Wilbur Wright's Letter to the Smithsonian (1899)
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Wilbur Wright's Letter to the Smithsonian (1899)
1–10 of 38 posts
Re: Wilbur Wright's Letter to the Smithsonian (1899)
#2"I am an enthusiast, but not a crank in the sense that I have some pet theories as to the proper construction of a flying machine"
So, cranks were a wellknown commodity already in the nineteenth century. Whoever would have guessed...
Re: Wilbur Wright's Letter to the Smithsonian (1899)
#3They succeeded 4.5 years later.
Their argument that birds make maneuvers 3-4x more aggressive than needed for level flight, and therefore level flight may be within the reach of man, is an intriguing one. You could make parallel arguments about AI today, for example that driving a car requires only 1/3 - 1/4 of a brainpower.
Re: Wilbur Wright's Letter to the Smithsonian (1899)
#4" I am an enthusiast, but not a crank in the sense that I have some pet theories as to the proper construction of a flying machine " So, cranks were a wellknown commodity already in the nineteenth century. Whoever would have guessed...
I came here to copy and paste the exact same quote. It makes me feel better when I dream up AI algorithms that I don't even know are possible or not given my limited vocabulary yet know I can go forward with any of them and learn what I don't know. We learn what we don't know, experts in fields, the specialists, rarely lead big creations. It takes someone with just enough knowledge of the various facets of their business to bring a dream / innovation to life by finding those who specialize in those facets to help build that dream.
Re: Wilbur Wright's Letter to the Smithsonian (1899)
#5They succeeded 4.5 years later. Their argument that birds make maneuvers 3-4x more aggressive than needed for level flight, and therefore level flight may be within the reach of man, is an intriguing one. You could make parallel arguments about AI today, for example that driving a car requires only 1/3 - 1/4 of a brainpower.
Yet we keep passing laws and performing studies that assume or find otherwise.
Though I do think AI will be able to drive cars in the long term - I'm very pessimistic about the immediate short term ~5-10 years. It's not the technology that will need to get there - its the laws, and support infrastructure that makes certain assumptions about there being a human there.
Re: Wilbur Wright's Letter to the Smithsonian (1899)
#6" I am an enthusiast, but not a crank in the sense that I have some pet theories as to the proper construction of a flying machine " So, cranks were a wellknown commodity already in the nineteenth century. Whoever would have guessed...
I came here to copy and paste the exact same quote. It makes me feel better when I dream up AI algorithms that I don't even know are possible or not given my limited vocabulary yet know I can go forward with any of them and learn what I don't know. We learn what we don't know, experts in fields, the specialists, rarely lead big creations. It takes someone with just enough knowledge of the various facets of their busi…
It is a good quote, isn't it? And very nicely stands the test of 118 years.
Re: Wilbur Wright's Letter to the Smithsonian (1899)
#7It's fascinating to see "behind the curtain" like this. Same with the civil rights movement etc. People know some highlighting event, but it's harder to express or celebrate the years of methodical work behind that.
Re: Wilbur Wright's Letter to the Smithsonian (1899)
#8Wilbur Wright actually hoped to enroll at Yale and become a teacher, for which he enrolled in college prep courses. All that changed when he suffered a brutal injury during an ice hockey game, following which he retreated into a long depression and eventually opened a bicycle shop in 1992.
Re: Wilbur Wright's Letter to the Smithsonian (1899)
#9If like me you were wondering how the Smithsonian replied, there are links to other letters on the same page. The next one is a letter of thanks for sending certain pamphlets and recommendations, enclosing one dollar for another book.
Re: Wilbur Wright's Letter to the Smithsonian (1899)
#10Wilbur Wright actually hoped to enroll at Yale and become a teacher, for which he enrolled in college prep courses. All that changed when he suffered a brutal injury during an ice hockey game, following which he retreated into a long depression and eventually opened a bicycle shop in 1992.
1892?