Mike Carrell writes:
> Wise remarks from Hoyt. Jed is a programmer, and in his logical world one > can reverse engineer code, in fact there are programs that will give one a > good start.
Of course I realize that machines or experiments can be much more difficult to reverse engineer than software, but this difficulty would not be an issue with a o-u magnetic motor. First, because a magnet is a magnet, and unless extraordinarily strong, small or strangely shaped magnets are called for, it is reasonable to assume that any set of magnets with similar strength should work. It seems unlikely that the secret would be in the composition of the magnets themselves, or some other hidden aspect of production or materials. Second, because in the event that ~100 working machines circulate, unprecedented efforts will be made to replicate them in thousands of different labs. Even if hundreds of labs fail, many others will succeed. Take Carrell's own example:
> The transmission was, I think, the Oldsmobile hydra-glide, which used fluid > coupling, in which rough surfaces of closely engaging plates couple to the > fluid. Rolls Royce enngineers routinely super polished all the moving parts > to extend life. Unfortunately, that was not the thing to do with the > transmission design.
Obviously someone, somewhere eventually figured out what the Rolls Royce engineers did wrong in this case. They realized that "super polishing" does not work. Perhaps they realized this years later, when it no longer mattered. If the o-u machine reverse-engineering project hit a similar roadblock, hundreds of new people would be thrown into the project immediately. Competing teams would be set up. They would find this kind of problem within days or hours, not years.
The situation will be similar to what happens in wartime when a critical technology is developed or captured, such as the German u-boat devices to detect airborne short wave radar. When this happened, British and American researchers began frantic work to develop countermeasures. Another example is what happens with a large airplane crashes, and a technical problem is suspected. After three L-188 Lockheed Electra airplanes crashed in the late 1950s, for a short time just about every aerospace R&D lab in the U.S. -- including those of competing aircraft manufacturers and the government -- was yanked out of its present program and devoted instead to finding the cause of the accidents. (After a few weeks they determined it was gyroscopic "whirl mode.")
- Jed
