Using The Machine more than once.

But you could just get a couple of helicopters to reposition the pod above the accelerator, couldn't you?

You misunderstand my point. It wasn't the machine could only be used once, but it was designed for one person at a time. So even if it could be used again, you could only send a person at a time for likely a great expsense. Although sending someone else through it, especially someone who either is objective on the matter or someone who is skeptical, it doesn't solve anything. People will believe want they want to believe. More likely the skeptics would then feel the next person through is lying or hallucinating as well.

Here's an example. You don't believe in ghosts and are a member or a skeptics group. One night you experience a haunting without any objective proof of that haunting. Do you think your skeptic friends are just going to believe you? They are more likely to believe that you made it up. Skeptics (of which I am one) don't do that. They want concrete proof and regardless how many people are sent thrugh, they won't get that.

No doubt, but since this would be IRL the most significant endeavour in the history of mankind, at the very least one more test run with another pilot to either verify or debunk Ellie's testimony and the 18-hour static would be perfectly justified.

Whether or not this would be the most significant endeavour in history of mankind would be open to debate. Kitz believed it was a hoax and as it was contraversial from the start, it would be difficult to convince the public to put the tax money up to do this again.

The reason the money was put up the first time is because the public believed that this machine would initiate physical contact with an alien species and that there would be proof of that contact. So not only did the machine appear to not work, but Ellie's story was completely unprovable. It, in fact, was structured in a way that was completely unprovable. So, that being the case, how could you convince the public to put the outrageous amount of money up to put one more person through a machine that did not appear to work just so one more person would have a story that likely would not be believed any more than Ellie's?

In relation to my earlier point, how many people would have to be put through the experience in order for everyone in the world to believe that it is real? And how could you justify spending the outrageous amounts of money it would take to spend to simply prove that Ellie was right?

One more pilot is not going to prove anything. Kitz believed it was a hallucination set up by Hadden. Say Kitz went through it and had the same experience. How would he be able to prove to everyone else that his experience was also not a hallucination set up by Hadden. And don't say beccause Hadden is dead, because that doesn't prevent this from happening again.

Ellie's testimony was inherently inconclusive, hence the justification for another shot. In fact, the prima facie conclusion would be that she didn't make contact with any alien intelligence at all.

I fail to see how that is relavent to my point. I said that Ellie's testimony said these things: 1. The experience was tailored specifically for her and 2. The aliens said that they, not the humans, would make the next move.

So, to reiterate, there is no reason to believe that a second person would have the same experience. There is no reason to believe the machine would work, although I personally think trying it would be fine. But since the testimmony said the aliens would make the next move, it doesn't matter that Ellie's was inconclusive in any way because on THAT point, her testimony WAS conclusive. The alien told her they would send her home and then humankind had to wait until the aliens made the next move.

The only point that I am trying to make is that sending another person through the machine will achieve little. Even if the machine would work again, then you are still sending one person through it. Skeptics are not going to change their mind simply because one other person had a similar experiece. Using the machine once more will use a lot of money and achieve nothing.

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Amen, but not a religious one.

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For starters, they had no idea what the machine was actually going to do.

They built two of them for reasons that don't really have anything to do with the function. And Hadden's comment, "Why build one when you can build two at twice the price?" isn't really accurate. They invested billions of dollars creating and perfecting the manufacturing methods described in the machine in order to be able to build the first one. To design two machines, duplicating each part or running each manufacturing process twice, would cost much less for the copy.

They also never actually finished firing up the first machine during the test, plus it was just a test... I do not think they were actually going to drop the pod through, just crank it up and see what happened. Had they dropped the pod, any number of things could have happened, including sending the pod with Elmer in it, then locking the portal, or sending the pod with Elmer, leaving the portal open since no organic being had gone through yet, or perhaps even disabling the portal since it could tell there was no being in it until that part changed.

And in the book, it wasn't just a single person... the pod had 5 seats, so a mixture of people went from around the world. And their experience at Grand Central Station was not the same as it was in the movie.



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You're makin'... me... beat... up... GRASS!

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You Sir, won the Internet.

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Congress taking time to think about whether or not it's a good idea to spend money? That's a good one.

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