Based on a speech by author Michael Crichton, the term describes the phenomenon of experts believing news articles on topics outside of their fields of expertise, even after acknowledging that articles written within their fields of expertise are error-ridden and full of misunderstanding. In other words: Experts failing to apply scrutiny to things they know little about. From the speech: > Media carries with it a credibility that is totally undeserved. You have all experienced this, in what I call the Murray Gell-Mann Amnesia effect. (I refer to it by this name because I once discussed it with Murray Gell-Mann, and by dropping a famous name I imply greater importance to myself, and to the effect, than it would otherwise have.) Named after after physicist [Murray Gell-Mann](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murray_Gell-Mann "Murray Gell-Mann"). ## Example in cryptocurrencies With [[Cryptocurrencies]], especially [[Bitcoin]], there is the phenomenon that technologist look at [[Blockchains]] and argue that: "The tech is bad, but the economics are maybe interesting" while economists argue that: "The economics are bad, but maybe it's technically interesting," both leaving themselves an out despite understanding within their field, why they are a bad idea. ## Articles & posts [Michael Crichton - Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Crichton#GellMannAmnesiaEffect)