On Wed, 27 Oct 2004, Adrian Midgley wrote: ... > There is expressed the theory that after it all goes wonderfully well > for us, the rest of you will buy it and we will share the profits into > the Exchequer.
Adrian, This reminds me of the "pigeon drop": http://www.crimes-of-persuasion.com/Crimes/InPerson/MajorPerson/pigeon_drop.htm The _perceived_ return-on-investment (ROI) must be sufficiently large for the pigeon in the pigeon drop scam (relative to alternatives). > It sounds like a sales-talk to me but I know little of such things. We are all human and have the same vulnerabilities. We are all "special" and desperately want to believe we will be luckier than the other organizations that were duped. ... > Who knows. Perhaps it might work. Sure - just like it is entirely possible that a stranger whom you just met will want to share with you the bag of money he/she just found? Quote From: http://www.crimes-of-persuasion.com/ "This crime proliferates because victims, who fear being labeled incompetent, fail to report it." > The developments in quantum computing seem interesting, they also > operate as I understand it, in an arbitrarily large number of parallel > universes. I disagree. We are all in the same universe - we are all similarly greedy/wishful - we are all vulnerable. Our only defense is information, leading to insight and better judgement (in psychiatric terms). The mission statement of crimes-of-persuasion.com said it quite well: "To inform the public, ... on the workings and scope of telemarketing and investment fraud so that efforts can effectively be taken to minimize the impact on its victims and ensure that adequate penalties are in place to deter the perpetrators." This will not be the last time that the U.K. NHS gets to decide open vs. closed source strategy. The open source approach may not seem as promising for achieving wealth and world domination - but it brings steady and reliable progress. This is already been well-established. Of course, "there is a sucker born every minute" -- David Hannum http://www.historybuff.com/library/refbarnum.html Best regards, Andrew --- Andrew P. Ho, M.D. OIO: Open Infrastructure for Outcomes www.TxOutcome.Org
