d=4 supergravity from d=11: conjectures revisited

The author examines the relationship between the massless sector of the theory obtained by Kaluza-Klein compactification of d=11 supergravity on the round S7 and the N=8 gauged SO(8) supergravity in d=4. It is stated that some time ago it was conjectured that the two theories are the same and that non-symmetric extrema of the d=4 effective potential correspond to other solutions in d=11 with the same S7 topology; non-zero VEV's for scalars and/or pseudoscalars corresponding to distortion of and/or ''torsion'' on S7. Here the author reviews the evidence in their favor, which he states is now overwhelming