Re: Time-travel expert: "Lost" could move the island through time and space

Mason Barge wrote:
> "Victor Velazquez" <k-canute@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote in message
> news:s4CdnX9EpqlYZrTVnZ2dnUVZ_uqdnZ2d@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
>> Tico wrote:
>>> Michio Kookoo is an attention whore and a crackpot.
>>
>> Cite?
>
> I don't think anything Kaku has said can be disproven.  But his whole
> schtick is to take unproven arcane hypotheses and extend them to
> entertaining scenarios.
>
> I would say he's about halfway to being a crackpot.  His biggest
> contribution is actually to science fiction, because he likes to
> bridge the gap between scientific hypothesis and things like time
> travel.
> It's not science until it's testable and reproduceable.  Saying that
> wormholes don't exist is like saying that ghosts don't exist.
>
> I think his reputation as an actual scientist is pretty shaky.  The
> whole thing about Einstein was that his theories of relativity were a
> solid foundation for experimental verification.   The modern
> hypotheses that Kaku's career inhabits, like string theory, are (at
> least today, afaik) incapable of experimentation.
>
> He does cross the line to crackpot at some points, though.  Take this
> statement:
>
>> The Casimir Effect and transversible wormholes are real, cutting-edge
>> science, Kaku says. “The Casimir Effect has to do with the energy of
>> the vacuum,” he says. “It’s negative energy that has bizarre
>> properties.”
>
> The Casimir Effect is very real, cutting-edge science.  It might even
> find application in nanotechnology.

To the layperson, how does that statement cross the line?

> Applying quantum mechanics to large-scale phenomena is not, however,
> "real" science.  The greatest quandry in physics is why  quantum
> theory works only in very small, particle-size settings.  Saying that
> moving something the size of an island through time/space by using a
> phenomenon that appears only in extremely small settings -- and
> especially, stating that it is "possible" but not "practical" -- is
> just plain fiction, written in math.

Well, that is a good point.  I mean, hell, I'm an idiot and even I know
that 
quantum effects don't manifest above the quantum level.  I got dragged to 
that stupid movie What the @[EMAIL PROTECTED]
 Do We Know? and I almost threw my soda at

the screen.  But is he saying that one could really apply sub-atomic 
properties to something like an island or is he just saying it's a fun
thing 
to think about?