Human Development

[Whickerman]

Just over a hundred years back it was proposed to shut down the US patents office on the basis that everything that could be invented had already been invented.

We've come so far technologically in that short time we're now creating stars
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/8044 620.stm

Isn't the human mind bloody impressive?

[Ankou]

it is. but equally worrying is that this fusion explosion thingy is probably destined for military weaponry of the future.

[swedeheart]

"At NIF you can schedule a supernova explosion for Thursday at nine in the morning" - you wouldn't wanna call in sick would you, I can just imagine the conversation :O

Whickerman you wouldn't happen to have a link for the US patents office thingy would you? It reminds me of a former Swedish minister who said the internet was just a fad. She has five lines in Wikipedia and two of them relate that blooper...

[sophie_1003]

there's loads of quotes about technology like that one swedeheart, there's one about the telephone having too many shortcomings to be considered a serious method of communication, one from Bill Gates about how "640k should be enough for anybody" and I think there's one about radio too!

[swedeheart]

Thanks sophie I hadn't heard the one about the telephone and I'd forgotten the Bill Gates one - but I don't suppose he has lived it down just yet...

[Whickerman]

I can't find a link - was on QI - Stephen Fry wouldn't lie to me...

Also found a quote from Alexander Graham Bell, who reckoned each major town would need a telephone.

[swedeheart]

Thanks Whickerman, that Bell quote is actually even more striking than the others...! I mean you would expect the visionary himself to understand what he had done but that is probably often not the case. And no, Stephen Fry wouldn't lie to me either. We (as in we here in Sweden) saw him on telly just the other week in Who do you think you are and a couple of years back we saw the programmes he made about his bipolar disorder. How's he doing with that now?