X-Message-Number: 23238 From: "John de Rivaz" <> References: <> Subject: Re: Tsk, Tsk Date: Fri, 9 Jan 2004 11:45:05 -0000 > Message #23237 (Cryonet, http://www.cryonet.org ) > Date: Fri, 09 Jan 2004 00:04:39 -0800 > From: James Swayze <> > Subject: Tsk, Tsk > References: <> <del> > Oh and I'll have you know it's not armchair science, it's wheelchair > science, thank you very much. ;) Since when have amateurs not > contributed good science or not been allowed to try? There was a time when all science was "amateur science", which is when freethinkers with private incomes created the basis of the world we live in today. In their time, most such people were considered harmless eccentrics. A good account of this can be found in Dr Clifford Pickover's Strange Brains and Genius http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ISBN=0306457849/longevitybooksA/ where you find details of how, for example, a now revered mathematical physicist used to write learned papers and then, rather than publish them, use them as loft insulation. You will even find the ideas of preservation of the dead for future reanimation -- Victorian style, using the newly discovered science (art?) of electroplating. In medicine, the idea of keeping people with diseases isolated and medical premises clean was initially for some years regarded with derision by the authorities, as was anaesthesia. Only be the action of people acting on their own initiative outside the discipline of their peers did this change. Even today, some practises still disregard this, which is why the world suffers influenza epidemics that kill on average more people than war or terrorists. According to New Scientist 10 Jan 2004 p 19, flu infects 700,000 people worldwide each year, plus numerous other species. Yet familiarity breeds contempt -- those that die are usually over 70 or under 2 -- not politically active groups. Maybe, the article suggests, if the disease was rebranded "acute myalgic fever" the authorities would take more notice and not encourage individuals to carry on going to work infecting hundreds more people. There is little economic advantage in developing treatments or vaccines, yet governments devote their expenditure on loss common diseases such as Venezuelan Equine Encephalitis (which has military significance). But sometime, the article concludes "we will face a biological attack that has nothing to do with terrorists and everything to do with flu viruses circulating ... ". In the mid 20th century, many of these so called eccentrics were taken into industry and government employment. But there were still examples of extreme strangeness, such as the fact that the inventor Alec Reeves, who offered the allied powers previously unheard of accuracy in bombing, was convinced that his ideas came in spirit messages from Faraday. (The inventor of the theory and technology behind all the electric motors we use today). In his spare time at the government's military research facility, Reeves conducted ESP experiments during the war. Reeves also introduced PCM, (Pulse Code Modulation, the basis of modern digital telephones, CDs and so on), in 1938. More details, including some of Reeves' ESP papers, can be found on http://www.alecharleyreeves.com There you will read how he predicted the world we live in today - in a paper presented around 1970 in which amongst other things he described mesh networking. This he called Synsol and is similar to wireless networking for PCs that is the hot topic of today. Today science is more rigidly disciplined, and whereas this may be more apposite to the extreme complexity of modern systems, it gives no opportunity for the "wild card" - great leaps into the unknown - gambles that pay off and avoid possibly centuries of hard grind. -- Sincerely, John de Rivaz: http://John.deRivaz.com for websites including Cryonics Europe, Longevity Report, The Venturists, Porthtowan, Alec Harley Reeves - inventor, Arthur Bowker - potter, de Rivaz genealogy, Nomad .. and more Rate This Message: http://www.cryonet.org/cgi-bin/rate.cgi?msg=23238