As you all can see I am a beginner on this forum. I am not a scientist, or even particularly well educated in that area, but I am 71 years old, and in possession of a capable mind and the wisdom those years afford. I learned long ago that I must take the macro view of things, rather than the micro, if I want to see things as they truly are. I have been hanging around this forum and ECW now for a few years and have monitored on a regular basis all of the ups and downs of LENR experiments. I have been interested in “Cold Fusion” ever since the Pons/Fleischmann debacle circa 1989. But most recently I became more engaged for matters of research as I am a writer of science fiction and wished to visit the subject in one of my books.
There seems to be much mention on here of the scientific method and its rigors and the necessity of its strict application if LENR is to be proven successful. I see this as a very micro (i.e. narrow) view of the situation, especially in this case. It seems to me that most of the major scientific advances of the 20th century would never have happened if the inventors had waited around for scientific proof, verification and replication.
By most reports Edison was not a scientist of this caliber. He was an inventor who built things and experimented. If one of his ideas had come to fruition and then he had to prove it to the world and then wait for others of his ilk to replicate, he probably would never have received credit for even one of the.
If the men who developed atomic energy, and eventually fission, had openly shared their theories with the world and then waited for replication most of us would be living in a Jew free world and pledging fealty to a Swastika, not to mention that New York City would probably be an atomic wasteland. Ironically, that whole thing is still just theory to this day, having become understood only superficially decades after the fact of its deployment.
The same holds true with the invention of the automobile, and much earlier the steam engine, both already in use long before much was understood scientifically by its inventors. The scientific development was largely only entered into much later, after practical use was already established, and is still being expanded upon even today.
Even Nicola Tesla was a hands-on inventor. If his scientific method was sound and well executed only he knew for sure, because by all reports his diagrams, formulas and schematics were all done in his head. By one report he claimed to be able to project these in mid-air, in his mind’s eye and then worked out the theory using this visualization method, and I doubt very much if he submitted them to the world at large for replication and approval.
Let’s be realistic; we live in a material world, where everything substantial, and much even insubstantial, has a value placed on it. The greater this value the more it is coveted by those who would control and profit from it and the greater lengths they will go to acquire it, and often not fairly or legally. This is true everywhere in the world, whether in a capitalist, socialist or communist societies and everything in between. I think Andrea Rossi learned this the hard way early on in his endeavors. Navigating in this environment is much like playing a game of poker and he has learned to hold his cards close to his vest until he deems that the time is right to show them. So far that time has not come.
Pray tell, why would Rossi feel any responsibility at all to prove to the members of this forum what he has? What advantage would this give him? He owes us nothing. Are any of you moneyed investors ready to lay down tens of millions of dollars? I think not. And for those of you who feel he should do the right thing simply for the good of the planet and society at large, I have only pity. Your faith in this concept is cute, but untenable in most all human society and especially so in a capitalist society. Such naivety does not fare well in the real world. That is why pure communism never works. Someone always believes he is more deserving than the next.
Having followed most of AR’s exploits, from a macro point of view, I have come to believe he is smart and canny, and I don’t believe he is mentally defective. He is certainly egotistical and eccentric, but crazy, I don’t think so. Taken from this point of view he would have to be stupid, crazy or both to have started this law suit in the first place if he didn’t believe that he could prove his position in the end. But he will not prove it in the data base of this forum or even on his blog. He will always hold out that one final, enticing detail and will only finally release it within the legal confines of the court, and only then if he can keep his proprietary property from public disclosure. I don’t believe he ever gave IH one hundred percent of the IP. I think he trusts no one and held it back as insurance for just such a situation as this. I think he envisioned something like the exchange of prisoners on a bridge where the two prisoners pass midway between their captors to insure that no-one is able to renege on the agreement. I believe that if they had paid the 89 million that he would have, but only then, given them the final piece of the puzzle.
I will be very surprised if he does not prevail in this situation, but I believe it will be an out of court settlement with an NDA attached and we will know little more than we do now.
