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The Extraordinary Life of Nikola Tesla

smithsonianmag.com

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Re: The Extraordinary Life of Nikola Tesla

#51

Post by andai »

smallstepforman wrote: post #37
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…

The clear solutions to these problems then, are to become wealthy, and remain celibate.

Re: The Extraordinary Life of Nikola Tesla

#52

Post by syockit »

andai wrote: post #45
pvaldes wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And electrocution is seen currently as the method of choice in all modern slaughterhouses of the planet to kill humanely animals for meat, instantly and saving a lot of this nervous excitation called pain. Edison has saved more animal pain than the whole Peta team probably.

How would you respond if I electrocuted you, saying my intention was to save you from pain?

You might as well have asked "how would you respond if I gave you lethal injection while you were sleeping?" What's the point of the question?

Re: The Extraordinary Life of Nikola Tesla

#53

Post by bkovacev »

dsego wrote: post #43
bkovacev wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Facts are not politics.

When out of the whole article you point out something that is not the focus of the article and introduce a true and undeniable fact that is (unfortunately) most often used as a way of scoring political points on the Balkan from both sides, that fact does in fact become political.

Re: The Extraordinary Life of Nikola Tesla

#54

Post by wallace_f »

jeffwass wrote: post #31
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…

To be fair to Tesla, and to history, this was pretty normal at the time. The Supreme Court even endorsed it: in fact, they didn't even just endorse it, it was appatently so important that they ruled in 1927 in Buck vs Bell that sterilization of the unfit did not violated due process (what!?).[1]

It took generations of education, whatever you want to call it, to change our collective minds.

1 - https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buck_v._Bell

Re: The Extraordinary Life of Nikola Tesla

#56

Post by dsego »

bkovacev wrote: post #53
dsego wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Facts are not politics.

When out of the whole article you point out something that is not the focus of the article and introduce a true and undeniable fact that is (unfortunately) most often used as a way of scoring political points on the Balkan from both sides, that fact does in fact become political.

And sometimes pointing out a factual error is just that. You are now the one bringing politics into the discussion. You are making it worse.

Re: The Extraordinary Life of Nikola Tesla

#57

Post by lanbanger »

Tesla had many great ideas, but was lazy and had a bad habit of disappearing off down on a tangent that his investors had not been told about, and had not agreed to invest in.

I recommend this book (https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/494.Wizard) to anyone who wants to know the full story.

Re: The Extraordinary Life of Nikola Tesla

#58

Post by acqq »

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.

In fact, born in the territories that are currently inside of the borders of the country now called Croatia which at that time didn’t exist as the independent country, especially not there. As far as I understand, he was born in the “Military Frontier” lands of Austro-Hungarian monarchy (Wikipedia: “Born 10 July 1856 Smiljan, Austrian Empire”), and went to Polytechnic school in Graz, today Austria:

https://teslauniverse.com/nikola-tesla/timeline/1875-tesla-a...

Present Croatia exists for less than 30 years, it’s important not being anachronistic in historical statements. At the time Tesla was born his birthplace was not even administratively “Croatia”:

“By the Basic Law of the Frontier from 1850, the administration of Military Frontier was split and the land started to look like a state. The Main Command had its headquarters in Zagreb, but remained directly subordinate to the Ministry of War in Vienna.”

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Military_Frontier

Re: The Extraordinary Life of Nikola Tesla

#59

Post by dsego »

andai wrote: post #51
smallstepforman wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

The clear solutions to these problems then, are to become wealthy, and remain celibate.

MGTOW https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Men_Going_Their_Own_Way

Re: The Extraordinary Life of Nikola Tesla

#60

Post by adventured »

wallace_f wrote: post #54
jeffwass wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

To be fair to Tesla, and to history, this was pretty normal at the time. The Supreme Court even endorsed it: in fact, they didn't even just endorse it, it was appatently so important that they ruled in 1927 in Buck vs Bell that sterilization of the unfit did not violated due process (what!?).[1] It took generations of education, whatever you want to call it, to change our collective minds. 1 - https://en.m.wikipedia.…

To add to that, California was still force sterilizing people as recently as the 1960s.
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