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Chris Langan

Started by JCM800, January 09, 2018, 01:52:42 AM

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JCM800

I just learned about this man. I've never heard of him before. For those who don't know who I'm talking about I've linked a video as well as his wikipedia page. Sounds like a load of nonsense to me, but who am I? What do you make of him, his claims, and his ideas?

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=--Nbz6flw5A

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christopher_Langan


Sal1981

Interesting guy. That's pretty much it.

Baruch

Austistic men have high IQ.  Crazy women has high EQ.  Balance the force, Luke!
Ha’át’íísh baa naniná?
Azee’ Å,a’ish nanídį́į́h?
Táadoo ánít’iní.
What are you doing?
Are you taking any medications?
Don't do that.

Unbeliever

#3
If anyone of you can understand this, you're better than I am:

Explaining the CTMU (Cognitive Theoretic Model Of The Universe).


This is a good response:


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8PX3CPHiL2A

Apparently he took an IQ test from a magazine (OMNI), and found himself to have a super-high IQ. Any such test, unsupervised, is worthless as an indicator of intelligence, so pardon me if I'm a bit skeptical.
God Not Found
"There is a sucker born-again every minute." - C. Spellman

JCM800

Quote from: Unbeliever on January 09, 2018, 02:00:50 PM
If anyone of you can understand this, you're better than I am:

Explaining the CTMU (Cognitive Theoretic Model Of The Universe).


This is a good response:


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8PX3CPHiL2A

Apparently he took an IQ test from a magazine (OMNI), and found himself to have a super-high IQ. Any such test, unsupervised, is worthless as an indicator of intelligence, so pardon me if I'm a bit skeptical.
He looks like a big fat dummy to me.

Unbeliever

Maybe, but looks can be deceiving.
God Not Found
"There is a sucker born-again every minute." - C. Spellman

Baruch

Quote from: Unbeliever on January 09, 2018, 03:57:42 PM
Maybe, but looks can be deceiving.

Not lookies, wookies, just ask Darth Vader ;-)
Ha’át’íísh baa naniná?
Azee’ Å,a’ish nanídį́į́h?
Táadoo ánít’iní.
What are you doing?
Are you taking any medications?
Don't do that.

GSOgymrat

I participated in a forum years ago with someone who behaved like a disciple of Chris Langan. When questioned about these theories the disciple would respond with increasingly complicated, grandiloquent responses. He sometimes tried to use mathematics to make his case but according to a mathematician who participated in the discussion, he didn't know what he was talking about. His ultimate argument was that anyone who questioned the concepts was simply too stupid to understand them. I confess I never completely understood the "Cognitive-Theoretic Model of the Universe" so if anyone has a "For Dummies" explanation please let me know.

Baruch

Quote from: GSOgymrat on January 09, 2018, 07:13:29 PM
I participated in a forum years ago with someone who behaved like a disciple of Chris Langan. When questioned about these theories the disciple would respond with increasingly complicated, grandiloquent responses. He sometimes tried to use mathematics to make his case but according to a mathematician who participated in the discussion, he didn't know what he was talking about. His ultimate argument was that anyone who questioned the concepts was simply too stupid to understand them. I confess I never completely understood the "Cognitive-Theoretic Model of the Universe" so if anyone has a "For Dummies" explanation please let me know.

I would give you a "For Dummies" book, but since you aren't a dummy, you won't understand it ;-)
Ha’át’íísh baa naniná?
Azee’ Å,a’ish nanídį́į́h?
Táadoo ánít’iní.
What are you doing?
Are you taking any medications?
Don't do that.

Blackleaf

Quote from: JCM800 on January 09, 2018, 01:52:42 AM
I just learned about this man. I've never heard of him before. For those who don't know who I'm talking about I've linked a video as well as his wikipedia page. Sounds like a load of nonsense to me, but who am I? What do you make of him, his claims, and his ideas?

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=--Nbz6flw5A

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christopher_Langan

An IQ of 200? He was smarter than the professors in college? Give me a break. According to who? Himself?

"It's a theory--"

No. No it isn't. Is there a large body of peer-reviewed research to support this "theory?" I doubt it. This guy is just another nutjob. He even uses the classic argument of the conservation of matter to support his position. Smartest man in the world? I seriously doubt it.
"Oh, wearisome condition of humanity,
Born under one law, to another bound;
Vainly begot, and yet forbidden vanity,
Created sick, commanded to be sound."
--Fulke Greville--

Baruch

IQ is overrated ... and usually biased.

Here is the Cornell Entrance Exam for 1891 ... almost no modern people could pass it ...

http://cornellalumnimagazine.com/could-you-have-passed/
Ha’át’íísh baa naniná?
Azee’ Å,a’ish nanídį́į́h?
Táadoo ánít’iní.
What are you doing?
Are you taking any medications?
Don't do that.

Hakurei Reimu

For all his supposed intelligence, Chris Langan has fallen into the same cognitive trap that plagues the Kalam cosmological argument, or indeed any argument of the form "not-universe becomes universe" â€" the background assumption of a kind of time. Modern cosmology postulates that time, space and matter started existing together, so there was no point in time without a universe existing â€" time as we know it (the only time we can prove exists) is part and parcel with the universe and does not exist independent of it. Without time, causation doesn't make sense, and the entire question of "what caused the universe?" collapses into meaninglessness.
Warning: Don't Tease The Miko!
(she bites!)
Spinny Miko Avatar shamelessly ripped off from Iosys' Neko Miko Reimu

Cavebear

Whoppee, he's smart.  200?  Doubtful, it means little after adulthood.
Atheist born, atheist bred.  And when I die, atheist dead!

Unbeliever

Quote from: Blackleaf on January 10, 2018, 12:17:25 AM
"It's a theory--"

No. No it isn't. Is there a large body of peer-reviewed research to support this "theory?" I doubt it. This guy is just another nutjob. He even uses the classic argument of the conservation of matter to support his position. Smartest man in the world? I seriously doubt it.
I don't think it even qualifies as a hypothesis, much less a theory. Without any testable predictions, or even a mathematical framework, it's at best a speculation or a conjecture.
God Not Found
"There is a sucker born-again every minute." - C. Spellman

Blackleaf

Quote from: Unbeliever on January 10, 2018, 02:02:30 PM
I don't think it even qualifies as a hypothesis, much less a theory. Without any testable predictions, or even a mathematical framework, it's at best a speculation or a conjecture.

I hate it when people misuse the word "theory," especially when people are trying to act smart.
"Oh, wearisome condition of humanity,
Born under one law, to another bound;
Vainly begot, and yet forbidden vanity,
Created sick, commanded to be sound."
--Fulke Greville--