Almost exactly a year ago, I made a medium storm in the water glass by publishing my exchange with what I ironically called the "Future King of Physics". I then asked Perimeter Institute in Canada, Oxford University, and FQXi, to distance themselves from Joy Christian instead of any further supporting his pseudoscience.

Joy was at his game for several years already, and quite a few voices have told me over the last year, that my article, especially the Quantum Randi Challenge nature of it, is what finally convinced them: for the first time they really confidently understood that Joy is a crackpot. Many had previously gotten the impression that he may be a new Einstein, simply because mathematicians could not understand Joy's equations - at least that is what it looked like in the perception of an audience that grew larger with every new refutation of his work. I refused to give his tricks any platform and destroyed his argument in a way that is immune to any retort with more math. The Quantum Randi Challenge, which is closely related to the argument I then developed and which still needs your support (it is not about Joy but about a powerful public outreach tool!) does not feed the vicious cycle that creates an artificial controversy around settled scientific facts. The QRC is designed to stop the out of hand feedback loops emerging in our culture of discourse, those that pseudo-scientists like to exploit.

And so, I could, if I were to fool myself and/or played the blogging game like one is largely expected to in this ugly science blogging "scene", write a success story now. 'Look how I helped us super cool bloggers to be the badass skeptics smashing pseudoscience'. In fact, there are now some rather idiotic writers, like wingnut Lubos Motl, who indeed pretend that their personal interference and their same useless arguments that went on for many years at times, were directly instrumental to bringing about Joys downfall. However, it is not so! Actually, science lost!

If you go back to my article and click on the link that connected to Joy's Perimeter Institute profile, you will not find him anymore. Oxford University starts similar proceedings, so I hear, but it is not because of what should have happened years ago on grounds of scientific discourse. It is not about people standing up against pseudo-science. It is not about those responsible understanding or even caring about my arguments a year ago, or anybody's scientific arguments.

No - Joy was kicked out because he lately annoyed too many so called "important people"! How did he annoy? Not because he disregards experimental observation. No. Because “important guys” up the hierarchies, similar to those that gave him money not long ago so he could even publish a book, they felt insulted! Neither the many math spewing articles on the archive, nor my destruction from last year ago, which made Joy at least shut up on Science20 and certain physics discussion boards; the real reason is that he dared to be insulting on an "important guy's" blog and then other even more "important guys" apparently were contacted and felt insulted, too. Make no mistake: If Joy had simply had the patience to stay friendly, he would be still as strong as before.

Though I have asked these "important people" already last year to do precisely what they are now doing, I do certainly not belong to the important guys. In fact, IEET has banned me from further contributing to their "ethics of emerging tech" site, precisely because my destruction of Joy was "unprofessional". So, I, a well published researcher in the emerging field of nanotechnology, cannot write on an "ethics of emergent technology" platform, because I demanded ethical behavior from “important guys”.

You should not be surprised that an article on the Quantum Randi Challenge is also consistently rejected by "important guys". This censorship is called “scientific peer review”.

No science here except the modern science that is the corrupt social construct that it is: Whether you get kicked out or not has little to do with proper science. As long as you bring money or exposure or at least have them somehow not being able to reject you without losing face (Joy played them very well for a while!), all is fine. But never criticize the big cheats up in the hierarchies.

If you know the world and have not arrived here just yesterday, you know that Joy is the tip of the iceberg, but there are two icebergs: One is the many cheaters who live well inside science and draw all kinds of money that serious and conscientious scientists never get. The other: All the people who get kicked out at all levels for plainly having done something that some corrupt guys higher up perhaps merely potentially may not like - perhaps they may feel insulted.

And as you know, nothing is more insulting than the truth!

I will go on and whistle blow and insult the "important guys". Stay tuned to this channel, as a much bigger case, the memristor hype, one reminding of the arsenic life form hype, will soon be treated here with a few posts. As you can see, I have bigger fish to fry - the people involved in the Joy Christian case are relatively unimportant compared to high impact factor journals like Nature and Hewlett Packard money.

So let me wrap up the Joy Christian case in true alphameme style:

Joy - I am not happy with what happens these days, not at all. If you think I am happy, that I dance in circles like the embarrassing Lubos kid, you simply do not know me half. I would have been a lot happier if you had taken my arguments seriously when I contacted you more than a year ago. I know the physics, I can explain it to you, I know your math, that you wrote to me yourself once, remember? Guess what - your math is actually applicable to something! You and those you fight do not see where, because you are concentrating too much on trying to disprove quantum physics or winning silly little bets instead of on the core of the involved science.

It is never too late - you are young enough to get yourself together, intelligent, independent, and energetic enough to achieve great feats. I hold no grudge. I welcome those few who have the guts to their own opinion regardless of whether "important people" may feel insulted. I especially welcome people who can seriously change their mind and admit a mistake and move on. Your skills are needed badly - don't waste them.

And to all others out there: If you think that this went all fine just because Joy does no longer have the support of “important people”, you are very wrong. Think a little deeper guys – you all think you are so smart – why not think a little deeper about what this means for science and academia?

A last one: If you want to positively impact the mature science side of what can be done to immunize young people against quantum crackpottery, read about the Quantum Randi Challenge, understand it, and support it! It needs your support; you are the important people.

Related Articles on Science 2.0