6 ms·

He made wild claims that were never quite backed up by proof, claims that even now no one seems to believe were actually possible ------- when Leonardo da vinc

by readhn 9y ago

He made wild claims that were never quite backed up by proof, claims that even now no one seems to believe were actually possible ------- when Leonardo da vinci sketched out a parachute or a helicopter-looking self propelling device prototypes that took 500 years to actually build - what did contemporaries think of him? who are we to judge a great mind? we simply cant. yes he might have gone mad, but there is a very fine line between madness and brilliance and its often blurred. all we can do is take these ideas and test/iterate/test. id rather bet on a horse that is capable of running than on a just born foal.

QAPereo 9y ago
when Leonardo da vinci sketched out a parachute or a helicopter-looking self propelling device prototypes that took 500 years to actually build - what did contemporaries think of him? A lot; he was widely recognized as a genius in his own time. Sadly, his helicopter wouldn't have worked, and he never sketched an ICE.
- readhn 9y ago
  as well as Tesla was recognized during his lifetime. Plenty of folks thought da vinci was crazy too. helicopter prototype was off (just needed different shape propeller, additional stabilizing propeller and proper weight distribution), but it was on a correct development path. parachute design was correct as was demonstrated in 2000. (http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-bgE0_zA9lEU/U29iF1bk9QI/AAAAAAAAEuE/zldPSz30E-I/s1600/DaVinci-Parachute002.jpg http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-bgE0_zA9lEU/U29iF1bk9QI/AAAAAAAAEu...) what if tesla's highly speculated work is even 50% close? we had thousands of electric cars manufactured and sold in USA 100 years ago (stop and think about it for a second: https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/originals/80/34/c5/8034c522dd78fb4b3bfdb4eeb6ec1f5a.gif https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/originals/80/34/c5/8034...). wireless transmission of electricity/energy could put us on a completely different path as a humanity (as well as completely change political and business landscape worldwide).
  - QAPereo 9y ago
    helicopter prototype was off (just needed different shape propeller, additional stabilizing propeller and proper weight distribution)... And an ENGINE!
  - hacker11235 9y ago
    Could you expand more on the prospects of wireless transmission of electricity. I've seen some stuff about this but have had a hard time finding sources talking about it, I'm quite intrigued.
    - stephengillie 9y ago
      If you have a new iPhone or an older Android, you could utilize this technology to charge your phone.
      - hacker11235 9y ago
        Right, inductive charging. From what I've read it doesn't seem like this was the method Tesla was researching for long range transmission was it?
        Rhinobird 9y ago
        Tesla was trying to make use of the conductivity present in the ground and ionosphere to transmit power. Not inductive, but more like capacitively coupled.
        mr_woozy 9y ago
        https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Single-wire_transmission_line https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Single-wire_transmission_line
saiya-jin 9y ago
he was genius, but also properly crazy (at least at the end of his life). falling in love with a pigeon, pearl detestion, obsession with nr 3 etc. this is not about not being appreciated at the given time. unless you think in 500 years it will be fashionable "to love that pigeon as a man loves a woman, and she loved me. As long as I had her, there was a purpose to my life."
- readhn 9y ago
  the theory that we might at some point in time love a pigeon (or any other living creature) as much as we love each other (humans) is not that far off ... if you think about it. we are all the same, all part of one. if you love yourself and you love "one" you automatically love pigeons and all the other living creatures. perhaps its our next evolutionary step and he was many years ahead of all of us...
- readhn 9y ago
  obsession with number 3 ... maybe because there was something to it after all? https://www.quantamagazine.org/in-efimov-state-physicists-find-a-surprising-rule-of-threes-20140527/ https://www.quantamagazine.org/in-efimov-state-physicists-fi...
canjobear 9y ago
> who are we to judge a great mind? we simply cant. It's not like these "great minds" are alien superintelligences. How much smarter do you think they were than the average person, in terms of IQ? Maybe 2x maximum? Seems quite possible to judge. Tesla was not a Singularity.
- dumbfounder 9y ago
  > It's not like these "great minds" are alien superintelligences. I disagree, I define a truly great mind as one that thinks very differently from others, and solves problems others can't. Not someone who can just solve problems more quickly. Why do you think it matters what his IQ is? You can't measure someone's ability to think about new things with a test that asks you to solve relatively simple brainteasers. I am sure his IQ was quite high, but that doesn't mean someone with an equivalently high IQ could do what he did. Edit: missed a word.
  - brlewis 9y ago
    Unusual minds solve problems others can't, but also make mistakes others wouldn't. I don't claim to know which of these two phenomena is exhibited in Tesla's wild ideas.
- bthornbury 9y ago
  IQ is an irrelevant metric. Look at his achievements pragmatically. In terms of understanding of electric phenomena, its difficult to point at another with a similar level of understanding (or at least productive understanding). With that in mind, it would seem he's quite a bit "smarter" than even very intelligent people, with the same life long pursuit.
  - killjoywashere 9y ago
    its difficult to point at another contemporary with a similar level of understanding
  - mhh__ 9y ago
    > In terms of understanding of electric phenomena, its difficult to point at another with a similar level of understanding (or at least productive understanding). Maxwell? Faraday? Heaviside? etc. Or are we explicitly talking circuits?
dragandj 9y ago
Jules Verne's novels from 19th century described submarines and flight to the Moon, but there are lots of TODO steps to fill in to create, or even "sketch" actual working submarines and rockets.
opportune 9y ago
Even geniuses can suffer from alzheimers, schizophrenia, personality disorders, delusions, etc. just like the rest of us. Sure there's the stereotypical eccentric genius, but if someone starts making wild unproven claims coupled with increasingly strange behavior, that doesn't seem exactly like something a genius would do. That sounds like a very intelligent person suffering from mental illness. From wikipedia: >At the 1932 occasion, Tesla claimed he had invented a motor that would run on cosmic rays.[205] In 1933, at age 77, Tesla told reporters that, after thirty-five years of work, he was on the verge of producing proof of a new form of energy. He claimed it was a theory of energy that was “violently opposed” to Einsteinian physics, and could be tapped with an apparatus that would be cheap to run and last 500 years. He also told reporters he was working on a way to transmit individualized private radio wavelengths, working on breakthroughs in metallurgy, and developing a way to photograph the retina to record thought. We know that cosmic rays aren't prevalent enough to produce energy. It should be obvious that you can't record thought through a retina because the majority of thought in the brain occurs in areas obstructed by the retina. He was just an already-eccentric old man whose brain was breaking down, and in trying to cling onto his success from the past he might have developed delusions that to him seem perfectly logical. I don't see why we can't accept that the death ray idea was just as nonexistent/nonsensical as these other ones. Additionally, also from wikipedia: >In a box purported to contain a part of Tesla's "death ray", Trump found a 45-year-old multidecade resistance box.
- mabbo 9y ago
  > in trying to cling onto his success from the past he might have developed delusions that to him seem perfectly logical Scary thing? Delusional behavior can just happen to anyone. It's a mental illness and like any illness there may be no way to see it coming. One day, you suddenly think your 'Real Girl' doll is a real person that you love[0]. [0]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lars_and_the_Real_Girl https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lars_and_the_Real_Girl - Fantastic, true acting by an actor known mostly for his good looks.
- readhn 9y ago
  there was a lot of interest in his work. we simply dont know if something was taken, stolen or appropriated by someone else. FBI clearly stated in that FIA disclosed dossier that there was an outside entity trying to get access to his lab prototypes, papers, information. We do not know if and what was taken,
danmaz74 9y ago
But Leonardo, AFAIK, didn't claim that those things were readily doable...

by readhn 9y ago

QAPereo 9y ago

when Leonardo da vinci sketched out a parachute or a helicopter-looking self propelling device prototypes that took 500 years to actually build - what did contemporaries think of him? A lot; he was widely recognized as a genius in his own time. Sadly, his helicopter wouldn't have worked, and he never sketched an ICE.

readhn 9y ago
as well as Tesla was recognized during his lifetime. Plenty of folks thought da vinci was crazy too. helicopter prototype was off (just needed different shape propeller, additional stabilizing propeller and proper weight distribution), but it was on a correct development path. parachute design was correct as was demonstrated in 2000. (http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-bgE0_zA9lEU/U29iF1bk9QI/AAAAAAAAEuE/zldPSz30E-I/s1600/DaVinci-Parachute002.jpg http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-bgE0_zA9lEU/U29iF1bk9QI/AAAAAAAAEu...) what if tesla's highly speculated work is even 50% close? we had thousands of electric cars manufactured and sold in USA 100 years ago (stop and think about it for a second: https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/originals/80/34/c5/8034c522dd78fb4b3bfdb4eeb6ec1f5a.gif https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/originals/80/34/c5/8034...). wireless transmission of electricity/energy could put us on a completely different path as a humanity (as well as completely change political and business landscape worldwide).
- QAPereo 9y ago
  helicopter prototype was off (just needed different shape propeller, additional stabilizing propeller and proper weight distribution)... And an ENGINE!
- hacker11235 9y ago
  Could you expand more on the prospects of wireless transmission of electricity. I've seen some stuff about this but have had a hard time finding sources talking about it, I'm quite intrigued.
  - stephengillie 9y ago
    If you have a new iPhone or an older Android, you could utilize this technology to charge your phone.
    - hacker11235 9y ago
      Right, inductive charging. From what I've read it doesn't seem like this was the method Tesla was researching for long range transmission was it?
      - Rhinobird 9y ago
        Tesla was trying to make use of the conductivity present in the ground and ionosphere to transmit power. Not inductive, but more like capacitively coupled.
      - mr_woozy 9y ago
        https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Single-wire_transmission_line https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Single-wire_transmission_line

saiya-jin 9y ago

he was genius, but also properly crazy (at least at the end of his life). falling in love with a pigeon, pearl detestion, obsession with nr 3 etc. this is not about not being appreciated at the given time. unless you think in 500 years it will be fashionable "to love that pigeon as a man loves a woman, and she loved me. As long as I had her, there was a purpose to my life."

readhn 9y ago
the theory that we might at some point in time love a pigeon (or any other living creature) as much as we love each other (humans) is not that far off ... if you think about it. we are all the same, all part of one. if you love yourself and you love "one" you automatically love pigeons and all the other living creatures. perhaps its our next evolutionary step and he was many years ahead of all of us...
readhn 9y ago
obsession with number 3 ... maybe because there was something to it after all? https://www.quantamagazine.org/in-efimov-state-physicists-find-a-surprising-rule-of-threes-20140527/ https://www.quantamagazine.org/in-efimov-state-physicists-fi...

canjobear 9y ago

> who are we to judge a great mind? we simply cant. It's not like these "great minds" are alien superintelligences. How much smarter do you think they were than the average person, in terms of IQ? Maybe 2x maximum? Seems quite possible to judge. Tesla was not a Singularity.

dumbfounder 9y ago
> It's not like these "great minds" are alien superintelligences. I disagree, I define a truly great mind as one that thinks very differently from others, and solves problems others can't. Not someone who can just solve problems more quickly. Why do you think it matters what his IQ is? You can't measure someone's ability to think about new things with a test that asks you to solve relatively simple brainteasers. I am sure his IQ was quite high, but that doesn't mean someone with an equivalently high IQ could do what he did. Edit: missed a word.
- brlewis 9y ago
  Unusual minds solve problems others can't, but also make mistakes others wouldn't. I don't claim to know which of these two phenomena is exhibited in Tesla's wild ideas.
bthornbury 9y ago
IQ is an irrelevant metric. Look at his achievements pragmatically. In terms of understanding of electric phenomena, its difficult to point at another with a similar level of understanding (or at least productive understanding). With that in mind, it would seem he's quite a bit "smarter" than even very intelligent people, with the same life long pursuit.
- killjoywashere 9y ago
  its difficult to point at another contemporary with a similar level of understanding
- mhh__ 9y ago
  > In terms of understanding of electric phenomena, its difficult to point at another with a similar level of understanding (or at least productive understanding). Maxwell? Faraday? Heaviside? etc. Or are we explicitly talking circuits?

dragandj 9y ago

Jules Verne's novels from 19th century described submarines and flight to the Moon, but there are lots of TODO steps to fill in to create, or even "sketch" actual working submarines and rockets.

opportune 9y ago

Even geniuses can suffer from alzheimers, schizophrenia, personality disorders, delusions, etc. just like the rest of us. Sure there's the stereotypical eccentric genius, but if someone starts making wild unproven claims coupled with increasingly strange behavior, that doesn't seem exactly like something a genius would do. That sounds like a very intelligent person suffering from mental illness. From wikipedia: >At the 1932 occasion, Tesla claimed he had invented a motor that would run on cosmic rays.[205] In 1933, at age 77, Tesla told reporters that, after thirty-five years of work, he was on the verge of producing proof of a new form of energy. He claimed it was a theory of energy that was “violently opposed” to Einsteinian physics, and could be tapped with an apparatus that would be cheap to run and last 500 years. He also told reporters he was working on a way to transmit individualized private radio wavelengths, working on breakthroughs in metallurgy, and developing a way to photograph the retina to record thought. We know that cosmic rays aren't prevalent enough to produce energy. It should be obvious that you can't record thought through a retina because the majority of thought in the brain occurs in areas obstructed by the retina. He was just an already-eccentric old man whose brain was breaking down, and in trying to cling onto his success from the past he might have developed delusions that to him seem perfectly logical. I don't see why we can't accept that the death ray idea was just as nonexistent/nonsensical as these other ones. Additionally, also from wikipedia: >In a box purported to contain a part of Tesla's "death ray", Trump found a 45-year-old multidecade resistance box.

mabbo 9y ago
> in trying to cling onto his success from the past he might have developed delusions that to him seem perfectly logical Scary thing? Delusional behavior can just happen to anyone. It's a mental illness and like any illness there may be no way to see it coming. One day, you suddenly think your 'Real Girl' doll is a real person that you love[0]. [0]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lars_and_the_Real_Girl https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lars_and_the_Real_Girl - Fantastic, true acting by an actor known mostly for his good looks.
readhn 9y ago
there was a lot of interest in his work. we simply dont know if something was taken, stolen or appropriated by someone else. FBI clearly stated in that FIA disclosed dossier that there was an outside entity trying to get access to his lab prototypes, papers, information. We do not know if and what was taken,

danmaz74 9y ago

But Leonardo, AFAIK, didn't claim that those things were readily doable...