There was a guy who was some sort of a clerk in a patent office who made bizarre claims such as that if one person determined two things were simultaneous then another person might be able to legitimately argue they were not simultaneous.
What sort of things can be done to prevent such outrages in the future from occurring?
Koshka
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Trevor, you say: " If it was someone like Einstein who was able to validate and demonstrate his claims, and was able to exhibit a deep comprehension of the subject amongst his peers, then that person should be taken seriously (whatever their profession). "
The problem is, if the peers would refuse to overcome their own bias (or refuse to make abstraction of their own prejudice) in order to understand a challenging approach that could improve science, it is not the thorecian's fault. If it is mathematically demonstrable, and the said peers still refuse to recognise it because it is "not the current views" then it is not the theorecian's inability to " exhibiting a deep comprehension of the subject ". Mathematics are cold hard proofs, that is the way it is.
" What sort of things can be done to prevent such outrages in the future from occurring? "
Hard to say, really. The world is not a fair place. Do you want a differential equation with that?
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Trevor
It would depend who that lowly clerk was. If it was someone like Einstein who was able to validate and demonstrate his claims, and was able to exhibit a deep comprehension of the subject amongst his peers, then that person should be taken seriously (whatever their profession).
On the other hand, if the claims amounted to nothing but conjecture and speculation arising from ignorance, and could easily be debunked, then such claims wouldn’t warrant any further time being wasted on them.
Ottawa Mike
Taking such scientific claims seriously is relative to the observer.
pegminer
I don't know, does he make fundamental mistakes, starting at the very beginning of his work? Has he actually studied the field, or is he just making stuff up? Does he only publish on the internet?
I'm not sure I'd trust his opinions on quantum mechanics (even if he did help to start the field) or the cosmological constant, and I'm afraid he'd always be throwing sevens while trying to make his point at the craps table.
That guy that did that thing
Yes we know Einstein was his name. But he earned his stripes and the peoples respect, unlike your denialist shills