How Is Doing the Shangri-La Diet Like Listening to the Radio?

Seth Roberts recently blogged about someone who tries out his invention, the Shangri-La Diet, secretly. As I commented there, that may well be the wise thing to do given that the diet sounds so wacky:

"So, how does this thing work?"

"Oh, you know, you just drink some oil and then you stop feeling hungry."

"Okaaaay..."

This reminded me of a story my dad told me about his grandfather, who was a very early adopter of the radio. People in his neighbourhood were talking behind his back:

"Now the old man's really losing it. He says he can hear people in other cities talking..."

Related:

Earlier post on the Shangri-La Diet

Elizer Yudkowsky on the subjective improbability of future technological developments.