In 1980, CBS launched a advertising campaign for their hit show "Dallas" featuring the catch phrase "Who Shot JR." The last show of the season was going to reveal the culprit who shot JR. In England, where you can bet on just about anything, officials refused to allow people to bet on the outcome of this because it was not a random event and the outcome was already decided. Someone might read the script, or or one of screenwriters might place a large bet.
Along the same lines, long ago I decided not to make predictions or bets on the future of cold fusion, because the script is already written. Events were largely a matter of choice. That is, free will. Rossi and many other researchers are sitting on results that they could reveal if they chose to, which would profoundly change the outcome, and the whole course of human history. On the other side, people in high places at the DoE or the APS choose to remain ignorant of this subject. Like Mary Yugo and Robert Park, they have made a decision to read nothing. Perhaps they want to maintain "plausible deniability." Who knows? The point is, they can type "LENR.org" into a browser anytime. There is nothing stopping them. There are no longer barriers blocking access to information. Fifteen years ago, if you wanted to learn about cold fusion or some other technical subject, you had to go to a university library, or ask experts. You had to make an effort, and spend time and money. The physical reality of getting books and papers and the fact that these papers were only available in university libraries precluded easy access to information. It was easy to see that most people would not make the effort to learn about cold fusion, especially in view of the opposition to it and the nonsense in the mass media. Now, you type a few keystrokes and world of knowledge opens up. It is like the miracle described by Matthew 7:7: "Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you . . ." Now, the only thing stopping these people is their own mind. I will not try predict people's thoughts. Free will is a complicated subject. It may exist, or it may be an illusion we feel because we inhabit mammalian predator brains. Inhabiting the brain of an honey bee would feel very different, I suppose. Perhaps making a decision or coming up with a new idea is is the result of random processes. At the deepest level, these events may be governed by quantum mechanics, so they are completely random and cannot be predicted even in principle. Whatever the situation is, a decision by Rossi to allow a test, or a decision by the editor at a journal or Washington Post to allow the truth about cold fusion to be published are acts of human will. One decision by any one of hundreds of people could change the situation overnight, like a wind-blown snowball that triggers an avalanche. The situation is unstable and poised for catastrophic change. That does not mean a change is inevitable. Snow that might trigger an avalanche might also melt away peacefully. There is nothing in the known universe as complicated and unpredictable as the human mind. I try to influence people's thoughts & actions but I do not try to predict them. The present and future of cold fusion is entirely governed by free will. In the past cold fusion could not be controlled. We did not know enough about it. It was still an open question as to whether it *could be* made practical. We did not know. Now, the scientific mysteries have been cleared up enough that we can be certain. The effect can be made practical. It can be commercialized. It can prevent global warming and save millions of lives. There is no longer any doubt about that. Whether that will happen or not is entirely a matter of choice. - Jed
