about human fear of change this join this study http://www.world-science.net/exclusives/111212_creativity.htm
I think that sucess of failure of acceptance of something like LENR, is partially determined, but hugely chaotic... few details could have make LENR a success. 2013/10/17 Jed Rothwell <[email protected]> > Edmund Storms <[email protected]> wrote: > > >> Initially, the idea was not rejected by many people who later found >> reasons to reject. >> > > Some of them were standing by, nursing a grudge, waiting to speak out in > public. Especially the MIT plasma fusion group. That's what Gene Mallove > said. They hated it from the moment they heard about it, and they began > scheming to discredit it. They succeeded! > > This happened with other discoveries such as the laser. > > > When it worked on occasion, I found these successes were generally >> ignored. They were ignored locally at the laboratories where the studies >> were made and later by the DOE panel. >> > > This often happens. There are countless examples in history. > > > >> I can suggest three main reasons were used by normally rational, honest, >> and educated men to modify what they believed. >> >> 1. The claim conflicted with known and expected behavior based on hot >> fusion. People assumed CF and HF were the same phenomenon. Some people >> still have this belief. . . . >> > > I agree with these three main reasons. I would add a fourth reason: human > nature. Most people reject most novel ideas out of instinct. People fear > novelty. They fear the unknown; that is, unknown places, sights, smells and > other stimuli. This is instinct. It is a product of evolution. There is a > countervailing instinct explore the unknown. The two instincts are at war > with one another. Some people are more inclined to fear, other to explore. > You can observe the same push-pull fear and attraction in other species. In > the 1970s in Japan I took part in studies in which we measured these > effects in guppies, and in Japanese ground squirrels. > > This was masterfully described by Francis Bacon: > > "The human understanding, when any preposition has been once laid down, > (either from general admission and belief, or from the pleasure it > affords,) forces every thing else to add fresh support and confirmation; > and although more cogent and abundant instances may exist to the contrary, > yet either does not observe or despises them, or gets rid of and rejects > them by some distinction, with violent and injurious prejudice, rather than > sacrifice the authority of its first conclusions." > > - Novum Organum, 1620 > > > And by William Trotter: > > "If we watch ourselves honestly we shall often find that we have begun > to argue against a new idea even before it has been completely stated." > > - Jed > >
