Chris Zell <chrisz...@wetmtv.com> wrote:
> Many of these things are technically not conspiracies, just stigmergy. That is a great word! I have never heard it. You learn something new every day. Here is another definition: https://wiki.p2pfoundation.net/Stigmergy Yes, the opposition to cold fusion was stigmergy. It was spontaneous and unorganized at first, but later self-organizing. Many people thought it was in their interests to suppress cold fusion, from Robert Park at the APS and other mainstream physicists, to the editors at Nature, to the plasma fusion researchers. They had different reasons. Some reasons made sense, others did not. The plasma fusion people feared their budget would be cut. They were right; it would have been. Robert Park made his reputation as a naysayer. As Gene Mallove said, his column "What's New" should have been called, "What's New -- that I hate." The physicists were reacting emotionally, and playing the usual academic politics. There was no coordination at first, but as the attacks intensified, each group of opponents made use of the other groups. You might say they all left pheromone tracks in the public record, and the tracks all led in one direction.
