X-Message-Number: 20241 From: "Mark Plus" <> Subject: Re: The non evitability of progress Date: Wed, 02 Oct 2002 09:08:00 -0700 In Message #20233, Yvan Bozzonetti write: >>Unfortunately, technical knowledge can be lost, sometimes for centuries. >An example: at the end of 19th century, Nikolas Tesla had built a machine producing in a room a "light coming from nowhere" (everywhere?). Do you know an example of this today? A theory to explain it? And think: this is electromagnetism done with "amateur level" technology. The full theory is well known, what have we missed? All of Tesla's patents are publicly available. E.g., refer to: http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0945001703/ and, http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/1930216009/ You'd think Tesla could have patented a machine capable of producing omnidirectional light, if he had been able to make it work. Maybe it's inferable from his patents. For some reason Tesla has become the focus of a cult following where people are attributing to him all sorts of inventions that seem to have mysteriously disappeared, from death rays to robots to ways of contacting extraterrestrials. (In other words, Tesla has posthumously been turned into a mad scientist from 1930's pulp science fiction.) Some of this seems to derive from Tesla's own self-promotion when he realized that the technological frontier was moving past him, and he was trying to hustle money from financiers so he could keep a roof over his head. If Tesla's death weren't a matter of public record, it wouldn't surprise me if someone claimed that Tesla is still alive because he had invented a machine to make himself immortal, and then went into hiding to keep the world from finding out about his secret. Mark Plus It's not "religious" or "science fictional" if you can do it. _________________________________________________________________ Chat with friends online, try MSN Messenger: http://messenger.msn.com Rate This Message: http://www.cryonet.org/cgi-bin/rate.cgi?msg=20241