Misplaced Pages

This is an old revision of this page, as edited by Byrgenwulf (talk | contribs) at 19:07, 17 July 2006 (Merging articles). The present address (URL) is a permanent link to this revision, which may differ significantly from the current revision.

Article title

Should this article be at Christopher Michael Langan? That's the name on his PCID and Uncommon Dissent papers, and on his e-book The Art of Knowing. Media usage varies from "Christopher Michael Langan" to "Christopher Langan" to "Chris Langan", but the first is how he signs his essays. Tim Smith 20:59, 23 November 2005 (UTC)

No one's disagreeing, so I've moved the article to Christopher Michael Langan, leaving Christopher Langan as a redirect. Tim Smith 20:38, 30 November 2005 (UTC)

I would like to see references for these assertions, moreover what is the relevance of these to this already dubious topic. I removed the "pseudoscience" and "crank" - why did you remove these I thought they helped put everything into context - links from the "See Also" section as they provided no relevant information and amounted to mere name-calling. I added "metaphysics" as that is the discipline to which Langan has said that his theory belongs. It appears to me that the "pseudoscience" and "crank" labels are due more to Langan's politically unwise linking of the explicitly evolutionary CTMU with Intelligent Design (and thus in mainstream opinion, Creationism) than to the merits of the main line of argument of the CTMU.

That said, some of the characterizations of Langan's CTMU in this article seem to be more hopeful assertions than demonstrated facts. This article's characterization of the CTMU as mathematical is only partially borne out by Langan's published writings. The mathematics in the CTMU is only occasionally symbolic, rather it is generally presented in verbal form. Also, the applicability of the CTMU to any specific area of natural science has not been demonstrated or refuted, so far as I have seen. Enon 15:35, 10 July 2006 (UTC)

The reason that I added the "Pseudoscience" and "crank" links is precisely because Langan's ideas are not science, and yet are passed off as such (if one reads the entries for these terms one will see why they fit): while his ideas have certainly not been demonstrated, they are actually fairly easily refuted by anyone with an understanding of what he is on about; the problem is that simply we don't bother, because we have more important work to do than write papers ripping apart pseudoscientific theories. While Langan may claim that his ideas are "metaphysical", they do not conform to the generally accepted norms and standards of rigour for academic metaphysics either, belonging more properly to the sort of "metaphysics" one might pick up in the esoteric section of a bookshop.

Perhaps "crank" is a little over the top, but I really feel that a link should be provided to pseudoscience, perhaps with a proviso included somewhere about how this is how some critics construe his work? If the purpose of an encyclopaedia is to educate, then surely one must allow the reader the opportunity to evaluate the merits of an individual's claims in the light of current scientific opinion, without being misled?--Byrgenwulf 11:19, 11 July 2006 (UTC)

This article is a biographical sketch. Aside from the obvious fact that the CTMU does not rely on empirical justification and therefore cannot be classified as "pseudoscience", nebulous criticisms of it have no place here.

Byrgenwulf, who hints around that he is an academic expert in the philosophy of physics, should know that in order to credibly criticize Langan's work, he would need to write a well-reasoned paper on the topic, attach his real name to it, and include it in his vitae so that it can be properly associated with him and the academic institution with which he is affiliated and thus exposed to rebuttal. After all, a CTMU paper was published some time ago, and this is how "peer review" is supposed to work. If Byrgenwulf finds the CTMU too "unimportant" to merit this sort of treatment - or if he does not want people to see how coherent his criticisms really are - then he should not be wasting his valuable time carping about the CTMU on Misplaced Pages, let alone in somebody's bio. DrL 18:41, 12 July 2006 (UTC)

I removed the disputed tags for well-documented items, like the fact that Langan worked as a bar bouncer or has a high IQ. These facts are discussed repeatedly in the reference articles. The fact that Langan owns and operates a horse ranch is common knowledge in the high IQ community. There are photos of his ranch at the megafoundation website as he uses it for get togethers. I would hesitate to link to his ranch website, lest that be seen as an advert. DrL 11:53, 15 July 2006 (UTC)

I agree with you, for a change, DrL...but would like to add (as I've seen this comment before) that for encyclopaedic purposes, consensus among the "high IQ community" counts for less than nothing.--Byrgenwulf 11:56, 15 July 2006 (UTC)

Pop Sci

I have added dubious proviso links next to the suspect PopSci articles as per this mention of how they might be forgeries. Byrgenwulf 18:41, 15 July 2006 (UTC)

As previously noted, this is a legitimate source. There were two articles in the same issue. One was an article, the other an interview. The issue (October, 2001) should be available at a local library if you wish to check. DrL 19:22, 15 July 2006 (UTC)

Totally Disputed Tag

This tag was put up by Jefffire and I don't see why. The content seems to be neutral and well-documented. Before I remove it, I would like the other recent editors of this article to please explain what might be lacking in terms of accuracy or NPOV. Please view the early development of this article. I would surmise it was not created by the subject. The references seem to verify the important content. DrL 14:37, 16 July 2006 (UTC)

Merging

I see Mega Foundation has just been merged here. There is an article on Langan's other IQ club, Ultranet. It has even less merit than the Mega Foundation, and seems even more of an advert. Can it also be merged here? I would summarily do it myself, but I must confess I don't know how...although it would probably be a good skill to learn. Byrgenwulf 19:07, 17 July 2006 (UTC)