david zach's journal

« Vortex for geeks | Main | Bruce Sterling on making backups »

July 27, 2005

The Museum of Unworkable Devices

While I'm on the topic of defending Western Civ, it might also be a point to suggest this website The Museum of Unworkable Devices. I never took Physics, but this is a well explained site on why those perpetual motion devices and the like just don't work.

There's this famous story of a friend visiting Thomas Edison while he was in the midst of trying (and failing) to invent the light bulb. The experiment at the time of course failed and his friend was quoted as saying something like, "Well, I guess you've failed!" Edison shot back with, "No, I just found one more way it won't work."

For that reason, I suppose that a site devoted to unworkable devices is there for the purpose of inspiring the future Edisons who would see these sorts of things as just one more way it won't work on the way to ways they will.

Many societies have the freedom to succeed. We go a step better. We have the freedom to fail, and then get back up and try again.

When you know what will succeed, you know the future. The problem with that attitude is that the future is really mostly unknown and in places where it is known, it's also a place where there isn't room for error, experimentation and trying something new. If I have a choice, I'll take the place where the future is unknown, but the people there have a faith in themselves, in God and in their own abilities to solve any problem thrown in their path. Those people are the real futurists.

Posted by dmzach

View by Category

Recent Entries