Re: Open Letter...

Alintelbot@aol.com
Thu, 22 Jul 1999 03:28:55 EDT

>Scientists should be trained in how to
>spot fakery, and we as futurists and speculators need to be
>better trained to avoid being sidetracked by nonsense. That's
>what I'm trying to point out here--nothing personal--you're
>just a convenient target that popped up into the sights.

_Please_. Obviously we're not reaching each other at all, so can the smugness. I'm a "convenient target." Yes, I certainly seem to be--but because I've posted something pseudoscientific and irrational or because I'm not a "member of the club"?

You may not be calling me names anymore, but you just as well might be. "Sidetracked by nonsense." I suppose you're doing this for my own good? You're quite the altruist, but I've had more than I can stand.

I think I have amply shown that there is a case to be made for possible artificiality of certain formations on Mars--however small a case this may be from a given viewpoint. _Any_ reasonable person, faced with an issue of such explosive potential, would give the go-ahead. But to dismiss it outright--along with a chance to get new images, virtually effortlessly--smacks of a certain unbecoming arrogance.

I'm not going to bother psychoanalyzing you, other than to say I think you're a pompous know-it-all, and a particularly mean one at that.

--Mac