+“MadScientist”, short for “The incredibly astonishing and amazing Mad Scientist wiki, where people can examine and appreciate Mad Scientists and the wacky things they do, and Mad Scientists can discuss this week’s attempt to Show Them All They Were Wrong”.
Logo Contest
2006-09-26: I just realized: We need a logo for the mad scientist wiki.
Please post suggestions here.
What can I do to reward people who come up with madly scientific logos?
Mad Scientists
In general, people with ScienceRelatedMemeticDisorder. Wikipedia has a good article on the subject.
Show Them All They Were Wrong
It doesn’t happen very happen – perhaps only once a decade or so – but it does happen. See
"RIDICULED DISCOVERERS, VINDICATED MAVERICKS" by 2002 William Beaty
interactions between mad scientists
Interactions between mad scientists may be incomprehensible to non-mad non-scientists.
Exhibit 1:
- “That’s fantastic. Since your methodology and results are almost completely different to mine, I think we’ve got the foundations of a really good, solid, long-lasting quasi-academic feud here. This can only be good for raising both our profiles in the long run. Do you want to kick things off by calling me a dolt, or should I? – james 2008
However, occasionally non-mad non-scientists say things that are incomprehensible to mad scientists.
Exhibit 1:
- “It’s a vase! There are some things that don’t need weapons attached to them!” – Casey and Andy
discussion
Mad Scientists can, theoretically, be found elsewhere on the Internet.
- "Evil Mad Scientist Laboratories - Finally, CNC toast!"
- the “MadSci Network” … for example, Gelatinous Vector Components
- Anders Sandberg Mad Scientist Page
- The International Society of Mad Scientists
- the League of Mad Scientists comic strip
- Narbonic, the comic strip about mad scientist Helen Narbon and associates. See Wikipedia:Narbonic
- … (todo: move http://david.carybros.com/html/mad_science.html / http://rdrop.com/~cary/html/mad_science.html to this wiki … and fix the broken links)…
- So are “mad scientist / evil mad scientist / evil overlord” always three exclusive choices, or is it a career ladder? Does anything on the "Evil Overlord List" apply to mad scientists?
- Top 10 Mad Scientists in History includes mostly evil mad scientists. Some of us aren’t like that, honest!
- "Institute for Advanced Perpendicular Logic Studies" appears to actively encourage mad science – is that wise?
- A Miracle of Science: suggests that mad science is a contagious “disorder” that can be “managed”.
- Radioactive Panda: implies another theory, that mad science is a non-contagious genetically inherited “disorder”, such as from the infamous Baron Frankenstein to his grandson Doctor Eric Von Frankenstein.
- what about people who do Naked Science? Are they mad scientists? And what about The Naked Scientists ?
- "New Director for U.S. Energy Department's Mad Science Wing"
I see that a certain “waffles” only wishes there were more heroes, villains, and mad scientists on a certain site: “There simply aren’t enough spider-men or bat-men or other variations of more-than-men. No, Stack Overflow seems to be populated solely by normal, plain, boring, weak, unlasery men. Just thinking about it makes me yawn.”[1]
“The authors and all those acquainted with them know that they should never be allowed near any tools that could cause injury, i.e., any tools at all. Nonetheless, we felt an obligation to build the device anyway” -- ''"PROSTHAPHAERETIC SLIDE RULE: A MECHANICAL MULTIPLICATION DEVICE BASED ON TRIGONOMETRIC IDENTITIES, THE"'' by Sher, David B, Nataro, Dean C (2004)
What about "reckless experimenter"s? Is it just another euphemism for “mad scientist”, or is there a subtle difference?
mad engineers
Sad truth: Most "mad scientists" are actually just mad engineers.
I’d like to point out here that there is a surprisingly small overlap between “mad scientists” and the “evil geniuses” mentioned in "The Story of Electronics: Designed for the dump".