Well yes, Tesla was the greatest mind of all time. Clearly, he's the pinnacle of engineering genius. As for the start of the modern age, I'd also add in the works of Maxwell, a bit earlier, in the 1800s along with a few others.martianmay wrote:Actually, the base of the electronic age was created by Nikola Tesla and Edison.S_Parc wrote:For the most part, MIT/Stanford/Berkeley and their associates did create, the electronic age.
Tesla invented alternating current, transformers, the induction motor, the radio, fluorescent lighting and many other inventions.
You already know what Edison invented.
Philo T. Farnsworth was a big TV pioneer and I think he was the first person to invent a working video camera.
None of these men went to MIT/Stanford/Berkely. Edison never went to college and held college graduates in contempt his whole life.
But the point still stands and that's that much of today's world, meaning the R&D -> to -> corporate machine, is a result of collaborations involving places like MIT (including Lincoln Lab & MITRE in MA) to let's say Digital Equipment Corp, which at its peak, had over 100K employees in the New England states. Thus, the involvement of the average college person to the world of commercialized technologies has a lot to due with the mix of universities, govt money, and private sector financing. In all honesty, half my jobs/contracts in the Bay State are almost a direct causation of the above in some way or another.
So where odbo seems to think that some robber barons, like the Rothchilds or Rockfellers, are influencing tech entrepreneurs, I'd say that it's at best, a type of convenient overflow of their preexisting cash flow, which goes into VC firms like Charles River, etc, from their foundations, private or public. Since 4 of 5 of John D Rockefeller's grandsons are dead, with David in his mid-90s (and clearly not looking ~50 w/ some genomic therapies), I find it hard to believe that the Gilded Age robber barons are controlling today's hi-tech, as a way of lending them eternal youth, like a Ponce De Leon benefactor but with a walking stick and a top hat.
With that stated, sure, there are rich people who want to live forever, Branson of Virgin Atlantic, Ellison of Oracle Corp, etc, and yes, they'll contribute to cryostasis companies and biopharma, to help in completing those goals. But then again, I don't see most people wanting to die, any time soon.
The rise of tech, however, has its flipside and that's that some organization, govt or private, will use it to spy on & control the population, one way or another. And as for RFID implants, w/ supercomputing & vision processing as its goes, it won't even be necessary as ubiquitous cameras, everywhere, will be able to track the movements of every person, within a decade or so, the moment they leave their apartments.