Comment on Scientologists Tell Feds They Don't Want Randos Repairing Their E-Meters

hi_its_me@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

• GloriaTheFox@lemmy.blahaj.zone ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

  The first version was actually patented, so we know how that one worked fully. The latest versions are secretive but they still likely measure the same thing.

  www.cs.cmu.edu/~dst/…/hubbard-patent.html

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  • AllNewTypeFace@leminal.space ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

    Or given that the device’s purpose is to be a prop for psychological manipulation, the current ones might, rather than simply reading out skin resistance, produce some other value more conducive to that purpose. I’m which case, dumping and disassembling the firmware would be as much a threat to Scientology as dumping slot machine firmware would be to casinos and gambling firms. (True story: someone once did this with a slot machine, proving that it was rigged.)

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  • TheRaven@lemmy.ca ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

    Midichlorians?

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    • Cabrio@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

      Prion disease.

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      • Madison420@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

        The scions of prions? Lucky pions!

        Hey Shakespeare did it, so it can’t be wrong.

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  • Bizarroland@kbin.social ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

    Although you do realize that technically, if they're new versions are not patented then they are considered trade secrets right? If you can get your hands on one and patent it then you have a decent pathway to sue the Church of Scientology for patent infringement.

    That would be a fun one to work out

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    • Natanael@slrpnk.net ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

      They could get your patent invalidated if they can demonstrate you copied them

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      • starman2112@sh.itjust.works ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

        I like that fundamental misunderstandings of how the law works can still be found on this website, was my favorite part of reddit

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      • Bizarroland@kbin.social ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

        They would still have to pay an inordinate amount of money in legal fees fighting it, and if they invalidate the patent then the publication would go public domain.

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      • Rayston@kbin.social ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

        wouldnt that force them to admit the public patent and all its details are a copy? thus confirming exactly how the device works.....and isnt that something they dont want?

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    • douglasg14b@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

      Sure, and then they either disappear you, or you have an “accident”. Or you just so happened to get beaten half to death in the restroom by a “random” act of violence.

      Or anything equally as sinister, but to your finances, possessions, loved ones, or life.

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      • Bizarroland@kbin.social ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

        Scientology is not some super powerful cult with secret enforcers all over the place. They might have that much power in Clearwater Florida but outside of that what are they going to do?

        If they had the ability to act like a mafia the way that you're suggesting then they wouldn't be able to walk and operate freely in America without somebody from a three-letter organization breathing down their neck.

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  • WarmSoda@lemm.ee ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

    Can anyone translate this into Dummy please? What is it doing, according to that patent?

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    • PM_Your_Nudes_Please@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

      It’s measuring resistance, just like a multimeter can. Basically, it’s measuring how “difficult” it is for electricity to reach from A to B. High quality wire will have low resistance, while something like rubber has a very high resistance. This is basically just measuring resistance and moving a needle back and forth on a meter. It’s an Electrical Engineering 101 class project.

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      • cheese_greater@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

        Isn’t there a name for bullshit devices that produce some ouput that has no bearing on what is being tested? Like that device Dee and Charlie use when they are in the superberry MLM on Sunny in Philadelphia. Like, its snake oil but I thought there was a word for that kind of thing.

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    • ElleChaise@kbin.social ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

      It's like a voltmeter set to resistance mode. It can detect small changes in electrical energy and show that change on a meter that moves right for higher resistance, and left for lower resistance. In other words, it's a bunch o' bull crap.

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      • m_r_butts@kbin.social ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

        Measuring galvanic skin resistance isn't bullshit. But it's certainly not telling them what they claim it does.

        Devices of that type are usually advertised to consumers as biofeedback machines and used for detecting autonomic sympathetic arousal to train the user to control anxiety.

        Because of the harsh consequences in Scientology of failing an auditing session, Scientologists also to learn to control their responses when they're on a meter. In effect, users can train themselves to lie to it. This is how they end up with those stares that are somehow both intense and vacant.

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      • WarmSoda@lemm.ee ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

        So it’s a lie detector? Lol

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• carl_dungeon@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

  Yes. Guy on Reddit a few years ago stole one out of a tent where they were giving free readings and did a full tear down. It’s a cheap Chinese ohm meter with a few extra circuits added for fancy dials and lights. It’s basically a movie prop.

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• Etienne_Dahu@jlai.lu ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

  I say 2 AA batteries

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  • Bizarroland@kbin.social ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

    Given the era, I would suspect more like a single 9 volt battery.

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• turkalino@lemmy.yachts ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

  I imagine whoever tries gets sued into oblivion faster than John Deere with a farmer fixing his tractor

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