In a bit of historical retrospective, last evening I watched a fabulous bit of history about the beautiful aftermath of "treachery" ... at least that is one way to describe the "Silicon Valley, the American Experience" a film by Randall MacLowry of WGBH Boston.
There are parallels to LENR which are worth thinking about. The documentary covers the miraculous transformation of Santa Clara County from cheap Orchard land into the most important bit of technology real estate on Earth, with a GDP twice as high as Saudi Arabia. The backstory episode was known as "The traitorous eight" in reference to the eight men who left Shockley Semiconductor Laboratory in 1957 to form Fairchild. The two dozen multi-billion dollar companies that formed later from further treachery, following the initial dispersal are called Fairchildren. William Shockley had received a Nobel Prize in Physics for inventing the transistor but was unfit as a corporate manager, and his prize team of recruits left the company at a time before Venture Capital encouraged this tactic - and in fact VC pretty much developed out of the progression of Semiconductors -> ICs -> CPUs -> Computers -> Internet -> Cell phones. Anyway, in some ways the LENR optimist could envision a scenario which is not unlike this former one in Silicon Valley being poised to happen for the upcoming development of the new technology of alternative energy based on LENR in a prime area with the proper funding and labor supply. Even if the TIP announcement of the Rossi effect is more momentous than some believe it will be, and despite the availability of Sand Hill Road, I do not see this same rapid deployment happening again in Silicon Valley, although it could in principle... since the brain-power and VC capital is here. In the USA as a whole, and Silicon Valley in particular - prices are too high, there is too much wealth, and the vision of a sustainable future is clouded - plus money can go anywhere and it usually chooses the best value. But even China may not provide the best value. "The Next Big Thing" in breakthrough technology will probably happen in alternative energy, but the location of "Hydrogen Valley" is undetermined for now, and could be influenced by a single wealthy individual - and then of course - by an aftermath of treachery. I also noticed that some fool was willing to pay $2 billion for a basketball team - what a waste considering that kind of seed money could bring in more to one location than the $1.5 trillion that Sherman Fairchild's small investment did for SV. That kind of money put into the first LENR program could assure at least that the Pioneer company, whether it be IH or Clean Planet (the Japanese startup headed by Yoshino and based on Mizuno's technology) - would at least attract the talented traitors. BTW - Yoshino seems to have many of the same qualities and the charisma of Bob Noyce. Jones
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