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muriel_volestrangler

(101,316 posts)
9. No, it's nothing like that
Thu Jan 26, 2012, 07:44 PM
Jan 2012

It's a word salad that claims to unify pretty much everything in physics, chemistry, biology and astronomy. It's like a string theory except he doesn't bother trying to use mathematics in any form to back up anything. Look at the PDF available at the doi.org link. To me, it seems most likely to be a 'Sokal'-like hoax.

For instance:

The central idea of this theory is that all physical
reality, stretching from the so-called inanimate into the animate realm and from micro- to meso- to
macrocosmic scales, can be interpreted and modeled as manifestations of a single geometric entity, the
gyre. This entity is attractive because it has life-like characteristics, undergoes morphogenesis, and is
responsive to environmental conditions. The gyromodel depicts the spatiotemporal behavior and
properties of elementary particles, celestial bodies, atoms, chemicals, molecules, and systems as
quantized packets of information, energy, and/or matter that oscillate between excited and ground
states around a singularity. The singularity, in turn, modulates these states by alternating attractive and
repulsive forces. The singularity itself is modeled as a gyre, thus evincing a thermodynamic, fractal,
and nested organization of the gyromodel. In fitting the scientific evidence from quantum gravity to
cell division, this theory arrives at an understanding of life that questions traditional beliefs
and definitions.
file under 'W' for 'woo' phantom power Jan 2012 #1
I hear you… OKIsItJustMe Jan 2012 #2
Actually, 'woo' isn't quite right... phantom power Jan 2012 #4
Right. That was my reaction too OKIsItJustMe Jan 2012 #6
Hey, it worked for Sokal. (nt) Posteritatis Jan 2012 #11
This has been around for years Warpy Jan 2012 #3
No, it's nothing like that muriel_volestrangler Jan 2012 #9
Do you mean that any research in this area is 'woo'? Ghost Dog Jan 2012 #7
Have you looked at the report? Jim__ Jan 2012 #10
Yeah, anyone bringing up thermodynamics when questioning evolution has forgotten the sun exists. nt Posteritatis Jan 2012 #13
Let's take a bunch of known phenomena and label them with new terms we've made up ... eppur_se_muova Jan 2012 #5
That's how it works tama Jan 2012 #23
No, that is not how it works. Science is not a mere labeling convention. xocet Jan 2012 #25
Perhaps not a mere tama Jan 2012 #27
'Gyre' is reminiscent of Cartesian 'vortices' n/t 4dog Jan 2012 #8
The headline and excerpt alone put the crackpot index into the triple digits... Posteritatis Jan 2012 #12
Complete and utter woo. Odin2005 Jan 2012 #14
Twas bryllyg: "The vicissitudinous gyre, though non-mathematical, epitomizes nature." xocet Jan 2012 #15
No mathematical representation given tama Jan 2012 #24
The paper contains no empirical evidence of anything and offers nothing with any predictive power. xocet Jan 2012 #26
Same is being said about string theories. tama Jan 2012 #28
"This paper is most certainly the result of an incredibly intense acid trip." Jim__ Jan 2012 #16
At the end of metafilter, someone has noticed the press release (OP link) has been pulled muriel_volestrangler Jan 2012 #18
Temporal lobe epilepsy brainboy Jan 2012 #17
Even the Discovery Institute is taking the piss out of this muriel_volestrangler Jan 2012 #19
Junk science GeorgeGist Jan 2012 #20
I wonder if it is a hoax? OKIsItJustMe Jan 2012 #21
It does not look like that is the case... xocet Jan 2012 #22
Locking. It's been fun, but time to close the file on this one. eppur_se_muova Jan 2012 #29
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