Perhaps Maze (who authorized Ortiz to publicly post his final word on the subject a full 14 years after "At The Card Table" was published) came to believe what he wrote in his note (i.e. as he wrote "There is
no question in my mind that the use of a forcing deck was an independent thought on Darwin's part."
I know there have been plenty instances where I (at the time) had seemingly righteous anger concerning a situation, only to find out years later that perhaps my initial anger wasn't warranted. Perhaps something similar to that happened with Gene.
Richard's view of events (Maze angry at the time of the Ortiz book being published) doesn't seem to conflict with the notion that Gene might have come to different conclusion about the affair 14 years later (i.e. Gene Maze has no animus toward Ortiz and accepts that the idea was likely independently created.)
The concept of independent invention (admittedly sometimes abused in our little niche world) can
and does happen legitimately (and without malice) at times.
In the past, the answer seems to have been to credit
both creators when paternity of an idea was in question.
Why not do so now? Even though Maze clearly stated that Ortiz deserved the credit, we could always refer to it as the "Ortiz/Maze Card Warp Deck" couldn't we?
