A Man Who Went to Mars

[Charles Pegge]

by Morgan Kochel

Based on an interview conducted over several days in February 2012

http://www.themarslanding.info/

[danbaron]

I looked at it a little.

Maybe I will look more.

But, I have become cynical.

There are so many frauds on the Internet.

Without proof, how can we ever determine what to believe?

I do think that there is a particular type of human pathology, in which the person gains great ego gratification, just by successfully "conning" (tricking) people - causing them to come to believe something which is false.

My speculation is that such a person derives satisfaction from the feeling of having power over the gullible, the credulous.

To me, such people are, though I'm sure they would vociferously disagree, weak, dependent upon the existence of their victims.

(It's interesting, at least to me, many human predators, who see themselves as very strong, are in fact, not better than co-dependent - without victims, they "evaporate".)

In my opinion, with the "tsunami" of the Internet, we are exposed to the destructive nature of many humans, when they believe they can successfully remain anonymous - for instance, the guy who devotes hundreds of hours developing and then releasing a virus. I guess he gains a satisfaction similar to that of an arsonist watching a fire he has set, burn. Another example of people's anti-social nature being exposed when they believe there will be no negative consequence to themselves, is how much more aggressively some act when they feel protected by the encasement of an automobile - people who are abject cowards face to face, have no qualms about risking your life along with their own, while driving in a car - at least that is apparent in southern California.

Also, I think some people, especially in current modern society, worship fame. They are willing to do anything, spread any lie, if they think it will make them famous, even if only on the Internet. (And, of course, now we fully realize, fame usually has no connection to having done anything worthy of positive admiration.)

(But, I know that my mood and current general outlook on life, color all that I see and evaluate, including my feeling about the guy's assertion that he traveled to Mars and back.)

[Charles Pegge]

Good yarn though. - May be the characters could be developed a little more.

And there is the problem of shipping costs, transporting minerals back from Mars using NASA technology. Have the CIA considered the economics of this enterprise :)

[danbaron]

I don't understand what good reason there is to invent a story, and then to try to convince people it is true.

I was going to begin "picking" at the story tonight, and, my first target was going to be the mining.

But, now, I'll wait until tomorrow.