Speaking of Pascal’s Scams and “fringe” technology, I wonder if anyone like The Skeptics Society (or anyone else for that matter) has bothered to gather statistics on a few key variables relevant to such “Scams”. In particular, it would be interesting to see a scatter plot for a number of such “Scams” showing:
- Academic credibility of the inventor
- Money invested before bankruptcy
By “Academic credibility” I mean something like a product:
Level Of Academic Credential * Proximity of Academic Credential * Reputation of Credentialing Institution
By “Proximity of Academic Credential” I mean that if the technology is electronics then a credential in electrical engineering would be proximity 1, but a credential in social psychology would be proximity 0.1. Level would be HS, Associates degree/trade school, BS/BA, MS/MA, PhD. Reputation of Institution would be something like MIT/CalTech 1, UofIL .5, Samoan Paper Mill 0.1.