Wednesday, December 29, 2021

Pondering Illumination


Strange Edison Electrical Illumination

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At about the age of 10, Edison goes to the creek with young friend George Lockwood, who disappears in the eddies to drown. Edison observes the creek water for a long time, maybe rapt by the dying Lockwood’s breath bubbles. At last, after the long wait for Lockwood to surface, Edison finally goes home to dinner and to bed without telling anyone about the event. Meanwhile, a party searches for Lockwood – eventually they come to hear Edison’s story of his drowning.


Self-taught polymath, 

noted as a man of amazing concentration. 

He could look intently at what was there

and was able to uncover deep first principles 

as he tinkered with pieces of 

metal, carbon, vulcanite, lamp black 

and assorted materials.

More than that, 

he had a gift for 

imaginative re-application of principles 

to conjure new products, 

and improve on existing successes. 

This was all to result from 

long nights and extended work stints.


Edison’s 1st patent was for 

an electro-chemical vote recorder. 

But fast voting was not a ‘must-have.’ 

It failed in the market.

So, he resolved to focus efforts 

only on things that people wanted to use.  

For there is no technology without useful case. 


https://tinyurl.com/2p95tnyt 


Thinking upon Edison's method. To study intensely and curiously abductively. And it is connective thread in things that have been floating my way on the Web. Here, a new class of liquid crystal polymer physically changes what's possible. The background here is Edge devices, or what might have once been called embedded systems.. .

Professor Hasok Chang, Hans Rausing professor of History and Philosophy of Science at the University of Cambridge, looks at how we can learn from the different ways in which scientists have made sense of the universe over the ages.  Some paths of experimentation have been neglected... because they were some among scientific progress's many failures.  Long-ago experiments that may be seemingly pointless to recreate, or are they? Just to stare at the hydrochloric bubbles....  Thinking upon Edison's method... see Above and below. When I first heard of a quantum computing calculation (ca. 1999), it was done with a Florine atom. Fundamental. Now there are many methods but real systems are still "10 years away" ... xxxxxxxxxxxxxx   Some paths of experimentation have been neglected... because they were some among scientific progress's many failures. I keep coming across technologies that meet such criteria. I didnt think Resistance-based memory was going to go anywhere on my lifetime's watch, especially the Memristor... but maybe xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
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