Scions and Wonders: Has a Procter and Gamble Heir Discovered the Key to Universal Energy?

September 26, 2012 10:53 AM

Foster Gamble has some interesting theories about energy.
posted by Strass (32 comments total)

Has a Procter and Gamble Heir Discovered the Key to Universal Energy

No, he hasn't.

Next question?
posted by yoink at 10:57 AM on September 26, 2012 [8 favorites]

Double?
posted by benito.strauss at 10:58 AM on September 26, 2012

Am I supposed to pay more attention to this particular crackpot energy fantasy (one among hundreds of thousands) because its proponent happens to be rich enough to produce his own movies about it? Or is there some other reason it stands out that reading the article failed to elucidate?
posted by nanojath at 10:59 AM on September 26, 2012

After graduating, he spent decades interviewing sources and poring over financial documents in 12 sectors, including arts, media, governance and science. What he discovered was shocking: that the torus is the secret to an abundance of energy, that it is embedded in crop circles and used by aliens to travel through galaxies, and that a complex political conspiracy is keeping free energy technology out of the hands of average Americans.

Of course! My god, if only I had more time to pour (pore?) over financial documents in 12 sectors, I could have figured it out myself!
posted by mr_roboto at 11:00 AM on September 26, 2012 [1 favorite]

The question becomes, "interesting" to whom?

That photograph at the top of the article looks like it was an out-take from a bad 1970's science fiction movie...
posted by HuronBob at 11:01 AM on September 26, 2012

The second law of thermodynamics, which states that energy cannot remain perpetually in motion in a closed system, doesn’t apply to the torus, Mr. Gamble argues on the Thrive blog, because “a torus is not a closed or isolated system.” This means that the torus is the key to developing free energy devices that could help wean the world off of oil, coal and other destructive energy addictions.

If someone points out to you that your pet theory of the universe is in disagreement with Maxwell's equations—then so much the worse for Maxwell's equations. If it is found to be contradicted by observation—well these experimentalists do bungle things sometimes. But if your theory is found to be against the second law of thermodynamics I can give you no hope; there is nothing for it but to collapse in deepest humiliation.

— Sir Arthur Stanley Eddington
posted by samelborp at 11:02 AM on September 26, 2012 [11 favorites]

a template for a new free energy model—one that he thinks is being actively repressed by people at the highest echelons of power

I'm confused about these echelons of power. Aren't they populated by people with all teh money? People like Mr. Gamble? Or maybe he's got a way to convert echelons of power into energy. Like, say, by packing them into a dense mass and compressing them until they spontaneously fuse? That sounds like a clean energy solution, one I can get behind!
posted by spacewrench at 11:02 AM on September 26, 2012

I really thought the double link was going to point to time cube.
posted by Tell Me No Lies at 11:06 AM on September 26, 2012 [1 favorite]

See now, the problem ewith most crackpot delusions is that they don't try to be comprehensive. This solves that.
posted by Navelgazer at 11:06 AM on September 26, 2012 [1 favorite]

[John] Galt takes a double major in physics and philosophy, and after graduating, he becomes an engineer at the Twentieth Century Motor Company, where he designs a revolutionary new motor powered by ambient static electricity.
posted by Egg Shen at 11:07 AM on September 26, 2012

Mr. Gamble has funded two inventors—“One more substantially over the years,” Ms. Gamble told us—and while she declined to name them, she insisted she has personally seen free energy technologies at work.

It's funny watching rich people get swindled.
posted by slogger at 11:10 AM on September 26, 2012 [1 favorite]

At their core, the Gambles both draw from an endless reservoir of optimism, an old-school American can-do attitude perhaps passed through the Gamble family gene pool. The Thrive website is littered with concrete solutions for tackling the problems outlined in the film, including comprehensive guides for beginning a local action group. To date, 282 groups have registered worldwide.

Oh those Gambles and their boundless pluck! I wonder where they get their energy. Probably from the vortex. I wish I was a multimillionaire scion, so that my endless insane pursuit of crazy ideas could be rebranded as American can-do, and be reported as fact. Then I could finally get Timecube the recognition it so richly deserves.

I could also hire a PR firm to write nice things about me on websites that purport to cover technology news. Seriously, WTF, betabeat
posted by Mayor West at 11:13 AM on September 26, 2012 [1 favorite]

Yes the idea that somehow, the guy with the key to unlimited energy is going to hold it back because its worthless and he can continue to make money with worse technologies.
posted by Ironmouth at 11:14 AM on September 26, 2012

I've known about this forever. In fact, I know a place right in my neighborhood where I can obtain energy-giving toruses, dozens of them, with nigh-magical powers and in a variety of delicious flavors.

Come to think of it though, I see a lot of cops there. OMG GOVERNEMENT CONSPIRACY
posted by The Prawn Reproach at 11:18 AM on September 26, 2012 [6 favorites]

the Gambles both draw from an endless reservoir of optimism, an old-school American can-do attitude, ... and some really good weed.
posted by CheeseDigestsAll at 11:19 AM on September 26, 2012

Mmmm. Magical energy doughnuts.
posted by Curious Artificer at 11:20 AM on September 26, 2012

I myself have uncovered a near-infinite source of energy that will last for billions of years and, handled properly, would end mankind's energy problems.

I call it "THE SUN." For a nominal fee, I'll point it out to you.
posted by Harvey Jerkwater at 11:20 AM on September 26, 2012 [1 favorite]

My money is on Foster Grant's key to universal energy.
posted by octobersurprise at 11:23 AM on September 26, 2012

You want Bilderberg Conspiracy? How about the fact that this giant energy source you cite, aka, THE SUN causes you to go blind if you look at it?

And of course the fact that sun glass manufacturing benefits only Jewish reptilian overlords living under a mountain south of Geneva.
posted by Keith Talent at 11:26 AM on September 26, 2012

"“The world just didn’t make sense to me,” Mr. Gamble told Betabeat recently by phone from his house in Santa Cruz, Calif. His odd childhood vision sent him on a quest to better understand the world by “following the money,” weaving together his scientific research about the torus with theories about the Global Dominant Agenda—a mass conspiracy perpetrated by the elites in power, intended to oppress the disenfranchised."

Right here Gamble quite eloquently points out the root of conspiracy theory, our world is a complicated and messy place filled with awesome people who look weird and assholes who look like they have harts of gold, dumbasses who sound amazing and geniuses who are misunderstood,as well as great swindles and hopeless good causes. It would all be so much easier to understand if there were some unifying theme that tied it all together.
posted by Blasdelb at 11:27 AM on September 26, 2012 [1 favorite]

Riiight. I know a guy here in Columbus that Mr. Gamble needs to talk to about zero-point energy. They would get along great.
posted by Old'n'Busted at 11:28 AM on September 26, 2012

I'm a Taurus, which sounds like 'torus', which means... oh shit! I've been part of the global conspiracy all along!
posted by kmz at 11:28 AM on September 26, 2012

our world is a complicated and messy place filled with awesome people who look weird and assholes who look like they have harts of gold, dumbasses who sound amazing and geniuses who are misunderstood,as well as great swindles and hopeless good causes.

Put all of that on steroids and you've got Santa Cruz. Wealth or not he's truly a man of the community.
posted by Tell Me No Lies at 11:32 AM on September 26, 2012

If you're a nutter, it's so much more pleasant to be a rich nutter.
posted by Mister_A at 11:34 AM on September 26, 2012

'To pore over' is correct.

'The magic whirligig I saw as a child is the key to the universe,' by contrast, is not correct.
posted by Sing Or Swim at 11:36 AM on September 26, 2012 [1 favorite]

"Riiight. I know a guy here in Columbus that Mr. Gamble needs to talk to about zero-point energy. They would get along great."

Heh, back in the day before the internet, physicists would get countless breathless letters from folks with all sorts of ideas about how they could disprove textbook examples of relativity, build free energy devices or ray guns, or how they were the next reincarnation of Tesla WITH THINGS TO CONTRIBUTE. So instead of ignoring them, which caused problems, much less actually trying to argue with them, which caused many more problems, one of the solutions that was found was to forward their letters to each other with quick notes about how they might be able to inform each others research on their interesting topics.

Of course this also caused problems, but they were at least more hilarious.
posted by Blasdelb at 11:37 AM on September 26, 2012

This kind of ridicule is why I never show people my perpetual motion machine.
posted by dances_with_sneetches at 11:39 AM on September 26, 2012

Hello seeker! Now don't feel alone here in the New Age, because there's a seeker born every minute.
posted by tommasz at 11:42 AM on September 26, 2012

From the article : Still, Mr. Gamble wanted something different for himself than the easy life of luxury he had been born into

My guess is that people like that only want an easier life filled with more luxury.

As Mayor West indicated, this has nothing to do with energy and everything to do with raising the good PR image for Foster Gamble

also - not the best of the web by any means, in my opinion
posted by Podkayne of Pasadena at 11:42 AM on September 26, 2012

Whoah, that article has several little phrases that are practically worth an essay all by themselves. Look at this one, for instance:

But some free energy enthusiasts, whose work exists primarily on the fringes of conventional science[....]

See how she's including them in the 'science' category, even though it isn't? These are fakirs, magicians. They are dressing up as scientists, and using pseudo-scientific language, trying to gain the social respectability of being a scientist, while simultaneously asserting that casting a magic spell will give you free energy, if they can just work out the spell properly. Think of the profit if they can work it out! Won't you help them in their research?

I'm strongly reminded of the alchemists, searching for the Philosopher's Stone.

Mr. Icke is a notorious conspiracy theorist, widely discredited for his belief that the most powerful people in the world, including George H.W. Bush, George W. Bush and Bill Clinton, are members of a reptilian alien species. Some observers have also detected a strain of anti-Semitism in his theories.

I just love that phrasing....he believes that space aliens are running the government, oh, and he also may be anti-Semitic. Oh noooes.

“The most dangerous belief system on the planet is the belief that the state itself is dedicated to and effective at solving our major problems,” Mr. Gamble elaborated. “Because any government is based on taking your tax money and doing what they want with it, and that, to me, is not only not a basis for a sustainable thriving culture, but it’s actually the seed of tyranny which always leads, sooner or later, to some sort of fascist state.”

There's actually a lot of truth to that. States that are not primarily oriented around preserving their own power and privilege are supplanted by those that are; likewise with politicians. And the descent to some kind of nasty authoritarianism, whether to the poorly defined word fascism, or something else, has happened many, many times. But this is pretty much orthogonal to the energy argument.

Of course, there’s more to it than that. The main reason for the negative reaction, he said, “is that there are people who are paid to sit at banks of computers, find anything on the internet seeming to challenge the structure of the powers that be, and try to dismantle its credibility.”

Well, that's true in the sense of cubicle dwellers goofing off at work, but banks of computers? There's no real credibility here to dismantle anyway, but in this case, I'd happily take a check for doing so. Where do I sign up?

All you have to do, Mr. Gamble, to throw the entire establishment on its ear, to completely upend the world and change everything, is produce free energy in a repeatable way. Prove what you're saying is true, and it's a very easy proof, and voila, your credibility is infinite, and all your detractors, including me, are shown to be ignorant fools.

Anytime now. You'll pardon me if I don't hold my breath.
posted by Malor at 11:43 AM on September 26, 2012

As Mayor West indicated, this has nothing to do with energy and everything to do with raising the good PR image for Foster Gamble"

All else aside, I don't think its working
posted by Blasdelb at 11:46 AM on September 26, 2012

I believe the esteemed Mr. HJ Simpson said it best: "In this house we obey the laws of thermodynamics!"
posted by kmz at 11:47 AM on September 26, 2012