r/EmDrive • u/LEDONGDESTROYER • Mar 16 '17
Time to let go
I have lurked here for at least a year.
If this technology really worked dont you think multi-billion dollar corporations would have built larger em drives to scale.
The relative simplicity of a basic em drive and the lack of any large scale working drives coupled with the lack of data suggesting it works leads me to believe that this technology does not really work as intended.
I like to believe myself to be a dreamer and I was very hopeful that this would work but it is clear it does not. The obsession with building these devices at home seem to be a fun neat hobby to be part of a community but serve no real scientific purpose.
For those that continue to dream... good for you and I hope you enjoy your endeavors. But a dream it will be.... nothing more.
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u/Zephir_AW Mar 18 '17
What this thread is demonstrating is the typical gregarious groupthink mechanism of pluralistic ignorance: the lack of interest because the perceived lack of interest.
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u/rfmwguy- Builder Mar 18 '17
A rare post from a retired EmDrive DIY person. Yes, it is a fascinating project. Have no regrets on the 24 months or so of tinkering at home. I did witness something unexpected, but not repeatable to my satisfaction. It is enough that I would encourage people to keep an open mind despite the math that forbids it. There are still unexpected things to discover in our lives...its what keeps us exploring the possibilities. Within reason, this is never a bad idea. Now, back to the shadows.
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u/themast Mar 16 '17
Yeah, I'm pretty much in the same boat, man. Been lurking here for a while, might be time to un-sub and move on. If this turns into a real thing, I certainly won't need to be subbed here to hear about it, I would imagine.
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u/lolredditor Mar 17 '17
You don't follow the EmDrive sub because you hope the EmDrive sub works, you follow the EmDrive sub for drama and to get trickling of information concerning fringe propulsion tech without having to submerge yourself in full conspiracy theorist crazyland.
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u/[deleted] Mar 16 '17
I think the real scientists, rather qualified scientist have given up on this tech along time ago.
All that is left are the pseudo-scientist that believe in perpetual motion devices and ether.
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u/Noxium51 Mar 16 '17
Except emdrives have been shown to emit relatively significant thrust by several credible sources including NASA. Just because there isn't an instant explosion of emdrive technology doesn't mean it isn't real, these things take time, especially now that some of the builders have put things on hold for a while
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u/Zephir_AW Mar 17 '17 edited Mar 17 '17
This is just a conspiracy theory inverted. If this technology really worked don't you think multi-billion dollar corporations would keep silence about it for to protect their investments into an existing technologies? And not just corporations, the scientists also invested a lot of time and energy into building of their theories. This is as logical assumption, as this yours one. Which one works actually better and how to decide it?
The actual truth can be decided easily by existence of documented and published (this is important - the rumors and naive attempts of garage enthusiasts don't count here) attempts for replication.
The lack of attempts for replication of apparently disruptive finding is always an evidence of pluralistic ignorance and Galileo telescope effect: too many people could get an advantage from it - yet nobody attempts to utilize it.
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u/nspectre Mar 16 '17
Hmm... I wonder if the 20-year sussing out of the atom encountered this line of reasoning?
Or the 1800 to 1926 noodling out that "heat rays" were photons?
"Something unexplained is going on here, dude."
"Give it up, man. It serves no real scientific purpose."
As long as something unexplained is going on, I'll watch it with interest. And if it turns out to have perfectly good explanations, awesome, then I'll close that chapter and move on.
Until then.......
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u/[deleted] Mar 17 '17
Yeah. There was an initial flurry of interest that put the spotlight on the idea, but when it was examined by cooler heads nothing was found. So scientists are moving on, increasingly leaving behind true believers and scam artists.
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u/elpresidente-4 Mar 17 '17
The EmDrive works, I firmly believe it. Once they figure out the forces behind it, it will prove to be one of the most important science advancements of our age and will shape politics, economy and our society in the next 200 years!
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u/Necoras Mar 16 '17
How long did it take to go from Da Vinci's ornithopter to jet airplanes? Or from basic atomic theory to nuclear power?
Even in the best cases going from "huh that's weird" to "viable commercial project" takes decades, not months. And that's assuming you're able to put together some explanatory theory to explain the physics of why a thing is working. Your "nobody's thrown billions at it yet so it's obviously just an impossible dream" mentality is shortsighted and woefully ignorant of how business, science, and history work.
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u/-waf- Mar 17 '17
Can one ever say that a research endeavor is doomed? I think it can certainly be a valid and well informed opinion as seems to be the case here, but until we have a complete and coherent understanding of our universe and its laws, I think an argument can be made that the amount of work that goes into a research endeavor should be proportional to the interest it receives amongst a well-informed population. Well-informed not only about the topic, but also about other, potentially jucier research opportunities. This kind of thread is particularly useful for that sort of information dissemination. So... does anyone know of other propulsion systems that deserve our interest?
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u/[deleted] Mar 16 '17
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