Nikola Tesla Should Have Changed the World Sooner

Based on the quote from this chapter, ““revolution doesn’t happen when society adopts new technologies--it happens when society adopts new behaviors,” do you agree or disagree? Cite examples to support your position.



I totally agree. Technology creates opportunity, but not behaviors. Behaviors change when people act. 


I hate it when I read articles or see news programs that say "Video Game Made Him Act Out in School!" That's a load of BS. Mom and dad aren't connected enough with that child and aren't setting boundaries and aren't communicating with the simple reminder that its "just a game." Now of course I'm not ignorant enough to think that kids should be allowed to see porn at the theaters or play games willy nillly - I'm just suggesting that their behavior is not because of a video game - the responsibility lies with the parents. 


And now more related to this question.... Lets take Google Docs for instance. Until about a year and half ago, I was totally unaware that they even existed. Once I was clued in, I still thought it was pointless. Now, for obvious reasons, I use them for everything - even class papers! I don;t have a printer, so I just open Google Docs at work or at school and print it off. Bam. Easy. I recently was signed on to a pro cycling team (!!!!!) and started doing some freelance design work for the sports management company that runs the team. The owner was passing around a 3-paged Excel sheet to 13 athletes to get information for sizing, specific needs etc... oh my god... 13 versions all named the same thing, its going to get lost, transferring all the info is a bitch etc etc... In the end, some one will get the wrong items. So I suggested Google Docs and Google Forms. 


Here's an amazing historical example of technology not changing society. In Elementary School, we are taught that Thomas Edison was the greatest inventor who ever lived. This is false. He was brilliant, sure, but he was a businessman. The greatest inventor of all time, in my opinion, is a man named Nikola Tesla. His brain worked differently than ours. He saw problems 30 years before they happened and had an answer 40 years before anyone else could even dream about it. The alternating current powering your house -Tesla, the motor - tesla, radio - Tesla (Yup, not Merconi - that guy used 17 of Teslas pattons send a dinky "e" accross the Atlantic.)


 In the Late 1880's Nikola Tesla presented to the world a radio controlled boat. He stood behind a booth pulling levers  as wooden ship turned sailed in the pool in front of him. The viewers thought he was a crazy and a magician. This is the 1880s...... He proposed that war ships no longer need humans. They could save lives. Shortly there after he developed this technology to be able to detect other ships. 60 years later RADAR was finally being used as a standard. In the 1920s Tesla was hard a at work on a tower that he was convinced would be able to connect people across the world. Electricity, messages, pictures etc would be beamed from tower to tower and person to person instantly! He lost his funding however and the project was never completed. Today we have cell phones, wifi etc...


And lastly, Tesla in his old age had one last idea for a project. He believed he had all the knowledge he needed to invent a "Death Ray."  Shoot beams of electricity into the sky and take out a fighter plane. After making this announcement In perfect helath, the US governement thought he was insane. Tesla was discouraged and threatened to tak his work to his home county (a soviet territory.) He was dead 3 days later. His lab, his hotel room (he lived in a hotel) and his papers were completely cleared away and only a few of the papers were returned to the public in the late 1950s -mostly blacked out in permanent ink. Electro Magnetic Pulse. Sound familiar?  The guy was insane - he was a mad scientist but he introduced over 750 patented inventions and most were not adopted until decades later!