Grimer wrote: >> and there is no known method of extracting energy from them. > >True, but I believe there are unknown methods . . .
Perhaps you have some reason for thinking so, but I have never heard of one. It is like extracting chemical energy from water, or over-unity electrolysis. Water is inert. Aside from the inexplicable Meyer's stuff, there is no evidence you can create energy from electrolysis. > and people >searching for them should be encouraged and their claims >approached with an open mind . . . I would not encourage or discourage such people. I think it is a waste of time trying to do things which are manifestly impossible. But I also think it is a free country, and there is no harm to wasting a little time. I will only believe it when they demonstrate it by experiment. Before anyone gets a chance to say "what about CF?!" let me say: 1. There has been tons of evidence CF might exist, going back decades. Only Fleischmann and Pons were smart enough to see it. 2. I would not believe it if they had not demonstrated it by experiment. > . . . not the closed mind of the Porksies of this world. There is a WORLD of difference between my attitude and Park's. I am not the least bit hostile toward people who make impossible claims -- I simply do not believe them. I am perfectly wlling to change my mind when experiments prove I am wrong, whereas Park has ignored thousands of experiments proving that he is wrong about CF. I am a genuine skeptic in the original sense of the word, and he is a fanatical true believer. It is not even a tiny bit "closed minded" to believe in the conservation of energy, as long as we are willing to put aside that belief in the face of experimental evidence proving it is wrong. We must believe in something. We must have some structure and a set of physical laws to make sense of things. We can only hope that these laws are correct, or at least, close approximations. A person who simply turns his back on c. of e. without a reason or a subsitute theory has turned his back on rationality. You cannot simply make up the laws of physics as you go along, and assume out of the blue that it is possible to extract energy from a superconductor, or a magnet, or an Orgone box. Yes that MIGHT be true despite theory and experience, but until you see proof of it, you should assume it is not true. - Jed
