Path: utzoo!utgpu!water!watmath!clyde!att!osu-cis!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!husc6!purdue!umd5!mimsy!chris
From: chris@mimsy.UUCP (Chris Torek)
Newsgroups: sci.electronics
Subject: Re: Free power from 'whispering wires' ??
Message-ID: <12401@mimsy.UUCP>
Date: 11 Jul 88 15:53:29 GMT
References: <3170@tekgen.BV.TEK.COM> <1310011@hpcilzb.HP.COM> <449@uvicctr.UUCP>
Organization: U of Maryland, Dept. of Computer Science, Coll. Pk., MD 20742
Lines: 34

In article <449@uvicctr.UUCP> collinge@uvicctr.UUCP (Doug Collinge) writes:
>Listen politely but do not accept the assurances of an scientist or
>engineer who says something cannot be done.

This is almost right.  (Add the word `blindly' between `accept' and
`the'.)

>They seem to be highly inclined to invoke their intuition and call it
>science, extrapolationg wildly or applying formulae while not
>accounting for unknown variables.

This is known as `being human'.

>water diviners ... I know it works because I use it to find buried pipes.

This is known as `silly'.  (The easiest way to find buried pipes is to
look at the plans.)

>I don't know if it works for digging wells ....

Of course it works for digging wells.  Anything that includes digging
works for digging wells.  Divination simply does not work any better
than digging more or less at random.

Divination gets studied every once in a while.  Diviners claim to be
able to find all sorts of things, but every reasonable test always
comes up with results equivalent to chance.  (This is not precisely
true: often people know more than they think they know about finding
things.  Divination is a simple means of tapping that hidden knowledge.)

What does any of this have to do with electronics?
-- 
In-Real-Life: Chris Torek, Univ of MD Comp Sci Dept (+1 301 454 7163)
Domain:	chris@mimsy.umd.edu	Path:	uunet!mimsy!chris