Quest for Truth

[neptune]

Last night I watched a TV show,I think it was called Share or Steal. A prize of several thousand pounds was on offer, and each of the2 contestants had 2 buttons marked share, and steal. If both contestants pressed share, they got to share the prize. I f both pressed steal , they each got nothing. If one pressed  steal and one pressed share, the contestant who pressed steal got all the money. I was fascinated because this is how the world works, and the energy scene in particular. The greedy and dishonest are the winners.
          The scarcer the earths resources become, the more this will be true.I t is human nature, we are descended from animals, but not very far. It is said that truth is the first casualty in war. I disagree on the grounds that it was already dead. I can understand, to some extent when a scam is committed for personal gain. What I can not understand are those who scam for no gain whatever. All this achieves is a waste of the time and resources of skilled and dedicated researchers. Imagine a world in which mankind was incapable of lying....

[shruggedatlas]

Last night I watched a TV show,I think it was called Share or Steal. A prize of several thousand pounds was on offer, and each of the2 contestants had 2 buttons marked share, and steal. If both contestants pressed share, they got to share the prize. I f both pressed steal , they each got nothing. If one pressed  steal and one pressed share, the contestant who pressed steal got all the money. I was fascinated because this is how the world works, and the energy scene in particular. The greedy and dishonest are the winners.
          The scarcer the earths resources become, the more this will be true.I t is human nature, we are descended from animals, but not very far. It is said that truth is the first casualty in war. I disagree on the grounds that it was already dead. I can understand, to some extent when a scam is committed for personal gain. What I can not understand are those who scam for no gain whatever. All this achieves is a waste of the time and resources of skilled and dedicated researchers. Imagine a world in which mankind was incapable of lying....

What you have described is an old philosophical puzzle called the prisoner's dilemma.  It does occur naturally in many situations.  However, it tends to occur most in situations where parties have little communication and/or trust with one another.  There are plenty of instances in modern society where parties cooperate to mutual benefit, so I think your pessimistic view of the world is (1) overly simplistic and (2) grossly inaccurate.

[fritznien]

@ shruggedatlas
there is a solution to the prisoner's dilemma. the first time you share or trust, there after you do what ever your opposite did in the previous round. we don't have to be angels to make progress.

[The Eskimo Quinn]

To the original remarks.

Absolutely correct, my recent quote on that very subject, is that to patent perpetual motion, would simply be trading one tyrant scumbag for another, the cost of energy would be the same, even if a well meaning patent owner/energy supplier thought otherwise, the government would do the same as they do now, gas costs 2 cents a liter, we pay 60 cents per liter, most of it in taxes and "excise" and duties etc etc. and if you are silly enough to think a free energy car would show them who?s boss, it will simply get the British television treatment where you pay a license fee every year for every TV you own because it ?pays for the government stations" Rego for these cars would simply be normal rego plus 20,000 km's worth of fuel cost per year equivalent as a license.

If you think any Government gives a rats about the public pain, the US "independent" I should repeat that, "independent government advisors on how the US should deal with ending oil dependency, was to screw all of the US citizens, the report was 2006 just 2 years ago funny how we are now at the point in the report which said, stick up the price of fuel to 3 dollars plus an extra dollar in tax, I kid you not, Here is a link to the Government pdf    http://www.green-salon.com/EnergyTFR.pdf

[neptune]

Gas at 4 dollars a gallon? You think you got problems! here in the UK we pay around twice that. A few years back everybody bought deisel cars, because deisel was cheaper than petrol[gasoline]
Guess what , diesel now costs more than petrol!