h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Hi guys. I'm currently wading through Dan Brown's cheery flag waving bilge polemic 'The Lost Symbol' (it was a birthday present, okay). Not got far in but much has been made of the implausible sounding 'science' of noetics. Does anyone know about this stuff and whether it is taken seriously or not?

I got given this for my birthday too, undoubtedly the worst book I have *ever* read. I assumed he'd made all that carp up (should've relised he doesn't have the imagination). I've just googled noetics. Good grief.

Have tried to give it a fair crack of the whip but finding it incredibly hard going. Anyway, so save me the bother- what does google have to say about noetics?

My bullsh1t filter wouldn't let me see most of the actual text

Good answer.

Basically stuff like telekinesis - "mind waves" affecting the physical world, etc.

So where does it stand against, say, string theory, chaos theory, wormholes,that sort of stuff?

String theory and so on are good theories, but the only predictions they make need to be investigated inside Large Hadron Colliders and such like - I don't think we have the equipment yet to test whether it is true or not.

Noetics, as far as I know, makes predictions which are not backed up by evidence.

Looking at the Wonkipedia entry, it's basically Chaos Magic* disguised as science.

*Yes, people do this... and even from a sceptical standpoint it actually makes more sense in the modern age than Wicca or any other stuff that claims to be some kind of distilled wisdom of the ancient as Chaos Magic doesn't claim to be anything other than a modern invention.

'Scuse my ignorance but what's chaos magic?

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

"[they] describe their innovations as efforts to rid magic of superstitious and religious ideas" -- such as the belief that magic works?

Wiki? Really?

Well, there isn't an Entry here and all the websites made by practitioners (for want of a better term) are naturally biased in favour of Chaos Magic being 100% real so yes, Wiki.

Wiki it is. ANd someone needs to write a guide entry here. Thanks guys. My light of realism if the yawning chasm that is the warped mind of Dan Brown. Are all his books like this?

The Da Vinci Code was a bit of fun, if a trifle obvious. It was like a caricature of the Europe, with French police officers throwing the first suspect into jail, Swiss banks pursuing people for withdrawing stuff from their banks and English upper-class guys working as evil masterminds. But fun nevertheless.

Pretty much... I read The Da Vinci Code because I wanted to see what all the fuss was about, and then had Digital Fortress and Angels & Demons bought for me as presents... he seems to be utterly unable to distinguish fact from fiction and often doesn't properly research his subject matter.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/books/booknews/6194031/The-Lost-Symbol-and-The-Da-Vinci-Code-author-Dan-Browns-20-worst-sentences.html