Scientologists Tell Feds They Don't Want Randos Repairing Their E-Meters
Scientologists Tell Feds They Don't Want Randos Repairing Their E-Meters
L. Ron Hubbard’s literary organization told the U.S. copyright office that it didn’t support DMCA exemptions for repairing personal electronics.
Out of curiosity, has there ever been a teardown of one of these to see what kind of snake oil actually powers them?
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.
https://www.cs.cmu.edu/~dst/Secrets/E-Meter/hubbard-patent.html
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.)
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.
Edit: of course it was part of the purge: https://www.reddit.com/r/electronics/comments/8zrlav/detailed_teardown_of_a_scientology_emeter_high/?rdt=44960
I say 2 AA batteries
Given the era, I would suspect more like a single 9 volt battery.
I imagine whoever tries gets sued into oblivion faster than John Deere with a farmer fixing his tractor
I might have a solution, just hear me out… what if they just folded their phony religion and left everyone alone? See? Everyone wins!
Fuck scientology, but honestly, props to Ron. It takes a significant amount of rizz and a good lack of fucks to go from being quoted on how lucrative it would be to start a religion while he was a well known science fiction author, only to make a religion and gain untold wealth.
I mean it's one thing to grift an idiot, but when you tell them to their face that you're going to grift them who's fault is it really?
Problem is when you start grifting kids. They can't exactly consent. Same issue with any religion/grift really. If it's aimed at a child it's abuse.
"Repairing" as in "noticing they don't actually do anything beside measuring resistance like any common multimeter from the DIY shop"
Do they even measure resistance? Hold the probes on a multimeter. Tell me how much resistance you're measuring. With my MM I'm registering microohms.
That just goes to show how important proper training is. Without the right scientology certifications you have no idea how many evil alien ghosts living in your soul those microohms indicate!
... Do you mean you're measuring megaohms (M) across your body? Or microohms (u) between probes directly? Or milliohms (m)?
I've wet my finger and measured like 30kOhms across a half inch of skin or so. And if you get into your bloodstream, the salty liquid has very low resistance BUT BUT BUT this will kill you if the probe paths across your heart
When I first read about this stuff, it said they were just really sensitive EKG machines. Literally just measuring your pulse.
Zenu forbid everyone finds out their off-the-shelf multimeter from the 70s is just as special and important as their beliefs (not at all).
Someone should invent an e-meter that's ten times as accurate.
ETA: That might just be a biofeedback device.
It's hard to define concepts like "accuracy" when the basic claim is that the gadget can count the evil dead alien ghosts living in your head to hassle you.
It measures skin resistance and then has special metrics regarding Thetans or clarity.
So one could make one that is even more sensitive, that allows you to practice altering your skin resistance with mind thoughts (roaring ocean waves and salty sea air! Seagulls and warm sun! Sand squishing between your toes!), thereby potentially improving your clarity, or at least improving the measured metrics.
I'm not a Scientologist, but according to some biofeedback enthusiast friends, ASMR might help them game their readings better.
When Scientology is your ally... You're on the bad track
Not the onion
It occurs to me the CoS doesn't need a state law preventing outside sources from repairing their gizmos. An intra-church policy will do just fine.
Similarly the Catholic Church doesnt need to impose a state law against third parties making Uriel's®️ Heavy Duty Double-Divine Holy Water for demon huntering and exorcism when an internal ruling will do as well. The same for Uriel's Fastin-EZ quick-transubstantiation communion wafers (available also in chocolate, mint and sweetcream flavors!).
There is a group offering CoS-equivalent services free of charge as a bit of a challenge to it (CoS Lite, CoS Methadone). They do so by acquiring these devices second-hand and I guess maintaining them is needed and the CoS wants to limit their impact by limiting their right to repair the devices.
Here is an alternative Piped link(s): https://piped.video/watch?v=iXA0aK73VA8
Piped is a privacy-respecting open-source alternative frontend to YouTube.
I'm open-source, check me out at GitHub.