While I was writing the "Look Before You Leap" blog, I paused occasionally to ponder upon Bessler's dilemma, i.e., how to get paid for his secret without giving it away.
I remember professor Hal Puthoff suggesting to me once, that he had a number of interested parties who would like to have a chance of investing in the wheel, should someone finally succeed. This was several years ago now, but at that time, it got me thinking about what I would do in that situation. Advice I received was that the buyer could not be allowed to examine the wheel to verify my claims for it, because no one could be certain that he would not just walk away and replicate it, leaving me with nothing but egg on my face and empty pockets! This advice was not intended to cast any doubts on Hal's integrity and I completely trusted him then, as now, but I could see what they meant - how could someone be found who had sufficient knowledge to know if I was trying to fool him and at the same time, how could I know if he was planning to steal the design for himself or to sell on?.
It was suggested that any money agreed for the sale should be held in escrow by a disinterested third party pending verification of the claims and only once they had been substantiated, only then would the money be released. Coincidentally this is exactly what Daniel Schumacher proposed to Bessler on behalf of the Russian Czar, Peter the Great, who was intending to buy the wheel. Bessler rejected the suggestion outright because the same problem applied then, the verifier might be no safer than the buyer. He said there was only one way forward; the buyer must put a bag containing all the cash agreed, on the table next to the wheel; and the two parties could then go their separate ways, Bessler with his payment and the other with the wheel.
That sounds highly mercenary and harsh and yet what other way was there open to him, given the lack of a patent process. He was not prepared to let anyone see the inside of the wheel unless the cash was literally on the table. Since he trusted no one and no one trusted him - impasse!
Of course this need not happen today, any more than it need not have happened in Bessler's day. All he had to do was give it away, but for what? Kudos? Kudos was not sufficient for his needs nor for his ambitions.
Today one could give the secret away and perhaps it might provide sufficient finances for future needs, and that is probably the best way, but poor old Bessler was in an impossible situation and that is why he sought out Princes and other rulers who had the wealth and power to satisfy his demands, if only he could find one he could actually trust. Karl the Landgrave of Hesse could have been that man but he had his own requirements and Bessler's wheel did not satisfy them.
JC
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Good day John. I have been thinking about starting a thread over at bw.com on how to maximize profit on solving this mystery while giving it away for free.
ReplyDeleteGood idea!!!!!!!!!
DeleteJC
Will do my friend.
ReplyDeleteJohn, this is a very interesting subject.
ReplyDeleteGiven the circumstances Johann had to deal with along with the fact of no patent protections back then, the dough on the table with the wheel next to it ready to go, seems one not unreasonable. No doubt, Karl would have been used as a holder of monies if any deal had been carved but, sadly such was not to be the happy case and here we are struggling.
For my own purposes I too have thought on the question and have created a good, workable answer, I believe. Unfortunately, because it involves a particular person in a very special field, I can't be more specific. (Darn! All these secrets and hidden things having to do with P-M but, it just goes with this territory, I guess.)
Yes, our own 'justsomeone' has posted on this subject, over at BWF, and I just did my own little bit so as to add to the pile-o-fun. Take a look. The Big Excitement is welling-up!
(You see I made it 'special,' and always do so as to earn my fourth Greenie. Just THINK:, John, to be a real and authentic Fourite, as deigned and condescended into being by The Great Fivers and then, then but only ONE step removed from miraculousness acceptability itself! Oh! How I do look forward to such an glorious advent! Truly, we all LIVE tor the BWF, it and the most august approbation of the Great Ones that there-rule! Is it not all surpassingly wonderful???)
James
Hi John,
ReplyDeleteBessler didn't have the internet, paypal, electronic funds transfers etc... You could publish your plans online, and ask for a donations - perhaps of 10% of the amount people feel they have saved. If you really feel that money is necessary...
Patents only protect the rich. I know a chap who has the patent on the paper cups they use on airplanes. Nescafe stole it, and he was told he had to find £250K to defend the patent, and that he might lose anyway. So he wasted his time & money getting the patent in the first place.
I decided long ago that if any of my FE machines work, I would publish full details, and seek no monetary recompense for the following reasons:
1) I'd personally be better off if everyone on the planet had the machine, than if they didn't but I was rich.
2) I could die happy and poor if I'd actually managed to make the world a better place.
3) I hate money. It's a false god. It only causes problems. It prevents people sharing freely, and that is our true nature!
I feel the tragedy of Bessler is that he acheived the wheel, but it was lost because of money. The delusion that money should be involved is the very reason why his wheel was lost and forgotten in the mists of time. Ironically, the deire for money is the very reason why Bessler died poor.
If, instead of seeking money, he had taught everyone he met how to make the wheel - for free... How different would his life have been? How different would the world be now? Would he have died poor and alone? Could the machine have been lost if it's construction was common knowledge?
Regards
Tim
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hnjWmpIRVn0
ReplyDeleteThanks Chris, Interesting, but in my view, not the way forward - but I could be wrong.
DeleteJC
Thanks for your view on the matter of money and profits Tim. I agree actually, I have always prefered the idea of giving the secret away and I will, because as the blog suggests there was no way Bessler could profit unless he could acommodate the buyers and answer their concerns. The situation is not that different today. Even though I would like to be able to share the secret openy, I still need to try profit a little from the wheel, not so much for whatit can do for me but to help my familyin a small way. Tis, I thinkwill not be much of a proble,
ReplyDeleteJC
Hi John,
ReplyDeleteI think that the choice is a false dilemma. Only one path leads to your stated goals... The choices are:
a) Publish everything for free - seeking no monetary recompense, but perhaps being open to donations - and of course selling your books, being available for speeches etc...
Result: The world changes. You would be world-famous - and would have many opportunities to capitalise on your efforts.
b) Find a way to control the release of the information / availability of the product so money must change hands for every instance of the machine.
Result: Uncertain.
If, God forbid, you were run over by a petrol-tanker tomorrow, what would happen to your work? Are any friends or family working with you? Would your work be lost?
Also, my understanding is that to 'give without thought or receiving' is not just a lofty ideal. It is God's law - and it applies in real time... This chap has an excellent website & series of vids you might enjoy: http://www.servantking.info/
Regards
Tim
Hi Tim. I agree, (a) is and was my choice.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the link. I've only watched the first video so far, but I'm fascinated. I've already taken one thought to heart - "Belief is not knowledge. Belief is only what you accept as true."
That has been at the back of mind since I was a teenager but I never put it into words before - and I didn't realise it 'til now.
JC