The Steorn debacle reminds me of a "Mission Accomplished" poster once mounted behind the current U.S. President and aired to the world.... Both are PR stunts gone awry, at least on the surface. The parallels resonate further:
For President Bush's government, the background poster on the USS Lincoln was needed to bolster support and moral confidence in the war effort & to further establish an air of "shock and awe" supremacy across the globe. Although the backlash to Washington's PR dissemination program started almost immediately, the perception of military authority pervades... partly in thanks to a PR stunt that by other measures, constituted total failure.
Steorn's campaign proves no different.
This isn't a political or partisan commentary. My point is that Public Relations programs (along with their affect on the masses), and the connection with their object of reference is only loosely associated. There exists no law of equality between what is real and what we perceive. Rhetoricians often employ one to affect the other by contrast--to establish a new, hyperbolic reality for the masses. As a propaganda device, this approach can be effective, even amidst failure.
Just as sure as G.W.B. managed to secure a second term, so will Steorn. We will all be there to sign-up for another demonstration of whatever Steorn decides to show us, in spite of this recent disappointment. In the meantime, Steorn continues to command the market on Overunity news; and yet, our expectation of attainable Overunity devices is significantly diminished. Whatever morsels of knowledge or hope Steorn is willing to dole out, the masses will eat it up and be impressed because they want to be.
So as you see, there's an implicit danger: how can we ensure that the world audience doesn't become desensitized by the constant propagation of disinformation?
To me, this episode serves as proof-positive that what the regular folks of the world need is a centralized grassroots (paradoxical as it sounds) OverUnity propaganda machine that would serve to safeguard the public against both organized special interest groups and corporate vigilantism. A filter, designed to debunk disinformation from questionable sources and also one that is capable of disseminating a public truth about Overunity effectively when that time comes. In my opinion, such truths ought to serve the interests of a world audience.
Notwithstanding this, I recognize that sometimes, as is the case with Steorn and other patent-bound developers, intellectual property must be protected. While we in this community are happy to generate OpenSource research at our own cost, protecting the interests of the private sector is key to ensuring that companies continue to invest money into R&D.
In my opinion, Steorn is nothing particularly new or out of the ordinary; rather, recurring evidence of a much larger problem that pervades throughout this and the world scientific community generally.
Those are my thoughts. Your input is welcome.
--Mark.