this post was submitted on 14 May 2026
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Angela Collier's video about this: https://youtu.be/wBBnfu8N_J0?t=2213 (Kaku part starts at 36:50).
A TLDW on the rest of the video: "Gell-Mann Amnesia" is a term Michael Crichton coined. It refers to how people read articles in a newspaper about a topic they are experts in, realize it's all horribly written trash, then turn the page and happily read the next article about an unfamiliar topic forgetting they just learned the newspaper is trash.
Collier expands on the idea to include the Gell-Mann Complement and Gell-Mann Recollection. The Recollection is what Kaku does, where he doesn't know anything about a topic but presents a simple explanation on it anyway just because he's an expert in something different. This frequently gets him into completely bonkers territory, like Deepak Chopra level bonkers.