One thing to take into account is the "rationality" of the system... if too rational no eccentric ideas is tolerated.
if a system is too strict about what is tolerated it will block innovation. it is where Tenure system can help, or the fellowship that you find in some big corps... it is probably what is allowing ST microelectronics, Technova, MHI, to go on in LENR... it is what was finally too weak at SPAWAR... allowing a minority of irrationality, of lack of responsability, lack of watching, lack of need to prove is a way to allow creativity to survive... I agree also that english language, anglosaxon liberalist (european meaning, opposed to mediaval) way of mind have make the occident science as a monolith of groupthink... mostly rational but sometime locked... island of insulated culture are needed. it allow speciation, like darwin found... 2012/12/29 Harry Veeder <[email protected]> > Another factor to consider is the influence of the english language > publications > Nature and Scientific American. They have less infleunce non-english > speaking communities > so their dim views on LENR carry less weight in non-english speaking > nations like Italy. > > > Harry > > > On Fri, Dec 28, 2012 at 7:46 PM, James Bowery <[email protected]> wrote: > > That's one way to view it. An alternative that isn't necessarily > exclusive: > > > > I recall holding a public debate at the Ruben H. Fleet Science Center in > San > > Diego during the 1980s -- before the collapse of the Soviet Union -- > > regarding NASA's role in launch services vs the fledgling private launch > > services. During the debate an engineer from General Dynamics who had > > worked on the Atlas got up and declared that the reason the US government > > couldn't get its launch services running as well as the communists was > that > > the communists executed corrupt bureaucrats, and that was what was > needed if > > the public sector was going to be in charge of launch services. > > > > In short: The commies were good at communism because they had no private > > sector to tax, so they had to make communism work. The us public sector > is > > the worst of both worlds because it has a private sector to tax and so > > doesn't have to execute it corrupt bureaucrats to stay alive. > > > > > > On Fri, Dec 28, 2012 at 5:23 PM, Jed Rothwell <[email protected]> > wrote: > >> > >> James Bowery <[email protected]> wrote: > >> > >>> To what do you attribute Italy's relatively-functional immune system? > >> > >> > >> A laid-back attitude. I mean it. They don't take themselves as seriously > >> as we do. They know their institutions are far from perfect. > >> > >> The U.S. is burdened by too much self-respect. We take ourselves too > >> seriously. We have too much high regard for out place in the world and > our > >> institutions. (Other than the Congress.) All this blather about being > the > >> best place on earth leads us to act like the world's policeman, and to > >> imagine that our universities and scientists are the best of the best. > When > >> experts at the DoE or the major journals say that cold fusion does not > >> exist, ordinary people give their opinions far too much credibility. Too > >> much respect. > >> > >> Japanese people tend to be even worse in that regard. They have > waa-a-a-y > >> too much respect for experts. > >> > >> The fact is, many scientists are incompetent screw-ups. It is the human > >> condition. Farmers, programmers, stock brokers, bank presidents, army > >> generals . . . people everywhere make mistakes. Half the population is > below > >> average, as an army general was once horrified to discover. I think the > >> Italians are more aware of that. It helps that they lost several wars > in a > >> row. It helps to be a smaller country, less full of yourself. See the > novel > >> "Catch 22" for details. > >> > >> - Jed > >> > > > >
