Re: tesla1

["Tesla list" <tesla-at-pupman-dot-com>]

Original poster: "by way of Terry Fritz <twftesla-at-uswest-dot-net>" <Mddeming-at-aol-dot-com>

In a message dated 2/9/01 9:44:22 AM Eastern Standard Time, tesla-at-pupman-dot-com 
writes: 


>
> Original poster: "by way of Terry Fritz <twftesla-at-uswest-dot-net>" < 
> uncadoc-at-juno-dot-com> 
>
> Hi all on the list.  Seems that Tesla was very, very far ahead of his 
> time. 


snip 
  The more I 

>
> read and research the Master Tesla, the more humble I become, since I can 
> see that he had already laid plans to link the entire world with his 
> knowledge.  All the beepers and cell phones that he foresaw in his mind 
> have now come to pass.  This is 100 years in the past that Tesla had his 
> ideas and the knowledge to make them a fact, had he only had a bit better 
> financial backing.  Al. 



Hi Al (et. al. ) :-) 
        "One can critically analyze Worship; one can worship Critical 
Analysis; but no one can critically analyze that which they 
worship...Likewise one cannot critically look at the Message while 
pre-occupied with worshipping the Messenger" Rev.Dr. D. H. Martin III, DD 

        The above quotation, which was written about another prophet, is, I 
believe, the basis for the fundamental bifurcation of Tesla Research. There 
are those who see Tesla as an Inspired Genius, in the ranks of Aristotle, 
DaVinci, Newton, and Einstein. All enlightened human beings, but all human 
and therefore imperfect in some beliefs and understandings. This group tends 
to be deeply educated in scientific principles, whether engaged in pure or 
applied research. They will see how much of Tesla's unfinished work can be 
realized through the laws of nature. 
        Then there are those who would deify Tesla, imbue him with all sorts 
of supernatural traits and abilities including, but not limited to, 
clairvoyance and infallibility. They would put him in the ranks of St. John 
"the Divine", Merlin, Nostradamus, and Sun Myung Moon, (and some would place 
him much higher). The idea that Tesla could have been mistaken about anything 
is not debatable to these disciples, it's Heresy. Although many are 
technically and mechanically proficient, they tend to have only sipped at the 
fountain of scientific method, and don't always distinguish qualitatively 
between "Science News" and "The National Enquirer". I believe, sadly, that 
they will spend most of their time and energy trying to persuade Nature to be 
consistent with what they tell each other Tesla did and said. 
snip--- 
Open the link and see the tiny communications devices that Tesla 
had envisioned and would have made if he had a chance and the money to 
pursue his dream.  He could and possibly would have fabricated silicon 
wafers for his personalized personal communications devices. 
snip--- 
I opened the link, There is nothing to see, except a few sentences about what 
Tesla was quoted as saying would come to pass, someday, somehow. That Tesla 
could have envisioned doing anything with silicon wafers is silliness to the 
fourth power. Research showing the nature of semiconductor materials lay 
decades in the future from the time Tesla is quoted in this article about the 
possibility of tiny radios. The first transistor lay a decade beyond that 
(1956) and the first "chip" at least a decade later. 
      It is a common error of those with a shallow sense of scientific 
history, to read their current technology into the past and assume all was 
foreseen. For example, When Walt Disney adapted Jules Verne's "20,000 Leagues 
Under the Sea" to a feature-length movie in the 1950s, Nuclear Reactors (aka 
Atomic piles) were the new, popular techno-buzzwords. It was therefore 
natural for the scientifically sophomoric, including movie writers, to credit 
Verne with having foreseen atomic-powered ships, when he spoke of a 
pile-powered submarine. In fact, what he foresaw was a ship powered by a 
Voltaic pile (aka Battery) which was part of the current technology of his 
day. The popular myth was so strong that the US Navy named its first real 
nuclear sub "Nautilus".   
      As to the claim that J.P. Morgan's denial of financing was 
unreasonable and conspiratorial, consider the following hypothetical 
explanation from Tesla to Morgan: 
" Mr. Morgan, I need X million dollars for my research. If I fail, you will 
be financially ruined by that failure, If I succeed, my device will 
financially ruin you." Duh! 

IMO, treating Tesla as an omniscient demigod to be worshipped, denigrates, 
rather than enhances, his remarkable achievements, shows great disrespect for 
him as a human being, and diverts energy away from useful research of his 
legacy and into the fringe world of New Age Pseudo-science and hokum. 

In the belief that reality is just as beautiful and worthwhile, 


Matt D.