Art & Inspiration Do you ever wonder about really smart guys?

How about the guy coming out of his shop, saying to his girlfriend "Hey, if you slip this little copper wire coil I just made into your xxxxx, we won't have to worry about an unwanted pregnancy."

 

OK, I withdraw my comment.

 

Smartest guy I ever knew called me son

 

The inertial navigation units developed for the space program revolutionized the commercial aviation industry. The companies flying the international routes replaced the navigator with two (sometimes three, 747) INS units. It revolutionized overseas flying. A lot of new inventions get used in ways that are sometimes difficult to imagine.
Bob

 

Belt drive Maytag washing machine motor would be traditional. SBC and Y block hadn't been invented when the Margarita came along.

 

Mamma Gump said.........
"Just because your head comes to a point, that doesn't mean you're sharp."

 

R&D scientists working to develop a new heart medicine got reports of an unexpected side effect in testing.
That "medicine" is now called Viagra.......... "and that's the rest of the story".
*Look it up.

The "smart" scientists never did score that heart medicine but the palookas in marketing are living on Easy Street.

 

"It's not possible."
"No. It's necessary."
Queue epic music....

 

I'm not un-intelligent but I do wonder if someone like William Oughtred, the inventor of the first mechanical computer, commonly called a slide rule, and I could ever have a normal conversation or even have something in common. Probably not Oughtred, since he died in 1660, but someone like him.

 

Personally I’m am the human equivalent of a 30 watt bulb or maybe a beige crayon.

 

I think the smartest person I know is my better half, after all she chose me!

 

Where the hell did that come from? First time something went over my head and I felt good about it.

 

Actually Edison didn't invent the lightbulb but he did perfect it. A couple of Canadians sold their idea to him due lack of financial backing. Kind of like the "invention " of Superman. Edison once replied to a reporter who asked him what it was like to be the smartest man on earth that he didn't know and the reported should go ask Tesla.

 

Apparently, this fellow had an extra nailhead lying around. I saw this a couple of years ago in Wichita, I think.

 

You should really look into all that,,, seems impossible. Eric von braun said it was impossible too. Kubric said yep we can do it. Now the really cool thing about all that is NOW, in 2018 they (NASA) can't figure out how to do it, they (NASA) lost all the information from the 1960s and 70s too. The greatest human accomplishment ever and they lost it??? You know a funny thing happened on the way to the moon.

 

Planning to retire, I interviewed some financial advisors. One named Calvin sat me down and showed me an interesting fact: In history, occasionally there are truly brilliant inventions, these are seeds for major waves of change in society. The waves are the myriad of applications discovered following any given invention. He had the last 200 years or so charted out on his conference room walls. The internal combustion engine, electricity, transistors, computers, they all spawned huge changes in society as well as obvious and quantifiable financial changes. I believe he was one of the all around smartest guys I have ever met and I worked in aerospace with rocket scientists and PHDs most of my career.
I went to see him because he made huge amounts of money for some of the guys who retired before me. I didn't go with him because it was obvious that he was the only one in his firm that truly understood his investment strategies and he was 70 years old.
Was I smart? I'll never know....

 

we planned our retirement right after we started working....it's going fine.

The 1920s is the decade when technology really changed life in the US.

 

WTF are you on about? Please tell me you're not a nutbar. The Apollo landing sites are visible from lunar orbit telescope and have been extensively photographed catalogued and studied. You are the one who should really "look into all that." Jesus Christ.

 

I just rode home, in the rush-hour traffic of a major city, in a car that I hand in designing, in a car that had no driver.

Oh, and did you forget the modern internet?

 

I'm guessing only a few of us live in that world Gimpy, I know I don't.
I'd still be using a rotary dial phone but Ma Bell changed the ringer @#$&?! or whatever the techies call it.

 

This was the computer when man started his quest for the moon. I have one, plus a little book that tells how to use it, but I've never tried. (I worry that my head would explode before I had the first page read)
Issac honey, have you ever noticed that the apples always fall toward the ground, never up into the sky? Hmmm, let me think about that!

 

In one year, give-or-take a month, or two, riding in these will be offered as a commercial service to the public.

 

you're gonna put the buggy whip manufacturers out of business.

 

Actually, bespoke tack makers are in-demand these days. Horse people have serious money.

 

it's an expensive hobby, for sure. My wife finally got done with horses this past year.

 

That reminds me I met a guy that made a Hot Air Balloon using Tyvek that would fold up and fit in a large suitcase. There are lots of smart people out there, wish I could find one to let me understand how electricity works. Bob

 

For some reason I've always thought someone that survived the Civil War and lived to 1915 would have seen all the technical inventions that we just take for granted today. Bob

 

For me it is transistors. I've read the books, I've had the classes, I have built many circuits using them. I still can't understand how they work or how someone figured out they could work!

 

I would suspect that a high percentage of the inventions, gadgets, and things we enjoy everyday probably are the result of failed experiments from dedicated people trying to solve a problem that had nothing to do with the discovery we are enjoying.

Most great things started with a simple question like: Why Not? What if? Why can't? or Can we? Some people try to improve existing things, others are looking for a better process of doing something, and some are just following through on some wild ass thought. Most are very protestant, with a hard core "try again" attitude. Some people are successful because they were not smart enough to know something doesn't or isn't suppose to work so they keep trying different approaches at the idea until they succeed.

I don't believe a person has to be "smart" to invent or improve something. They just have to follow through on their thoughts with action. Something that doesn't appear to happen as often these days as it did in the past. I believe the ideas keep coming, but less people are following through with action. Gene