Crank (person)
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"Crank" (or kook, crackpot, or quack) is a pejorative term for a person who writes or speaks in an authoritative fashion about a particular subject, often in science, but is alleged to have false or even ludicrous beliefs. Usage of the label is often subjective, with proponents of competing theories labeling their opponents cranks, but typically is used to describe someone who is well out of mainstream opinion on a matter. In most cases the people labeled as crackpots turn out to be wrong.
A number of topics have attracted the interest of large numbers of cranks, including:
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Physics, computer science and mathematics
- squaring the circle and trisecting the angle
- producing unified Theories of Everything
- disproving quantum mechanics
- disproving Einstein's theory of relativity
- lossless data compression that can always reduce the size of random data
- unbreakable cryptographic ciphers (other than the one-time pad)
- Perpetual motion, probably the earliest example of kookery
- finding a simple proof for Fermat's last theorem, the Goldbach conjecture, etc
- cold fusion
- Disproving Cantor's diagonal argument
- Time Cube
- VMSK and other "ultra narrowband" modulation schemes whose claims violate the Shannon-Hartley theorem
Medicine
- hypnosis, especially its use for seduction or mind control
- cures for cancer
- homeopathy
Nutrition
- Low-carbohydrate diets
- Anti Milk cranks
- Macrobiotics
- Water fluoridation
- Raw food diets
Politics and economics
- various conspiracy theories
- currency crankism
- Federal Reserve conspiracies
- social credit
- tax protesters
- Holocaust denial
- supporters of Lyndon LaRouche
Paranormal and spiritual
- immortality rings
- the New Age movement
- Faith healing
- Divine Revelation, prophecy
- religious fundamentalism
- Some types of creationism
- yogic flying
"Kook" is a somewhat similar term that is usually used pejoratively to describe a person whose areas of interest are perceived to be eccentric, fantastic, or insane. A person may be said to be a "kook" if they are seen to hold socially unacceptable beliefs, or perceptions that outrageously conflict with known scientific results, and appear to base their entire world views upon them. The term was coined in 1960 and originates from the word cuckoo, which is also the name of a bird.
The main distinguishing factor between kooks and quacks, frauds or hoaxers is that kooks genuinely believe that their perception, hypothesis or experiences constitute a valid model of reality. Predictably, "kooks" tend to draw criticism and generate controversy; it has been speculated that some kooks are motivated by a desire for such attention. However the same material can be both hoax and kookery in different hands, for example if a crank theory, sincerely believed by its originator and some of its supporters, is used as the basis of a hoax promoted by others who do not sincerely believe it.
Science fiction author and critic Bruce Sterling noted in his essay in CATSCAN 13 [1] (http://www.eff.org/Misc/Publications/Bruce_Sterling/Catscan_columns/catscan.13):
- There's supposed to be a lot of difference between the hurtful online statement "You're a moron," and the tastefully facetious statement "You're a moron :-)". I question whether this is really the case, emoticon or no. And even the emoticon doesn't help much in one's halting interaction with the occasional online stranger who is, in fact, gravely sociopathic. Online communication can wonderfully liberate the tender soul of some well-meaning personage who, for whatever reason, is physically uncharismatic. Unfortunately, online communication also fertilizes the eccentricities of hopeless cranks, who at last find themselves in firm possession of a wondrous soapbox that the Trilateral Commission and the Men In Black had previously denied them.
In other words, the Internet is a magnet for kooks and cranks. If you use the Internet much at all, particularly Usenet, you will see kooks.
Kook trademarks are paranoia and grandiosity. Kooks will often build up elaborate imaginary support structures, fake corporations and the like, and continue to act as if those things are real even after their falsity has been exposed and documented in public. Kooks also tend to be utterly humorless and fail to grasp that their behavior is causing people to laugh at them; they do not seem to be very capable of introspection, and do not seem to understand how their behavior looks to others.
While they may appear harmless, and are usually filtered out by the other regular participants in a newsgroup or mailing list, they can still cause problems because the necessity for these measures is not immediately apparent to newcomers; there are several instances on record, for example, of journalists accepting kook claims as valid.
Some people find kooks entertaining and take amusement from heckling them, or from prodding and provoking them to ever more kooky online behavior. Some people consider this to be cruel.
At least some kooks are mentally ill or suffer from one or more personality disorders, so this should be done with caution. See: schizophrenia, Narcissistic personality disorder
See also
- Pseudomathematics
- Pseudoscience
- Delusion
- Quackery
- Conspiracy theory
- Moonbat
- Time Cube
- Psychoceramics
- Maven
- Curmudgeon
- List of alternative, speculative and disputed theories
- Snake oil
- alt.usenet.kooks
External links
- Kooks Museum (http://home.pacifier.com/~dkossy/kooksmus.html), a humorous collection of kook ideas, by Donna Kossy
- Crank Dot Net (http://www.crank.net/), a collection of Web sites related to cranks, created by Erik Max Francis
- the Almighty LART.com (http://www.LART.com/), more kook appreciation
- John Baez' crackpot index (http://math.ucr.edu/home/baez/crackpot.html), in the author's words: A simple method for rating potentially revolutionary contributions to physics.
- The Unofficial NANAE Kooks Kollection (http://angel.1jh.com./nanae/kooks/), a collection of articles on the Usenet kooks particular to the NANAE newsgroup.