On Thu, Aug 1, 2013 at 2:03 PM, H Veeder <[email protected]> wrote:
The harm is not they don't meet expectations. The harm is that they > provide no explanation whenever they fail to meet expectations. > Playing with people's emotions is not harmless game. > Personally, I do not mind unguarded statements about what a company is going to deliver. If it turns out not to happen, I chalk that up to flamboyance, wishful thinking and trying to bring something about, almost as if by conjuring it up by saying it. My main objection is to anything that is relevant here is to the possibility of misdirection. I kind of want to say that misdirection is a different beast than fraud. Misdirection has overtones of manipulation, and fraud has clear legal and ethical implications. And I don't say that Defkalion are guilty of misdirection. I only say the possibility has occurred to me on more than one occasion for one reason or another. The thought has occurred to me in connection with Rossi as well. I'm reminded of the Wild West in the U.S., when people did all kinds of funny things, or of the wheelers and dealers in turn of the century New York City. It's just a feeling that you have to keep your eyes open and not let yourself be hoodwinked. Commercial entities in the LENR space have control over how much they provoke this reaction in people. In me, it has not yet caused me to wonder whether they have a process that is basically working, only whether a straight account of what they've learned has been given. But for some other people that we know, it can turn a person into a full-on critic or an opponent. This is the kind of thing that Feynman was probably reacting to with Papp, who we all know was a colorful character. It is a reaction that is largely avoidable, and companies should consider taking steps to mitigate it by assuming observers are intelligent and will identify any gimmicks or shortcuts or weird details. Eric
