quote:Enablers aren't causes; they're enablers. In any event, what made electricity "widely available" was not Edison's direct current but Nicola Tesla's alternating current.
So, are you disputing that electricity was a major cause of technological advances in the 20th century?
And who cares if it was Edison's DC or Tesla's (who was gay!) AC that was more widely adopted?
Posts: 448 | Registered: Dec 2005
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KnightEnder
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Excellent, excellent. We could make a book out of this.
Edited to add: Without one mention of all the help the Aliens have given us!
quote: It was the expansion of Y that resulted in the dramatic advances in civiliation in the 20th C just as it accounts for the Renaissance and the rise of classical Greece.
But the next step from Gay Republic has always been Gay Empire!Posts: 2519 | Registered: Aug 2003
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You're right, AA, democracy didn't work. Greek women insisted on shopping.
As to the electric spark of electricity, of course it mattered whether we'd go with Edison or go with Tesla -- so we went with Westinghouse, remember?
Edison was the ruthless bastard from Jersey, remember? Tesla thought electricity should be free for all. DC would have made it impossibly expensive to do this because it can't be conducted over long distances. For a reasonable discussion of the problem, see: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/War_of_Currents
Looking for the really good book on this subject, I bumped into this -- and thought I was back at Ornery :
BIT01 Super Genius
Joined: 30 Aug 2005 Posts: 1913 Location: lost in 4D space Posted: Thu May 04, 2006 11:06 pm Post subject:
Look at it this way.
da vinci was gay. Tesla was straight. Who made the biggest contribution to science.
Both. You can't rank how those discoverys affected us bcause they are equal.
so take that pro queer people. I am not pro or anti queer either. I am neutral so long as gays don't try anything.
Boy, when you're half right, you're all wrong, what?
Tesla once worked for Edison, actually; I think in Paris.
Yes of course, it made a huge difference. DC is literally primitive compared to AC. Tesla was way ahead of Edison, and Westinghouse was bright enough to realize that. Tesla invented radio, too (http://www.pbs.org/tesla/ll/ll_whoradio.html ), and invented radio remote control He was a bloody genius. His major concern was getting rid of wires. He really thought that he could deliver electricity to things without wires.
Well, finally, I'll be back to my wireless mouse in a few days Yea! Some day, we'll have wireless power. Some day soon.
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So true, Richard, except for that Einstien chap. Although he would agree per Maxwell's 19th century electromagnetic equations. Posts: 1449 | Registered: Apr 2006
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When Einstein suggested that my ex was getting big enough to bend light waves, I knew he was right! ... well, he was right up to a point. How interesting, I think, that the greatest discovery of the 20th century (by Eddington), that the universe is flying apart and with it all our hopes for the future, is ignored by the public as inconvenient -- for the same reason his sexual preference is ignored. It is inconvenient. Eddington's discovery is all-too-easily comprehended; Einstein's theories are not. Does that not say something about public preference -- preferring to believe what they cannot understand to that which they can?
How else did we discover the big bang but go to the far edge of Eddington's theory and traipse backwards? Was that Tiny Tim with a ukalele?
It's the same public weight put upon Gallileo -- who discovered nothing that wasn't there all along, using somebody else's invention (was it that Dutch fag who invented the 'scopes?), but he who gets all the credit in the comic books for something Copernicus calculated -- again, because it was ever-so inconvenient for the Christocentric "lifestyle".
I'd like to see what would happen to 1/8 of a ton of Rev Maddock in an electric chair with either AC or DC. Hell, I'd pull the switch!
Well, from St John I to St John II entirely by wind power -- and not a saint in either one of them . A respectable motel, however, for 1/3 the price of one in Bar Harbor.
Have we all forgot about the Roswell crash. One of "them", the "Gray's IIRC, was found alive and taken to Area 51. A LOT of knowledge came from that incident. Plus we reverse engineered the 'craft' and learned about transistors, IC's, anti gravity, etc. It was THEM that we learned it all from.
Seriously it DOES seem there has been an EXPLOSIVE growth in science, physics, etc that has ocurred from that time period until now.
I think much of it has to do with the more efficient methods of communications mankind has devised. The printing press is one machine that comes to mind. The transfer of knowledge from person to person has become easier and easier as time has progressed. Amazing when you think about it is this: the ONLY way you learn ANYTHING is: 1) Read Information From A TRanscript 2) Hear Information From Another Person That's it... there is nothing more, no other way... in the here and now. The problem with these two methods is: 1) Information Transfer Is Relatively Slow 2) When one passes from this life to the next, all the knowledge and information they have accumalated is lost.
Maybe one day we will have a "data port" into our brains and we can be 'programmed' in a matter of minutes or seconds to be a Doctor, Lawyer, Airline Pilot or whatever we wish to be. If for some reason we wish to change careers we could easily and quickly be 'reprogrammed'. But, before we get to that point there will likely be DNA 'saturation' or modification that will allow us to be "pre-programmed" before birth to be whatever is desired. This will be a one time operation that will, in the early phase, not be reversable. But it will be convenient because society can be 'grafted' or blended to have the 'correct' proportions of every profession. That we will, one day, not only be able to do this but WILL do it is the hope of mankind. We have a LONG way to go not only scientifically but socially. Mankind today seems to be more intent on killing each other than devising ways to solve problems. But we have come a long way since the forties.
Posts: 14 | Registered: May 2006
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A more rational explanation of the huge leap in applied engineering that commenced in the 40s would involve, among others things:
1) the accumulated research in electronics that was the 1900s through 1939 Great Patent Races in radio, electrical transmission, and TV (among a zillion other allpications
2) the accumulated theoretical work of the same period ignited by Einstein's papers of the 20th century's first decade
3) the enormous concentration and administrastion of research made possible by WWII's attainment of monolithic bureaucracy (aka at the time as the War Effort) that placed so much talent and material in harness of technology development
4) last but not least, the firing of creative imagination first inspired by Hugo Gernsback's Amazing Stories, and later refined by John Campbell's far-seeing editorial influence upon Astounding Science Fiction. (Countless scientists of the postwar-through-NASA are cite Golden Age sci-fi as a key influence driving them into science.
Channel this through a relatively open society, and voila!
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flydye45
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I think the more important question is, were the Grays gay?
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quote:Originally posted by Hannibal: my reasoning is because realigion is starting to lose its grip on man kind.
less religion = more technological advancments
I agree, religion has been a massive hemorrhoid on humanity's behind since the beginning and people are finally starting to wake up. Hopefully we can survive the last gasps, "fundamentalists" could be capable of dealing some major setbacks now that WMD are so devastating.
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quote: I think the more important question is, were the Grays gay?
I think when you weigh the evidence of their vastly superior technology with their obviously superior civilization, the answer is a resounding yes.
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Hmmm. When I was contemplating the 'communications' explosion, noted per supra, two characters came back from my callous youth: Oliver Wendell Holmes and Alan Turing (actually our family's lawyer Mr White and my gay-nerd Uncle Bruce).
(1) Some guy came rushing into Holmes' office and said, "Mr Holmes! Mr Holmes! The Army has secured telephone service to Florida!" Holmes squinted. "But what do we have to say to Florida?"
(2) When Turing created ULTRA and decoded ENIGMA, he won the Battle of the Atlantic and, thus, the war against Nazi Germany. But, of course, because he was a gay embarrassment, he was pumped full of estrogen, and either driven to suicide thereby or, more likely, just murdered by the Manchester police. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alan_Turing
I think we have to add 'war' as a stimulus; oh, and of course 'greed' and 'avarice' (just to be religiously correct).
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flydye45
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Well, when one considers their probe predilection, I suppose it's obvious
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quote: my reasoning is because realigion is starting to lose its grip on man kind.
less religion = more technological advancments
ooooh...i wouldn't exactly beleive that. I'd say in some cases the other way around (religion losing grip). I'd think that in quite a few cases throughout history, increase in "super-piety" result in an increase in technological advances. BTW hello to all, it's been a while.
EDIT Actually, I think that technological advances stem from desire to further the technology. In the case of rennaissance, greek achievement etc. many of the inventors were trying to invent the process in which we invent things, if you will. The basics. Once we had those, science and technology took huge leaps, e.g., the atomic age, etc... that's way alot of inventions these days seem to be just one in a multitudinous sea of others: everyone else is discovering as well, and scientific leaps don't seem to be as huge as, say, "discovering the atom" or "inventing the first airplane"
quote:Originally posted by Politius: I'd think that in quite a few cases throughout history, increase in "super-piety" result in an increase in technological advances.
I can't really think of any cases where religion was the reason for new technology could you give a handful of examples?
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... and torture reached new technological heights under the Inqusition too, Hannibal : the rack, the press, the iron maiden. Honestly, I'm having a great deal of trouble connecting 'faith' with 'technological advancement'.
Mendel and genetics, Kopernicus and heliocentrism come to mind, but we know in the latter case that Kopernicus was actually afraid of the church and suppressed his data.
In one of the Boner Boys series, Byte Boner -- the technonerd, tells his mother that he isn't going to church with her anymore When she asks why, he says,
"I'm a scientist. The only people who go to church less than scientists are atheists."
"Well!" says the mother. "I certainly hope you aren't an atheist! Atheists are wicked people who bring evil into the world!"
"Well, when I grow up I'm going to become an atheist and bring good into the world. That way God will have to forgive atheists for being bad."
"Young man!" his mother yelled at him. "You march upstairs this second and put on your Sunday suit -- and be quick about it! I will not have a lapsed Christian in this house!"
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KnightEnder
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I watched a show on the History Channel the other day about wheat harvesting. Just the change in that from hand held scythe, to long handled scyth, to reapers and now combines change the balance from 15 people working in the fields to support 1 scientis/business person to 1 person in the fields nowadays supporting 15 people in the cities. Amazing how something that would seem so small can make such a big difference. (Yes, I have no life).
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