The ability to tell apart a crackpot physical theory from a sensible one, at least on this visible level of crackpottery, does need very little specialised knowledge of physics and definitely is a rationalist skill.
So you would like people to post crackpot theories so that we can practice on them?
I was trying to help by pointing out that there is a step between “physics journal” and nothing physics related. Perhaps I should have held my tongue and moved on with Mitchell_Porter and shminux ’s comments being sufficient.
I wouldn’t like people to post crackpot theories here so that we can practice on them. Also, I wouldn’t like people to post crackpot theories on a physics blog so that somebody else could practice on them. But I would definitely like people have the freedom to explain, once the crackpot theory is posted, why it is wrong and how can we tell. The explanation can be useful for the author of the crackpot theory who may not be himself an incorrigible crackpot, and I believe we can explain the problem better than a physics blog audience, because typically believing in a crackpot theory isn’t mainly a failure of the author’s mastery of physics, but rather a problem with his general rationality skills.
In short, I don’t say that this post is a net positive, I say it is not off-topic here.
I think there is some suggestion that this would be more appropriate on a physics blog and not a rationality blog.
The ability to tell apart a crackpot physical theory from a sensible one, at least on this visible level of crackpottery, does need very little specialised knowledge of physics and definitely is a rationalist skill.
So you would like people to post crackpot theories so that we can practice on them? I was trying to help by pointing out that there is a step between “physics journal” and nothing physics related. Perhaps I should have held my tongue and moved on with Mitchell_Porter and shminux ’s comments being sufficient.
I wouldn’t like people to post crackpot theories here so that we can practice on them. Also, I wouldn’t like people to post crackpot theories on a physics blog so that somebody else could practice on them. But I would definitely like people have the freedom to explain, once the crackpot theory is posted, why it is wrong and how can we tell. The explanation can be useful for the author of the crackpot theory who may not be himself an incorrigible crackpot, and I believe we can explain the problem better than a physics blog audience, because typically believing in a crackpot theory isn’t mainly a failure of the author’s mastery of physics, but rather a problem with his general rationality skills.
In short, I don’t say that this post is a net positive, I say it is not off-topic here.