 
                        20031106.00

I  haven't yet succeeded in opening, - or even detaching the
attachments of your e-mail.  Perhaps that is what _I_ should
be spending my time on.

What  I was trying to articulate late last night is the cir-
cumstance that Smiths proposals may be read as somewhat  of
a  caricature, parody or satire on the conventional socially
acceptable research proposal.   Just  as  the  cartoon  more
clearly  delineates the foibles of politics and occasionally
turns out to be art, so occasionally a "wild" inspiration, -
like sailing west to get to the east,- turns out to have re-
al consequences.  (I note with interest the  image  of  Ein-
stein  as  a clown with an obscenely protruding tongue in an
advertisement styled "Are you genius?" which  regularly  ac-
companies  the  NY Times on the Web. It's one way to pay for
the news. But it also suggests the ephemeral quality of  the
boundary between genius and clown.)

I  am  reminded  of  the confidence tricks of Lawrence Jones
which were instrumental in my getting the MEEI residency, in
that he buttressed his status at MIT by appearing as an MEEI
associated physician, and his status at MEEI by appearing as
an  MIT engineer, - although neither role had substance, and
all was smoke and mirrors.

Implicit in Smiths proposals are assumptions about the sub-
stance  and  efficacy of techniques purportedly validated by
other disciplines e.g. psychology, sociology, economics, en-
gineering etc. Yet I suspect that these assumptions will not
stand closer scrutiny, and that  what  transpires  in  other
sectors  of  the academic/intellectual world has little more
substance than Koslovs own plans. If this is so,  then  much
of  "science" is "smoke and mirrors", validated initially by
the clarity, cogency and consistency of  its  presentations,
at  least  until  "proof" in the form of landfall appears on
the horizon.  And of course "landfall" may itself be  a  mi-
rage.   (The  metaphor  refers to Columbus' discovery of the
"new" world.)

It seems to me that taking Smith seriously, - in a  metaso-
cietal  perspective  -  has substantial value for you, since
your concern for him and your understanding of  his  dilemma
might serve as an escape ladder from the medical record room
and other such spiritual dungeons zu den Guetern  am  Rhein,
wo Prinz Friedrich seinen Lebensabend verbringt.

                         * * * * *
Copyright 2005, Ernst Jochen Meyer
