I think I just met the dumbest person in the world

So I was talking with this guy on the campus... He strongly advocates space travel and "branching out" into space, which is by far not the most ridiculous thing he's ever said...

He went on to say people are working on a real "warp drive" which is shaped like a football with a doughnut around it, the doughnut spins faster than light and pulls you with it.

He tried telling me that lasers could push large, physical objects because of their incredible energy.

He then went on to say that he doesn't believe in gravity.

I had no idea how to respond to him so I just ignored him from that point on... What would you have done?

@minigunman123 said:

So I was talking with this guy on the campus... He strongly advocates space travel and "branching out" into space, which is by far not the most ridiculous thing he's ever said...

He went on to say people are working on a real "warp drive" which is shaped like a football with a doughnut around it, the doughnut spins faster than light and pulls you with it.

He tried telling me that lasers could push large, physical objects because of their incredible energy.

He then went on to say that he doesn't believe in gravity.

I had no idea how to respond to him so I just ignored him from that point on... What would you have done?

Ask him if he is high and what kind of stuff he was on?

Well... He's kinda right about lasers bit. And his warp drive somewhat sounds like the Alcubierre drive that scientists are actually working... As explained by an incredibly stupid person.

@AtPhantom said:

Well... He's kinda right about lasers bit. And his warp drive somewhat sounds like the Alcubierre drive that scientists are actually working... As explained by an incredibly stupid person.

Links? This flies in the face of... Hmmm... All of physics :)

@Matchstick said:

So he's dumb for paying attention to modern science? Everything he said is based on current scientific theory.
Football shaped warp drive

Laser propulsion

Disproof of gravity

Humans must colonize space

That disproof of gravity is staggeringly wrong. Whoever wrote it was an imbecile.

Warp drive: "exotic matter". That could simply mean "stuff that, as far as we know, doesn't exist", and I saw no evidence or writing on that article that indicates they've developed a machine that could "bend space-time". I read ideas and fiction and uses of such things in the real world, nothing more.

Humans don't need to colonize space.

The laser article is not about lasers physically moving anything, it demonstrates that lasers (or more properly, microwaves, very high-frequency electromagnetic waves, not unlike radio waves,) would heat up a fuel source and use the heated fuel to propel the ship.

That is all vastly different than what this man proposed, and what you seem to be proposing.

@Matchstick: The disproof of gravity thing isn't entirely accurate. It has been shown that their are things that have so little mass that they are not as easily pulled by gravity. Helium is lighter than the air of our atmosphere. It's quite clear that gravity can be fought but that does not mean it does not exist. All that this really does, potentially, is alter the idea of how gravity works. Something that needs to be kept in mind about that idea is that it is just theoretical at this point, whereas gravity is considered proven. There are not a considerable amount of scientist that adhere to this theory either. Still it is a fascinating concept to say the least.

@minigunman123 said:

@AtPhantom said:

Well... He's kinda right about lasers bit. And his warp drive somewhat sounds like the Alcubierre drive that scientists are actually working... As explained by an incredibly stupid person.

Links? This flies in the face of... Hmmm... All of physics :)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solar_sail

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beam-powered_propulsion#Direct_impulse

Solar sail is probably the most cost efficient and plausible propulsion method we know of so far. Provided we ever manage to make a sail, that is.

As for warp drive,

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alcubierre_drive

Nobody's really working on it, we still have no goddamn idea how to do that, but it kicked up a lot of dust last year when scientists announced that energy requirements for such a drive to work were far lower than they previously thought and are actually within reach today. Interest in the drive has been high ever since, to the point that NASA has actually started projects investigating the thing.

Also, Jesus, I expected better from Stephen Hawking than to jump on the "SPACE OR DEATH" bandwagon. :(

@AtPhantom said:

Also, Jesus, I expected better from Stephen Hawking than to jump on the "SPACE OR DEATH" bandwagon. :(

I didn't. He's been an advocate of such things for years, to my knowledge, and he's very much just a pop icon now.

@AtPhantom said:

@minigunman123 said:

@AtPhantom said:

Well... He's kinda right about lasers bit. And his warp drive somewhat sounds like the Alcubierre drive that scientists are actually working... As explained by an incredibly stupid person.

Links? This flies in the face of... Hmmm... All of physics :)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solar_sail

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beam-powered_propulsion#Direct_impulse

Solar sail is probably the most cost efficient and plausible propulsion method we know of so far. Provided we ever manage to make a sail, that is.

As for warp drive,

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alcubierre_drive

Nobody's really working on it, we still have no goddamn idea how to do that, but it kicked up a lot of dust last year when scientists announced that energy requirements for such a drive to work were far lower than they previously thought and are actually within reach today. Interest in the drive has been high ever since, to the point that NASA has actually started projects investigating the thing.

So in other words... Speaking from the voice of reason rather than hope, warp drive = bunk idea.

As for the solar sail, I shall look it up later... I'm actually sitting in the college library :| I should get back to chem homework.

@minigunman123: It may be different but you are discounting all those theories as junk science which they are not. Most science relies on theoretical ideas but that does not mean they should be discounted simply because of that. I agree that the person you talked to was highly misinformed about the nature of these theories but he was vaguely speaking of real things however he was speaking of them in an incredibly simplified way that gave no justice to the complexities on the theory's he was speaking of.

@Nightwing28710 said:

I'd say if you don't believe in gravity then jump off that building.

I should've said that to him...

@minigunman123: You told me you were seventeen, how are you in college?

@minigunman123: They're actually planning some warp field experiments (Yes, they actually call it warp field).

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/White-Juday_Warp_Field_interferometer

Even if his science is off at least he is thinking. Ideas no matter how cooky inspire new technology.

He's right, Gravity is a myth, the government is behind the entire thing.

@Blood1991 said:

Even if his science is off at least he is thinking. Ideas no matter how cooky inspire new technology.

That's quite motivational.

@Aronmorales said:

@Blood1991 said:

Even if his science is off at least he is thinking. Ideas no matter how cooky inspire new technology.

That's quite motivational.

That's how I roll

@Vortex13 said:

@minigunman123: You told me you were seventeen, how are you in college?

I was in a newspaper for being in college at 14... I've taken about a year and a half off though for various personal reasons, but yeah. The article isn't online anymore because it was a school newspaper, but still, it felt kind of cool. I'm going to get my two year degree next year, probably in the summer.

@minigunman123 said:

@Vortex13 said:

@minigunman123: You told me you were seventeen, how are you in college?

I was in a newspaper for being in college at 14... I've taken about a year and a half off though for various personal reasons, but yeah. The article isn't online anymore because it was a school newspaper, but still, it felt kind of cool. I'm going to get my two year degree next year, probably in the summer.

Only on the internet

@minigunman123:

Honestly if he said he didn't believe in gravity, you should have invited him to go ten floors up and prove gravity wrong lol

@Nightwing28710 said:

@minigunman123 said:

@Nightwing28710 said:

I'd say if you don't believe in gravity then jump off that building.

I should've said that to him...

I can see it now. He's falling and screaming "gravity is an illusion". splat

Lol, that'd be epic... but I'd probably get in trouble ;(

@Blood1991 said:

@minigunman123 said:

@Vortex13 said:

@minigunman123: You told me you were seventeen, how are you in college?

I was in a newspaper for being in college at 14... I've taken about a year and a half off though for various personal reasons, but yeah. The article isn't online anymore because it was a school newspaper, but still, it felt kind of cool. I'm going to get my two year degree next year, probably in the summer.

Only on the internet

What do you mean?

@satyrgod said:

Have you not considered that his comments may be a simplified construct, a model by which he chose to explain complicated theorem to a perceived intellectual inferior?

Trying way too hard to sound way too smart.

No, the guy was just stupid. He couldn't explain anything to me, he was just spouting nonsense.

@Deadite said:

@minigunman123 said:

So I was talking with this guy on the campus... He strongly advocates space travel and "branching out" into space, which is by far not the most ridiculous thing he's ever said...

He went on to say people are working on a real "warp drive" which is shaped like a football with a doughnut around it, the doughnut spins faster than light and pulls you with it.

He tried telling me that lasers could push large, physical objects because of their incredible energy.

He then went on to say that he doesn't believe in gravity.

I had no idea how to respond to him so I just ignored him from that point on... What would you have done?

Ask him if he believe there're lizard people among us. It seems like something he would easily accept if he can convince himself there's no gravity. The doughnut thing was really wild.

It sounds like his hard drive went on lock down a long time ago.

Oh, please. Lizard people are real.

Have you seen pictures of Michael Jackson?

@Joygirl said:

@minigunman123: I know someone who thinks Daylight Savings Time is a celestial event.

To be honest, I had never learned or looked up anything about DST, so I just never cared what it was. After looking it up though, that is quite funny.

I've run into guys like that. They probably have an idea of what they're talking about but they can't formulate it right for some weird reason, and all the while you're trying to follow along but you only get further and further into that weird little jungle of "awkward".

That not believing in gravity thing is weird.

@ARMIV2 said:

I've run into guys like that. They probably have an idea of what they're talking about but they can't formulate it right for some weird reason, and all the while you're trying to follow along but you only get further and further into that weird little jungle of "awkward".

That not believing in gravity thing is weird.

Not even that... I actually tried explaining why, at least in his description of them, the things he was talking about were wrong and silly.

He didn't understand and just smiled and waved his hands and said "well it works, so I don't know what to tell you".

I don't think he had any idea what he was talking about lol, probably just read a few articles half-way and thought "OOO STAR TREK", and then tried misappropriating the whole notion of "theory" to mean that gravity isn't real/true.