gedanken

gedanken /g*-dahn'kn/ adj.  Ungrounded; impractical; not
   well-thought-out; untried; untested.

   `Gedanken' is a German word for `thought'.  A thought
   experiment is one you carry out in your head.  In physics, the term
   `gedanken experiment' is used to refer to an experiment that is
   impractical to carry out, but useful to consider because it can
   be reasoned about theoretically.  (A classic gedanken experiment of
   relativity theory involves thinking about a man in an elevator
   accelerating through space.)  Gedanken experiments are very useful
   in physics, but must be used with care.  It's too easy to idealize
   away some important aspect of the real world in constructing the
   `apparatus'.

   Among hackers, accordingly, the word has a pejorative connotation.
   It is typically used of a project, especially one in artificial
   intelligence research, that is written up in grand detail
   (typically as a Ph.D.  thesis) without ever being implemented to
   any great extent.  Such a project is usually perpetrated by people
   who aren't very good hackers or find programming distasteful or are
   just in a hurry.  A `gedanken thesis' is usually marked by an
   obvious lack of intuition about what is programmable and what is
   not, and about what does and does not constitute a clear
   specification of an algorithm.  See also {AI-complete},
   {DWIM}.