Steven V Johnson wrote:
Mauro sez:
> This is a good summary.
> Maybe you could publish a version of it somewhere at lenr-canr.org. It
> surely will not hurt, and could help first comers with doubts about the
> validity of the sources and the information presented.
...
I agree!
Write it up, Jed!
I do not think I should. I do not like to feed the perception that
cold fusion is disreputable or that we have something to apologize
for. If people want to believe I faked the DIA document that's their
business. As long as I am square with the DIA, I don't care what
anyone else thinks. They were miffed with me on Wednesday morning but
they are friendly people and judging by the tone of our recent
correspondence all is forgiven. From the references to LENR-CANR.org
in the DIA document you can see that they recognize the value of the
site, and they consider it legitimate. They understand the value of
uploading the document there. That's important. I care about how my
reputation stands with intelligence experts in the U.S. government
and with electrochemists. I do not care at all where my reputation
stands with the editors at Wikipedia. On the contrary, I would be
worried if those nitwit conformists show respect. They and other like
them will come around when the New York Times and Scientific American
do -- and not one day before.
Suppose I were running a website devoted to some other academic topic
such as biology or 19th century Japanese literature. No one would
demand my bona fides or question the provenance of the documents.
There are controversial documents, alleged fakes, and strange claims
in these fields. But readers would judge such matters for themselves
using common sense and the techniques I described.
For example, in biology there was the suicide of neo-Lamarkian Paul
Kammerer in 1926, caused by accusations of academic fraud. See A.
Koestler, "The Case of the Midwife Toad" (Vintage, 1973). If I were
running a biology site and I posted information about Kammerer,
including documents asserting he was innocent, I would not expect to
be called out, personally attacked, or banned from Wikipedia. . . .
Then again, maybe I would. I suppose if the entire site were devoted
to Kammerer I would expect flak.
- Jed
