We stand on the shoulders of giants etc etc. But it seems odd to me that they wouldn’t think about using this for communication at least.
Was he the guy that started that rental car company?
/s
His customers lamented that driving was so boring and they wished there was some magical way for the cars to play music.
Oh well. Nothing to be done there.
Just straight lazy… Shame.
Hertz donut
I LOVE SIGNAL PROCESSING
Half of the field is viable thanks to a single algorithm: FFT
FFT was a DARPA project. It alone probably makes all their funding worth it.
Faraday, after demonstrating how moving a magnet through a coiled wire induced a current in the wire was asked by a visiting statesman what was the use of this.
Faraday responded, “In twenty years, you will be taxing it”
Similarly, at a demonstration of hot air balloons in France, Benjamin Franklin was asked “Of what use is this?”
Franklin replied, “Of what use is a newborn baby?”
That’s a really cool Franklin quote. Visionary.
Everything I’ve ever heard about Franklin makes him a boss. This is a new one.
Here’s a little known fact that is not true, which will bring some nuance to the previous anecdote, Benjamin Franklin ate babies.
British children! Maybe a few Prussians too.
The British were John Paul Jones, but Franklin taught him.
Another one that is true but sounds like an onion.
He enjoyed the company of GILFS
Benjamin Franklin fucks
Benjamin Franklin, Advice to a Young Man on the Choice of a Mistress (1745)
Its a good read and many points are still valid today.
Because there is no hazard of Children, which irregularly produc’d may be attended with much Inconvenience.
I didn’t need to know Benjamin Franklin fucks old ladies because they can’t have babies, but I appreciate the honor of carrying this information.
also the idea of a genius putting a bucket on the head of a grandma he fucks and telling her to act like she’s 21 is HILARIOUS to me
This post tickles a fond memory of mine. I was talking to a right-wing libertarian, and he said there should be no research done ever if it couldn’t prove beforehand its practical applications. I laughed out loud because I knew how incredibly ignorant and ridiculous that statement was. He clearly had never picked up a book on the history of science, on the history of
- electromagnetism (it would be a shame if the poor libertarian didn’t have a generator nearby when his eyes were being operated on with LASIK; generators are a technology built by basic research that didn’t have practical applications in mind)
- quantum mechanics (it would be a shame if the poor libertarian didn’t have semiconductors in his phone, or if he didn’t have access to lasers for his LASIK surgery, both of which are technologies built by basic research that didn’t have practical applications in mind)
- superconductivity (it would be a shame if the poor libertarian didn’t have superconductors for an MRI if he ever needs it, a technology built by basic research that didn’t have practical applications in mind)
- radio waves (it would be a shame if the poor libertarian didn’t have radio waves for his phone and computer’s wifi and bluetooth to run his digital business, technologies built by basic research that didn’t have practical applications in mind)
- X-rays (it would be a shame if the poor libertarian didn’t have x-rays to check the inside of his body in case something went wrong, a technology built by basic research that didn’t have practical applications in mind)
Bullshit. Lasers have been intended to gain interplanetary superiority since the dawn of time. We just didnt know how to make them or that they could also be used to read music from a circle
When talking with libertarians you should keep in mind they have completely different axiomatic values. It is often the case that they understand a certain policy would be on net bad for everyone, they simply don’t care. They are rarely utilitarian about those issues.
I get along much better with libertarians who justify libertarianism with values extrinsic to just “muh freedom” – they are usually much more willing to yield ground in places where I can convince them that a libertarian policy would be net negative, and they have also moved me to be more open minded about some things I thought I would never agree with.
You don’t understand that’s just Hanseatic understatement.
Dr Venture type science
Not really, he’s not stealing something his dad made, using modern tech to smooth over the 60s parts and presenting it as his own invention.
I feel like this is a very “scientisty” thing - the theoretical aspect is so fascinating and being able to fit all the pieces into a model that is mathematically accurate is the reward.
Considering the practical application of the model and how it can benefit society (or in other words, be marketed for profit) takes a different set of skills.
I absolutely detest the equivocation of “benefits society” and “marked for profit”.
Plenty of things have been discovered to have practical applications which can benefit society yet are shelved or have its implementation frustrated because it cannot be exploited for profit or threatens the profits of a preexisting application which it would replace.
I feel like I hear about this guy once every second
Whatever you do, love Hertz
ApertureScience! We do what we must because we can!There’s a good NPR podcast in the same vein as this: https://www.npr.org/sections/money/2017/06/21/533840751/episode-779-shrimp-fight-club
It’s about congressman talking about government waste and targeting the sciences. It’s like, you don’t get the “cool” applications without the “weird” research. I’m doing a horrible job describing it, but I thought it was a good listen.
Planet Money has some really good episodes. Unfortunately, a lot of filler as well.
And this is why science shouldn’t be beheld to the whims of politicians and capitalists
I mean, why would a guy that started a car rental company know anything about radio waves?
Gotcha!
I thought he was a baker. When I was a kid people would always be talking about “Hertz donuts”. Then they’d punch me. I never knew why.
Because of car radio? Vertical integration, you know.
Did it Hertz when he realised the opposite, or did that happen after his time?
No, Hertz never lived to see applications of his discovery. Guglielmo Marconi (was a fascist) started working on radio telegraphy in 1894, shortly after Hertz’ death.
Oof! One of those moments which kinda’ make one wish there wasn’t an afterlife…
Thank you for the tidbit, though, and fuck Fascists regardless!
One of those moments which kinda’ make one wish there wasn’t an afterlife…
Tada, your wish is reality 🙃
I’m of the “I don’t know, whatever” persuasion=))
I wish Russell’s Teapot wasn’t real.
Oh yeah? Prove it!
Look, I agree that from a purely logical standpoint, there ain’t nothing there. Personally, I believe the Universe is enough as far spiritual anchors go. But from an “I’m just breathin’ here” standpoint, I genuinely couldn’t care less. As long as people don’t hurt others out of their beliefs, they can knock themselves out believing whatever they so desire!
To be perfectly honest, I also think it adds a bit of flavour to the world as long as it’s benign, I’ve had the immense luck of meeting a few religious people who took the good things out of The Text (generalising) and forged their own very personal relationship with the divine! They were the kind of people who took Free Will as being the highest imperative at the end of the day, people who would have fundamentally tried to respect existence even without the pre-existing framework. I’m thinking here specifically of my godfather (raised in an Orthodox household), who’s a middle-management kinda’ Priest (I don’t know the ranks, I’m sorry…).
Having these examples in mind, I prefer all the more to live and let live, as long as they do so as well.
If you think about it, almost all computer-technology is radio. Wifi, bluetooth, GPS, radar, and cellular are literally radio. Meanwhile everything else runs on transistor tech developed and refined… for radios.
Our modern economy couldn’t exist if people like Hertz and Maxwell didn’t get to toy with their useless hobbies. But we can’t rely on the curiosity of the leisure class anymore. Basic research is expensive, necessary, and a public good. I’m afraid that the Trump regime has already spoiled the secret sauce that makes America the technology leader of the world.
Even more than that, just proving Maxwell was right was a key stepping stone to all of modern physics. Maxwell, not Einstein, was the first to show that the speed of light is invariant, and Einstein’s Relativity was a framework for explaining how tf physics works if that’s actually true. Prior to Einstein, physists all just kind of assumed there was some flaw in Maxwell’s theorems to lead to this crazy speed invariance, but as the evidence just kept piling up in favor of Maxwell, they started having to wrestle with the uncomfortable thought that this could actually be true. In this sense, Hertz can also be thought of as an important step to Einstein and beyond, and almost all of our modern technology.
It’s getting pretty drafty up here. Giants on shoulders of giants all the way down. I can’t even see the bottom anymore.
Transistors were mostly developed for telephone systems (the ones with wires) as a replacement for tubes. And the modern tech used for radios is very different from that used for computers.
Ithink you could be more charitable in your reply. Transistors were developed to replace tubes in telephone systems… Okay but the tubes had been developed to where they were because of their usefulness in radio.
And while computers don’t inherently rely on radio, it’s radio communication that’s taken computers from one in every office to one in everyone’s pocket. Right? The main thrust of the previous commenter is true.
