Science Plays God

[Joseph Tracy]

Whether Tesla could successfully do what he claimed will probably never be known, whether his writings were seized when he died as many claim, will never be known, along with the question of whether they contained anything of worth.. But the machinations of those who profited from his genius are clear enough to make your version of his story less than definitive. My point had to do with the motives for science. I am saying and am willing to defend the idea that science that challenges power can be marginalized. I don't think Pynchon is in a Tesla cult, but what I am talking about is an important part of how the Tesla story is used in ATD. There is also more than a hint in ATD that Tesla could have been onto some ideas that were dangerous and unworkable. There always seem to be unforseen consequences with science and technology. It has turned out that the pacifist Einstein has been important in ushering in something that could destroy much of life on earth. 
I have the deepest regard for such geniuses. I just think folks should recognize the ethical dangers that come with scientific knowledge, and  that we do well to be humble before the largest mysteries of existence. Einstein felt at the end that he had been unable to push through to a fully satisfactory theory. The nature of the subatomic world, quantum field theory, the Casimir effect, gravitation etc. are open questions.  On the other hand greenhouse-gas-caused global warming is as hard as science gets, and provides knowledge that clearly requires action. We are spending an inordinate portion of our collective wealth on the wrong kind of science for our actual problems. That is really all I am saying.  I do not mind if you disagree with that analysis but I am bothered by the linkage to things I am not. I am not simplistic, cultist, or even a Luddite ( that was not your comment, I know). Your comparison of Einstein and Tesla is a bit colored but it is also a clear and enlightening defense of current consensus on important scientific issues. touche.
I'm just looking for a civil conversation about important ideas with sharp minds and hoping all will benefit from that exchange. 
On Jun 10, 2013, at 10:34 AM, Monte Davis wrote:

> To the very limited extent that Tesla ever explained his "low cost energy
> plan" (which oscillated between broadcast power and earth-as-conductor
> power), it wasn't "canned" because it wouldn't be profitable for Big Energy
> -- it was nonsense.    
> 
> Yes, Tesla was a genuinely brilliant inventor, experimenter and engineer in
> the 1880s and 1890s, but from the early 1900s on he grew increasingly
> isolated, cranky, and megalomaniac. Again and again over his last thirty
> years he claimed to be about to demonstrate revolutionary new devices and
> principles, but something always came up to put it off. 
> 
> The Tesla cult (there's really no other word for it) is a perfect example of
> have-it-both-ways woo. That other scientists and the global electrical
> industry recognized, hailed, and widely used his early ideas is evidence of
> his genius -- but that his later ideas went nowhere is evidence of a
> jealous, narrow-minded conspiracy by other scientists and the global energy
> industry. (You might also look up his enthusiasm for eugenics and
> sterilization of the "unfit" -- or would that be hard to reconcile with your
> admiration for Tesla the ignored/suppressed Prophet of People's Energy?) 
> 
> Just for starters, from Wikipedia: 
> 
> "Tesla exhibited a pre-atomic understanding of physics in his writings; he
> disagreed with the theory of atoms being composed of smaller subatomic
> particles, stating there was no such thing as an electron creating an
> electric charge (he believed that if electrons existed at all they were some
> fourth state of matter or sub-atom that could only exist in an experimental
> vacuum and that they had nothing to do with electricity). Tesla believed
> that atoms are immutable-they could not change state or be split in any way.
> He was a believer in the 19th century concept of an all pervasive 'ether'
> that transmitted electrical energy.
> 
> "Tesla was generally antagonistic towards theories about the conversion of
> matter into energy. He was also critical of Einstein's theory of relativity,
> saying:  'I hold that space cannot be curved, for the simple reason that it
> can have no properties. It might as well be said that God has properties. He
> has not, but only attributes and these are of our own making. Of properties
> we can only speak when dealing with matter filling the space. To say that in
> the presence of large bodies space becomes curved is equivalent to stating
> that something can act upon nothing. I, for one, refuse to subscribe to such
> a view.'
> 
> "Tesla claimed to have developed his own physical principle regarding matter
> and energy that he started working on in 1892 and in 1937, at age 81,
> claimed in a letter to have completed a 'dynamic theory of gravity' that
> '[would] put an end to idle speculations and false conceptions, as that of
> curved space.' He stated that the theory was 'worked out in all details' and
> that he hoped to soon give it to the world. Further elucidation of his
> theory was never found in his writings."
> 
> 
> -----Original Message-----
> From: owner-pynchon-l at waste.org [mailto:owner-pynchon-l at waste.org] On Behalf
> Of Joseph Tracy
> Sent: Monday, June 10, 2013 9:23 AM
> To: P-list List
> Subject: Re: Science Plays God
> 
> Completely agree  that differences and divergences appear everywhere, but
> with the current dominance and continued ascendence of the western,
> agonistic, competitive markets complex  and a science that serves that model
> I'm wondering if there is a distinctive difference in the "science" of
> cultures that are more oriented to  harmony, cyclical pattern, balance.
> Something as simple as the difference between vellum and paper. Perhaps not
> .  Tesla wanted to solve mankind's energy challenge much more than to get
> rich .  His marketable ideas made millions for others , his low cost energy
> plan was canned...