I recently posted a genuine question on a scientific forum website and was told to ... well, piss off, basically. I believe it has validity, and would help scientists resolve the issue of the "missing dark matter" that is one of the key problems in cosmology, and astrophysics.

I suspect the account suspension was motivated by the fear the question invokes, in a similar but lesser degree to the highly-superstitious and incoherent responses to this question.

Throughout the ages, asking questions has been shown to be the root tool by which human culture has advanced. Unfortunately, the shutting down of the ability to ask questions by a culture usually heralds that culture's demise.

Back to that scientific forum ... here's the rather interesting reply I got, and the question hat caused my account to be suspended:

Hello,
Your ____________ account has been suspended due to incorrect use. You posted the following question in Astronomy and Astrophysics:

"It seems I asked the following question on the wrong forum (particle physics). It was deleted. Perhaps before being deleted here, someone might suggest an appropriate forum?

According to David Deutsch of Oxford, "single-particle interference phenomena unequivocally rule out the possibility that the tangible universe around is all that exists."

According to some interpretations, the double-slit results occur due to the influence of what Deutsch calls "shadow particles". (Paraphrasing Deutsch, superpositions have to be 'made' of something that is, in some sense, tangibly real, or sufficiently real to cause real interference effects in said experiments).

Why doesn't that interpretation 'scale up' and account for "Dark Matter" (ie. shadow galaxies etc.), which in turn would account for how the distribution of galaxies would be, and has been found to be fractal ("studies we have done show that the distribution of matter is fractal, just like a tree or a cloud." [Francesco Sylos Labini]).

If it's a 'dumb question' perhaps someone would be so courteous to explain why, rather than simply delete it, as was done elsewhere."

ps

I received the following reply from 'user care' (particle physics) after inquiring where best I might post the question:

Hello,
That particular question would not be considered appropriate for any ResearchGate topics.
Kind regards,
User Care

Seriously?

When others are asking questions like "Purpose behind humanity and existance" (sic) and Does religion have a place in the public space/discourse? and Why the unity of Christianity was important in preparation of the end of times?"
--------

As explained, this question is not appropriate for ResearchGate physics topics. This is a space for active, professional researchers in Physics, and should be used for genuine research level questions. This question is not appropriate as there is no observational or experimental data available to suggest or support such a proposal, meaning that for general researching physicists such a question amounts to nothing more than spam. These topics are intended for professionals to discuss their research problems. We hope for your understanding.
Kind regards,
RG User Care

I wrote interesting because as was clearly explained to me in one reply I received, after I asked this question (which referred to the above text indented):

Perhaps you would be so kind to suggest where (within ResearchGate) I might ask that question, and get some sort of reply.

to which I received this reply:

"Hello,
That particular question would not be considered appropriate for any ResearchGate topics.
Kind regards,
User Care

Which sort of indicates the "user care" character is being a little bit disengenous. Changing "any ResearchGate topic" to topic-specific 'physics'.

Professional.

Not.

This experience reminds me of a video that highlights how 'troubled' we (humans) have been, and more worringly, still are.

In particular, the video draws attention to how gifted amaters are often scorned, even though they're often far more intuitively aware than 'professional scientists". Case in point (highlighted in this video) is that of Dr Ignaz Semmelweis: [from wikipedia]

Despite various publications of results where hand-washing reduced mortality to below 1%, Semmelweis's observations conflicted with the established scientific and medical opinions of the time and his ideas were rejected by the medical community.

"The historical list of kooks, crazies, losers and nutters who turned out to be right is long and controversial, including people like Semmelweis, Socrates, Galileo, Wilberforce, Churchill, Bonhoeffer, Martin Luther King, and many others."

So again, why exactly is the superposition in the double-slit experiment NOT analogously the cause for the missing 'dark matter' in the universe?

Update: you can follow a discussion related to this question on LinkedIn. Well maybe not if it 'scares the horses' too much, but for now, all good. :)

See also

• The jig is up
• The most superstitious era in history?
• The modern superstitions of science and religion