge.
- space_fountain 4y agoI’ve been assuming when I see those promotions that the content creators involved have pretty minimal real involvement signing off and maybe making suggestions. It is at the end of the day just an ad
- krisoft 4y agoCaution. The "he" you are referring to (the one who announces the Brilliant exercises) is Brian McManus from the Real Engineering youtube channel. The "he" audunw refers to in the comment you are responding to is Thunderf00t. You guys are talking by each other.
- imtringued 4y agoExplain the wrong reasoning and flaws in these videos: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=DXpLAB5219A https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=DXpLAB5219A https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=LmlAYnFF_s8 https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=LmlAYnFF_s8 https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=Mwbd1qGvTeQ https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=Mwbd1qGvTeQ https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=GJ4KoxeTu-8 https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=GJ4KoxeTu-8 https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=9g3eXLwH9J8 https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=9g3eXLwH9J8 I will take your words by face value and assume that none of these videos used or needed any amount of intellectual rigor and that he is not very smart. Okay, but if the bar is that high, then it appears that whatever scam kickstarter he debunks wasn't even on the scale of intellectual rigor or smartness.
- imtringued 4y agoThe problem with his channel is that there are lots of fraudulent kickstarters and projects out there where a debunking video is as easy as taking a kid's lolly away. The real problem is that a lot of people buy into this crap. As you get further and further away from dehumidifier scams, the debunking becomes more speculative because there is a non zero chance that the project delivers something even if the hype and marketing are all wrong. Debunking hype and reigning in expectations isn't the same as debunking the concept. If spin launch is only ever going to deliver tiny payloads to orbit it is guaranteed to find some underwhelming niche and become just another boring business among hundreds of thousands of others.
- rep_movsd 4y agoPeople just hate him because he destroyed Musk