On Tue, 6 Nov 2007, Jones Beene wrote: > Richard will no doubt get a huge charge out of the following pdf, which > is almost tailor-made for the old Vortex mentality. It may be > excessively speculative for the new Vortex, however ;-)
But excessive speculation is the birthplace of science! My own "skepticism" centers on two things: 1. being on guard against dishonest people. 2. avoiding the mind-trap of belief and disbelief. Speculation is not dishonest unless it's presented as certain fact. And untested speculation is not a mental defect unless we decide that we KNOW that speculations are certainly true, or are certainly garbage. Suppression of speculation is suppression of brainstorming. As for #1 above... the FE/OU community is certainly open to abuse by scammers as well as by hoaxers. If money is involved, then even an otherwise honest researcher can suffer a conflict of interest and begin lying to himself as well as to others. But even without money, I've met a few people who get their jollies by lying to others. One person in particular (locally, not online) will occasionally tell lies for no apparent reason, or steal small items, and he seems to get secret glee when others are hurt or confused by his covert dishonesty. Everyone think's he's honest, and he doesn't do it often, otherwise word would spread quickly. And years ago I met someone who seemed honest, but they were intentionally (and very covertly) spreading negative gossip and confusion on the job. Why? Hard to say. It was pretty obvious once detected, but it was totally invisible if you weren't aware that such people exist. Therefore... if you start to suspect that you're being lied to, it's wise to heed your intuition and start watching very carefully, since covert liars may not be common, but they're around. >From my experience over decades, I see that in groups of about a hundred people, some few will be these "covert dishonest" types. And if everyone in the group is completely trusting and open, then the group has no defenses, opens itself to being victimized, and will attract victimizers. Become a "wimp," and you attract "bullies." But if you defend yourself even a little, they quickly flee the group and search for more trusting victims elsewhere. (((((((((((((((((( ( ( ( ( (O) ) ) ) ) ))))))))))))))))))) William J. Beaty SCIENCE HOBBYIST website billb at amasci com http://amasci.com EE/programmer/sci-exhibits amateur science, hobby projects, sci fair Seattle, WA 425-222-5066 unusual phenomena, tesla coils, weird sci
