We all are sub consciously governed by parallel philosophies which lies beneath our all actions and inactions, and philosophies when shared form the collective conscious of a society. Like an Artist who through his Art mocks the society, challenges its conventions and invents a whole new thought process, a technologist is also no different from him. Technology is mere a reflection of an inventor’s personal philosophical beliefs. To interpret the allegory of technological world, I dig down deep in the minds of three great men who embarked on a journey to change the world and set the foundations of Modern technology as we see today.
Socialism
On 6 June 1884, a young Yugoslavian scientist named ‘Nikola Tesla’ landed on the shores of America with little besides a letter of recommendation from Charles Batchelor, a former employer. In the letter of recommendation to Thomas Edison, Batchelor wrote, ‘I know two great men and you are one of them; the other is this young man’. Batchelor was right, Tesla was not just as great but much more intelligent than Edison. He superseded Edison in faculty and ability to decipher the most complex problems. There was one more thing where Tesla differed from Edison and that was his philosophy of social structure. Edison came from hierarchical conservative background, while Tesla was deeply influenced by newly brewed socialist philosophies in Europe and an Indian philosopher named Swami Vivekananda who said that all religions are true and that service to man was the most effective worship of God. Imbued by the teachings of Vivekananda, Tesla completely disrupted electric Industry. Electricity then was distributed through highly inefficient DC current generators and most of the technology which was patented by Edison was expensive and hence it was reserved only for bourgeoisie class. In 1894 Tesla invented AC electric technology, which was far more efficient and could be distributed to every household in America inexpensively. His invention had put him in direct confrontation with Edison and his corporate friends, Tesla’s lab in New York was burned down and war of AC vs DC had begun which eventually Tesla won. He did not stop there; he was a man on a mission to illuminate the entire world and to break all social barriers. In 1899, Tesla started working on a new technology which promised transmission of electrical power wirelessly to the remotest corner of the world for almost free of cost but he could not fulfil his last dream, his labs in Colorado were vandalised again and he was threatened for his life. He lived rest of his life in oblivion and died in a hotel room in New York. All his life, Tesla sought to reduce social distance, such as in communication for better understanding, transportation, and transmission of energy, as a means to ensure social equality. In pursuit to do so he invented the modern radio which formed the basis of current mobile communication and controlling systems and his invention of AC electricity was the greatest service to mankind in 20th century. Continue reading »