chrismb wrote:The way I see it going is that EMC2 will run out of funds/end of project, and they'll then say "Ah! We were juuuuust at the point of a great breakthrough and - LOOK - someone's pulled the plug to stop us!" so we say 'Can we take a look at the results' to which we will be told "We need to keep that commercially confidential because we are now looking for private funding"... and we will then never know what was or was not the germane material that kept this thing floating for oohhh sooo loooong.....
Precisely
not what I'm saying, and as far as I can tell what most others "pro" Polywell aren't saying. That kind of ITER train wreck might be in the making but the evidence simply doesn't outweigh benefit of the doubt yet.
And why do I think this???... Because it is the
same old story that magnetic confinement repeated time after time, at which point Bussard came in and said 'hah, look at these monkeys, I can do the job for a few million' and then he, and EMC2 have been now repeating
the same old story.
Same old story in the past.
Same old story in the future. "Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me, you can't get fooled again." - or whatever that Tennessee saying is....
So what if he really believed it? He was no fool. The leads he followed weren't unjustified. The WB7 peer review gist ("positive", "no show stoppers") holds all that questionable sequence of decades-long hints and promises together. As much as it still is so uncertain.
WHy has it take so bloody long to reproduce WB6 results, these supposedly fantastic results that they got just as the thing blew up and they ran out of money? Why can't we get to know what the repeat of that exercise was, and a demonstration that the neutron emissions were isotropic? We were told once, so what's the big deal with having those results clearly re-iterated? That'd be good enough material to keep me happy for a decade while they fiddle away, knitting these Emperor's clothes?
Good questions, unanswered questions. Unless you managed to get a hold of that data, or saw with your own eyes what happened and is happening in that vacuum chamber.
Nah. I don't buy a word of it any more. It is in the category of Bulgarian/Australian zero energy motors, or cold fusion - also funded by the Navy and, so what?!! I'm sure they fund places for religions worship for their ratings and officers as well, but that hardly proves they believe in God!! All Hail The Big P! The Prophet Nebel has spoken! I'm done here... once again..... this stuff just makes me angry now. It is anti-science, and it is a sign for the end of the Western culture.
Yeah off the deep end once again.
Time is on our side. In a couple of years you'll have all the fence sitters on your side.
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Ladajo's post argues the same things I'm arguing to negligible differences.
The rest of my lost diatribe regarded the idea that if via the FOIA, the results come out, and it is positive, then every freak show in town is going to try and jump on this and take control. In that case, I would rather that EMC and ONR have thier ducks in a row before this hits the general public (and world). I think they deserve a chance to do Good Research, and get Real Results, and not get run over by a stampede of elephants before they are ready.
In my mind, they have worked this long, and deserve a fair shot to drive the bus they built. If it is not viable, then they get to prove that as well in a scientific, not political manner. I do not know if it will work or not, but I can say that my sense right now based on what has been put out, is exactly as Rick has put it, nothing yet saying it won't, but that doesn't mean it will. In any event, Rick and his team have put in a lot of effort under trying times, and they deserve our support for a fair shot to see WB8 to results (good or bad). In the end, whatever the results positive or negative, if required, I will go full on to see that it goes public, but not until they have results.
My emphases. Exactly. This is the context I'm arguing from. Now's not the time.
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