A Chat with Sean

Thanks to Rhaomi's posting on the webchat Gabbly, many of us tonight got to speak with Sean about upcoming events at Steorn. Discussions like these make me question the possibility of this being a scam. An anonymous user posted the whole transcript in a comment on this blog in an earlier post, but I've pulled out Sean's highlights. Note that I've corrected some grammatical errors so it's easier to read, and I've done my best to not take comments out of context... Please correct me if I've made any mistakes:

:: what can we expect on friday the 13th?
Steorn: not at lot, most of the stuff you guys know - it is an update for people who do not spend too much time watching us

steorntracker: Sean, do you expect anything exciting to happen at Steorn between now and the July demos?
Steorn: Anything exciting, not really, if you believe it or not, we are focused on the validation, and this keeps us busy

steorntracker: How is the SPDC going Sean? Any new modules coming out soon for them to play with?
Steorn: There was a video experiment last week and a new module, I believe that another module goes up this week and another video experiment the week after

gabber196: Sean, have you any ideas about solid state version of your technology ?
Steorn: solid state would be the holy grail - cant get my head around how it could be done, but we do need to spend some time on it

steorntracker: Sean, patent question for ya... Any idea when we'll start seeing your latest patent apps on the web? It seems to take about 8 months for them to appear.
Steorn: On patents, not for a while, we use provisionals, then changes and so on to keep them out of the public domain!


Steorn: But the funny thing is that most of the 'revelations' in the SPDC could have been worked out in a pretty logical fashion!

In Reference to the Video to be published Friday:
energyman8: Hows it lookin Sean?
Steorn: The setting is nice, the fat fella in the camera should be changed, other than that ...

TESLA: how much for the license?
Steorn: The license fees are not yet decided

Rhaomi: how will the third-world charity thing work?
Steorn: the humanitarian stuff is simple - there will be no money due to steorn

steorntracker: Any feel on when the Jury process will be complete? Do you think it'll be around the time of your July demos?
Steorn: No, validation will not be completed y July

yossarian: Steorn, considering the lack of infrastructure in Africa how would you suggest your tech best be implemented?
Steorn: Ok on the Africa thing we are putting our money where our mouth is, but we will not solve the problems, just give i some focus

GravityBoots: Not much mention of the water pump recently...how's that coming along?
Steorn: Not much mention of anything to be honest, but we have appointed a local engineering company in Africa to start the build
Steorn: The pump is designed yes, we are getting a company in Africa to build it

Rhaomi: What about the goal of validation?
Steorn: The goal of validation is simple - to get the world of science to acknowledge that it works
Rhaomi: so no attempt to formulate it?
Rhaomi: or to try to integrate it into current scientific understanding?
Steorn: we think that it fits in pretty well with most of science
Note: I'm not sure what Sean is saying nope to here...
Steorn: nope - I think that we will see a redefinition of what energy is

gabber699: So what is the next big thing after "free energy"?
Steorn: well I do not want to be in this position again! I will go back to developing antifraud tech
Steorn: thats what I love
gabber699: but its like discovering electricity then saying your going back to farming.
Steorn: not at all, there is nothing particularly complicated about this tech, the battle here is a PR battle, how do you change a state of mind

Karellen: if validation is completed, will there be an announcement by steorn or is every jury member going to publish results on their own ?
Steorn: The jury will publish as a group and be available to the media

Rhaomi: How is the validation going, anyway?
Steorn: well the Jury process is long and very indepth - as it has to be, our original estimate is that it would take a couple of years

steorntracker: Do you think the July demos will cause problems with the Jury? Jumping the gun on validation possibly?
Steorn: No - there is no conflict with the Jury on the July demos

TESLA: and do you have a plan C still?
Steorn: We no longer need Plan C

gabber527: It's simple? and validation takes a year?
Steorn: A serious review of this technology takes very carefully designed experiments, time to conduct the tests, review the data and on to the next tests.

dtorus: sean: end of this year, beginning of next - are you referring to all 3 phases?
Steorn: yes

steorntracker: With the July demos, the SPDC and activites like Dr. Mike visiting between now and the end of this year, do you think the Jury becomes somewhat irrelevant?
Steorn: no July is important to put the technology back onto the public agenda

crazy: Li-ion batteries were never validated in such a way and sell like ..crazy
Steorn: indeed, but li-ion is not a claim against fundamental science!

WhiteLite: Sean, have you contacted the press about July yet? If so are they interested or where they like "yeah whatever"?
Steorn: Hi WL - we get requests for interviews every week and turn them down. We are happy that we will get a lot of exposure in July
Steorn: When I say happy, its great as a company, but feckin difficult as an individual

Rhaomi: how concerned are you with leaks from the SPDC? Or even from the people you work with or from inside Steorn?
Steorn: leaks, not that concerned, leaks happen - we have nothing to hide

jellybean: just a thought... what would have happened if you had decided to quietly develope and release a product on the market and then people just sort of found out once they had bought it.. instead of all of this validation stuff
Steorn: hi Jellybean - we decided not just to start selling the stuff because it would be written off as a fraud - validate then commecialize

avid_engineer: Anyone know if an estimate is set for completing the documentary work?
Steorn: The documentary will only be completed with validation , since interviews with the jury will form part of it

Fiksu_V: I still want to get an answer to whether the results will only be published after all three phases
Steorn: @ FV- we will only release reports with the agreement of the Jury - now if for example the full thermodynamic analysis requires a search for ZPE or mass loss the it is most likely that a report will be released before such tests (that could take tens o years are done)

fizzoid!: so 5 years from now, will the world look different?
Steorn: in 5 years, for sure

energyman8: Sean, how much do you plan on expanding the company once this is all over?
Steorn: @ E8, to be honest once the validation is in and the full developers forum is rolling I doubt that I will stay in Steorn much longer - hand over the reigns to someone who is better at that kinda thing than me

WhiteLite: I guess you'll have enough money to persue all those cool engineering projects you've always wanted to do
Steorn: Money, the funny thing is that it is the last thing in the world I could give a sh*t about

supes: so, april 13th is the sure date for the updates?
Steorn: yep - friday the 13th - watching it now - not a lot to say to be honest

Referring to the video:
Fiksu_V: how long is it?
Steorn: about 5 mins

Referring to the Steorn Product:
crazy: how much will it cost ?
Steorn: the price and the product itself I will not go into at the moment

GravityBoots: As CEO you have company shares....what about the rest of your staff...will they get a nice hefty bonus when this is all over?
Steorn: @ GB - all the staff are shareholders (or at least the paper work is in place)

Dirtfarmer: So Sean, brutal three weeks or so? Still getting another working vacation, or has that passed?
Steorn: lol, I love to moan about my workload, but went mad over the long weekend when I was not allowed to work- heck this is great fun

crazy: are there plans to keep the forum running for ever?
Steorn: we have no plans to shut the forum - we will open it up again in July
gabber81: What you mean you'll open the forum again in July? Are you closing it?
Steorn: nope - at the moment new members cant post and there are a few banned members out there that we will welcome back!

steorntracker: Sean, is this the first time you raised millions for a venture?
Steorn: @ steorntracker - no I spent a year with an irish company called microsol - from memory we raised about 7 million
steorntracker: Sean, how often do you meet with Steorn's investors? How have they handled the ride so far?
Steorn: @ st - several times a year - and yes they are happy - we are on plan

Kent767: so sean... a simple emoticon response will suffice... how's the jury process going?
Steorn: good

Dirtfarmer: So Sean, can I assume you did initially hire the documentary team? or how would they approach you? (post ad perhaps?)
Steorn: @ DF - they in fact do most of the stuff for U2 so there was a bit of a third party connection
energyman8: you are friends with Sir Bono Sean?
Steorn: Nope

Kent767: Sean was the demo reel shown at Kinetica going to be the same device as you originally planned to demo?
Steorn: @ kent - nope

Sean, thanks for taking the time to answer our questions!

Blog Comments

Due to some unfortunate events tonight, I've enabled moderated comments. Intelligent comments and questions are still welcome. Thank you to those who've commented to date, it's unfortunate that one person caused all of this.

Fire Hose Today in the Forums

Sean was back in the forums today and had a lot to say. Here is a summary so you don't have to read all 316 comments (and growing) left in the Steorn's investment background? thread.

In reference to Thicket's "Despite superficial appearances, all the Steorn investors seem to be private individuals. There are no institutional investors." Sean started us off with this:

Well first this statement is not true, indeed if you look at the information there are several 'institutional' investors listed in the post. But regardless of this, the point is that there is no point - this after all the bull posted about Steorn means what? Well the answer is of course nothing.

I disagree with Sean here on his second point. Thicket hasn't reached any conclusions yet, just digging into Steorn's financials. If we all look at the data and don't see anything suspicious, that is a plus for Steorn. Here is a follow up on Thicket's banning and what may get others banned in the future:

I will also add that I have no problem at all with honest skeptics, indeed I would encourage this. However using our forum for anti-Steorn propaganda that is based upon lies and half truths is a different matter.

And an update on the April 15th vs. End of Q1 comment:

Hi Lister, to be honest I have just been too busy, really wanted to avoid the 1st April thing - anyway the updates will happen on Friday

Here is a personal apology from Sean to Rhaomi for banning him. Meta also got unbanned soon after Rhaomi. Also note his position on posting theories:

First have to say that I am very sorry, my bad!!!! Anyway I do not have a problem with theories, I do not want a forum of believers (I do not think that there is enough information for anyone to believe at this stage). The fraud/scam stuff is just wrong and I do have bad days!

Steorn then asked Rhaomi to post his theories, twice actually. Here is Steorn's reply on the Mocumentary theory:

Ok, I can understand this point of view. Indeed it is one that we identified very early on. So in signing up the documentary crew, we made it a contractual point that we neither profit from the proceeds of the film, or have any editorial control (the same is true for the book). Now Crank can discuss this with the film crew and indeed have a copy of the contract (if she does not already have it). Of course people can always say that Crank is a plant but there is only so much that we can do to prove stuff over the net!
...
I wish I had more time because most of this stuff can be dealt with (again and again) to the satisfaction of a reasonable skeptic.

Here is Sean's reply to Rhaomi's "wrong with measurements" theory:

Ok, the most probable explanation is in fact that we just got it wrong, I could explain for example self sustaining devices without CoE violation. The probability of us being right is in fact very, very slim. However it is a very far cry from this position to fraud. We have done as much as possible to demonstrate this, everything that we do is always weighed against the question of what would those who would cry fraud say about this - and how do we mitigate these cries. We are right or wrong about the technology and the Jury is out on this question!

In response to Kent767 about how Sean would react if he were to encounter a claim like Steorn's:

If the roles were reversed I would be (1) curious (2) check for a fraud/publicity stunt and when I had ruled this out I would guess that you got it wrong but wish you all the luck in the world and hope that you where right. I would then get on with my life.

I asked Sean about the leaked juror and also about when Steorn originally thought of creating the SPDC:

I will never comment on speculation on who is in or out of the Jury. The SPDC concept has been in our plans since early last year.

In response to Kent767's proposed "steal money from the investors" theory:

Ok, but this is where your theory falls apart, the company has raised money, I get none of it and take all the risk - so you believe that I would sacrifice my career and ruin my family for a crappy salary?
...
Ok, so I am now going to empty the company bank account and head for a warm country with no extradition - again this falls apart because if I was going to do this I would have done it before the publicity and all the money that we have spent since. Why have my face all over the net and a far smaller bank account to rob?

Kent767 then suggests maybe it is a long con scam. Here is Sean's reply:

Ok, but for this theory to work, there must be a lot more money coming in soon - from where?

From Kent767:

100,000 units of a fake product? From book deals on the greatest prank pulled in the 21st century?? All seem more probable than free energy.

Sean's reply:

Ok, now how much do I have to spend to rig a Jury? Where is my profit, all seems less likely than us being wrong.

And to finish off the debate with Kent767, Sean updates us all on how much funding Steorn has at the moment:

Were does the 3 million number come from??? We have funding well in excess of 10 million. Your position may make some sense to you, but it is wrong - time will tell.

Now onto Friday's update:

Well, instead of a press release kinda of thing we are going to do a video interview (its being filmed tomorrow). It will touch on a whole load of issues including the Jury.

Along with details on FraudHalt and Steorn Nominees:

FraudHalt was a customer (I am still the CTO of the company) and Steorn Nominees was a holding company for our investment in Orbo Ltd.
...
First the position is unpaid and is due to historical reasons (I am the architect of their products).

icuken asks if Steorn is still planning on having Dr. Mike visit:

Yes - I need to follow-up with Mike, will happen next week.

Here are details about Steorn's licensing approach:

Our plan is an equal access plan. Following validation anyone who wants access gets its. We will not deliver products to market (the 100,000 units are really just validation) - at the end of the day the market will decide where the technology goes and at what pace.

It was a breath of fresh air to have Sean back in the forums. Things have been awfully slow lately without real content. I look forward to watching the video on Friday!

A Name Change

Steorn was busy in the forums today. I'll get to the interesting posts later tonight, but first I wanted to address Sean's comment:

Hi SteornTracker - its good to be back ... there will be an update on the Jury process on Friday and I will never comment on speculation on who is in or out of the Jury. The SPDC concept has been in our plans since early last year.

And I must also apologize in advance for the nasty letter that you are going to get from our lawyers in the next few days.

He followed up the "apology" with this:

Well any URL with Steorn or Orbo in it is getting a letter, we need to enforce our trademarks, it has nothing to do with the content.

After doing some digging, I found that I'm somewhere between fair use and trademark infringement. I see no reason going down the legal path when all I have to do is make a quick change to the website. So everyone, welcome to the Free Energy Tracker blog.

A Video and a Banning

In the forums today, Sean links us to this fun video exploring Steorn's office:


As Fiksu_Vekotin puts it "The people working at Steorn are actually.. people." It's nice to see some of their labs and the upbeat tempo of the Steorn employees.

On a sad note for some of us, as seen in previous comment posts here at SteornTracker, Thicket and his 11 or so other usernames have all been and his username Thicket_ have been banned from the Steorn forums. Thicket posted a now removed post insulting Sean, and I assume it was the straw that broke the camels back.

edit: I've updated the info on Thickets banning, my mistake. There were others banned also yesterday, and it is unclear why some of them were. We don't have a reason for some of the bannings, and we realize it's Sean's prerogative to ban anyone he chooses. We're almost getting to the point where we need an independent forum ;-(.