This was my attempt to wake up the New Energy Congress (NEC - under Sterling D. Alan leadership) to stop "beating the bushes" and get "practical" with an organization like the proposed Xtreme Science Foundation (XSF) ... to my surprise, nobody had the guts to deviate from Sterling's marching orders that it was a bad idea (my "baby" so I do it alone); of course, despite being one of the founding members, I resigned from NEC immediately.
Xtreme Science Foundation Proposal (letter to Sterling Allan and the NEC/ Aug 5, 2007): Sterling,
I don’t remember reading your response to the NEM
questionnaire? Anyway, as a good intro into my view of what’s happening
with the FE movement and what must be done, you can read my comments to
the NEM questionnaire here.
A few recent partially-successful stories made it clear for me
what must be done to get the FE movement out of the current gridlock.
- NASA’s
BPP (Breakthrough Propulsion Physics) showed that science is desperate for new,
breakthrough ideas and willing to at least “consider” the wildest new concepts
in physics (propulsion was the main theme but I see no difference if the energy
would be the subject). Also, the number of “proposals” submitted and the great
diversity of those who participated proved to me that most of the “out of the
box” serious thinkers and inventors are not afraid to come forward, if they
think academic science is willing to seriously look at their ideas.
- Steorn
saga proved undeniably that a working O/U prototype and a smart, widely
publicized challenge to science to disprove it, is all you need to get
conventional scientist, major mass media and the public to pay attention (given
the current sensitivity around the energy, peak oil, global warming, etc.
topics). The Fleischmann-Pons cold-fusion fiasco shows exactly what NOT to do
when challenging academic science (and as we know cold-fusion effect is real –
there were international conferences on the topic every year since 1989 – but
the challenge was premature … even today, the best cells have a “will of their
own”, a way to characterize the uncontrollability of the phenomenon).
So, the first thing to
do is finding ONE WORKING O/U prototype (from the few reasonable claims out
there that we all are aware of) and convince its inventor(s) to help change the
world as we know it. There are alleged working O/U devices that are generating
almost kW level of excess power (consistently, they claim). This, in my
opinion, should be the primary task for the NEC/NEM, which should be perfectly
capable of accomplishing it (with the current resources).
Once we have secured the
cooperation of at least ONE such inventor (under the terms I’ll mention below)
we need to find a smart way to involve the mainstream science for necessary
credibility, the major media for world wide coverage (and indirect protection
against possible attempts of suppression), the business community and the general
public for moral, legal and financial support. And here is how to do that:
- Create
an international nonprofit organization, such as my proposed Xtreme Science
Foundation (XSF), with the main purpose to carry out independent, objective,
unbiased and widely accepted scientific validation of "private
research" in the field of new energy technologies, research that most of
the present scientific community and media would otherwise consider an
unacceptable departure from the conventional thinking. This foundation should
consist of qualified skeptics and believers alike, from all over the world.
Steorn mentioned that out of the 5000 who answered their challenge, 500 were
qualified scientists. So, there should be no shortage of applicants for
membership in an organization that would do for “energy technologies” what BPP
did for propulsion physics (pls note, XSF, for now, would not focus on theory
as much as on existing inventor technologies validation, just like with
Steorn). Once a working O/U device is identified, it would be enough of a lure
for the scientists to take the challenge and enroll in the foundation to test
it. Certainly, our goal is to have scientists from all over the world joining
the foundation since we expect similar devices to pop up in many parts of the
world, once everybody gains confidence in the foundation’s noble scope,
fairness and professional integrity (for credibility, we need a few recognized
names to form the foundation’s management committee, not difficult to
accomplish if the project is presented properly by people with good
communication skills - and we have lots of such people in NEC/NEM, including
you Sterling ;-).
- The
foundation (say XSF) will also reward through a significant monetary prize (say
XS-NRG Prize) and promote those revolutionary technologies that will prove to
be viable and can significantly contribute to the betterment of humanity and
the planet. Again, if well designed and implemented, the foundation could
attract enormous funds (see below how) and the prize will be a powerful
incentive for those inventors still in doubt (together with the clear &
fair conditions for participation in the contest– see below).
How do you finance all
that? Well, the foundation will rely on an innovative fund raising process
based on participation and support from the general public, scientific
institutions, and the business community, all who care about the truth, the
planet and want to be perceived progressive (“open minded” ...and who doesn't?)
Mind you, the fundation doesn't support, doesn't deny free energy... It will
serve as an open access podium for all inventors/innovators out there to
present their work for proper and honest validation and as a vehicle through
which donors may reward/fund the high-quality leading-edge techno-scientific
accomplishments/ research that otherwise would have great difficulty finding
recognition and financial support.
The invitation to
participate and support the XSF fund will go out to the public through a
publicity campaign on the Internet and other mass media outlets who agree to
support the initiative (with a little luck and taking advantage of favorable
circumstances we can make it bigger than Steorn’s ad in the Economist). Every
responsible person and organization that would like to do something to
potentially influence our common destiny would want to get involved and support
the XSF project, if it is CREDIBLE and there is NO RISK of loosing their
pledged money.
The funds will
accumulate for predetermined time duration (two years, for example) in an
escrow account, managed by a reputable financial institution. If the legal
conditions for awarding the XS-NRG prize money to the winner(s) are not met
after the established time period is up, the funds will revert to their lawful
owners (less some agreed upon prorated percentage to cover all approved
expenses – that % will be automatically moved into a different account and will
constitute foundation’s operating funds). The funds will be managed in the
open, and all-important decisions will be taken in a democratic manner, based
on participants input. Given the fact that many consider the chances for the
prize to be won slim (if not nil) there will be little fear to pledge quite a
lot of money (for “show off” reasons … “look people, if the amazing Randi put
$1 million, I, Exxon Mobil Corp. will put $10 mil so, don’t say I’m only
financing the anti global warming groups” … by the way, Exxon’s last quarter
profit: $10 billion!). The potential for enormous funds to be accumulated in
the escrow account is good, and if all contributors agree to allocate a
reasonable % of that to the Foundation’s operating fund … (I leave this topic
for some other time, if people will provide that “other time”).
The validation tests
will be conducted by, preferably, three independent reputable laboratories
(university or industrial, government and/or private) that will be selected
from those willing to accept to participate in this historic, public-demanded
challenge. The labs will have to agree to a testing protocol with the
inventor(s), sign an NDA and agree to widely publish the results of the tests
(positive or negative) soon after completion. The XSF Testing committee will
designate our qualified members (NEC/NEM or others) to directly participate in
the design, setup and actual testing (to avoid what happened to Newman, for
example – we’ll cover the testing fees after all). The foundation must
obviously have a strong legal department as well (not a problem if/when you
have money ;-).
The operating fund will
also cover all expenses incurred by candidates during the testing phase.
Candidates will only have to agree to the wide publication of the test results
(passed or failed). The inventors can each choose whether or not they want to
disclose any other information about themselves and/or their technology. There
are no other obligations between the inventors and the XSF administrators with
respect to the future of the respective technologies (my opinion). Certainly,
the successful ones will trigger a lot of interest from the outside world, and
the inventors are entitled to use their newly acquired status and wealth to
proceed with further development of their invention, as they see fit (XSF can
help here as well … nothing wrong with that, if it is at inventor’s
discretion). From what I know, the guarantee of their IP protection and the
"no strings attached" are "make or break" conditions for
many inventors to accept official scientific public testing. Unfortunately,
some very credible inventors, may request official waiver of the Secrecy Order
on their invention (from the application of the 1951 Invention Secrecy Act) and
that IS a challenge (hopefully NEM with their political connections can solve).
I’ll stop here for now,
hoping that I somewhat answered your question. The goal of the XSF and its
XS-NRG prize is to prove or disprove to science and the general public the
truth behind these extraordinary claims for breakthrough energy devices. Even
with the majority of experts giving a very low probability for these claims to
be true, the potential positive impact if just one of them turns out to be real
is so great that we cannot afford to ignore them. Actually, given the present
condition of global energy and environmental crisis we already experience, we
have an urgent duty to explore the slightest chance that a claim is real. This
is a “call to arms” now, because it is the right time to act; the time for
useless talk and "top 100" lists
is over, from my point of view, whether some like it or not.
Certainly, a website
must be set up specifically for this project (XtremeScienceFoundation.org has
been secured and is available for whoever wants to take the challenge of
building it professionally – I do not have the time and the pro skills
required). General information, media promos, the information and the necessary
forms for registering a pledge/contribution, or for a candidate inventor to
register a device for testing will be available on this site. The website should
allow the world to see who were solicited for support, and their responses (I
think this is something that would make all “public” entities think twice
before refusing). Foundation’s members, management committee and their working
groups from all over the world, testing labs, etc should all be listed there. Monitoring of the accumulated funds,
who contributed and how much, details on fund expenses, etc. should also be
public domain. This will provide the transparency and public trust, which are key to the success of such an activity.
Anyway, since you‘ve
asked Sterling, this is in a nutshell what I proposed to New Energy Movement
NEM to think about (Steve Kaplan has the doc with more details, but I haven’t
heard back from him yet – NEM’s views on what constitutes revolutionary energy
technologies that we should dedicate most of our time to bring forward, are
much closer to mine than yours – that’s why I gave the proposal to them first).
Now I’m asking the NEC to think about this proposal since it is perfectly
doable with the people, talents and the connections its members have. You can
very well spearhead this Sterling,
if you want, since you have the passion for the FE topic, the time and the
talent/skills (organizational and communication) necessary for such a task. But
do you (all) have the will to finally crack the FE riddle and uncover the truth
about this almost ancient “myth”, whatever this truth is (disappointing or
liberating)?
Vlad
P.S. The Steorn
validation results would generate enough media buzz that it would create an
ideal platform for the XSF to be launched, don’t you think so? There is not
much time left, but it can still be done!
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