Pseudoscience refers to promoting various supernatural and super-material mysterious powers under the banner of science, as well as various scams under the banner of science. Although the banner they put up is very fashionable, it has nothing to do with real science and is essentially some old non-scientific stuff. Pseudoscience exists in all countries around the world, and our country is certainly no exception. However, my country's pseudoscience always has its own "rustic" flavor. In our country, current pseudoscientific activities have the following characteristics:
(1) Dressing up feudal dross. Under the guise of promoting the traditional culture of the motherland or studying Eastern mysticism, some feudal dross is dressed up in scientific terms. For example, divination and fortune-telling were renamed "forecasting", the name of the person being calculated, birth date, palm reading, etc. were called "destiny code", drawing talismans and chanting spells were called mysterious "semiotics", and even talking about death Afterwards, super-light information waves will be emitted. Ghost possession is the information wave of the dead and the "vibration" of the living. At the same time, the old society's tricks and various scams have also taken to the streets. Some claim to be the true disciples of Shaolin, and some pretend to be Qigong, using performances of miraculous powers as bait, practicing medicine without a license, or selling Fake medicines and talismanic water are used to defraud people out of money. There are also some charms, sounds, pictures, etc. that are said to have "qi" and are sold at high prices. In fact, they are no different from the "magic charms" sold by Zhang Tianshi in feudal society.
(2) Replace science test with performance. Science is reproducible by anyone under given conditions and never varies from person to person. Pseudoscience, on the other hand, pursues the principle of "sincerity leads to wisdom". Pseudoscience (including fake technology based on pseudoscience) can be performed vividly in front of laymen, but under the close supervision and strict control of experimental conditions by expert scientists, the performance will fail. Some performers even make excuses not to perform. . If you meet a magician, his tricks will be exposed. Therefore, pseudoscience rejects and resists real rigorous scientific testing.
(3) Violate scientific common sense and laws. In order to justify themselves, pseudoscience constantly fabricates various absurd "theories" and claims to have broken the traditional theories of science and developed new science. They often accuse the scientific community of clinging to theories such as the law of conservation of matter, the law of conservation of energy, and the inability to exceed the speed of light, which have become obstacles to the development of new science (actually pseudoscience). They also often falsely accuse scientists of using pure rationality to deny objective reality by claiming that "seeing is believing" (which is actually a fraudulent performance). It should be noted that the basic theories of modern science are true knowledge summarized on the basis of countless scientific practices and repeated verifications over thousands of years. To violate these basic theories is to deny the results and crystallization of countless objective practices in the history of human science. If someone claims to have "created" a "new" theory that denies the law of conservation of mass and energy based on a phenomenon that comes and goes, we should be careful - pseudoscience is coming!
(4) Self-bragging without any boundaries. Inventions that created the world, new milestones, rewritten the history of science, and so on. There is also "China's fifth greatest invention" (more than one company is vying for the right to this invention), and even driving a car with a mixture of oil and water (this experiment has been proven to be ineffective by many experiments) has also been declared as "Earth" The most advanced and greatest invention in the 5 billion-year history is more miraculous and greater than the invention that took tens of thousands of years from our ancestors drilling wood to make fire to the synthesis of insulin in this century.”
(5) Use any means necessary to deceive public opinion. Pseudo-science and fake technology are good at using forged data or "certification certificates" plus performances for celebrities, leaders, and reporters to deceive leaders into giving speeches, celebrities' inscriptions, and taking photos to achieve the purpose of creating public opinion in the news media.
(6) It is often a one-man business in the beginning. They often start out as single operators (later developing into group deceptions). They regard themselves as "little people" and claim to be suppressed by scientific authorities in order to win the sympathy and support of some big figures and the press. In fact, they never let go of fame, fortune, power, position, etc. We say that sick science that conceals disease and avoids medical treatment will be exploited by pseudoscience, and if pseudoscience continues to develop, it will inevitably embark on the path of anti-science.
Strictly speaking, pseudoscience itself is anti-scientific (this is different from errors and "pathology" in science), because their fundamental characteristic is that they violate the basic laws of science and reject the unity of science. rigorous scientific testing; but they also claim to be beyond existing science, ready to overthrow old science, establish a new system, and constantly deify themselves. For example, an article promoted my country's "fifth greatest invention", which has been noisy for ten years, as follows: "When mankind is running out of energy and waiting helplessly for the end of the century, he used water to "Oil substitutes" and "perpetual motion machines" have shattered mankind's most real, helpless and greatest worries. "When countless outstanding scientists of mankind have used countless advanced methods and spent countless time and energy, they still cannot solve the problem of mankind. When he was getting rid of the increasingly difficult living dilemma, he appeared and resolved it easily - he was not a well-educated person, and he couldn't understand some simple theories of physics and chemistry. When we think about this phenomenon with normal thinking, we even doubt whether it is really God who arranged for a man to save mankind when mankind reached the end of its existence, and precisely arranged 'him' around us. "It can be seen that it is false. Science (including pseudo-technology based on pseudo-science) ultimately turns to supernatural power - God, and most of the representatives of pseudo-science wear the crown of "Superman".
This is an anti-scientific worldwide trend of thought, which calls itself the "New Century Movement". Pseudo-scientific and anti-scientific people from all over the world participate in it consciously or unconsciously, using various supernatural "theories" to "To confuse people's hearts and achieve the purpose of denying science. To be sure, it is definitely not something that a layman can identify with the naked eye and feeling. (1) "Energy Amplifier". The "results" and "theories" of "sick" science can easily be exploited by pseudoscience and fake technology. For example, Fleischmann and Burns stated in their paper that in their electrolytic cell, 1W of input can output 4W. So an "inventor" from a certain country created an "energy amplifier" that he claimed was based on the principle of cold nuclear fusion. He claimed that it had an input of 200W and an output of 600W, and peddled it in the international market.
(2) "Gene fragments of dinosaurs". Perhaps using the news media to promote oneself unrealistically under the banner of high technology is the mirror through which we can identify authenticity. For example, in the past few years, it was announced in the Beijing Evening News that dinosaur gene fragments had been found in dinosaur egg fossils, which caused dinosaur egg fossil experts and genetic experts to sneer. Finally, after foreign inspections of the genetic map, it was pointed out that this is only an existing genetic map. Algae gene fragments.
(3) Nano. Another example is the research and development of nanoscale substances, which has been exploited by news hype and illegal profiteers. Advertisements for nano washing machines, nano refrigerators, nano water, and nano oil are everywhere. Nano masks were launched during SARS. I really fear that the world will not be in chaos. Now the nano oil scammer has been arrested, and the amount involved has exceeded one million yuan. Finally, pseudoscience and pathological science can easily be exploited by anti-science, American futurist Erich Drexler. He believes that a self-replicating nanoscale robot will turn all the materials it comes into contact into its own kind - which of course means the end of the world. As a non-existent monster, the creepy "grey goo" is at best the fodder of science fiction writers, but for scientists engaged in nano research, nothing is more unrealistic than "greygoo" . At the end of January this year, ETC, a radical environmental organization based in Canada, published a report of more than 80 pages. The report, titled The Big Down, describes nanotechnology as a potentially world-destroying knowledge because it leads to the emergence of "grey goo." and called for a worldwide moratorium on all nanotechnology research. This kind of sensational news is very similar to the research on "water gathering" more than 20 years ago that will destroy the world.