The theoretical physicist Bob names as his one attempt to put McLuhan to working physics — a formula built on the Android meme, sent around 1999, met with a politeness Bob reads as dismissal. He recurs at the far end of the session as the figure of a demand rather than a failure: the specialist who ought to welcome amateurs who have done the basics. Sarfatti frames dialogue 70's opening question, which is Cameron's wish to critique fundamental physics from a McLuhan point of view, and gives Bob the precedent for what such an approach runs into. New to it — start with dialogue 70.
Across the dialogues
Enters as the standing rebuff that frames the session's opening question — the physicist Bob could not reach, and the reason the night begins on how one would talk to physics at all
The attempt failed on notation before it could fail on content — the barrier is the form a claim must take to register as physics at all.
"I made up a formula based on the Android meme and sent it to him about 1999. And he... did not recognize any traditional mathematical terminology or formulaic letters."
Bob supplies the unstated verdict himself, reading the courtesy as the discipline's way of declining without engaging.
"So he said, I don't know what to make of this. So he's just polite. Basically, he probably thought it was ridiculous."
The rebuff turned into a two-sided condition — the specialist owes the amateur a hearing, but only after the amateur has done the reading, which is Bob's answer to the charge of crankery.
"Jack Sarfatti should welcome amateurs who have done maybe some McLuhan study. You've got to do the basics. You've got to learn the New Science."
Connections
Bob sent Sarfatti a formula built on the Android meme around 1999; Sarfatti recognized none of its notation and answered politely.
The physicist serves as the test case for whether the tech body can be put to a working scientist in a language he would accept.