| Certainly plenty of prominent scientists have had extremely odd views, and this does not much change the validity of their work. It appears his work has been peer reviewed, although how often and by whom would be an excellent question. The most troubling assertion is that of plagiarism. If he has really plagiarized Sabine Hossfelder, he is both foolish (plagiarizing someone so prominent would be noticed) and dishonest (which might suggest a more pervasive intellectual dishonesty). The difficulty of course is that valid equations might be independently derived. I am curious to read why the accusations were made. I assume if they are credible that independent derivation is considered unlikely for some reason. Incidentally, the UMMO cult is an interesting one. They're one of the more believable of the New Age-esque UFO channeling cults that sprang up in the aftermath of various New Thought (think Christian Scientists or Unity Church) and Seventh Day Adventist movements. It's highly likely that UMMO originated as a fraud perpetrated principally by a Spanish psychologist, although there is strong evidence for other help and some evidence for the involvement of intelligence agencies, although with what motives it is difficult to say. Intelligence agencies frequently infiltrate or utilize such groups (see Richard Doty), but as there are a number of possible motivations it is impossible to suss out why in most cases. UMMO is one of two UFO religions I'm aware of-- the other being Urantia-- where reasonably technical and somewhat correct scientific information is given at length by a channeled source. Both religions of course claim prophetic success, such as Urantia's claims about the star system Wolf 424. They are somewhat unique in this respect, as while many other UFO religions utilize scientific concepts or language, it is not usually anywhere close to correct (or even comprehensible, sometimes). The relevance here is that both religions have, in part because of this, and in part because they were promulgated within professional communities, attracted a disproportionate number of technically minded converts: computer scientists, engineers, physicists, and such. (Although notably few that directly study the field of the claims. A physicist, for example, is not necessarily more informed about Would 424 than other physical science professionals, and is not equivalent to an astronomer or astrophysicist, despite some overlap.) |
If you're more interested in what he has to say about Hossfelder (and I think he's the only source on this story) you can watch the last ten minutes of his latest video [2]. Funny comics included.
[1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kYIurRmmnsU&list=PLfdj8oy5ze...
[2] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WQRS0aF2G9M&t=29m55s