farnovision

Taking on Malcolm Gladwell

Malcolm Gladwell is an author and cultural commentator of increasing influence, witness the success of his books "The Tipping Point," "Blink," and his latest, "Outliers."  Blogger John Kelvie of takes Gladwell to task for some of his pithier observations , most notably his conclusion a a 2002 book review for the New Yorker that Philo Farnsworth should have gone to work for David Sarnoff:

1) His piece on the inventor of the TV, Philo T Farnsworth, and his “failure” to bring the TV to market, something the large corporation RCA later succeeded in. The piece concludes that the individual inventor is often insufficient (as the subtitle of the article asserts: “The Myth of the Lone Inventor”). On it’s face this point is fair enough, though a bit obvious: obviously sometimes individual inventors are behind bringing new technologies to market, sometimes corporations are, and sometimes a sort of long-distance collaboration between the two does it....

Kelvie quotes Gladwell's article at some length, but arrives at his own more enlightened conclusion:

Either way, to suggest that corporations invent better (or at least are the only way to invent) is demonstrably untrue: after all, it’s Farnsworth that invented the Cathode Ray Tube, not RCA. Could RCA have invented it? I guess (Gladwell says they were never “more than a step behind” though apparently a step means approximately two years), but I think the fact that Farnsworth did it on his own is pretty compelling evidence of the efficacy of individual inventors.

I think part of the problem that I had with Aaron Sorkin's play The Farnsworth Invention stems from it's tendency to arrive at pretty much the same conclusion as Gladwell.  I guess there is something that happens once your prosperity becomes dependent on the largesse of a corporation:  you start to think that's the only path to success.

A New Home for Philo

There is a new "Statuary Hall" at the U.S. Capitol building in Washington.  Each state gets to place two statues of its most deserving luminaries in the capitol.  Utah's first statue was of Brigham Young (who else?) and after a state-wide referendum back in 1990, the state's second statue was dedicated to the inventor of television. The new Statuary Hall is part of the newly opened Capitol Visitor Center:

The center provides far more than shelter from the elements. It is lined with statues of prominent Americans -- some famous, some not.

They include Philo T. Farnsworth of Utah, who invented the television; Po'pay of New Mexico, who helped the Pueblo tribe survive; and John M. Clayton of Delaware, who held many offices but is most noted for negotiating the agreement for a canal linking the Atlantic and Pacific oceans.

Now, if memory serves me, in the past, lunch has been served in Statuary Hall after the Presidential Inauguration ceremony on the steps of the U.S. Capitol.  I wonder where they'll be serving lunch this year?

Lucas Unveils Farnsworth Statue

Well, at least we know that Lucas knows about Farnsworth now:

Last Friday, as the new Clone Wars series made its long-awaited debut, a new bronze was quietly installed without ceremony at Lucasfilm’s Presidio campus, sculpted by long-time Star Wars fan Lawrence Noble. ...

The subject of the latest bronze is Philo T. Farnsworth, inventor of television. While it seems fitting that the inventor of television should be commemorated on the same day Clone Wars made its television debut, the timing was purely coincidental.

A pity we couldn't ever get close enough to Lucas to pitch him the Farnsworth movie.  Or maybe we did and he just thought it would make better statue than a motion picture.

"Flash of Genius" 2 - A Timely Reminder

The release of the new movie "Flash of Genius" has brought the subject of  How Inventors Always Get Screwed into the daily media diet.

BTW, if you don't know about Armstrong, you should read Lawrence Lessing's (he's not the Internet Lessig) 1956 biography, "Man of High Fidelity." The book is sadly out of print (old paperback copies are selling for $25.00 on Amazon (NSDQ: AMZN)). ortunately, though, the complete text of the book has been posted here by the Internet Archive...

Anyway, if you think American technological prowess begins and ends with the Mac and iPhone, you owe it to yourself to read this tale of a true genius struggling against those out to steal the fruits of his brilliance. In Armstrong's case, his nemesis was RCA impresario David Sarnoff....

RCA -- along with Westinghouse and a host of other companies -- infringed Amstrong's patents for years. He was less lucky than Kearns, though. He committed suicide by walking out of a hotel window in 1954...

The point I want to make is that people who think modern technology sprung fully realized in some easy and fun way from the landscaped corporate vistas of Silicon Valley don't know squat. Every development from Maxwell, Edison, and Tesla; up through Marconi and De Forest; to Eckert, Mauchly and the present day has not come without a humongous struggle. (For another great tale of inventor screwing -- tellingly, also involving RCA -- read Tube: The Invention of Television by David Fisher, about the travails of Philo Farnsworth.)

 

The importance of this topic in the current scenario cannot be over-stated.  Our leaders keep telling us that we're going to innovate our way out of the current energy / economic / environmental crises.  Maybe somebody needs to remind our leaders what really happens to the individuals who produce the innovations we're counting on to reshape the world.

If they really want to "transform America" (as one of the major party candidates stated upon launching his campaign), then they need to take a long hard look at how individual genius suffers in a world dominated by monolithic corporate capitalism.

"Flash of Genius"

Hmmm... where have we seen this story before?

"Flash of Genius" reminded me of Aaron Sorkin's ("The West Wing") terrific Broadway play "The Farnsworth Invention," about a rural boy genius who invents television, only to have the idea stolen by RCA.

The film is, essentially, "Erin Brockovich" or "A Civil Action." There is no denying that the man-against-the-machine narrative carries tremendous weight and inherent drama, regardless of the object being contested.

Of course, in "The Farnsworth Invention" the principal character was portrayed as having LOST the litigation that he actually won.  I guess that's one way to make a production more unpredictable.

Farnsworth Fusor, Grassroots Experiments...

...all brought to light in the Wall Street Journal:

After months in the making, this morning's Wall Street Journal offers a front page story featuring the "amateur fusion" community hosted here at fusor.net:

Many of these hobbyists call themselves "fusioneers," and have formed a loosely knit community that numbers more than 100 world-wide. Getting into their elite "Neutron Club" requires building a tabletop reactor that successfully fuses hydrogen isotopes and glows like a miniature star. Only 42 have qualified; some have T-shirts that read "Fusion -- been there...done that."

Link: Nuclear Ambitions: Amateur Scientists Get a Reaction From Fusion - WSJ.com.

Maybe Television...

...ain't so bad after all:

While many of his peers spend rainy afternoons watching cartoons, Lance sits in front of the Military Channel learning.

Other children in his grade really like Hannah Montana, but Lance's favorite shows have titles like Weaponology.

He defends television.

"People say TV makes you dumb, but it doesn't!" Lance said quite emphatically.

Perhaps this is the kind of  viewer Philo had in mind when he said television would help eliminate war.  Let's hope he gets the message that 'war is hell' without having to experience it first hand.

The Farnsworth Confession

You've heard of The Farnsworth Invention, now you can watch The Farnsworth Confession:

Mr. Farnsworth here should take heart from the Broadway version of the story.  According to the play, Philo Farnsworth's invention was flawed by a fatal "light problem," and really wasn't very useful.  And the Farnsworth character says near the end that an unnamed engineer at RCA (who left something baking in an oven too long) really "made the first television."  So, according to the play, the Farnsworth family is off the hook for the scourge of television.  It's really The Sarnoff Invention.

Philo T Farnsworth Emmy Award Announced

Personally, I've always found it ironic that the TV Academy elected to name their award for Corporate Engineering Achievement for the lone inventor who spent his career fighting one giant corporation after another, but I guess that's better than the "David Sarnoff Award for Individual Achievement"...

The Academy of Television Arts & Sciences has announced the recipients of the 2008 Primetime Emmy Engineering Awards. The recipients will receive their awards during the Engineering Awards ceremony on Saturday, Aug. 23 at the Renaissance Hotel in Los Angeles.

The Philo T. Farnsworth Corporate Achievement Award will be given to Evertz Technologies Limited. The company designs, manufactures and markets video and audio infrastructure equipment.  The Farnsworth Award honors companies whose contributions over a long period of time have significantly affected the state of television technology and engineering.

Some People Just Never Listen

Here's a list of the Top 30 Failed Technology Predictions

Among them:

25. “Television won’t last. It’s a flash in the pan.” — Mary Somerville, pioneer of radio educational broadcasts, 1948.

26. “[Television] won’t be able to hold on to any market it captures after the first six months. People will soon get tired of staring at a plywood box every night.” — Darryl Zanuck, movie producer, 20th Century Fox, 1946.