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The Tesla Cult: The inspiring truth buried in myth.
cybersoldier1981
Posts: 2,501 Arc User
Nikola Tesla is known for many things. Recent years have created a massive surge in 'fandom' for the Serbian inventor, leading to wild 'facts' that have led to some degree of outcry among the 'initiated'.
The general theory is that Nikola Tesla found a way to create free energy, and created everything Edison took credit for. I have to be honest- I really, really wanted to love the man and crusade for him. I did. But I had to do some research, and facts are the bane of fanatics...
As a matter of fact, here's some basics:
The first transformer? Nope, it was created by William Stanley in 1885. Also, this is the electricity kind of transformer, not the Cybertronian Variant (Jesus takes credit for making these, if my history and maths serve me correctly).
AC power? Nope, that was another guy long before Tesla. Hippolyte Pixii invented it in 1832, while simultaneously holding the record for 'most girly name ever' until Johnny Cash became 'A Boy Named Sue'.
Loudspeaker? Radar? Induction coil? Microwave transmitters? Nope. Look it up.
As a matter of fact- most of the 'inventions' Tesla 'created'? Well, the truth is... he didn't sit in a lab all by himself. That kind of thing just doesn't happen. Edison wasn't sitting in his office bellowing 'invent me things!' while Tesla toiled in a dank cellar alone with his brilliant mind. The truth is, he -may- have played a pretty huge part in the fluorescent light bulb, but we'll never know because Edison was sort of a tyrant when it came to inventions (then again, he was the boss and he ran the show- so it's to be expected). He was part of a team, and he 'theorized' many things, but I can sit and 'theorize' the cure for AIDS involving cryogenics (the virus doesn't survive in mosquitoes because their bodies are too cold)- but if they somehow find a way to make that work, that still doesn't make me the 'inventor of the AIDS cure'. (Note: If it somehow does and there's a cash reward, I'll gladly accept 1/4 of it, buy Cryptic, and improve this game. Also, I'll buy a bunch of Bacon Jerky for everyone who subs).
A shameful, depressing fact is... most of Tesla's exploits are romanticized exaggerations at best- or otherwise simply myths. Yeah. It kinda hurts.
Don't blame him. There's more to this.
Tesla legitimately, by most all accounts- wasn't really in it to make a huge profit. He wanted to make the world a better place, he truly did. He -did- need money to continue work and eat and pay bills, that's normal. And he tried to make money. He was a very nice person. He had a lot of hope for science and its impact on the human race, and he just wanted to make our lives better. He gave away patents to people who were doing better with them than he could.
Take a moment and reflect on that. Realize that perhaps while his efforts didn't have any real products that we could use- he did try his best to make it so, and he seriously loved science. He wanted a better world. He was a man with a big heart and a big brain in the same lane.
In my book? That's enough to make him still awesome as hell. A shame more people aren't like that.
The general theory is that Nikola Tesla found a way to create free energy, and created everything Edison took credit for. I have to be honest- I really, really wanted to love the man and crusade for him. I did. But I had to do some research, and facts are the bane of fanatics...
As a matter of fact, here's some basics:
The first transformer? Nope, it was created by William Stanley in 1885. Also, this is the electricity kind of transformer, not the Cybertronian Variant (Jesus takes credit for making these, if my history and maths serve me correctly).
AC power? Nope, that was another guy long before Tesla. Hippolyte Pixii invented it in 1832, while simultaneously holding the record for 'most girly name ever' until Johnny Cash became 'A Boy Named Sue'.
Loudspeaker? Radar? Induction coil? Microwave transmitters? Nope. Look it up.
As a matter of fact- most of the 'inventions' Tesla 'created'? Well, the truth is... he didn't sit in a lab all by himself. That kind of thing just doesn't happen. Edison wasn't sitting in his office bellowing 'invent me things!' while Tesla toiled in a dank cellar alone with his brilliant mind. The truth is, he -may- have played a pretty huge part in the fluorescent light bulb, but we'll never know because Edison was sort of a tyrant when it came to inventions (then again, he was the boss and he ran the show- so it's to be expected). He was part of a team, and he 'theorized' many things, but I can sit and 'theorize' the cure for AIDS involving cryogenics (the virus doesn't survive in mosquitoes because their bodies are too cold)- but if they somehow find a way to make that work, that still doesn't make me the 'inventor of the AIDS cure'. (Note: If it somehow does and there's a cash reward, I'll gladly accept 1/4 of it, buy Cryptic, and improve this game. Also, I'll buy a bunch of Bacon Jerky for everyone who subs).
A shameful, depressing fact is... most of Tesla's exploits are romanticized exaggerations at best- or otherwise simply myths. Yeah. It kinda hurts.
Don't blame him. There's more to this.
Tesla legitimately, by most all accounts- wasn't really in it to make a huge profit. He wanted to make the world a better place, he truly did. He -did- need money to continue work and eat and pay bills, that's normal. And he tried to make money. He was a very nice person. He had a lot of hope for science and its impact on the human race, and he just wanted to make our lives better. He gave away patents to people who were doing better with them than he could.
Take a moment and reflect on that. Realize that perhaps while his efforts didn't have any real products that we could use- he did try his best to make it so, and he seriously loved science. He wanted a better world. He was a man with a big heart and a big brain in the same lane.
In my book? That's enough to make him still awesome as hell. A shame more people aren't like that.
Post edited by cybersoldier1981 on
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I know you inserted your own commentary with the facts, but that actually helps my understanding.
And I think that's why his exploits were romanticized, because his ideals were romantic. Thx for this.
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He invented radio-controlled boats, which he tried to sell to the Navy as a weapons system in the 1890s. He invented radio transmission, which his assistant Marconi tried to claim credit for (Tesla eventually proved his claim in court, but by then Marconi had seized the popular imagination, so...). He discovered the principle of resonant frequencies, although his so-called "earthquake machine" shook only the building he was in, not several blocks of Manhattan (soil, even the soil under New York, is too diverse in composition to have a resonant frequency). He found a practical method to generate electricity using alternating current, and to transmit it over longer distances than Edison's preferred direct current. (The ensuing PR brawl between them probably had more to do with his subsequent falling-out with Edison than the argument over pay - Edison tried to demonstrate the "dangers" of AC by electrocuting an elephant.) He developed a method of short-range wireless power transmission, which he used to power a farm in Colorado, and was working on a method of transmitting power freely through the Earth itself. (His backer, J. P. Morgan, withdrew funding when Tesla admitted there was no practical way to charge the people using the power.)
He did claim to be working on a ray that would make war obsolete, and that could scar the surface of Mars - but he was getting along in years at the time, and may have been either hallucinating or just trolling the public (who had come to expect such silly miracles of him by then).
- David Brin, "Those Eyes"
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Of course, I'm always cool with that.
Also, Nikola Tesla is a supporting character in Transformers: Infestation 2 (Where the Transformers assume more antique machines like trolley cars, trains, steam ships, etc).
Gotta wonder what other star trek level world improvements have been canned because someone couldn't make a buck off it. u_u
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Lots!
I'm still convinced we haven't seen cures made of many things, because it wasn't profitable. And of course, no research into the rare ailments and how to cure them because not enough people are effected by them.
A very significant problem is the development of antibiotic resistant bacteria, due in large part to farmers feeding animals antibiotics to make them fatten faster, and doctors prescribing antibiotics to people with colds that are actually viral infections.
Drug companies aren't investing any serious money in new antibiotics because these drugs actually cure you -- take them for a week and you're done. So instead, they're always searching for another blockbuster to reduce high blood pressure or lower cholesterol. In other words, drugs that they can sell you for the rest of your life.
The big money is in drugs for chronic illnesses, like diabetes and hypertension. That means there's a huge disincentive to come up with real cures for those diseases, because real cures kill the cash cow.
Of course, real cures are the only way we'll ever get a handle on medical costs. And the private sector has absolutely no incentive to come up with those real cures.
This mindset will be the death of modern medicine, however: when all our antibiotics stop working, no one will ever risk something like a heart transplant, hip replacement, or even cataract surgery: who in their right mind would take a 50-50 chance of dying from infection? Gunshot wounds to the abdomen will become as fatal as they were during the Civil War. Cat scratches and shaving cuts will be potentially deadly wounds...
Capitalism, the 2nd greatest serial killer of all time.... #1 is still mother nature.
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If anyone invented a cancer cure tomorrow, guess what would happen? The discoverers would become world-famous and ensure their place in the history books, as well as earning the company massive profits, huge marketshare, fame, funding.
For one thing, people get cancer. Constantly. Curing is treatment, so you'd get to keep dispensing that cure forever.
For another, cancer comes in many many forms -- one treatment is extremely unlikely to cure every form.
It's conspiratorial absurdity.
Now, one big problem is that drugs take a MASSIVE investment, so companies will prioritize based on risk.
And while things might be slightly different in public research, someone still has to prioritize resources -- more common diseases are likely to get more attention.
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Some very good points in this post but I do wonder about this one. If this is the case why is one of the most commonly prescribed/needed pharmaceutical categories, antibiotics, receiving so very little investment from pharmaceutical companies ?
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- David Brin, "Those Eyes"
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There are four basic kinds of diseases: acute infections, chronic infections, acute systemic diseases that kill you quickly, and chronic systemic diseases that degrade your health over a long period of time. Cancer is often an acute disease that will you kill you (relatively) quickly if untreated, while diabetes and hypertension are typically chronic systemic diseases that take their toll over many years. Pneumonia is an acute baterial infection that can kill within days, and HIV/AIDS is a chronic viral infection that can take years to kill you. Some chronic diseases can cause acute disease: chronic atherosclerosis can cause cardiac infarction, which if you survive frequently means you have damaged heart tissue.
Some of the treatments we have for acute diseases simply turn those acute diseases into chronic ones: they aren't really cures.
We currently have no cures for HIV/AIDS; we only have drug regimens that put the disease into remission. The virus is still hiding out in your cells and may eventually kill you, either directly or indirectly by rendering you vulnerable to other diseases that kill you much faster.
We have no cure for heart disease. Even if you get a heart transplant, you still have to take anti-rejection drugs the rest of your life.
We currently have cures for tuberculosis, antibiotics that completely rid your body of the bacteria. However, because so many people don't take the full course of treatment, some forms of tuberculosis are becoming resistant to those drugs. In time strains of TB will develop that we have no treatment for, and people will routinely die of consumption like they did before the advent of antibiotics.
Drugs that treat diseases like diabetes, hypertension and congestive heart failure have to be taken for the rest of your life. That means a lot of profit over a lifetime. Drug companies are even trying to convince people that ADHD drugs like Ritalin should be taken your entire life.
The magnitude of the costs of drug treatments for chronic diseases is staggering. Many drugs that people take on a daily basis cost tens or hundreds of dollars a day. That means a year's supply of just one drug may cost $3,000, $5,000, $10,000 or $20,000, or $50,000 a year. Such patients typically have a constellation of chronic illnesses, and often take three, four, five or six different drugs every day (some of which are taken solely to combat the side effects of other drugs). Multiply that 10, 20, 30 or 40 years, and you see that drugs for chronic diseases provide a steady income stream that guarantee a drug company millions of dollars in profits per patient over time.
On the other hand, if you actually cured those conditions, you would sell the treatment once and be done. There's a limit for how much you can charge up front for a treatment like that. It would be impossible for the average person to get a $5 million instant cure for diabetes, but you can get their insurance company to pay $5 million over 30 years to pay for medications for diabetes, and all the other conditions that diabetes eventually causes (including amputations, heart disease, hypertension, renal failure and blindness to name a few).
At best, a company could charge maybe $100,000 for a true cure for diabetes, and that might only be a few years worth of profits from selling drugs for all the chronic conditions that diabetes causes.
I'm not saying that there's some grand conspiracy, it's just that there's more money to be made providing expensive drugs for chronic illnesses that you take every day for the rest of your life, rather than finding real cures for diabetes or atherosclerosis. There's especially no motivation to create new drugs for bacterial infections that are completely cured in a week or two: you just can't charge enough to to justify the lost opportunity costs for drugs that are more profitable.
Therefore, drug companies choose to focus their research on acute and chronic systemic diseases, because that's where the profit is. We typically rely on vaccinations to prevent acute infectious diseases (like flu, diphtheria, smallpox, measles and mumps), but it's impractical to create vaccines for run of the mill bacterial infections (like staph). But we're even having trouble convincing drug companies to provide enough resources to create new flu vaccines every year: it's just not profitable enough.
Medical researchers are looking into therapies that allow for real cures of diabetes and heart disease, by creating genetically compatible islet cells in the pancreas, or fashioning a new heart from your own stem cells.
This is where government needs to step in and provide funding for research into true cures: in the long run, real cures for chronic diseases would save the government hundreds of billions of dollars in health care costs each year, and save the entire economy trillions of dollars in health care and lost productivity.