[wpietri]

My theory: if you want something bad enough, somebody will come along and sell you something. It won't work, but they'll still sell it to you.

Sometimes it's pure scam, of course, but I think that's rare. Mainly it's people who are clue-deficient in some important way. They think it works. Or they think they can get it to work. Or, like many marketing people, they're used to trusting somebody else that it works. It's the tech world's version of the magnetic healing bracelet or the ear candle.

The reason nobody is out selling 20 GHz processors is that nobody really wants them. It'd be nice, sure, but we're all pretty happy with what we have. Our desire for something better isn't strong enough to override our sense for what's realistic.

[iliis]

Good point! Altough bad example with the CPU: I do want a 20 GHz one and so do a lot of others. But I can see if it works as advertised very quickly whereas you cannot really absolutely with ultimate certainty prove that this bracelet doesn't work...

[wpietri]

Interesting. You can test a battery's capacity, too, so I don't think that's exactly it. I also don't think the collective desire for faster CPUs is all that strong; look at how few people bother going to the lengths of, say, overclocking and watercooling, let alone more exotic approaches.

Maybe it's better expressed as a balance between desire and experience. We have a lot of experience with CPUs, and we've grown accustomed to their speed, so our collective desire is modest. But collective desire for better batteries is very strong, and our experience with them is modest. So it's much easier for somebody to say, "Miracle tech! Give me millions!" And somebody will.

[M2Ys4U]

>you cannot really absolutely with ultimate certainty prove that this bracelet doesn't work...

Sure you can. Double-blind randomised controlled trials.

[mnw21cam]

>Sure you can. Double-blind randomised controlled trials.

(p > 0.95)