I have just finished reading an article about nicoli tesla - he invented ac
electricity and also , contrary to popular belief, radio. The current US
proposal of a missle defence shield (the version that creates a shield
similar to microwaves to disable incomming warheads) differs from one of
teslas patents by only 3 small differences, evolutions that have only been
possible through advanced mathematical modelling available now through
computers. As he invented AC electricity AND radio I suppose he is
justified in being called the father of the 20th century. What has
fascinated me is an invention tesla was perfecting (apparantly the
principles are reasonably sound - however the US government holds all the
workings) that sent electricity in a manner similar to radio waves, allowing
electricity to be "recieved" from anywhere on earth by bouncing thiese waves
off the ionosphere (I think, it was definately some atmospheric component).
Tesla was not the most economic minded person and as such spent all his
money and then some on his inventions. He sold the patent for AC
electricity to bell and they then helped set up the national grid. As Tesla
was (again) running out of money, he sold the idea to bell (radio
electricity) and nothing came of it. The reason nothing came of it is
simple in economic reasoning. How do you make money if people can tap into
this electricity for free. This is the reason why with our current mindset,
truly wonderful developments are nigh on impossible. If you cant make money
from it, how do you justify the development costs, how are you rewarded for
your effort, how does your company recieve a tangible benefit. This is a
major hurdle. Imagine all cars running on electricity FOR FREE no CO2 no
filling up etc etc. I find it implausible that things like this should not
be allowed to happen but they arent. This is one example of I am sure a
plethora of other ideas that would benefit us in all sorts of positive ways
but extinguish power(excuse the pun) from those who hold it, conspiracy
theories abound on such inventions, and by the massive number of them, the
chances of 1 of them being true is pretty high. So quality is thwarted.
This leads to an intersting phenomena, if quality is the driving force of
all of nature, which is well explained by Mr Pirsig, then does our unique
ability to control our environment somehow give us the ability to circumvent
some of the evolutionary prowess of quality? Evolution shows that animals
are a product of their environment, and this product is shaped by quality,
as is the environment itself, all together in a harmonious accord being
driven (or pulled as the train analogy in Zen depicts) by quality. We have
for whatever reason, evolved to the stage where we can survive in almost all
known environs, through technology we have created for ourselves a device
that creates something similar to quality found in nature, however this is
pseudo quality, we have invented it and as such it cannot be the real thing,
as we ourselves are a product of the real thing. Our minds however seem to
struggle to use this immensly powerful pseudo quality in a way that is
harmonious to true quality and as such the 2 qualities are battling at an
obtuse angle. This begs the question that if animals are a product of their
environment, and this environment is driven by quality, then do we, due to
our ability to control our environment in such a massive way, control our
own evolution, and as such control quality. I would say that we dont
control quality, but this pseudo quality we have control over is powerful
enough to subvert our attention enough to render true quality almost benign.
A little knowledge is a dangerous thing, and when that little knowledge is
applied to something as all encompassing as the quality concept the results
could be (and have been)devastating.
enjoy evolve
david wilkinson
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