Alternative Energy Community

[TowinKarz]

Some theorize that you could maybe get work out of zero point energy, but, to do that, you'd have to put so much excess energy "'in" to whatever it would take to set up that gradient that the overall output would be little more than enough to maybe boil a cup of water..... for an entire GALAXY of material... not worth it. I'd be like a machine that could restore power to a dead "AA" battery, that's in turn powered by six D-cells that exhaust themselves in the process.

A lot of the cranks are big on zero-point energy, since it's a relatively new buzzword they can sound smart tossing around and laypeople generally don't know what it is beyond this kind of energy that's just floating around out there in the universe, waiting to be tapped like some huge oil reserve, which, as pointed out, isn't possible since the subatomic world doesn't work the same way the superatomic world we inhabit does.

It's an appeal to the ignorance of yokels, like arguing you could play billiards with the planets if you just built a big enough cue stick, forgetting that as you scale up or down in the universe, the rules change.....

When the supervillains in Marvel Comics titles use it as a source of their powers, it's a good bet that it won't work in the real world......

 

[millais]

One or two hundred years ago, these would have been the same people trying to invent perpetual motion machines.

 

[Functional Animal]

One or two hundred years ago, these would have been the same people trying to invent perpetual motion machines.

You say that like they stopped trying to do that. Perpetual motion machines are alive and well among the alternative energy community.

 

[Super Collie]

Solar freaking roadways.

Thunderf00t blasted Solar Roadways in this amazing video:

Here's the full version of the EEVblog video cited:

 

[Goofy Logic]

Speaking of EEVBlog...

Back in January a guy claimed to have "bent physics" and created energy on a circuit he built. This attracted attention on EEVBlog's forum.

The free-energy guy showed up on the forum, but wound up getting dogpiled by electronic hobbyists and engineers over him not knowing what an inductor is.
Dave then rips the circuit apart in a 45min video:

 

[TowinKarz]

That's a good example of why a lot of the free energy cranks try so hard to either discredit fields of science as being subverted by conspiracies, or claim they've stumbled upon an entirely new one that only they know the rules of, since their goofball theories can't survive even a cursory challenge by a trained professional.

 

[Sanshain]

That's a good example of why a lot of the free energy cranks try so hard to either discredit fields of science as being subverted by conspiracies, or claim they've stumbled upon an entirely new one that only they know the rules of, since their goofball theories can't survive even a cursory challenge by a trained professional.

The idea is that by getting rebuffed by a professional scientist, the quack in question can then go 'HAH, BY REJECTING MY HYPOTHESIS YOU HAVE CLEARLY DEMONSTRATED YOUR ALLIANCE WITH THE BIG OIL FASCISTS!!!' while simultaneously claiming that their quackery is in fact so dangerous to the established scientific community that so-called 'reputable' sources are being utilized to discredit them. It's completely circular logic; I'm right, and anything you do to say that I'm wrong is just you being jealous or afraid of admitting how right I actually am. It's also hilariously childish.

 

[SpessCaptain]

Thunderf00t blasted Solar Roadways in this amazing video:

Here's the full version of the EEVblog video cited:

Ah yes I remember this. In Australia they tried to shill this out on facebook to be the best new thing due to the massive amount of sunlight we have. They were claiming that it could melt ice (wow something we don't have much of) and shine in the dark. Most of the arid places where there is constant sunny days are the routes for the land trains which could crush the mechanics and make them lose traction over time. We also had the huge solar panel fields being suggested as well which would span entire countries worth of space but that's a pipeline dream due to the lack of funding and interest (arigato abbot-san)

 

[autisticdragonkin]

Why don't these people just advocate the real energy source that could solve all of our energy problems if utilized: nuclear fission

 

[neverendingmidi]

Why don't these people just advocate the real energy source that could solve all of our energy problems if utilized: nuclear fission

Aiiiiieeee! Do you want us all to die of radiation poisoning!?!!?!

Despite the fact that is uses far fewer resources, takes up an extremely small footprint compared to solar or wind, and produces a far higher output than either, but, but, but... The Giant Radioactive Ants will rampage!!!


Minor powerlevel: I worked in the Reactor Department on a nuclear aircraft carrier.When I was in training and they covered exactly what happened in Chernobyl my classmates and I were laughing because they did every possible thing they could to screw themselves over, from the design board on. Comparing it to Three Mile Island is like comparing a grenade explosion to a fart.

 

[TowinKarz]

@autisticdragonkin

Because they didn't think of it all by themselves. And, because it's not their end goal to actually solve any problems.

Much like conspiracy theorists, the free energy crank's primary goal in life is supporting their version of reality, not finding the truth.

They aren't out to actually help with the energy crisis, they're out to promote themselves as smarter than everyone else, proven by their ability to solve the world's problems in their own garage using nothing but their superior ingenuity and household items. And, to keep that personal delusion going, everything established has to be against them. So, any actual working power method, from conventional fossil fuels, to nuclear energy, to "green" alternatives like solar/wind , cannot be trusted because they were built by Da Man (tm) and we all know what THAT means... wink wink, nudge nudge.

@neverendingmidi Exactly how colossal a human fuckup Chernobyl was is all the more obvious when you consider how many other Chernobyl-style RMBK reactors were operated over the years in Russia/the USSR without spontaneously exploding.... of all the unsafe ones, only it blew, because the people in charge didn't know what they were doing. I find it funny/sad that all these years later, the media still calls Three Mile Island a "disaster" when it did not cause a single direct casualty, doesn't someone have to at least die before you can call something a disaster? (Okay, the cleanup was an economic disaster, but that's stretching it)

 

[Tragi-Chan]

That's a good example of why a lot of the free energy cranks try so hard to either discredit fields of science as being subverted by conspiracies, or claim they've stumbled upon an entirely new one that only they know the rules of, since their goofball theories can't survive even a cursory challenge by a trained professional.

I've had arguments about this with plenty of pseudoscience weirdoes. They seem to think that individual scientific fields exist in a vaccuum, as if the laws of physics are just some theoretical thing with no impact on or basis in the real world.

 

[Vincent VanGo]

The guy who created the original Chuck E Cheese set-up, Aaron Fechter, has been trying to make alternative fuel with water and graphite for a couple decades now. He actually almost blew up his entire building a couple years ago and disrupted Orlando train services for a day when a tank ruptured. The guy is an outstanding lolcow in so many fields.

So, what is there to ridicule here? Aaron actually does create a green gas from water and graphite, doesn't break any laws of physics, and cooks a damn good steak with it. What amuses you or makes you feel superior to Aaron who has accomplished many great things in his life? Would you have laughes at Thomas Edison while he was trying to find the right filament? Would you have laughed at Elan Musk as he endeavored to land his booster rockets safely back on the platforms? Why are people here laughing at pioneers? Are you someone of great accomplishments who has never made a mistake? Are all mistakes to be laughed at?

 

[Rockafire Ass Explosion]

So, what is there to ridicule here? Aaron actually does create a green gas from water and graphite, doesn't break any laws of physics, and cooks a damn good steak with it. What amuses you or makes you feel superior to Aaron who has accomplished many great things in his life? Would you have laughes at Thomas Edison while he was trying to find the right filament? Would you have laughed at Elan Musk as he endeavored to land his booster rockets safely back on the platforms? Why are people here laughing at pioneers? Are you someone of great accomplishments who has never made a mistake? Are all mistakes to be laughed at?

Aaron is a moron and his gas is fake. It's unstable and dangerous. In his many old videos where he cooks on that disgusting shop grill you can tell from the flame it's actually just propane. If there was ever anything to his invention then the energy companies would have flocked to him.