Re: VMs: Can one "prove" a hoax? - and a request.

[Jacques Guy <jguy@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

2/18/03 11:02:39 AM, Gabriel Landini <G.Landini@xxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

>Now, let's assume that the vms *is* a hoax. What would be "proof" of a hoax 
>*based on the text itself*?

On the text itself?


Impossible. I was just reminiscing about the "Manna Machine",
a April fool published by New Scientist in 1976 (April 1st, 1976
of course). It was a hoax.

However, later, the authors, George Sassoon and Rodney Dale,
beefed it up and published it as a book, where there gloated
about having been published in this "prestigious" mag, New
Scientist.

Do they really believe in their crap? (in which case it is not 
a hoax but just another piece of asininity).

Or did they publish it as money-making piece of nonsense, 
fully knowing that it was nonsense? (in which case it is not
a hoax).

I do not think we can tell, short of asking them, and them
telling the truth.

Same with the VMS. The test itself, no. Other evidence, perhaps.



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