He obviously could care less about winning skeptics over with well designed and independently verified tests.
Then why bother doing the demonstrations at all?
Well as the story goes, he initially did them for Focardi who had a close brush with death and wanted the story told before he passed on. Indeed Focardi has gotten a good deal of attention as a result of the demos so maybe he has gotten his wish.CKay wrote:He obviously could care less about winning skeptics over with well designed and independently verified tests.
Then why bother doing the demonstrations at all?
The Delusional Rossi Hypothesis is a possibility, but I think the Witting Fraudster Rossi Hypothesis makes less assumptions.tomclarke wrote:With such a loose grasp on reality any commercial transaction where he accepts money opens him to possible fraud, of course. But does not guarantee that he believes himself a fraudster.
It is debatable. We are arguing psychology. All I will say is that self-delusion is universal, whereas deliberate fraud, though possible, less common. Extreme self-delusion, as Rossi if he is not deliberately a fraudster, is less usual, but more likely than you think!CKay wrote:The Delusional Rossi Hypothesis is a possibility, but I think the Witting Fraudster Rossi Hypothesis makes less assumptions.tomclarke wrote:With such a loose grasp on reality any commercial transaction where he accepts money opens him to possible fraud, of course. But does not guarantee that he believes himself a fraudster.
For DRH we must assume a complex mental state, that on the one hand he has such a poor grasp on reality that he truly believes the ecats to work, yet on the other he knows that subjecting them to rigorous tests would be unwise.
Such a neurosis might well be behind his behaviour, but witting fraud seems to me a simpler explanation, one for which there are many precedents - Occam's Razor.
Fraud is possible of course, but given the relatively high profile of this affair (much of it created by Rossi himself), its hard to understand what kind of life he would have after being exposed. Even if he slipped past the law somehow and remained a free man, he must surely understand that he would be a social pariah for the rest of his days. When this sort of thing happens, it is often because someone believed they had something and by the time they discovered they did not, events had overtaken them and they were caught up in them.CKay wrote:The Delusional Rossi Hypothesis is a possibility, but I think the Witting Fraudster Rossi Hypothesis makes less assumptions.tomclarke wrote:With such a loose grasp on reality any commercial transaction where he accepts money opens him to possible fraud, of course. But does not guarantee that he believes himself a fraudster.
For DRH we must assume a complex mental state, that on the one hand he has such a poor grasp on reality that he truly believes the ecats to work, yet on the other he knows that subjecting them to rigorous tests would be unwise.
Such a neurosis might well be behind his behaviour, but witting fraud seems to me a simpler explanation, one for which there are many precedents - Occam's Razor.
He may never be exposed - difficult to prove a negative and all. There have been plenty of similar scams that just run and run.Kahuna wrote:Fraud is possible of course, but given the relatively high profile of this affair (much of it created by Rossi himself), its hard to understand what kind of life he would have after being exposed.
Fair enough - good points. I can see how this can go one of three main ways: (1) premeditated scam, (2) self-delusion, (3) Real deal. I do think there is circumstantial evidence to support all three. I guess it bothers me that some are so dead sure of one of three at this point. The arrogance and condescension of the advocates is almost palpable and certainly unwarranted. I personally think that a "wait and see" attitude is advisable at this point.CKay wrote:He may never be exposed - difficult to prove a negative and all. There have been plenty of similar scams that just run and run.Kahuna wrote:Fraud is possible of course, but given the relatively high profile of this affair (much of it created by Rossi himself), its hard to understand what kind of life he would have after being exposed.
In a few months Rossi will likely be announcing a delay to the home ecats due to some unspecified technical fault, or a legal or financial problem (which would need just a little more investment).
He could even play the 'there's a global conspiracy against the ecat' card - plenty would believe it.
It's not a case of being dead sure - rather working out what explanation seems the most probable.Kahuna wrote:I can see how this can go one of three main ways: (1) premeditated scam, (2) self-delusion, (3) Real deal. I do think there is circumstantial evidence to support all three. I guess it bothers me that some are so dead sure of one of three at this point.
Agree with all of this. What bothers me are the "you fool, can't you see that this is an obvious scam" type posts that drip with arrogance and condescension.CKay wrote:It's not a case of being dead sure - rather working out what explanation seems the most probable.Kahuna wrote:I can see how this can go one of three main ways: (1) premeditated scam, (2) self-delusion, (3) Real deal. I do think there is circumstantial evidence to support all three. I guess it bothers me that some are so dead sure of one of three at this point.
Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence, and I see no evidence, circumstantial or otherwise that suggest Rossi's ecats to be the real deal.
On the contrary, the weight of circumstantial evidence seems strongly to suggest scam, delusion or a combination of the two as the most likely explanations.
As for wait and see - bearing in mind that this may run indefinitely, at what point should we make a judgement? If some people believe that Rossi's claims are obviously dodgy, shouldn't they say so and perhaps warn others who may be considering giving him money?
>"If some people believe that Rossi's claims are obviously dodgy,CKay wrote:It's not a case of being dead sure - rather working out what explanation seems the most probable.Kahuna wrote:I can see how this can go one of three main ways: (1) premeditated scam, (2) self-delusion, (3) Real deal. I do think there is circumstantial evidence to support all three. I guess it bothers me that some are so dead sure of one of three at this point.
Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence, and I see no evidence, circumstantial or otherwise that suggest Rossi's ecats to be the real deal.
On the contrary, the weight of circumstantial evidence seems strongly to suggest scam, delusion or a combination of the two as the most likely explanations.
As for wait and see - bearing in mind that this may run indefinitely, at what point should we make a judgement? If some people believe that Rossi's claims are obviously dodgy, shouldn't they say so and perhaps warn others who may be considering giving him money?
I realize I'm beating a dead hobbyhorse here, but...that's nice to "know".Am wrote:
- For 1MW with ‘thin’ amount of H and Ni… Theory soon… Understood well.
I don't claim to be even a paper scientist, but I assumed it was the latter. I'm not clear if it's supposed to be referring to the gamma rays or the positrons, though, or how it was measured. Am's post makes the meaning a little clearer, perhaps:D Tibbets wrote:what the heck does the 180 degrees refer to? Is that the heat contribuion of the gammas (which would be highly lethal in a short amount of time if not heavily shielded- and constant. And if not constant, then not one but two unknown physics processes must be assumed.), are they polarized, or have some preferred exit vector as opposed to being isotropic?
Am wrote:
- Gamma radiation. Transmutation Ni to Cu is side effect. Evidence of 511 kEV gamma at 180 deg electron positron (antimatter) production. [This is interesting].
Or maybe he says that not all insults constitute libel.parallel wrote:Tomclarke says if it’s true it’s not an insult.
That makes it sound like the stupid deserve to be ripped off!stefanbanev wrote:The one who has money has it exactly for the reason it does not give it away foolishly. Money have tendency to flow along IQ gradient. Before investing a substantial resources any reasonable investor would hire a responsible technical staff to run benchmarks who faces legal consequences for giving a wrong expertise so, free advice is not required in fact it is irresponsible to follow a free advice.
How groups amplify the individual.
Psychologist David Myers of Hope College finds "group polarization" a beautiful idea, since it explains how interacting with others tends to amplify people's initial views. In particular, discussing issues with like-minded peers — increasingly the norm in the United States, where red states attract conservatives and blue states attract liberals — push people toward extremes.
"The surprising thing is that the group as a whole becomes more extreme than its pre-discussion average," he said in an interview.