4 ms·

Not sure why this is novel... mobile comunication has been possible for many years, cell phones didn't invent it. Walkie talkies, etc all existed long before ce

Not sure why this is novel... mobile comunication has been possible for many years, cell phones didn't invent it. Walkie talkies, etc all existed long before cellular phones. In fact, I would argue walkie talkies are closer to what he was talking about since it didn't involve going to some cell tower. The two devices just communicate together.

jonknee 16y ago
Probably because this was written at the dawn of wireless communications--shortly after the invention of radio.
- emarcotte 16y ago
  Sure, his idea is definitely interesting considering the time, but the article is not. Like I say, he didn't just predict mobile phones, he predicted mobile communication which has been possible much longer than the phone version.
gmurphy 16y ago
It feels just a little more novel when you consider just how late into last century sci-fi stories were getting written with little or no notion of universal mobile communication. (Some excuses may be made on the grounds of story flow and building a comprehensible universe, but that's weak sci-fi).
RyanMcGreal 16y ago
It's novel because unlike us, Tesla was a product of a time when telegraph, telephone, radio and distributed electricity were still new. It's easy - even obvious - to note in retrospect how a disruptive technology or cluster of technologies plays out, in part because we are ourselves a product of the environment in which we grew up and formed our ideas about how things work. By contrast, it's visionary to be able to understand the full implications of a new technology that disrupts the environment in which we formed our ideas. In Tesla's case, not only did he understand the implications of that technology, but he actually invented much of the technology himself. It would be no less remarkable if Gutenberg invented the printing press and then used it to print tracts explaining how his press was going to undermine the Catholic Church's monopoly gatekeeper status and launch an explosion in the rate and density of accumulated human knowledge.

jonknee 16y ago

Probably because this was written at the dawn of wireless communications--shortly after the invention of radio.

emarcotte 16y ago
Sure, his idea is definitely interesting considering the time, but the article is not. Like I say, he didn't just predict mobile phones, he predicted mobile communication which has been possible much longer than the phone version.

gmurphy 16y ago

It feels just a little more novel when you consider just how late into last century sci-fi stories were getting written with little or no notion of universal mobile communication. (Some excuses may be made on the grounds of story flow and building a comprehensible universe, but that's weak sci-fi).

RyanMcGreal 16y ago

It's novel because unlike us, Tesla was a product of a time when telegraph, telephone, radio and distributed electricity were still new. It's easy - even obvious - to note in retrospect how a disruptive technology or cluster of technologies plays out, in part because we are ourselves a product of the environment in which we grew up and formed our ideas about how things work. By contrast, it's visionary to be able to understand the full implications of a new technology that disrupts the environment in which we formed our ideas. In Tesla's case, not only did he understand the implications of that technology, but he actually invented much of the technology himself. It would be no less remarkable if Gutenberg invented the printing press and then used it to print tracts explaining how his press was going to undermine the Catholic Church's monopoly gatekeeper status and launch an explosion in the rate and density of accumulated human knowledge.