This is the real deal, though it isn't practical at large scale. My business partner is bitter because he had this idea a year ago and was told by experts in the field that it would never work.
(I know that you probably know this, but I think most people would take your comment to mean that establishment scientists are all incompetent curmudgeons, irrationally resistant to "outsider" ideas.)
It's described in this post http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47751 and my follow up comment.