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From: mauney@ncsu.UUCP (Jon Mauney)
Newsgroups: net.physics,net.research,net.misc
Subject: Re: Why people are skeptical of the Newman machine
Message-ID: <2960@ncsu.UUCP>
Date: Wed, 23-Oct-85 14:05:42 EDT
Article-I.D.: ncsu.2960
Posted: Wed Oct 23 14:05:42 1985
Date-Received: Sat, 26-Oct-85 04:27:58 EDT
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Organization: N.C. State University, Raleigh
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It seems to me that there are three possibilities
 a) Newman is a fraud
 b) Newman has stumbled onto a cute hack involving electrical principles
    that he doesn't understand, so he is sincere, but wrong.
 c) Newman has stumbled onto a new source of energy (matter conversion,
    electron spin, sub-ether power transmissions, whatever).  In this
    case he can't be expected to give a totally correct explanation
    of the principle.
A and B seem the most likely, and our traditional presumption of innocence
means we should use B as the working hypothesis.  The possibility of C
requires us to give the man consideration; the probability of A or B
suggests that we shouldn't waste too much time on him.  The scientific
establishment should present Newman with increasingly rigorous tests
designed to screen out fraud and error with as little expense as possible.
That Newman has no formal training means that he is unlikely to know
what to say to get the attention of trained scientists.  It is the
duty of the scientists to say "If you want to convince me of that,
this is what you'll have to do."  The scientific establishment makes
an ass of itself when it gets angry about people like Velikovsky
and Newman.  Science should know better than to say that anything
is impossible.  It should simply state its reasons for disbelief, and
then ignore the crackpots until they prove themselves.

-- 
Jon Mauney,    mcnc!ncsu!mauney         North Carolina State University

"If God had intended Man to fly, he would never have given us the railways."