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Should I get banned?

Shawn February 08, 2017 at 18:14 7100 views 55 comments
So, I've been posting on some other forums, such as physicsforum and I got banned for a thread I started here. I don't know if the same policy should be applied here; but, undoubtedly I would already be banned here if it were.

Thoughts?

Comments (55)

Nils Loc February 08, 2017 at 18:40 #53869
No.

Make time to get out of your head.
S February 08, 2017 at 18:51 #53872
Quoting Question
Thoughts?


I couldn't bear those content blocking ads, so I didn't look over the entire discussion, and I was unable to fully assess the situation. I briefly read through your posts on the first page and they didn't seem to require any moderator action, if I were to apply the standards that I apply here.

What was the reason given for your ban?
Agustino February 08, 2017 at 18:56 #53874
Reply to Question I don't think the question is whether you should be banned. I can tell you why you were banned though. Scientists - physicists - especially amateurish ones have to defend the status quo to prove their superior knowledge - so there's an interest in getting rid of a Questioner like you
Wosret February 08, 2017 at 19:11 #53878
It ain't easy though...

If the earth were an apple, we wouldn't have ever broken its skin. The Russians (I believe it was) once did try to drill to the mantle, but then gave up half-way through. They say that we know more about the sun's core than the earth's, and in star trek, they had yet to explore the abyss in the year 2400 or whatever.

Reminds me of that episode of futurama, where the spaceship is dragged underwater, and they're like "we've just passed five atmospheres of pressure", and Fry is like "how many can it take?", so the professor responds "well, it's a spaceship, so anywhere between 0 and 1."
Hanover February 08, 2017 at 19:15 #53879
It's impossible to know why they banned you without seeing their correspondence to you. It's also a stretch to assume that their standards would coincide with this forum's standards and that should evoke concern from you about being banned here. At any rate, your idea of digging deep holes to solve the energy crisis is probably as far fetched as those posters were trying to explain.
Michael February 08, 2017 at 19:48 #53891
I assume there were offending posts that have since been deleted? In one of your posts you say "I appreciate the moderators allowing me to post here despite my recent emotional posts on the matter.", but that doesn't really fit with what we can see.

So I don't know if this is some disingenuous attempt at bad-mouthing another forum...
Shawn February 08, 2017 at 22:54 #53944
Quoting Hanover
At any rate, your idea of digging deep holes to solve the energy crisis is probably as far fetched as those posters were trying to explain.


Not quite. I can refer you to this post that settled the matter.

[URL="https://www.physicsforums.com/threads/whatever-happened-to-geothermal-energy-production.900141/page-2#post-5675839"]Whatever happened to geothermal energy production?[/URL]
Shawn February 08, 2017 at 22:57 #53945
Reply to Michael

I had a temporary ban for saying something to the matter of "If one cannot see the long term benefits of geothermal energy production then one is either ignorant or can't see the woods from the trees." Which they took as a "personal insult".

This was in response to the economics of the matter along with the positive externalities of geothermal energy production, which in this case were presented in the link above. The LCOE of geothermal mining is actually higher due to the possibility of using the heat underground for heating cities along with sewage treatment.
BC February 09, 2017 at 00:02 #53964
I didn't see any reason for banning you, or for even closing the thread. Perhaps the physicists who run the site detected strange particles being emitted from your thread and this freaked out an anal-retentive post doc.

As to geothermal:

Just leave the Yellowstone Caldera alone. You might want to move close to Yellowstone so that your demise will be quick when it blows. KABOOM sic transit gloria Question.

In several geothermal projects water has been injected into hot rock to produce steam. But... putting relatively cold water into hot holes had the entirely predictable effect of cooling the rock off. Project went pffft.

Both in California, Oklahoma, and Switzerland, injecting liquids into rock produced earthquakes. Earthquakes make yahoos twitchy. The yodeling yahoos got their rifles out of the closet and went looking for the usual suspects.

Rather than look for exotic sources of energy, we should be more like you and live simply. Living simply would reduce our energy needs significantly.
Metaphysician Undercover February 09, 2017 at 01:09 #53974
Quoting Bitter Crank
Both in California, Oklahoma, and Switzerland, injecting liquids into rock produced earthquakes. Earthquakes make yahoos twitchy. The yodeling yahoos got their rifles out of the closet and went looking for the usual suspects.


Is that what caused those earthquakes in Turkey that Gokcek was talking about?
Wayfarer February 09, 2017 at 01:20 #53977
Reply to Question The thread doesn't say that you were banned. It finishes with

The initial question appears to have been asked and answered, so I am closing this thread.


Are you saying, they closed the thread, AND banned you? What grounds did they provide for that?

Physics Forum has much tougher mods than philosophy forums, generally. (Their mods wear white coats, and carry clipboards.)
Shawn February 09, 2017 at 01:26 #53978
Wayfarer February 09, 2017 at 01:26 #53979
Reply to Question What grounds did they give for banning you? Any?

//ps// your member profile on Physics Forum doesn't give an indication that you're banned.
Shawn February 09, 2017 at 01:33 #53980
Reply to Wayfarer

None whatsoever.
Shawn February 09, 2017 at 01:37 #53982
Quoting Wayfarer
//ps// your member profile on Physics Forum doesn't give an indication that you're banned.


Well, I have my name crossed out and I don't think I can post anything to any topic. Sad times.
Wayfarer February 09, 2017 at 01:38 #53984
Reply to Question Strange. But as you can see, I can message you on that forum, and you received the message, so I think you ought to ping one of the mods and see what's going on. I don't think you've been banned - if you have, it's a very indirect way of communicating it.
Shawn February 09, 2017 at 01:40 #53985
Reply to Wayfarer

I think the sentiment presented in my eyes is to "conform". They really want me to read the forum guidelines.
Wayfarer February 09, 2017 at 01:41 #53986
Reply to Question They are very prickly over there, I have participated in a few conversations, but they're very strict on enforcing guidelines. But in your case, that thread was completely non-controversial, as far as I could see, but then, also not directly related to physics as such.
Shawn February 09, 2017 at 01:43 #53988
Quoting Nils Loc
Make time to get out of your head.

As a Tractarian I am committed to solipsism. I am helpless, and wallow in my helplessness.

9. The self is not outside the world. (4&7)
10. The self does not belong within the world but is a limit of it, or coincides with
it in its entirety. (4,6 & 9)
‘I am my world.’ (5.63)
‘The subject does not belong to the world: rather, it is a limit of the world.’ (5.632)
BC February 09, 2017 at 03:43 #54008
Reply to Wayfarer Thermodynamics?
Wayfarer February 09, 2017 at 04:21 #54015
Reply to Bitter Crank well, kinda sorta, but it's really a question of geology and applied science rather than physics per se. And also 'energy policy' is nowadays a highly political topic solely due to the IDIOCY of conservative politicians.
Baden February 09, 2017 at 05:47 #54024
Reply to Question

Each forum has its own standards and they're welcome to 'em. I've seen nothing from you here that would warrant you being put on our ban radar.
Shawn February 09, 2017 at 06:02 #54025
Quoting Baden
Each forum has its own standards and they're welcome to 'em. I've seen nothing from you here that would warrant you being put on our ban radar.


Yay! So happy about feeling safe here at TPF. Happy dayz.
Baden February 09, 2017 at 06:07 #54026
BC February 09, 2017 at 13:58 #54070
Quoting Wayfarer
due to the IDIOCY of conservative politicians


I'm always happy to assign blame to the IDIOCY of both conservative politicians AND their running-dog-lackey-sort-of-liberal-lick-spittle cooperating allies.

My personal opinion is that geo-energy is a non-starter, especially since more abundant -- and sustainable -- energy is available at ground level. Except in places like Iceland.

Arkady February 09, 2017 at 15:16 #54087
Quoting Hanover
At any rate, your idea of digging deep holes to solve the energy crisis is probably as far fetched as those posters were trying to explain.

Evidently, Question never saw Man of Steel, else he'd know that tapping a planetary core can only lead to disaster.
Cabbage Farmer February 09, 2017 at 18:34 #54118
At a quick skim the thread seemed alright to me. But I didn't catch this:

Quoting Question
I had a temporary ban for saying something to the matter of "If one cannot see the long term benefits of geothermal energy production then one is either ignorant or can't see the woods from the trees." Which they took as a "personal insult".


I could see someone making a case that this counts as an ad hominem attack. The argument would turn on interpretation of the phrases "cannot see" and "is... ignorant".

At least taken out of context here, the statement could be read as stating or implying that anyone who disagrees with the speaker is an ignorant fool (and not merely ignorant of the relevant facts).

It might also be called question-begging, if assessment of "long term benefits" is part of what's at issue in the disagreement among interlocutors.

Putting these two charges together, the prosecutor might aim to characterize the statement as having the form: "Anyone who rejects premise p is a fool", and as implying something like "Anyone who doesn't agree with me about the long-term benefits is too dumb to make sense of the sources cited in this thread."


I'm sure that's not at all what you meant. It seems a close call at most, and a severe policy that would ban a speaker solely on the basis of that one sentence. But I might agree it falls in, or at least approaches, a fuzzy boundary in which appropriate speech and inappropriate ad hominem speech are hard to tell apart.
The Great Whatever February 09, 2017 at 19:13 #54122
Quoting Question
Which they took as a "personal insult".


>:O

No, I think the skins are thicker here.
Wayfarer February 09, 2017 at 20:56 #54141
Physicists are generally deficient in irony. X-)
andrewk February 09, 2017 at 21:10 #54143
One key difference between physics and philosophy is that much greater certainty is possible in physics because of its empirical nature. Unlike in metaphysics, theories can be falsified. If somebody continually posts arguing for a falsified theory, one can have a high level of certainty that it is a waste of everybody else's time, clutters up the boards to no good effect, and wastes forum resources. So if somebody persists in doing that sort of thing despite warnings they are banned.

The world is full of people with ideas for perpetual motion machines, cheap abundant energy, and purported falsifications of excruciatingly tested mathematical and physical theorems. Policy is to close such threads down and, if the poster persists, to ban them. If they didn't, the real valuable insights would just get lost in a sea of wannabe pretention. I like it that way. It's so much easier to learn, discuss and teach when the air isn't cluttered with nonsense.

I didn't read enough of your thread to see how far you went in your insistence that geothermal energy was an easy, viable source, but you were certainly treading on dangerous territory as soon as you started to reject the detailed, factual reasons you were given for why it would not work.

Have no fear though Question. That sort of a moderating approach would not work in a philosophy forum, where everything is up for grabs and proofs are restricted to a very small subset called logic. And I like it that way here too.

It's horses for courses.
FLUX23 February 09, 2017 at 23:06 #54161
I very much agree with andrewk. I've read the thread as well as your previous threads and posts. In my opinion, I don't think they have the right reason to ban you, but I agree that the thread should've been closed.

The philosophy forum has much higher tolerance for offensive posts compared to Physics Forums. Indeed,
Quoting Question
I had a temporary ban for saying something to the matter of "If one cannot see the long term benefits of geothermal energy production then one is either ignorant or can't see the woods from the trees." Which they took as a "personal insult".

is insulting to be posted on Physics Forums. In an academic conference, you might get yourself shunned, in the worst, banned. On philosophy forum, you would've definitely got away with it.

Personally, the content of the posts were not up to the standards of Physics Forums. Although you have provided some articles, you'll have to do extensive research to make sure that the article is not biased or does not leave out any important information. People of the Physics Forums knows much more than you think. Have you ever read an academic paper? Do you realize that they cite a lot of references (typically more than 30, and sometimes can reach up to 200!) to make their point valid?
The question of the OP was actually already answered within the first page of the thread (as realistically impossible), but you kept going on with it. This is the reason why the thread was closed.

Your other threads also seem to deal with philosophical aspect of science than science itself. Typically, Physics Forums do not appreciate questions regarding philosophical interpretations or hypothetical ideas based on non-scientific derivations. Unless you have really good reasons to start one, they are going to be closed one way or another.


They have gone too far in banning you, though.
Shawn February 10, 2017 at 01:08 #54183
Quoting andrewk
I didn't read enough of your thread to see how far you went in your insistence that geothermal energy was an easy, viable source, but you were certainly treading on dangerous territory as soon as you started to reject the detailed, factual reasons you were given for why it would not work.


Did you see my post on the LCOE of geothermal energy? I think I disproved the claims made by the professionals on geothermal being inefficient in that thread.

[URL="https://www.physicsforums.com/threads/whatever-happened-to-geothermal-energy-production.900141/page-2#post-5675839"]Comparative analysis of lifetime costs of Geothermal vs other sources of energy.[/URL]

*edit: LCOE includes capital costs also.
andrewk February 10, 2017 at 02:08 #54193
Reply to Question There's nothing to be gained by rehashing the argument here. None of us are experts on the issues involved, whereas there is a great deal of expertise over at PF. In the light of that, the only reasonable thing for me to do is accept their opinion - not that my acceptance has any impact on public policy or commercial investment decisions one way or the other.
FLUX23 February 10, 2017 at 02:20 #54195
Reply to Question But look at what the other people said after that.
Shawn February 10, 2017 at 02:34 #54199
Reply to FLUX23
Yes, I agree. The details of that study as to what sources were exactly utilized are unclear and ambiguous. However, the ambiguity should not be a reason to discredit and wave away the findings of that study, which are supported elsewhere. This seems to be the case as to what happened in that thread.

Furthermore, no answer was provided as to why given the much higher LCOE of wind and solar, and being so heavily funded and subsidized, which are by themselves inferior to geothermal due to being non dispatch-able sources of energy...

I guess, I posted an economic question to the wrong forum.
Thorongil February 10, 2017 at 03:47 #54209
Those boring schmucks don't deserve you anyway.
Shawn February 10, 2017 at 04:18 #54215
Shawn February 10, 2017 at 05:13 #54225
So, I corresponded with one of the moderators and they want me to 'change' to get unbaned as I was informed this was a permanent ban. To what, I have yet to be informed. I think I might go for it and see if I can change some more given that they are willing to let me have a second chance. Hope I'm not getting too old.
FLUX23 February 10, 2017 at 09:03 #54237
Reply to Question
If you really want them to listen to you, you'll have to write a post worth a full article to convince people. Even if you do, there is no guarantee that people will be convinced. Like I said in the above post (http://thephilosophyforum.com/discussion/comment/54161), these people on the Physics Forums know much much more than you think. Those who reply to those thread reply for a reason. They know what they are talking about.

Although most of the articles out there write about science with simple English understandable for general public, the actual science itself is very sophisticated and technical. These articles for general public (or wikipedia) leaves out a lot of important information for readability. Sometimes they don't even know the specific details of what they are talking about.

Science is much more sophisticated than you think. It's not something people casually interested in science can handle with few weeks or months of research. These people spend years working in these area after specialized education in college (that typically takes around 9 years to complete to get Ph.D.). Have you ever seen a scientific paper? They cite at least more than 20-30 other specialized papers. Review papers generally cite more than 150 - 200 papers. That is only small part of what they've actually read and know.

I'm not in the field of Earth science, so I cannot judge who was wrong in that thread. However, as a physical chemist, I've seen people who are not expert in chemistry and physics but casually interested make hilariously bad mistakes. When I read science magazine for general public about chemistry and physics, I saw several articles making terribly inaccurate presentation of the idea. I don't blame them. It's what happens when you don't know the specific details and is only provided with general idea and otherwise poorly informed. Politics also play a huge role in making decisions.

In summary, it's a great thing you are interested and it is okay if you want to talk about it. However, try refraining from doing that with specialized people. They get frustrated, you get frustrated, no one becomes happy.
Shawn February 10, 2017 at 09:08 #54239
Reply to FLUX23

I'm sorry; but, your whole post is an appeal to authority. If the economics say that 1 MW of power from geothermal is cheaper than 1 MW from either (solar, gas, coal, nuclear, wind, hydro, and the rest) then 1 MW of power from geothermal is cheaper than the rest of the alternatives provided.
Agustino February 10, 2017 at 09:23 #54245
Quoting FLUX23
Science is much more sophisticated than you think. It's not something people casually interested in science can handle with few weeks or months of research. These people spend years working in these area after specialized education in college (that typically takes around 9 years to complete to get Ph.D.). Have you ever seen a scientific paper? They cite at least more than 20-30 other specialized papers. Review papers generally cite more than 150 - 200 papers. That is only small part of what they've actually read and know.

I've read a lot of scientific papers, and also written a few, but they're not as "difficult" as you make it seem. Most people are just lazy. Also scientific papers are written in bundles - there's always a group of researchers pushing one view, and another group(s) pushing other views. Once you understand what view they're pushing you pretty much understand what the paper contains. Now scientific people are stubborn and want to feel superior for having spent 9 years or whatever educating themselves - something that they didn't even like to begin with, but they wanted the prestige associated with it. Now after all that time, there is no real prestige for most of them, so they're depressed - hence their domineering and snappy attitude.

Also, there's a lot of unpublished research - a lot of the stuff I worked on for example is unpublished and remains unpublished - I have the data but never published it, simply because the publishing process itself, and putting it in the right format is not worth the bother. Other researchers in the field have not yet discovered what I have discovered, but I have no doubt at one point they will. But it can take many months to get an article published, it's not worth the bother - the bureaucratic process of most journals is a living hell.
Agustino February 10, 2017 at 09:25 #54247
Quoting FLUX23
these people on the Physics Forums know much much more than you think. Those who reply to those thread reply for a reason. They know what they are talking about.

More significant than what they know is what they don't know. Indeed, it is what they don't know that is limiting them. What we know is always of relatively small significance once we know it. It's what remains to be known that is of importance.
FLUX23 February 10, 2017 at 11:16 #54262
Reply to Question I'm pretty sure there is more to it than that. it's just that you (nor I) don't know.
Hanover February 10, 2017 at 13:45 #54277
Reply to Question I now fully understand your ban based upon your responses in this thread.
Shawn February 10, 2017 at 15:52 #54310
Reply to Hanover

Yes, I was too passionate about the issue. Happens.
andrewk February 11, 2017 at 01:16 #54383
Quoting Question
I'm sorry; but, your whole post is an appeal to authority

Appeals to authority are reasonable and sensible in the hard sciences, unlike in branches of metaphysics, particularly when the participants in the discussion in which the appeal is made have no significant expertise themselves. There is such a thing as an authority on thermodynamics and energy production. There is, I suggest, no such thing as an authority on most philosophical disciplines - logic excepted. What would an authority on ontology look like?
BC February 11, 2017 at 05:41 #54407
Quoting andrewk
What would an authority on ontology look like?


Here is one of the 3 global ontology authorities:

User image
andrewk February 11, 2017 at 11:24 #54425
Bitter Crank - you are a true gem!
FLUX23 February 12, 2017 at 22:15 #54612
Reply to Agustino You and I work in these kinda field so of course it is not that difficult for us. But for them? The general public? I know they are lazy in one sense, but you also have to understand that they can't devote their time on studying and researching these stuff like we do.

Of course a scientist can be wrong. No way I am doubting that. But if you compare general public and a scientist, there is a pretty big difference. We don't easily realize that because we pretty much have already gone to the other side. We have scientific intuition inside us because we've been educated. Unless you are an genius we usually have to understand things by experience.

Since I don't know about Earth science, all I can give is what I can remember when I didn't know anything. For example, when you look up lanthanides and their properties on wikipedia including related articles, I can tell you that they tell only a tiny bit of what is actually known. Even if you look up homepages and science related sites made by scientists, they still only show bit of what is known. In order to actually know them, you'll have to do extensive research by reading tons of academic papers (usually needing subscription). You'll also have to do some experiments to understand the scale in which the paper is talking about. For instance, an article might say "weak absorption of light". However, unless we work on it and get a pretty good idea, we don't exactly intuitively know what "weak absorption" looks like. If I remember that, then I can easily say that there is a huge gap between science-loving non-scientist and a scientist. I would generally not recommend non-scientist trying outsmart a scientist. They know much more than you do, and they also, most of the time, capable of dismissing without discussing too much because they already know.
FLUX23 February 12, 2017 at 22:18 #54613
Reply to Agustino I am saying it's probably already known and is generally accepted without having to have to cite references each time. If you need to disprove that, then you'll have to devote yourself into that. You can't just cite some free articles made for general public that is intuitively much easier to understand, and think you have understood everything.
Agustino February 13, 2017 at 08:45 #54685
Quoting FLUX23
you'll have to do extensive research by reading tons of academic papers (usually needing subscription)

If you work at a research institute, or know someone who does, you can pretty much get free access to any of them :P

Reply to FLUX23 I agree with the rest of your points.
FLUX23 February 13, 2017 at 10:11 #54694
Reply to Agustino True. If you go to a library of any research institute, you can get free access to most of the stuff. Unfortunately, not a lot of people have the will or time to do that.
Robert Lockhart February 13, 2017 at 15:11 #54711
Maybe there's a 'Queen of Hearts' type figure presiding over this site - its' (the site's) ideas also sometimes similarly existing in a sort of parallel wonderland - with a penchant for screaming, "Off with his head"! :)
Shawn February 13, 2017 at 15:14 #54712
Reply to Robert Lockhart

I think unenlightened secretly rules here. His disapproval is heart numbing.
Robert Lockhart February 13, 2017 at 16:10 #54724
Have to say though that - All-in-all - I've been lured into descending worse kinds of rabbit-holes than this particular site represents - if also ones maybe not so labyrinthine and confusing of how and why you should best then extricate yourself from them! - Like how the self-deluding vanity of the idea your posting will somehow esteem you in the eyes of others (my own, like most posts, likely in reality remaining mainly unread) comically acts to lure you in deeper through how you then become entangled in further mutually self-promoting exchanges! There's a collective poignency regarding our efforts nonetheless somewhere there though, no doubt...

Though, refecting on that now, as I stoicly await my train back home 'midst the likewise somewhat solipsistic and individually self-consumed rush-hour crowd - kinda like life in general really! Like some guy said, we are each ultimately obliged to be the lone self-consumer of our woes! :)
(...The English poet, John Clare, who sadly ended his days - understandably perhaps when confronted by such apparantly irreconcilable mutual incomprehension - in an asylum!)