Re: It it even anything?

[Charles J Knight <c dot knight at juno dot com>]

> If it is anything, why the secrecy?  There's no point in it. If its 
> so
> amazing, far more buzz would be generated by letting people know 
> about it
> than this type of stunt.

Let me give you an example of why this is marketing genius.

Star Trek transporters.  They dematerialize you, particle by particle,
and rematerialize you elsewhere, right?  Pretty amazing invention, if 
someone could make one that works...right?

IBM made a press release, I guess it was a couple of years back,
which said that they were able to dematerialize, transport, and
rematerialize particles.  It's the first step towards a Star Trek
transporter, FOR REAL!

Can you think of anything more amazing?  But, where was the
hype?  Where was the buzz?

Five or six years ago, Miguel Alcubierre postulated a theory, based
on Einstein's equations, which allows for faster than light travel.
It involves a warping of spacetime, and something called "local
light cones."  The obvious analogy is to that of a warp field, and
the lack of time dilation experienced within, as this is exactly what
his theory predicts.

It caused widespread excitement in the scientific community, for
a short time, and was then all but forgotten.  Despite the fact that
the math works, this theory "fizzled" in the public's eye.  Again, 
it was a victim of poor marketing more than anything else.

Anyway...that's what happens to an amazing discovery, without
marketing genius.

     -- Chuck Knight
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