Tesla

[Dalhousie]

General question:

Why is Tesla so popular with fringe people? 

[bknight]

General question:

Why is Tesla so popular with fringe people?

In what regard?

[Dalhousie]

General question:

Why is Tesla so popular with fringe people?

In what regard?

He always comes up as a example of a persecuted scientist whose insights were ignored or suppressed.

[Allan F]

Because he had a lot of nonsense ideas, and the nutters claim his ideas ALL were real, because he was a "scientist" and therefore all who disagree with his ideas are ipso facto wrong and part of the conspiracies.

Or something.

[smartcooky]

Its an example of "The Galileo Gambit"


"Alas, to wear the mantle of Galileo it is not enough that you be persecuted by an unkind establishment, you must also be right!"
- Robert L. Park, Emeritus Professor of Physics, University of Maryland at College Park.

[gillianren]

Tesla, in my opinion, was about fifty percent good, solid ideas and fifty percent nonsense.  (As I am not an engineer, my percentages may of course be off!)  And the thing is, some of his good, solid ideas were legitimately stolen.  So it's easy to decide that the reason the nonsense didn't succeed/was wrong/whatever was that He Was Suppressed.  It isn't true, but it does at least make historical sense.

[Glom]

We're talking about Nikola Tesla not the car brand?

[bknight]

We're talking about Nikola Tesla not the car brand?

Yes, in this context.

[ka9q]

Tesla is a tragic figure. He fully deserves his fame (and having an SI unit named after you is one of the biggest honors any scientist or engineer could possibly receive) for two related inventions: three-phase AC power, and the AC induction motor. They remain among the most widely used electrical inventions in history. They promise to outlive even Edison's incandescent electric light.

Tesla the vehicle uses Tesla the inventor's induction motor, so the car's name seems apt.

But Tesla really went off the deep end in his later years. He made wild claims like having a working death ray, being able to split the earth, and that he was in communication with aliens on other planets. Most famously, he was obsessed with transmitting power without wires. We're fortunate he failed, or we wouldn't today have radio communications -- the spectrum would be utterly polluted with power signals.

[Luke Pemberton]

Tesla is a tragic figure. He fully deserves his fame (and having an SI unit named after you is one of the biggest honors any scientist or engineer could possibly receive) for two related inventions: three-phase AC power, and the AC induction motor. They remain among the most widely used electrical inventions in history. They promise to outlive even Edison's incandescent electric light.

Tesla the vehicle uses Tesla the inventor's induction motor, so the car's name seems apt.

But Tesla really went off the deep end in his later years. He made wild claims like having a working death ray, being able to split the earth, and that he was in communication with aliens on other planets. Most famously, he was obsessed with transmitting power without wires. We're fortunate he failed, or we wouldn't today have radio communications -- the spectrum would be utterly polluted with power signals.

Absolutely agree with this analysis. There again, Einstein swum around in the deep end in later years, and so has Hawking on occasions. The fringe do not invoke these figures. The attraction to Tesla is probably because his claims are more tangible and exotic to fringe communities.

[ka9q]

Absolutely agree with this analysis. There again, Einstein swum around in the deep end in later years, and so has Hawking on occasions. The fringe do not invoke these figures.

Indeed. If anything, the fringe seem obsessed with disproving Einstein. Opinions vary as to why, but it seems to have something to do with the counter intuitive nature of relativity combined with the fact that it's universally accepted by physicists, astronomers and engineers.

Kinda like how creationists object to evolution even though any biologist will tell you that nothing in their field makes any sense without it.

[Luke Pemberton]

Indeed. If anything, the fringe seem obsessed with disproving Einstein. Opinions vary as to why, but it seems to have something to do with the counter intuitive nature of relativity combined with the fact that it's universally accepted by physicists, astronomers and engineers.

I have often experienced a heavy dose of antisemitism when individuals attempt to disprove Einstein. It's funny you should mention the counter intuitive element of relativity. As physicist I'd say that relativity is not counter intuitive once one digs into the relationship between time, space and information. It makes perfect sense. That's why the fringe element fail, they don't understand the profound nature of Einstein's thought that underpins his two great theories.

[Flookie]

Is it my ignorance of his work or has Tesla apparently done a great deal posthumously? I come across claims about whichever subject talking about suppression of the work then launching into deep detail that I can't match to anything he did when he was alive.

[twik]

Is it my ignorance of his work or has Tesla apparently done a great deal posthumously? I come across claims about whichever subject talking about suppression of the work then launching into deep detail that I can't match to anything he did when he was alive.

Tesla is being recognized more and more. He's sort of like Frederick Douglass in that regard.

[Flookie]

Tesla is being recognized more and more. He's sort of like Frederick Douglass in that regard.

It's not a matter recognition; I'm referring to the amount of technical detail on some websites greatly exceeding what he published but still being credited to him.