John B Eichler
John B. Eichler | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Born | July 14, 1941 |
| Residence | Little Rock, AR, United States |
| Nationality | USA |
| Known for | Expanding Earth, Cosmology, Computers |
| Scientific career | |
| Fields | Computer Scientist, Cosmology, Expansion Tectonics |
John B. Eichler is an American computer scientist and independent researcher known for his work on Expansion Tectonics — the view that the Earth has grown in radius and mass over geological time — and for proposing a physical mechanism, grounded in the electrical nature of the universe, by which the Earth could acquire that additional matter. A presenter with the John Chappell Natural Philosophy Society, he argues that the standard plate-tectonic and gravitation-first accounts of Earth and cosmic history are incomplete, and that laboratory-testable electromagnetic processes deserve a far larger role than mainstream theory allows.
Biography
John Eichler earned a B.S. in mathematics and physics from the Illinois Institute of Technology in Chicago and later an M.A. in Interdisciplinary Studies from the University of Arkansas. He worked for the IIT Research Institute for eight years, and has worked with computers since the vacuum-tube era, doing both systems programming and digital/analog design. Among other projects he designed blast shields for nuclear reactors for the U.S. Atomic Energy Commission. He spent roughly a dozen years in computerized electrocardiography working on minicomputers and microcomputers, and in the mid-1980s designed and built what was then the fastest minicomputer-based ECG analysis system in the world. He resides in Little Rock, Arkansas.
His master's thesis, Rhetoric and Paradigm Change in Science: Three Case Studies, examines three little-known scientific concepts, each advanced by a well-known and respected scientist, through the lens of rhetorical argument and Thomas Kuhn's model of paradigm shift. In each case the concept challenges an established paradigm and would, if correct, substantially alter the accepted view of the universe — yet none has produced a paradigm shift, and each retains an active if small following. That interest in how scientific communities accept or resist new ideas runs through his later work.
Scientific contributions
A new mechanism for matter increase within the Earth
Eichler's central contribution to the Earth expansion literature is an answer to the question that expansion critics press hardest: if the Earth has grown, where does the new matter come from? In his 2011 paper "A New Mechanism for Matter Increase within the Earth", published in Nexus, he notes that geological data support the claim that the Earth has been gaining matter over geological time, but that the source of the matter and the manner of its acquisition have remained a mystery — a gap that has damaged the viability of Expansion Tectonics in the eyes of many geologists.
His proposal is that the gain is primarily fed by solar particles transferred to the Earth's interior by electron and proton conduction, on the premise that the universe is electrical in nature. He argues that such a process is plausible and is supported by theoretical and empirical studies already present in the existing scientific literature — that is, the mechanism does not require new physics, only a willingness to apply known laboratory-verified conduction processes at planetary scale. This places his account close in spirit to Electric Universe thinking, while remaining tied to experiment rather than to abstract theory.
Cosmology and geophysics
Eichler has developed a broader framework linking cosmology to the geophysics of Earth expansion. In his talks he asks whether it was gravitation or electromagnetic forces that shaped the universe we live in, and argues that the same electromagnetic forces implicated in cosmic structure may also be contributing to Earth expansion — so that planetary growth is not an isolated geological anomaly but a local expression of how the universe works. He describes his approach as weaving together the concepts of many well-known scientists into an understandable framework based more on laboratory experimentation than on abstract theory, a methodological preference he shares with much of the dissident physics community.
Expansion Tectonics and the empirical record
In his 2024 book Some Thoughts on Empirical Evidence Supporting Expansion Tectonics, written for a non-technical readership, Eichler sets out the case in two parts. The first describes the origin of the Expansion Tectonics model and the empirical evidence supporting it, noting that many professional geologists who have studied that evidence closely maintain that Expansion Tectonics provides a superior model to plate tectonics. The essential difference, as he frames it, is that plate tectonics assumes the Earth's radius has remained essentially constant while Expansion Tectonics holds that it has increased substantially over geological time. The second part presents his mass-gain hypothesis, based on a physical process with an empirical basis in laboratory experiments. The book includes an extensive index and bibliography for readers who wish to pursue the primary literature themselves.
CNPS talks
He has appeared in the CNPS livestream and seminar series:
- "Saturday: Cosmology & Expansion Tectonics with John Eichler" (12 December 2020) — presenting his worldview of cosmology and how it relates to the geophysics of Expansion Tectonics.
- "New Earth Expansion Book: Live Interview with author Stephen Hurrell" (11 July 2020) — panel discussion around Stephen Hurrell's The Hidden History of Earth Expansion.
He also presented "A New Mechanism for Matter Increase within the Earth" at the 2017 CNPS conference, in the session on other models, mathematics and Expansion Tectonics.
Abstracts
Works
- Some Thoughts on Empirical Evidence Supporting Expansion Tectonics (2024), ISBN 9798988519034
- Damn Computers (2021), ISBN 9798988519003 — a non-technical, personal history of computing from vacuum tubes to the internet era
- "A New Mechanism for Matter Increase within the Earth", Nexus, April–May 2011, pp. 43–48, 82
- Rhetoric and Paradigm Change in Science: Three Case Studies (M.A. thesis, University of Arkansas)
External links
- John B. Eichler author page at Lulu
- "Cosmology and Geophysics by John Eichler" — Earth expansion short lecture series, 19 November 2020
- "Rhetoric and paradigm change in science: Three case studies" on ResearchGate