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 Forum index » Archive » Archive: General » Old News & Rumors
[NEW|SPEC] Steorn.net claims Infinite Energy, ARG? Hoax?
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majikthise
Kilroy

Joined: 11 Sep 2006
Posts: 1

 		There is something very strange about this Steorn if it is an ARG....there is a lot of personal information about the members of Steorn available on the web, including home addresses and telephone numbers!!!

PostPosted: Sat Sep 16, 2006 3:25 pm
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creatureattack
Boot

Joined: 29 Jul 2005
Posts: 34

 		personal info
i think it is pretty weird to put that type of personal information on a site if your company is doing pretty much anything, but especially something this public, exciting, and potentially lucrative.

if my company had just made this announcement, and i knew that millions of people around the world (including thieves, kidnappers, lunitics, conspiracy theorists, doomsday fanatics and religious zealots to name a few) were going to be reading my website, i would put as little personal information as possible.

in general, don't these people seem waaaaay too layed back? anyone who believed that they were on to something like this would certainly be somewhat paranoid about someone stealing their work. and, if there were a pure hoax without an advertising/game component, wouldn't they try to guard their deception by giving out as little information as possible? they could certainly justify their personal secrecy ("we cannot disclose the location of our lab (or houses!) due to security concerns") as legitimate security measures.

this willingness to do things like post a map to their labs and describe who exactly works for them is really not something that makes sense in the world of ground breaking scientific technologies (particularly ones with huge military and monitary applications), or something that seems particularly helpful in the world of pure hoaxing. however, in the world of ARGs, where you want people to feel comfortable poking around and asking questions it might be just perfect.

PostPosted: Sat Sep 16, 2006 9:06 pm
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Henchman
Greenhorn

Joined: 02 Sep 2006
Posts: 6

 		I agree with that last post 100 % Smile

Think about it for a moment. If this discovery is real, to borrow a quote from Contact, its the biggest discovery in the history of discoveries. This will change the world. And these people are posting email adresses, home adresses, phone numbers etc? They have forums? They try to get the public involved? They want to get an elite group from random applicants who can apparently provide pretty sketchy applications? They have a freaking poll on their front page? No way.

Just out of curiosity, I went looking for another scientific company that has a website. Los Alamos is at www.lanl.gov. Maybe its not the top tier research site it used to be, but its still a big name. Looks nothing like Steorn.com. Very corporate. Very much just the basic info. There is a company phonebook, but you can't get anywhere unless you know the name of the person you are looking up. There certainly aren't any forums!

Now granted that is a government lab, private labs get more leeway. Steorn still seems out of place.

I really have nothing new to add, other than the fact that I am absolutely convinced this is not legit. Whether its an ARG or BS, i am still not sure

PostPosted: Sun Sep 17, 2006 2:34 am
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Arkaham
Unfettered


Joined: 13 Sep 2006
Posts: 353
Henchman wrote:
Think about it for a moment. If this discovery is real, to borrow a quote from Contact, its the biggest discovery in the history of discoveries. This will change the world. And these people are posting email adresses, home adresses, phone numbers etc? They have forums? They try to get the public involved? They want to get an elite group from random applicants who can apparently provide pretty sketchy applications? They have a freaking poll on their front page? No way.


And if its a hoax, then they would have even less reasons to put informations up. They would be trying to avoid being tied in any way with their lies.

So either this is the most naive and dumb group of scientist the word have seen, or this is some sort of game.

PostPosted: Sun Sep 17, 2006 3:18 am
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Lukstr
Guest


 		Just a thought, and I am aware that they have previously mentioned how they are not looking for investors, etc., but if this IS real, then the company would've been snapped up very quick by some investor, whether they wanted to or not. This is a bit weird. I wonder if they have investors despite their claims and if maybe they have something to do with the publicity.

PostPosted: Sun Sep 17, 2006 9:43 pm
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oxdeltaxo
Decorated

Joined: 16 Aug 2006
Posts: 238
Location: Canada EH?
Lukstr wrote:
Just a thought, and I am aware that they have previously mentioned how they are not looking for investors, etc., but if this IS real, then the company would've been snapped up very quick by some investor, whether they wanted to or not. This is a bit weird. I wonder if they have investors despite their claims and if maybe they have something to do with the publicity.


What if their privately owned, and not publicly traded?

PostPosted: Mon Sep 18, 2006 12:03 am
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creatureattack
Boot

Joined: 29 Jul 2005
Posts: 34

 		news page
has the News page been trimmed down? does anyone remember what was on their previously? now the top news is:

Congratulations to Blackhawk.
Congratulations to Blackhawk, winners of the 2006 Steorn/Bolton Trust/DIT Student Enterprise Competition.
17 August 2006

but it seems to me that this used to be under some other releases.

and, has anyone taken a good look into this Blackhawk deal?

PostPosted: Tue Sep 26, 2006 9:31 am
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DrBunker
Decorated


Joined: 22 Aug 2006
Posts: 233
Location: Southern UK

 		Re: news page
creatureattack wrote:
has the News page been trimmed down? does anyone remember what was on their previously?...and, has anyone taken a good look into this Blackhawk deal?


Take a look at page 8 of this topic; they took off references to newspaper articles which were 'placeholders' used by the page designers and I believe that was it. The competition was real as far as I can tell - it was run by the Dublin Institute of Technology.

Edit: I just tried to log onto the Steorn forum but it seems they've had a serious issue with their servers - there have only been two posts since the end of August (both posted today) plus my account and all previous msgs have been scrubbed.

PostPosted: Tue Sep 26, 2006 9:42 am
Last edited by DrBunker on Tue Sep 26, 2006 10:00 am; edited 1 time in total
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creatureattack
Boot

Joined: 29 Jul 2005
Posts: 34

 		thanks
thanks. i agree that the competition looks pretty real. does anyone know anyone at the Dublin Institute of Technology? maybe we could make friends with someone there. i would be interested is hearing from someone who has first hand experience with these people and events.

there must be some ARG fans from Ireland, right? are any of them here on this site? if we had an operative who could go to their front door and take the tour, i would love to hear about it. of course, if the operative was an in-game plant, we would be putty in their hands. man, this stuff is so exciting.

PostPosted: Tue Sep 26, 2006 9:57 am
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DrBunker
Decorated


Joined: 22 Aug 2006
Posts: 233
Location: Southern UK

 		I wouldn't get too excited. I think this rumour has died a death.

That said, I'll keep watching it out of curiosity but more to see what happens when the time limit expires...

PostPosted: Tue Sep 26, 2006 9:59 am
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beyonder
Guest


 		steorn prank
steorn
i think its a prank to advertise themselves and their web services
look at what type of company they BEFORE they were a net advertising company!

PostPosted: Sat Oct 07, 2006 5:25 pm
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catherwood
I Have 100 Cats and Smell of Wee

Joined: 25 Sep 2002
Posts: 4109
Location: Silicon Valley, CA

 		another look at Steorn
visit inside Steorn Nov. 19, 2006
I hate to bump a dormant thread, but this might be of interest to the truly obsessed. Someone visited inside Steorn last week and posted a description of what they saw. The original post is on their forums, but this article describes it and links to it.

http://pesn.com/2006/11/21/9500435_visit_inside_Steorn/

PostPosted: Fri Nov 24, 2006 2:35 pm
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atdt1991
Decorated


Joined: 04 Sep 2004
Posts: 186
Location: Plymouth, MI

 		You know, I do wonder if some of the stuff we've attributed as suspicious might simply be, uhm, rather inexperienced web designer flubs. Like the demo future-dated article, for instance. they've got steorn.com working as a redirect to www.steorn.net , but steorn.net by itself chokes. ... just kinda made me rethink some of the web-related anomalies we've run into, and whether they could simply be ... lack of skill.

I truly don't know what to make of this. They've been dormant on marketing and on updating their own web site. *shrug* That doesn't make sense whether it's a hoax or an ARG. In fact, it only makes sense if they were actually looking for (and found) scientists.

Thanks for the update, cather - it may not be an arg, but it deserves being spoken about here (IMHO) anyway, simply because it blurs the line between what we consider acceptable reality and pure speculative Sci-Fi. It's like someone saying they've perfected the replicator from Star Trek.
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PostPosted: Sun Nov 26, 2006 4:52 am
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Lovek
Unfettered


Joined: 02 Mar 2005
Posts: 434

 		Steorn announces plans for widespread deployment of its free energy technology post-validation

Quote:
Dublin, 11th January 2007: Steorn, the Irish technology development company, has today announced that its free energy technology will be made widely available to the development community immediately after the independent scientific validation process that is currently underway.


Has anyone made an headway on just who the heck these people are?
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PostPosted: Thu Jan 11, 2007 3:09 pm
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MarcB
Veteran

Joined: 14 Dec 2004
Posts: 71
Location: Stafford, UK

 		 A summary...
From first reading this thread many months ago (and orignally thinking it was an ARG) I've been following Steorn and it's activities very closely.
My conclusion... well you'll see.

From what I've gathered Steorn is absolutely, 100% not a game and is (and has been) a legitimate, trading company for some time. A member of the very popular forum on the site was picked by other forum members (after great care was taken to pick someone impartial and unconnected) to go and visit Sean (the CEO) at the offices/laboratories and examine everything from financial records to current staff to details of the member of the jury that as we speak are testing the technology. She came back convinced, not that the Steorn device works (she is still sitting on the fence like many on the forum), but that Steorn as a business exists and that they believe they have a device which has a greater than 100% efficiency. Importantly she was more than satisfied that this not some publicity stunt or complete fabrication. Along with the fact that the company held a party (to which everyone was invited) with a band and free drinks and also gave the chance for everyone to meet the staff themselves (and also 'Crank', the woman who was picked by the users on the forum to investigate) adds to the evidence that something 'real' is going on.

The current situation is as follows. Steorn itself hasn't acceptted any money off any potential investors in any shape or form since the advert in the Economist until the technology is validated by a jury of high profile and highly qualified scientists (you can read much more about the process on the website, Steorn.net). They claim to be funding their current operations from financial backers and a high profile partner (many suspect Toshiba). They also claim they will publish the results of the jury whatever the outcome. If the outcome is positive (and Sean seems totally confident that it will be - he will go out of business if it isn't) then they will launch a single Steorn branded product (which number around 100,000 units) which, in the words of Crank (who from her insight into the company knows what it will be), 'will not rock the world' but it's something she'll buy nevertheless. What this could be is open to interpretation. Additionally, Steorn will simultaneously license their device to any businesses/individuals for a nominal fee. They claim that while their design of the device is patented (or at least in the patent system - don't bother searching for it), the effect itself is simple to engineer into ways which wouldn't break the patenting and that (again from what I can gather) buying the license (& raw information) from Steorn is just a way of saving time and getting in the market first. They freely admit that more qualified engineers will be able to do a better job, hence why they are not getting into the business of manufacturing. As a brief side note, they say that they will give licenses for free to humanitarian causes in the 3rd world (an example was a powered pump in an African village). In short, their ethics seem to be based not around creating obscene profits but for getting the word out and making a difference to the world as quick as possible.

Things have recently got even more interesting through the setting up of the SPDC (Steorn Private Developers Club). In keeping with the ethos of the site there is no charge (and in the words of Sean, will never ask for payment in any form) for being part of this (in fact it is at cost to Steorn themselves who are sending NDAs (non-disclosure agreements) to all applicants which are suspected to number in the low thousands!). The SPDC (application to which is now closed) itself will consist of 200 people with a diverse range of ages, occupations and knowledge of Physics (from very advanced to practically nothing). We've been told that members will be taught how the device works through a series of interactive learning modules and tests, starting with basic magnetics to more advanced physics to the inner theory of the device itself. The members will test-run these tutorials, compile questions that will form a FAQ and help fine-tune the guide which will be given out to the license buyers upon validation. People also suspect this has been set up to educate a large number of people in the case of traditional energy companies somehow shutting down or trying to cover up Steorn. Sean has stated that he has a team of 5 full-time staff working on this element of the project and keeps on stressing this will be at no cost whatsoever to the members.

So what the hell is actually going on?

I hope I haven't come across as trying to get everyone excited about free energy being around the corner, the simple fact is I just don't know what to make of it all... well I do... I believe they have something ...but it's frying my brain. Everything points to Sean and Steorn being 100% truthful, honest and ligitimate. The complete craziness (for lack of a better word) of the stark contrast of their claim of inventing the theoretically impossible and the ruling out that it's a game, a marketing ploy or trying to con people out of money is what has captured the imagination of everyone. As many (initally very skeptical) physicists have said, they are claiming the impossible and that there's every right to be very wary, but the area of magnetism is one that even the experts don't fully understand. As I see it there's nothing to lose by standing back and simply following what's going on and maybe, just maybe, being able to say you were there at the beginning...

MarcB
(I'll be happy to try and field any further basic questions newcomers have)
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PostPosted: Fri Jan 12, 2007 10:08 pm
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