QuoteWhile a con-man could do this, it also, better, fits a deluded inventor
No it doesn't. HELL NO, it doesn't. Deluded but honest inventors eventually take the advice of others and perform or allow to be performed definitive tests. They don't deliberately lie to and deceive others in order to con them out of money. They don't behave in any way like Rossi does. To deceive oneself about a working ecat not to mention a QuarkX would require stupidity far beyond Rossi's. He's not terribly smart (most con men are skilled and cunning but not all that intelligent) but he's smarter than to believe his own sh*t. And while his behavior may reflect some psychopathology, he is not classically insane either, thus it is not some sort of psychotic delusional system. He's simply a classical, typical, run of the mill, ordinary con man whose skill is choosing his marks and who was inordinately lucky... until he overextended himself with the absurd IH deal. Rossi is sort of a sophisticated version of a Nigerian scammer. He just happened to land himself in a field where the believers were being constantly frustrated in their search and were very needy for some successes. His skills in conning and his total sociopathy made it possible for him to exploit this extensively.