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from Yahoo free_energy list] Samantha Kane wrote: I was re-reading the final chapters of Nick Cook's HUNT FOR ZERO POINT last night and came across a chilling comment about the possible military applications of ZPE.
Phil Karn wrote: I don't think you need to worry, since ZPE isn't real and there's absolutely no credible evidence to the contrary.
Gary S. wrote: I wouldn't go that far. "Vacuum energy," also called ZPE, is quite real...
See http://plato.phy.ohiou.edu/~ulloa/611-612/612papers/Trang%20Nguyen--Casimir%20Effect.pdf for details and http://www.grc.nasa.gov/WWW/PAO/images/warp/warp31.gif for the quick single slide. There are tons of other legitimate references to vacuum energy as well, and it is well understood and accepted in mainstream science.
Phil Karn wrote: Sorry, I should have been more careful in my choice of words. I agree that the quantum fluctuations you speak of *are* almost certainly real. But whoever named it "zero point energy" chose *his* words carelessly. The word "energy" has popular connotations that have sent countless cranks on a modern-day quest for perpetual motion, often at the expense of the life savings of gullible people who don't know any better. Hence my comparison between ZPE and the ambient thermal background, another form of energy that is all around us but which we cannot tap to do useful work.
Gary S. wrote: Its possible role in causing gravity and inertia shouldn't be dismissed, either, as Puthoff's ideas are definitely no worse than others in explaining what causes those phenomena. Vacuum energy is enormously dense and its confirmed existence leaves us with some troubling paradoxes with theories.
Phil Karn wrote: I agree that there some really interesting possibilities here that might help explain and unify what we have in the past thought of as distinct fundamental forces. So it's especially unfortunate that the field has been so polluted by quacks. It's a bit like the way that the mainstream radio search for extraterrestrial intelligence got tarred by popular association with the wackos who believe in alien abductions and UFOs.
