One Story of Nikola Tesla
flyingmoose.org
flyingmoose.org
In the recent book about Google, "In The Plex", the author comments that reading the biography of Tesla was a major influence on Larry Page and made him mindful that he didn't get cheated out of realizing his vision by an Edison or a Morgan.
He had strange from-childhood debilitating migraines and white flashes blinding him, built models of his inventions in his mind (which I find fascinating, I don't think most people can think in three-dimensions), sometimes due to being debilitated.
He admits toward the end of his book he was not a good "business" man but was "happy" that his patents may "eventually" cause the betternment of mankind. http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0910077002/ref=as_li_ss_tl?...
http://inventors.about.com/od/hstartinventions/a/Electric_Ch...
Edison also organized electrocutions of animals:
We were also taught that Yugoslavia was a major factor in getting Germany to capitulate in WWII where if you think about it, it was rather insignificant on the grand scheme of things.
You can't really escape the spin. Some are for the better and some are for the worse, but hopefully, we can sort things out once we start learning and thinking for ourselves.
eyerolling Just to play devils advocate:
Edison: Nonviolence was key to Edison's moral views, and when asked to serve as a naval consultant for World War I, he specified he would work only on defensive weapons
Tesla: Tesla worked on plans for a directed-energy weapon [the Death Ray] from the early 1900s until his death. Tesla tried to interest the US War Department in the device. He also offered this invention to European countries.
Edison: Six children.
Tesla: Tesla was a life-long bachelor. Like many of his era, he became a proponent of an imposed selective breeding version of eugenics.
Edison: When Edison was a very old man and close to death, he said, in looking back, that the biggest mistake he had made was in not respecting Tesla or his work.
Tesla: The day after Edison died the New York Times contained extensive coverage of Edison's life, with the only negative opinion coming from Tesla.
His Wardenclyffe Tower project [2] in Long Island was an attempt to implement the idea, but was never completed due to financial problems. It overran its budget, and investors weren't willing to continue funding it. One of his primary patrons, John Jacob Astor, also died on the Titanic a few years later. I can't help but imagine what the world would look like today had Astor survived, funded Tesla, and Wardenclyffe successfully proven the concept.
Edison couldn't spell Tesla, but even in those days, he who told the story best, won.
Edison, on the other hand was always a scumbag.. More of a marketeer than a scientist..
However, I'll admit that the prose is too Victorian and patent-y for me to decipher where he actually describes an AND gate.
As Morgan said, "If anyone can draw on the power, where do we put the meter?" Tesla's mistake, as brilliant as he was, was his inability or unwillingness to see how the Dogs of Money keep all the good scraps for themselves. I know many brilliant people today with the same difficulty.
It would probably only work if the manufacturing could be done in place, and it might get exciting if things started growing defense systems.
I accept Tesla was genius, but even he could have been wrong a few times in his life. Some of his unfinished inventions to this day sounds impossible, and we certainly have much more knowledge about physics, than he had.
I don't think a few monopolies can stop progress, if the invention is really great.
Probably in the same place as the liquid fluoride thorium reactors.
Tesla Plunges After Morgan Stanley Reduces Automaker’s Price Target by 37%
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-12-08/tesla-plunges-after...
… seems pretty Jobsian to me. And you bet when Bill Gates is dead (hopefully far far away in the future) he will also be compared to Edison.
Because, maybe, these kind of comparison just doesn't make sense. Because great men and times are most of the times not alike. Because we are just stupid with our stupid simplifications.
Geeks and Nerds have certainly a hard on for Tesla, the misunderstood underdog, with all his complicated character of scientific genius and OCD/phobia/celibacy. But I wouldn't diminish the achievements of Edison. And Edison was (surprisiningly) never one of the super-rich of his time. There is a reason he needed J.P.Morgan. He only had shares in companies, but never controlled them, even if they did bear his name.
Two parts: 1) Tesla and the war effort 2) Tesla and Alien visitors