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The Extraordinary Life of Nikola Tesla

smithsonianmag.com

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Re: The Extraordinary Life of Nikola Tesla

#31

Post by jeffwass »

WalterBright wrote: post #5

These days it's fashionable to venerate Tesla and denigrate Edison. Tesla's contributions to AC motors and power are great and beyond dispute. The others, not so much. For those who like to denigrate Edison by comparison, I challenge to read "Edison" by Josephson and maintain that opinion. I.e. Tesla transformed AC power, Edison transformed multiple foundational industries.

Those that denigrate Edison in favour of Tesla often ignore or aren’t aware of Tesla’s own dark side.

Here’s an article, a few years ago and also from Smithsonian Magazine, telling of some of Tesla’s disturbing opinions.

For example, advocating forced eugenics to weed out ‘undesirables’ from the human race. He felt that the forced sterilisation of criminals and mentally ill in Nazi Germany didn’t go far enough.

https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/nikola-tesla-the-euge...

Re: The Extraordinary Life of Nikola Tesla

#33

Post by bkovacev »

bkovacev wrote: post #30
trodemode wrote: post #27

There is a factual inaccuracy in the article. Although an ethnic Serb, Tesla was not born in Serbia. He was born in Croatia that was at that time part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire.

Why does it always have to be someone that involves politics into this? Tesla during his life said he is of Serbian origin and thinks of himself as a Serbian, even though he was born in Croatia. Don't steer it up in here too, I'd like HN to remain what it is.

For the downvoters - you obviously have zero idea how much of an issue this presents on the Balkan. Embrace Tesla's work, not origin or nationality, it really does not matter.

Re: The Extraordinary Life of Nikola Tesla

#34

Post by thedoctor79 »

joering2 wrote: post #25

My tinfoil hat tells me that either neither Tesla nor Einstein were humans, OR both were in some sort of communication with aliens. I know on its face it sounds like horseshit... but with over 100 billion people ever lived on earth... how come we have so few geniuses that truly push the whole human kind forward 10x faster than all people combined thru a previous ten centuries? Even more - if we assume its just a coin…

Oh but we have them. Steve Jobs and Bill Gates were such people.

Re: The Extraordinary Life of Nikola Tesla

#35

Post by karmapolic »

WalterBright wrote: post #5

These days it's fashionable to venerate Tesla and denigrate Edison. Tesla's contributions to AC motors and power are great and beyond dispute. The others, not so much. For those who like to denigrate Edison by comparison, I challenge to read "Edison" by Josephson and maintain that opinion. I.e. Tesla transformed AC power, Edison transformed multiple foundational industries.

why is this even trending? why cant you appreciate the brilliance of Tesla without comparisons to Edison. Both were great.

Re: The Extraordinary Life of Nikola Tesla

#36

Post by glossbar »

Aloha wrote: post #11
WalterBright wrote: post #5

These days it's fashionable to venerate Tesla and denigrate Edison. Tesla's contributions to AC motors and power are great and beyond dispute. The others, not so much. For those who like to denigrate Edison by comparison, I challenge to read "Edison" by Josephson and maintain that opinion. I.e. Tesla transformed AC power, Edison transformed multiple foundational industries.

Edison was an asshole - but he was a brilliant polymath asshole - I can draw a line, an almost direct line between the methods of Steve Jobs and Thomas Edison. Edison can be an asshole, without denigrating any of his brilliance, or suppressing any of Teslas. It's interesting though - Edison was often the disruptor of industries - but he was not the man who turned Electrical Power, the Phonograph, or the Motion Pictur…

Did you meet him? How would you know he was an ahole? Just asking, as I see this far too much. Is Elon an ahole? Is Gates an ahole?

Re: The Extraordinary Life of Nikola Tesla

#37

Post by smallstepforman »

joering2 wrote: post #25

My tinfoil hat tells me that either neither Tesla nor Einstein were humans, OR both were in some sort of communication with aliens. I know on its face it sounds like horseshit... but with over 100 billion people ever lived on earth... how come we have so few geniuses that truly push the whole human kind forward 10x faster than all people combined thru a previous ten centuries? Even more - if we assume its just a coin…

There are probably many geniouses that came and went through the ages, the problem is that of “financial stability / partnerships”. If I’m too busy making Widgets for a company in order to feed my family, I dont have any energy left to do Creative stuff. Isaac Newton was wealthy so could devote time to pursue the sciences, the rest of us are preparing TPG reports for the bean counters. The person who can cure cancer is too busy taking his kids to KungFu/Soccer practice, hogged by a demanding socialite wife who doesn’t allow him to steal time from domestic chores.

Re: The Extraordinary Life of Nikola Tesla

#38

Post by ronald_raygun »

glossbar wrote: post #36
Aloha wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Edison was an asshole - but he was a brilliant polymath asshole - I can draw a line, an almost direct line between the methods of Steve Jobs and Thomas Edison. Edison can be an asshole, without denigrating any of his brilliance, or suppressing any of Teslas. It's interesting though - Edison was often the disruptor of industries - but he was not the man who turned Electrical Power, the Phonograph, or the Motion Pictur…

Did you meet him? How would you know he was an ahole? Just asking, as I see this far too much. Is Elon an ahole? Is Gates an ahole?

In the AC/DC wars Edison fought with Tesla, he'd electrocute animals to show how dangerous AC was.

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/thomas-edison-histo...

Re: The Extraordinary Life of Nikola Tesla

#39

Post by WalterBright »

glossbar wrote: post #36
Aloha wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Edison was an asshole - but he was a brilliant polymath asshole - I can draw a line, an almost direct line between the methods of Steve Jobs and Thomas Edison. Edison can be an asshole, without denigrating any of his brilliance, or suppressing any of Teslas. It's interesting though - Edison was often the disruptor of industries - but he was not the man who turned Electrical Power, the Phonograph, or the Motion Pictur…

Did you meet him? How would you know he was an ahole? Just asking, as I see this far too much. Is Elon an ahole? Is Gates an ahole?

It's usually a mistake to judge people from another time using modern sensibilities.

It's like thinking people from the 1800's were all grim because they look grim in photographs. But that was just an artifact of them having to hold still for the long exposure times.

I bet those people would think people of our time are horribly ill-mannered and rude.

Re: The Extraordinary Life of Nikola Tesla

#40

Post by shubhamjain »

WalterBright wrote: post #5

These days it's fashionable to venerate Tesla and denigrate Edison. Tesla's contributions to AC motors and power are great and beyond dispute. The others, not so much. For those who like to denigrate Edison by comparison, I challenge to read "Edison" by Josephson and maintain that opinion. I.e. Tesla transformed AC power, Edison transformed multiple foundational industries.

I wonder if it's similar to the popular perception of Jobs and Woz. Steve Jobs is often regarded (for the right reasons) as an arrogant, unforgiving CEO who excelled by exploiting the works of a benign genius. The truth is, however exceptional Woz was, there are far more brilliant hackers than people who transform industries.
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