Q: WHY DID YOU INVOLVE YOURSELF IN ALL THIS DISGUSTING "FRINGE" STUFF? YOU SHOULD BE ASHAMED!

A: Many reasons.

• 1. New discoveries come from the "fringe."
• 2. Seeking unexplored areas in science.
• 3. Flee self-congratulatory arrogance, hubris, consensual mob-rule.
• 4. Excess rationality poisons creativity
• 5. Be skeptical about so-called 'Scientific' hyper-skepticism
• 6. The world is still 99% unknown.
• 7. The REAL reason! :)

1. New discoveries come from the "fringe."
Why fringe science? Foremost is the fact that, throughout history, The Experts relegated a significant portion of new ideas, unexplainable discrepancies, and amazing discoveries to the "fringe." They proclaimed them to be impossible. They heaped them with scorn and derision, ridiculed them in public, and interfered with the efforts of their originators. Yet eventually it was just these discoveries which proved to be the latest advancements in science. Famous examples are: hot rocks falling from the sky, the germ theory of disease, the Wrights and human flight, Goddard and spacecraft, Wegner and continental drift, Margulis and evolution's cooperation vs. competition, Ovishinski and his amorphous semiconductors, ball lightning, T. Gold's subterranean bacteria and spinning neutron stars, and on and on. (And "cold fusion", too, although the majority still assumes that CF is crackpot.)

Though eventually all these fringe ideas proved to be legitimate science, either they were ignored during those eras when they were discovered, or they were attacked and ridiculed as being crazy. There is a streak of this unfortunate behavior running throughout science: somehow the researchers KNOW that science only progresses gradually, without enormous creative leaps. Without even looking at the history, they KNOW that any discovery which goes against the accepted worldview is invariably "crazy pseudoscience" stuff" and can be safely stamped out. They know this *without testing the evidence*. They have no need of evidence, because "If this new discovery were true, we'd have to throw out all the basic theories of physics." Apparently it's not only the Church who indulges in "Galileo bashing" behavior. Scientists sometimes behave even worse.

And so historical hindsight has educated me: if I want to be involved with the early stages of really new discoveries, I know exactly where to find these discoveries... In the reject pile, stamped "DISGUSTING PSEUDO- SCIENCE," "GOES AGAINST ACCEPTED THEORY," and "TOO CRAZY TO BE TRUE!" So bring on the antigravity and free energy and cold fusion. I know that most of this crap really just crap. But I also know that among the current crop of crackpot theorists, maverick researchers, and crazy inventors are the next Wright Brothers; currently laboring in obscurity and reviled by all of the reputable researchers for their offensive, heretical, and impossible discoveries.

The threat of scientific excommunication is no joke. A researcher who touches the wrong subject will destroy their own career. Scientific Taboos erect barriers which cannot be safely crossed... therefore the "crackpot amateur" can go where no reputable scientist dares.

Yes, the world needs more scientists. But even more, it needs skilled heretics who dare to tread the unconventional path. It needs people who can go against the flow, march backwards in the parade (listening to that other drummer?), people who can be openminded where all others are closed, and who can withstand rejection by all of their colleagues. The world needs maverick researchers who can teach themselves to notice the unusual things; the important and revealing things which are invisible to everyone else.

"Desire for approval and recognition is a healthy motive, but the desire to be acknowledged as better, stronger, or more intelligent than a fellow being or fellow scholar easily leads to an excessively egoistic psychological adjustment, which may become injurious for the individual and for the community." - Albert Einstein

But I also see the great attraction in the skeptical scientific worldview. It's a form of "groupthink", a cultlike belief system. It's a set of beliefs which require external "deprogramming" if one wishes to break free of it. I was originally in the modern science camp 100%. For those like me with a great need to always be right, for those who take themselves too seriously, and for those who need to feel self-important, science is profoundly attractive. I still feel it's pull upon my weaker, narcissistic side. And so I react by diving deep into the fringe where I still have a good chance of doing worthwhile work, yet where I can conquer my self importance, where I will never take myself overly seriously, or lose my humility, or fall into the ego trap that captures the majority of contemporary scientists. If I dive deep enough into the fringe, I will never be accepted back into the fold of conventional science, and will never require another Deprogramming session. People may laugh at me, but this will remind me to continue laughing at myself.

If I become too confident in my ability to judge what is possible, I put unnecessary constraints on my creativity. If I distrust my subconscious realms, then I shut off my creative voice. But if I cultivate some "irrational," "superstitious," and "credulous" styles of thinking, then I dance with Mystery, and court the impossible discoveries.

We should take care not to make the intellect our god; it has, of course, powerful muscles, but no personality. - Einstein

And so I tend to pursue an opposite course, involving myself with the dark irrational underbelly of science from whence comes cranks, crackpots, and the *really* creative ideas.

Pathological Science: seeing things because we WANT to see them.

Pathological Skepticism: blindness to things we refuse to accept.

If we too fiercely flee from the one, then we end up embracing the other. Both are pseudo-science. Science hides in the space between the Believers and the Scoffers.

Suppose that we always act with hostile skepticism towards any apparently-crazy idea. If we reject ideas because of their irrational appearance, or because they endanger our world-view should they prove valid, then we'll never inspect the actual evidence. We might never even listen to the claims of their discoverers. As a result, any new discoveries which are valid but which appear crazy will be suppressed by being ignored. Total openmindedness may be equivalent to insanity, but I believe the universal skepticism of the modern scientist to be a similar evil. Excessive skepticism should be avoided because it cannot help but squash new discoveries and erect barriers against change.

In the ENCYCLOPEDIA OF IGNORANCE, R. A. Lyttleton proposes that one's belief in a particular hypothesis is like a bead which slides along a wire. One end of the wire represents 100% disbelief, and the other end shows 0% disbelief (or 100% acceptance.) Nothing prevents the bead from falling off the ends of the wire. Since all theories are tentative, proper scientists should strive to keep their "beads" somewhere between 0% and 100%. However, many otherwise intelligent people have been convinced to move their beads regarding contemporary science theories to the position of 100% belief, whereupon their "beads" fall off the wire and their beliefs can can no longer be altered. At the same time, they move their "fringe science" beads to 100% disbelief, whereupon the beads fall off the other end of the wire and are nearly impossible to restore. Then, whenever a piece of "fringe" science gives signs of being proved valid, those fallen-bead skeptics must launch remorseless emotional attacks against it. Or, when a piece of solid mainstream science starts to look shakey, they must leap to blind defense of the dogma. This is entirely sensible, because their alternative is to court insanity.

If we all could avoid this "fallen bead" state, science would be much improved. In other words, we should never sneeringly, hostilly disbelieve things that look "fringy". We should never adopt a viewpoint where some ideas are 100% right and others are 100% wrong. Instead, we should cultivate a healthy .01% belief in crazy things. And correspondingly we should never accept any theory 100% no matter how solid and widely acclaimed, but should maintain a small, non-zero amount of doubt and suspicion. After all, there is always a tiny chance that a basement inventor will discover antigravity or a violation of thermodynamics, or that parapsychologists will find irrefutable evidence for telepathy or precognition. And someday a dropped rock may unexpectedly fail to fall downwards. No joke. When such things happen, we should avoid being driven into insane denial by our 100% disbelief. Instead we should be saying "yeah, I always thought that there was a *tiny* chance that this might happen!

I myself see the contents of my "weird science" page as being 99% bogus. (Perhaps the index of bogosity is even far higher!) However, hidden in the bulk of the crazy-and-false material there is an extremely valuable 1% which is crazy-but-true. There are diamonds in the compost. But there is no reliable way to sort the crap from the treasure. Therefore I believe that a small portion of federal science funding should be directed to the "crazy" stuff. This would serve the same function as the investment practice of "long-shot betting": investing in businesses having a large chance of failure but also a small chance of incredibly large returns. To support the 1% of our investment which strikes it rich, we must also pour 99% down a hole. (But as with playing the Stock Market, such a thing requires highly skilled investors, not mob rule by a committee called "peer review.")

Science funding has traditionally stayed with safe bets, with incremental advances piled upon older discoveries. Funding sources only want to support projects which have a large chance of positive returns. Funding sources demand that all dollars be passed by a large committee for approval (a committee composed of people whose careers would be destroyed if the unconventional work was successful.) As a result, many earth-shaking discoveries throughout history have not been supported by mainstream science (and indeed were often suppressed by the violent skepticism of the close-minded majority of scientists.) Breakthroughs coming from left field are rare, but when they happen they change the world. And so the arena of unconventional research should be supported in accordance with the large size of its individual discoveries, and the low probabilities of making these discoveries.

Think about it: if we invest in the 99 failures in order to support the one success which gives a thousand-fold return, the result is a 10:1 return on our investment!

Now instead suppose the opposite. Assume that our current knowledge is very small. Suppose that scientists of 100 years hence will see us as ignorant children who have barely scratched the surface of possible knowledge. Suppose that we've only really uncovered 1% of the Really Important Things, and that all around us are lying these unseen vast dark areas, all awaiting our illumination.

Which of the above scenarios is right? There is no answer, because the answer depends on the size of the Unknown. And the size of the unknown is... unknown! Of course we can always make an informed guess at its size, but perhaps the information we base our guess upon is wrong. When we put together a puzzle which has invisible borders, one missing puzzle-piece can hide huge vistas of uncompleted work.

Do you think that scientists of 1890 would guess right about 1990? Would they predict all of the approaching changes that blossomed from the tiny inconsistencies in 1890 science? Or instead, would they tend to see 1890 science as 99% complete, and see it as rapidly running out of new realms to explore, while the realities of 1990 would be obvious, delusional, H.G. Wells Scienti-fiction? Obviously the latter, no? But isn't this a lesson for us? Aren't modern scientists doing the same thing as Lord Kelvin, who ridiculed X-rays and Flying machines?

Given the above alternatives, I choose the latter: I choose to believe that we have barely scratched the surface. Why? I can't know that this is the real situation. So why do I choose to believe that our knowledge is small, and that the unknown is still vast?

It's partly because I distrust the idea that science is complete. This idea of near-completion comes from scientists, and it reeks of self-congratulatory conceit: "If *I* cannot discover anything new, why then, there must be nothing new left to discover!"

But also, look at the consequences of my decision. If I choose to believe that opportunies exist to make really major discoveries, yet I turn out to be wrong, then I may waste life looking for something that doesn't exist. Then look at the opposite stance: if I become convinced that science is complete, when it really is 99% incomplete, then I lose my chance to participate in all the coming exploration. As a result I would abandon a wondrous journey after taking only a few steps. And also, if I choose to believe that the unknown is tiny and unimportant, then my beliefs will guarantee my blindness to the many clues which lead to all thosegenuine vast unknown regions awaiting the first explorer.

Therefore I court both humility and clear vision by choosing to believe that the unknown is vast, and that all our work has barely scratched the surface of what is really there. Why would anyone do otherwise?

;)

Q: WE MUST PROTECT CHILDREN FROM "FRINGE SCIENCE," NOT GIVE THEM EASY ACCESS!

A: I myself grew up on disgusting heresies; UFOs, Pyramid Power, paranormal, etc.. It didn't affect me any. (Eyebrow twitches frighteningly.)

Fringe science exposes us to many sorts of conflicting and contradictory beliefs. Besides the "mud pies" analogy, fringe science is analgous to having them study a variety of different religions. This, as opposed to raising them in one narrow faith which must never be questioned. For a future scientist, the end result of fringe science experience can be a critical eye regarding belief systems, a "tolerance for crazy hypotheses," and a healthy disrespect for orthodoxy-worship of all kinds.

Speaking of that, I suspect that early exposure to fringe science may derail a growing problem. I've met many people who regard science in an odd way. They're angered by any questioning of the content of science textbooks. They believe that science has already unveiled all the major discoveries, and that only a diminishing residue remains. They hate new untested ideas, especially the eccentric ideas which imply that a large Unknown exists, or that mankind might not know as much as we think we know. And while this type of person might make an excellent lab tech, they lack the creativity and humble self-criticism required of professional scientists. If science involves out-of-box thinking and the questioning of what we already know, then these are the very opposite of scientists. They regard any such questioning with deep disgust ...as if they were religious fundamentalists asked to question the Bible. And that's exactly the situation: they treat science as their personal religion, regard is as unquestionably true, and if given the chance they'd silence the heretics (or at least burn their books.) And so... early involvement with fringe science may derail this religious tendency in people. I'm convinced that it saved me from just this fate. Playing in the dirt give us a chance of changing from rigid textbook-worshippers into genuine scientists having an ability to criticize any of our own preconceptions.

UNDER CONSTRUCTION. Hypocricy. worshipful belief in textbook science, hatred of 'science heresy' attitude of a book-burner: silence their opponents rather than to debate them. religious fanatic who loathes pornography, then disingenuously starts a campaign to "protect the children," while actually they could care less about the children. Here's a way to expose such intentions: if they genuinely wanted to protect children from Bad Science, they'd be spending their lives crusading to improve the really terrible K-12 textbooks which ruin science as a subject for most people. So, are they? Or are they just trying to "silence the heretics" which they hate, while protecting the children is hypocricy concealing their hatred of all things Fringe?