It is my personal belief that it can be a mistake to feel that the development of effective earthquake forecasting programs depends solely upon the existence of “proof” that they can be predicted. It has been my observation that for many, a rule which governs subjects such as forecasting earthquakes goes something like this:

“Never be the first to do something controversial. Wait until a group of people are involved. Then join the crowd.”

A good way to deal with that problems would be to get groups of people using a variety of approaches to generate earthquake forecasts which have at least some accuracy to them. And when I myself discuss this subject matter with other earthquake forecasters, one of the things that I usually try to do is encourage them to generate and circulate their forecast data in such a manner that scientists, government officials, and other people around the world will come to believe that this is a subject which can be discussed openly without major problems developing.

These are personal opinions.