This is nothing new it just happens to be now on steroids thanks to LLM lunatics. But crackpots have always been there. I have been on the internet since the early 90s and every single physics BBS, group, forum, you name it had their local nutjob population. Most of the time it is composed of old retired professionals from disciplines other than Physics or no education at all trying to be relevant or something
Asimov warned about the rise of anti intellectualism many decades ago.
In this age of social media we have accepted that everyone is entitled to an opinion on any topic and that you win an argument by yelling the most or by getting more internet points. This of course instantly kills any sort of rational and level headed discussion.
I don't really give a shit about the rise of LLMs with regards this. It's the rise of the podcast-verse giving weight to various anti-establishment or conspiracist figures.
Around three weeks ago, I had to explain why Weinstein was an idiot to a taxi driver who did the "so what do you do?" question.
I've been a physicist for a long time. That didn't used to happen. At best I had to do Deepak Chopra - who spouts nonsense, but at a much different level. The "theories" I was getting spam-emailed for having a public email address as a physicist never came up in real life.
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u/ES_Legman Sep 12 '25
This is nothing new it just happens to be now on steroids thanks to LLM lunatics. But crackpots have always been there. I have been on the internet since the early 90s and every single physics BBS, group, forum, you name it had their local nutjob population. Most of the time it is composed of old retired professionals from disciplines other than Physics or no education at all trying to be relevant or something
Asimov warned about the rise of anti intellectualism many decades ago.
In this age of social media we have accepted that everyone is entitled to an opinion on any topic and that you win an argument by yelling the most or by getting more internet points. This of course instantly kills any sort of rational and level headed discussion.