Jones Beene <jone...@pacbell.net> wrote:
> The Rossi E-Cat is an advanced but unproved energy device which has been > publicly replicated by no reliable laboratory, and exists because a small > number of humans working on similar projects have chosen to believe in its > legitimacy. There are FAR better reasons for believing the E-Cat than this! It has been tested independently when Rossi was on another continent. Those tests have not been published but I have seen the results. The heater in the factory was also tested. The latest version was tested again by the people from ELFORSK, using their own instruments, with a time lapse video camera set up to ensure that Rossi did not interfere. This is better proof than most cold fusion laboratories provide. It is much better proof than, say, Mills has provided. Replication may be the best method to confirm a claim, but it is not the only method. Independent verification by experts is also valid. No one has "chosen" to believe in anything. We have good evidence from three sets of tests performed by the ELFORSK people. In the first test, the steel cylinder melted. There is no way the electric power from the mains could have done that. In any case, you cannot "choose" to believe something. Belief is not voluntary. Your mind compels belief, or it doesn't. You can be biased. You can engage in wishful thinking. But you still have no control over the conclusion you reach. Wishful thinking leads to a delusion, but delusion is not voluntary either. You cannot willfully put it aside. That is why religious concepts such as Pascal's wager are illogical. No matter how hard you try, you cannot compel yourself to believe that God exists, or that the E-Cat is working, or that 2 + 2 = 5. I agree that the BitCoin, confidence in the market, faith in the money supply, and various other economic phantasmagoria are more psychological than real. They are more like women's fashion statements than science. - Jed
