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what if…

It’s quite remarkable how many of Tesla’s inventions have proven to be the most efficient technologies of the day, from AC power systems and polyphase transmission lines, to RF lighting, to the AC induction motor in the Tesla car. He is now recognized as the inventor of radio, not Marconi, one of his many competitors.

Edison was so competitive with Tesla (partnered with Westinghouse at the time) that he arranged for the electric chair to use AC power for electrocutions, conveying the marketing message that AC is lethal (versus the DC power systems that Edison sold). Edison’s lab “Westinghoused” 24 dogs purchased from local children for 25 cents apiece before moving to a human criminal.

On his deathbed, Edison volunteered that his biggest mistake was trying to develop DC instead of the vastly superior AC system that his former employee, Nikola Tesla, had put within his grasp.

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Image: Stained glass display in Prague (more)

17 responses to “Science Worship”

  1. The Rocketeer Avatar
    The Rocketeer

    It’s very pretty. I like the logo too.

    Reply
  2. biotron Avatar
    biotron

    "a suitable case for treatment" – i’m too old too remember references like that… *

    Reply
  3. TomiTapio Avatar
    TomiTapio

    Quite cool.

    Reply
  4. j_silla Avatar
    j_silla

    The man invented many good things, yet died almost penniless. But now seems to be an object of worship in many ways.

    Reply
  5. Ramones Karaoke Avatar
    Ramones Karaoke

    What a truly great stained glass. Plus it references your car …

    Reply
  6. Mark Strozier Avatar
    Mark Strozier

    j_silla brings up a great point. why didn’t Tesla reach the *brilliance mindshare* level of his contemporaries?

    Reply
  7. jurvetson Avatar
    jurvetson

    It’s the question that drives us…

    Sometimes we should stop to marvel at how the scientific method has been the primary vehicle for progress in society.

    Yet many worship stasis and retrograde medieval thought.

    Reply
  8. biotron Avatar
    biotron

    She Blinded Me with Science was played on 3rd August 2001 on STS-102 – see here!

    Reply
  9. biotron Avatar
    biotron

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wyk7rR-VcGQ

    Reply
  10. jurvetson Avatar
    jurvetson

    [http://www.flickr.com/photos/r80o] – He spent most of his final years in an attempt to finance and build Wardenclyffe. It was quite controversial, and people today are still trying to reconcile whether he had lost it, or discovered something brilliant.

    "Larry Page, Google’s co-founder, sees the creator’s life as a cautionary tale. ‘It’s a sad, sad story. The inventor “couldn’t commercialize anything. He could barely fund his own research.’” (from a recent NYT update)

    Reply
  11. jurvetson Avatar
    jurvetson

    P.S. How cool is this? (Thanks Vicki for the pointer!)


    Reply
  12. jgury Avatar
    jgury

    "Sometimes we should stop to marvel at how the scientific method has been the primary vehicle for progress in society."
    So all human progress before the scientific method is not only trivial by comparison but overall a big impediment to more progress. Or an example corollary case in Sam Harris terms, the world was a rapist’s paradise before the invention and mass production of firearms.

    Reply
  13. jurvetson Avatar
    jurvetson

    So all human progress before the scientific method is not only trivial by comparison but overall a big impediment to more progress. That is exactly right. You got it. It’s the pace of progress that matters. A random walk is one inefficient method. Or people could rest strong on whatever they believe. It helps to have a process to accumulate value over time and filter out the bunk.

    “Science quickly became the greatest tool for making new things the world has ever seen. Science was in fact a superior method for a culture to learn.” — Kevin Kelly, What Technology Wants

    Reply
  14. jgury Avatar
    jgury

    That is saying that humans and science now trump the progress of nature and evolution which are the reasons we are here right now. What is really valuable, more than all accumulated sciences is your DNA which is also your greatest asset. That is obvious for the animal and plant domains and just as true for humans. Humans whose value is far from certain, say for an alien civ who could find honeybees or fungus way more valuable in their perfection. Furthermore, from a total planet perspective science and tech are now making it rapidly less habitable and toxic for everything including humans, who as a whole are using their advanced skills to mess everything up. So elevation and worship of science and technology can be MORE irrational than worship of gods or devils since they are fictional and impotent having no real destructive powers.
    "The most central and irrational faith among people is the faith in technology and economic growth. Its priests believe until their death that material prosperity bring enjoyment and happiness – even though all the proofs in history have shown that only lack and attempt cause a life worth living, that the material prosperity doesn’t bring anything else than despair. These priests believe in technology still when they choke in their gas masks." — Pentti Linkola
    Or running their marathons in gas masks – in contrast to the absurd Stewart Brand statement about how China will get it right because more of their leaders are engineers who will discover the value of nuclear power.

    Reply
  15. jurvetson Avatar
    jurvetson

    That’s why I refer to the pace of progress. Evolution has itself moved up successive layers of abstraction (from single cells to cortical topology to technology/culture/memes) and with each advance, the prior layers may continue to contribute but at a relatively glacial pace, so slow in fact, as to be largely irrelevant in the new context. For example, in the current era, our progress is much more rapid and profound compared to our biological evolution (where there have been some changes in our teeth as agriculture shifted our diet… and a survival of myopia among us geeks that might have died off without glasses).

    Reply
  16. jgury Avatar
    jgury

    Progress itself falls into the same category as a concept like justice as a human value. The same logic. What is justice/progress? The advantage of the stronger is still the great Thrasymachean answer. That is also valid in evolutionary terms. So all this progress is just a transformation of clubs, fire and stone axes. But it is at least rational to worship fire, lightning and bear skulls as forces of nature rather than worshiping our own images and tenuous technical command over nature – which are both uncontrollable – just like God, Naturam expellas furca, tamen usque recurret, you can drive out nature with scientific pitchforks but she keeps coming back. That is also what religions were supposed to deal with better than fire, lightning and bear skulls – assuaging those Freudian childish needs for feelings of security, power and some kind of caveman erotic instinct. .

    Reply
  17. jurvetson Avatar
    jurvetson

    And here are some more of my posts on the wizardThe Inventor – Nikola TeslaTesla LibraryI have a framed copy of his brilliant patent on the AC induction MotorHow it all started... the Nikola Tesla patent on the alternating motor - no brushes or rare Earth magnets neededpaying tribute… Where Nikola Tesla Died. Now the HQ of AlJazeera America

    Reply

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