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Inventive Genius Dean Kamen Profiled 73

Posted by timothy from the willy-wonka-meets-q dept.
Matt Leese writes: "Wired has a great article about Dean Kamen online. Information is available on the iBot by Deka Research, which was founded by Kamen. The iBot can go up and down curbs, climb stairs, and balance on a single set of wheels. There is also discussion of FIRST Robotics, an organization founded by Kamen for the advancement of science and technology in youth." Kamen is an interesting fellow, to put it lightly. Reading about his house and habits reminds me of my childhood-favorite biography of Thomas Edison.
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Inventive Genius Dean Kamen Profiled More

Inventive Genius Dean Kamen Profiled

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  • "a six-wheeled robotic "mobility system" that can climb stairs, traverse sandy and rocky terrain, and raise its user to eye-level with a standing person

    ... but keep in mind that the Ibot erases the need to retrofit a home for a wheelchair."

    All we have to do now is retrofit homes with sand pits and rocky terrain. And the only reason I can find where I'd want to be at eye-level with someone is if I'm in a fight with them.. :P
  • so smart when is he gonna come up with the ibattle-bot (thursdays on comedy central)? --

  • That slinky iBot (Score:3)

    by Private Essayist ( 230922 ) on Thursday September 14, 2000 @03:40AM (#780338)
    It walks down stairs
    Alone or in pairs
    It makes a roboty sound
    It springs! It springs!
    A mobility thing!
    Everyone knows it's iBot...
    ________________

  • Check out the FIRST competition (Score:4)

    by dsplat ( 73054 ) on Thursday September 14, 2000 @03:40AM (#780339)
    I can't think of any audience better suited for plugging the FIRST [usfirst.org] competition to. It is a robotics competition that teams high schools with corporate sponsors. The teams build a robot in about 6 weeks from the time that they get the rules for the year's competition. My wife participated for two years and my own company sponsored a team for the first time last year. This could probably be called the Geek Olympics. It is intense and fun. If you get a chance to do it, grab on with both hands. And if you are on a first time team, find an older team that will mentor you. I know of at least one which has done exactly that.

  • ibot info.. (Score:3)

    by martin ( 1336 ) <maxsec@gm[ ].com ['ail' in gap]> on Thursday September 14, 2000 @03:43AM (#780340) Journal
    at http://www.indetech.com/
    and http://www.accesslife.com/scripts/saisapi.dll/cata log.class/news/20000407-INN-NEWCHAIR-IBO T.html

    amongst other places

  • It's good to see individuals still working (Score:3)

    by flatpack ( 212454 ) on Thursday September 14, 2000 @03:45AM (#780341)

    I think it's refreshing to see that it is still possible for individuals to come up with useful ideas and inventions without being part of a corporate research facility. In an age where the big money of corporations is used to hire all of the best people, we are seeing an increasing amount of projects which are merely refinements of past ideas rather than true new ideas.

    People like Kamen and Dyson are often better at providing something that people want than corporations, especially when it's a product that according to accepted wisdom there isn't a market for. And it's also nice to see that Kamen isn't just out for himself, but is instead funding programs like First which are designed to get children interested in science and technology. After all, anyone who doesn't find the following quote disturbing needs to worry:

    Kamen launched First several years ago when he realized that many American teenagers were unable to name a single living scientist.

  • AAH! Don't let Jon Katz know we're doing geek profiling, he'll write another article!

  • Given that Edison was the one-man MPAA of his time [indiana.edu], I'm not sure whether comparing anyone to him is such a great compliment.

  • Good old American ingenuity, putting together mechanical things and breaking them!

    Vlad the Impaler last night was so awesome!!!
  • It's iiiiiBot, it's iiiiiBot,
    It's such a roboty toy!
    It's fun for a girl or a boy!
    It's fun for a girl or a boy!


  • It's better than bad, it's good!


    --
  • He demonstrated the chair by climbing the stairs to the top of the Eifel tower in one. Now if we need to retrofit houses to look like French landmarks....

    The man is making science sexy. He flies his own helicopter. He made his money from nothing but his science. He STARTED the 'bot battle program. He has lobbied major funding from corporate America to support student science. I love the guy. Him and Richard Feynman make me wish I could do math.
  • yeah, I first heard about the ibot quite a while ago, there was a bit about it on 20/20 (or something similar i think)

    The coolest part was when he was sitting in the chair, and raised it up to eye level with the interviewer, and asked him to push him. The chair was only on two wheels, and the guy shoved the chair, and it wouldn't tip over. Like a Weeble, it wobbled, but it wouldn't fall down. Hell, I don't have balance like that.

    ---

  • Once again, my friend, he STARTED the competition for students to make robots and battle them. He wants science to have a Holywood aspect to kids. He would love to see American kids trading scientist trading cards, wanting to grow up to be like Crick and Watson.

    Unless someone finds out that he didn't pay his nanny tax or smoked [and inhaled] marijuana, I love the guy. What's not to love?

    Please note the sarcasm in Paragraph 2. :>
  • I'm sorry to hear about your wife's health.

    "A governemnt which puts into place laws like statutes of limitations preventing people which get screwed by big companies from seeking damages, also refuses to help those same people. (FYI: my wife's disabilities were caused by the drug Thalitimide, for which the distributors can no longer be sued, even though they hid evidence of distribution on medical records.)
    Sorry for the rant, but as much as I hate democrats the republicans are responsible this kind of sh*t."

    Your frustration is understandable. Still, I don't know that you can put the blame on either democrat or republican. Both parties seem beholden to the corporations, and your experience is yet another in a long line of examples.

    Liability laws too dangerous to the bottom line? Let's get our good buddies in government to fix that problem.

    It's the stereotypical HMO problem again. The doctor knows of a treatment (or in your case, a device) that would improve the quality of life of a patient. The bean-counters back at the main office, however, say no. Can't have quality of life come ahead of profits and shareholder value.

    Rant on...
    ________________

  • People tend to talk down to people shorter than them. Hence people in wheelchairs often get treated like children. High-up wheelchairs solve this problem at a huge cost in stability. It looks like Kamen might have solved that problem, too.

    --
  • I want my whell chair 9feet tall!

  • Posted by timothy on Thursday September 14,...
    Reading about his house and habits reminds me of my childhood-favorite biography of Thomas Edison.

    I should have expected that from 'timothy'. Try reading more history and you'll find that Edison's biographies are often inflated ego trips for the man, and mysteriously choose to avoid talking about Nikolai Tesla. Check out this, [rr.com] this, [concentric.net] and this [yale.edu] to understand why. If it were up to Edison we'd have *no* electricity because he wanted us to use a DC system simply because it was his idea. 'NIH' (Not Invented Here) syndrome is a bad thing.

  • Kamen profile (Score:5)

    by ScottKrsnr ( 232841 ) on Thursday September 14, 2000 @04:32AM (#780354)

    I'd make two points in response to this thread. Please forgive me if I've flouted any of the conventions of posting to Slashdot; while I'm a regular reader, this is my first response.

    I wrote the Dean Kamen profile in the September issue of Wired, for what that's worth.

    First, to Hates, who writes, "...the only reason I can find where I'd want to be at eye-level with someone is if I'm in a fight with them." From what I understand, most people who are confined to wheelchairs quickly tire of looking other people in the belt-buckle, as opposed to looking them in the eye. Think about all the associations we have about looking down at someone, or looking up to someone. It's actually pretty important to bring wheelchair users up to eye level with the able-bodied. There's a Dateline video that you may be able to track down on the Web that shows how an iBot tester responds to this particular feature. As I recall it, she cries, because it has been so long since she was able to look her mother in the eye, on the same level.

    Second, FIRST competitions are nothing like the robot wars on Comedy Central. They're not about professional engineers building destructive robots (which I agree can be fun.) They're about high school students who are having their first experience with engineering. Some of them are having their first experience with any kind of successful creative project. I had to tone down some of the uplifting aspects of my Kamen profile because Wired likes to be at least somewhat skeptical, but if you ever have a chance to see your local FIRST competition (usually in March or April), do it. It's one of those things that will restore your faith in human potential, etc. If you're an engineer and you can spare the time to work with a team - or get your company to sponsor a team - then do that. Info at www.usfirst.org.

  • Re:Edison was a FRAUD! (offtopic) (Score:3)

    by mindstrm ( 20013 ) on Thursday September 14, 2000 @04:38AM (#780355)
    I was gonna say it.. but... you did it nicely.

    'Tis true. Edison *did* do some things, but is not the great, wonderful person everyone makes him out to be, and much of what he did was done for greed and power, not for inventing.

    ie: Edison invented the electric chair so he could show how AC Electricity was BAD, and tried to get congress to outlaw it (Tesla & Westinghouse were going to use AC to transmit power, which as we all know, is FAR more efficient). Edison was hung on DC.

    Edison electrocuted an elephant to death at the world's fair in NY to show how AC was bad.

    Tesla was a true genius, and the smithsonian won't even recognize him.

  • Shit, I can't name a single /living/ scientist. All the scientists I know are dead. I don't know if I think of Stephen Hawking as a scientist or more accurately as a mathematician...all this is just making me sadder and sadder that Carl Sagan is dead. The 2000's were really the era for which he was born. Anyone who hasn't read "The Demon-Haunted World" is really missing out on some inspiring reading. To quote my friend Jimmy:

    If I just put up a web page that had a picture of Carl Sagan with the caption "I am a total badass," that would be about the greatest act of social responsibility of which I would be capable.

  • I honestly think that "The Demon-Haunted World" should be required reading in American schools. In many ways, it's quite a scary book.

    There's a paper here [narst.org] about an experiment where students read the book and discussed it, which is pretty interesting, and a good review of the book can be found here [setileague.org] at the SETI League.

  • I read the dead tree version a couple weeks ago. Fantastic article!! It changed some perspectives on my understanding of society.

    Professional athletes are for the most part whiny annoying overpaid children. Engineers rule the world! They should get the respect they deserve!

    They've shaped our world in ways that most people will never understand. Who is responsible for the sturdy durable bridge you take to work everyday? Who keeps electricity flowing to your house? Who invented the airbag? Why aren't these people superstars!! And like Wayne Gretzky, Mr. Kamen is a god. Not THE god, but next in line.

    Kudos on a fantastic article!

    As for flouting conventions on /., someone once said, "Welcome to SlashDot, please do not feed the trolls." ;-)

  • Kamen also started/sponsored the SEE Science Center [see-sciencecenter.org],which, like FIRST, is intended to get kids excited about science. So the guy is truly a science philanthropist.


    there are 3 kinds of people:
    * those who can count

  • or another book...
  • yeah, but i`ve heard of tesla, but not of the smithsonian, so its all swings and roundabouts.
  • Is your first reaction to all stories on /. that mention robots, "Yeah, but can you mount a death laser on it to destroy your enemies?" I know mine is...
  • I participated in first for two years, and would recommend it to anyone in high school. I'm in college now and my participation in first helped me get there.
  • If it looked like it was on stilts I would have a very hard time talking to them as to be honest it sounds like it would just look silly...
  • I must say that Dean Kamen and Woody Flowers are some great people. My high school (Lakewood High School) has done FIRST since 1995. Tried to get my university to sponsor a team when I was a freshmen, but that didn't fly. Like previous people have said, if you get a chance to do this, do it.
  • For those who are interested in seeing one of the FIRST [usfirst.org] competitions in their area, a schedule [usfirst.org] is available online. I would encourage everyone to see a competition as they are much more exciting than any sporting event. There are some pictures [chiefdelphi.com] of robots and some of the competitions. I also encourage people to start their own FIRST teams. If you are a high school student, try to start a team in your high scool. If you're a college student, try to start a college team. If you work for a company, try and get them to either sponsor a team or the FIRST [usfirst.org] Foundation. This is a very worthwhile program that I participated in for 3 years in high school and am currently trying to start a team at RIT [rit.edu].

    Matt Leese

  • The fool!!! (Score:3)

    by gadders ( 73754 ) on Thursday September 14, 2000 @05:42AM (#780367)
    What if the Daleks get hold of this technology? We 're doomed!!!

  • A bit of a nit pick, but Kamen did not start the "'bot battle program." What he did start is FIRST [usfirst.org] which, as the article states, is a program where high school students and engineers (working together) build a robot that plays a game. They do not destroy each other. In fact, there are rules for the competition that specifically designed to stop the destruction of robots (I've participated in FIRST for three years so I should know). We're just not about that kind of thing. We construct, not destroy. Watching a FIRST competition is much better than watching Battlebots.

    Matt Leese

  • Hawking's stuff is directed at providing a rigorous understanding of
    aspects of the world we live in, so if that's not science, I don't
    know what qualifies. It's the mathematics that isn't directed at
    trying to understand anything outside itself that I think one might
    argue isn't science, like number theory and abstract topology.

    Other really popular scientists? Well, surely the
    evolutionary biologists like Stephen Jay Gould and Richard Dawkins are
    pretty well known. Chomsky's work on linguistics is pretty widely
    known, even if his politics sometimes seems to eclipse it. Roger
    Penrose, perhaps? Stephen Pinker?

  • Really, I just breathed in and then breathed out. Thought everyone might like to share.
  • Edison electrocuted an elephant to death at the world's fair in NY to show how AC was bad.

    Argh, I saw footage of that on TV this week. It was in a documentary about Fred Leuchter, a electric chair engineer turned Holocaust revisionist.

    It really disgusted me. Those were other times, but I can't suppress the feeling that Edison must have been a cruel man.

    Jacco
    ---
    # cd /var/log

  • Think you'd be disqualified if you programmed your robot to destroy your corporate sponsors?
    -----

  • Re:Rocks, sand and all that... (Score:3)

    by nhavar ( 115351 ) on Thursday September 14, 2000 @06:13AM (#780373) Homepage
    live your life in a chair for even a day and you'll see the need to be at eye-level with someone. What if you could only hug your loved ones if they bent down to you? What if you had to use a specialized tool to get groceries off the shelf or had to ask people to get something for you (every single trip to the store)? What if you couldn't get UP and dance with someone at a club? What if you couldn't peak out a window with your co-workers because you were confined to viewing things at belt buckle height? Or you couldn't take a walk on the beach or through a park because of your wheelchair. Being in a wheelchair presents a perspective of not being able to meet the world on it's own terms, not being able to face people at their own level. Stature means alot in our society and being able to meet people on equal footing means alot to those who can't do it.

    For all of those OH SO IGNORANT people out there, take a test, it will take one week out of your year but give you a new perspective on life.

    Day 1) Don't use anything that requires electricity, gas, etc (utilities). No phone, microwave, lights, t.v., radio, car, no hot water, no refrigerated foods, use bottled water or better yet go down to your local river and get a bottle of water. No utilities for 24hours.

    Day 2) Blindfold yourself. You can't use your eyes for anything for 24hours. No cheating.

    Day 3) Stuff cotton in your ears and put on some ear muffs. You can't use your ears for anything for 24hours. (you can still hear but it's much harder than your normal hearing.)

    Day 4) Rent a wheelchair, have a seat and go to it. Go to the grocery store, the mall, the bookstore, the movies. No legs for 24hours.

    Day 5) Same as day 4 but now you are not allowed to use your arms either. Have fun finding someone to help you go to the bathroom.

    Day 6) Same as day 4 and 5 but now you can no longer speak to request help, grunts and groans are the only acceptable forms of communication. No "voice" for 24hours.

    Day 7) Fasting. No food, only the bottled water from day one is allowed (and this is a gift). No food 24hours

    One week of walking in a other people's "shoes" as it were. While none of these exercises will give you the full impact of what it is like to be a person afflicted with the real issues, even 24hours will give most people enough of a taste that they will sympathize with those who have to live their life in such conditions. After one week you will no longer make ignorant assumptions like "the only reason I can find where I'd want to be at eye-level with someone is if I'm in a fight with them...".

    I think the one take away that I learned from the things that Kamen has done is that people should use their brains and not just coast through life. Take nothing forgranted, make no assumptions, if you don't know - go find out!

  • Re:Tessla (Score:3)

    by tswinzig ( 210999 ) on Thursday September 14, 2000 @06:24AM (#780374) Journal
    Tesla was a true genius, and the smithsonian won't even recognize him.

    Then, in protest, I won't recognize the Smithsonian! Something like this:

    Fred: "Hey, what's that big building over there?"
    Me: "Why, I don't know. I don't recognize it!"

    -thomas


    "Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence."
  • Or how about Donald Knuth? I would put Kernighan and Ritchie in there as well. What about the geezer who wrote Unix, Ken Thompson? Or Metcalfe? Vint Cerf (yeah they're not really scientists anymore, they're executives)? What about that dude who invented Java, Something Gosling? Noel Chiappas (ok he's not that famous)? Ronald Graham? Plus this article is about both engineers and scientists. Now the list is endless (let's start with the Woz).
  • For years I have been sailing in Fischer's Island sound, and there were stories told of a kooky inventor who was worth millions who bought the place. The old lighthouse topped home looks like it has been renovated, there is an old Navy tender tied up to the dock (in Battleship Grey of course), the wind turbine is occasionally turning, and once in a while you will see this really freaky looking amphibious army truck roaming the beach.

    It is really a very cool looking place, and you can just *feel* the jealousy on all the boaters floating by. :-) Too bad very few of them know the real story behind the man on the island -- most propbably assume it is old money or some .com investor. Nice to see someone who has earned money the hard way --> risk == return.
  • What the hell is wrong with smoking marijuana? If I found out he smoked marijuana in plentiful quantities I'd love him more. He'd be much more of a true American (and why the hell else would someone willingly move to New Hampshire when Vermont is right next door - not that we want any new people moving in to Vermont).
  • Thank you, Mr. Kirsner, for an incredible article. I've been reading Wired for five years now and have been involved in FIRST for the past three. Dean Kamen is one of the few people that I am actually proud to have met. There just aren't very many people alive today like him, and everyone should know who he is.

    The FIRST program that Dean started is a marvelous project that should be a part of every high school in the country, just as sports are. It is sad that even on the high school level, the star quarterback still gets more press and more attention than the chief designer on the robot team. I personally put in a few 23 hour days working on our team's robot just prior to shipping. I've seen dedication in this program unlike any other.

    I whole-heartedly agree with you when you say that FIRST restores one's faith in human potential. I've never had a feeling quite like the one I got on my two trips to FIRST nationals at Epcot Center. Seeing tens of thousands of people my age totally excited by engineering and science is something I will never forget.

    Mr. Kirsner, I thank you again for a wonderful article.
  • It's the stereotypical HMO problem again. The doctor knows of a treatment (or in your case, a device) that would improve the quality of life of a patient. The bean-counters back at the main office, however, say no. Can't have quality of life come ahead of profits and shareholder value.

    You have no idea how wrong this is. Two points:

    #1: The people making the decisions to deny care are medical professionals, just like your GP. In most cases, if challenges on the medical efficacy of a procedure the Medical director and person's physician will confer and agree on a recommended treatment.

    #2: If you know this to be true about HMOs, then don't enroll in one. You are welcome to fund your own health care. Just don't expect Uncle Sam or anyone else to bail you out when you get nailed with sickness. For your information, many HMOs cover a whole lot of stuff that didn't use to be covered at all and started the trend towards comprehensive medical insurance... Infertility treatment, Prescription drugs, chiropractic care, preventative care etc.

    Anyway, if you *are* a member of an HMO, relax in the knowledge that you are far more likely to be killed in a hospital by accident than you are by an HMO denying you care.

    stuart
  • For all of those OH SO IGNORANT people out there...

    After one week you will no longer make ignorant assumptions...

    Take nothing forgranted, make no assumptions, if you don't know - go find out!

    I think someone needs to listen to their own advice. You know nothing about my situation in life. So don't be the ignorant one assuming I know nothing about what it's like being in a wheelchair. Maybe I do, maybe I don't but that's for me to know, and that my friend is non of your business...
  • "Inventive Genius Dean Kamen Profiled"

    I thought you activists were against online profiling? ;-)
  • And of anybody, Tesla was a true "hacker". Although many companies wanted to buy his patents for large sums of money, he refused. I think in many cases he refused to even patent ideas because he thought they should be for the good of all. So companies took advantage of his ideas, appropriated them, got rich off them, and erased Tesla from the history books. Tesla, one of the greatest scientists and inventors to ever live, died alone, penniless, and forgotten. It is really a shame and a disgrace. There are still devices and towers built by Tesla that we haven't fully figured out. He was truly an amazing man.
  • Think you'd be disqualified if you programmed your robot to destroy your corporate sponsors?


    You get two minutes of power per round and no network connection, with a robot that weighs roughly the same as some of the smaller students. How much damage can you do?
  • ...that a competent personal injury lawyer can't completely destroy.

  • I have also had the opportunity to meet Kamen. He struck me as incredibly down to earth for someone who has done so much and who is reaching for so much more. Perhaps the thing about him that impresses me the most is that his wealth has come from him constantly seeking to make things better for other people. In this internet age where people have been celebrated (including in Wired) for making money out of essentially vapor, it is nice to see tribute paid to someone who has truly achieved something concrete and lasting.

    He has a pretty cool house, too. :-)

  • I'm sorry did you feel that you were somehow being singled out and that I would make any assumption about who you were or how you lived. Oh I do apologize, I'm sorry that you feel that I some how butted into your life and requested more information than you are willing to give. But you know looking back on what I wrote I don't think I did ask whether or not you knew what it was like to be in a wheelchair. It was obvious to anyone, given the ignorant statement that you made, that you have never been in a wheelchair. That's not an assumption, that's a statement of fact based on the evidence given. You evidenced your ignorance by the crass comment and the fact that the only action you could relate to was one of violence.
  • I've been able to see the iBot in action(like Mike Leese and Merk00, I am involved with the FIRST competition that Dean founded,) and rather than look silly, you can't help but be amazed that the thing actually works...it actually pulls itself, while someone is sitting on it, up onto two of its six wheels, and is able to adjust itself to keep from falling over without any further actions by the rider. Dean rolled onto the stage in the iBot at the FIRST national competition awards ceremony last year, and seeing it navigate stairs and then balance at eye level with others on the stage was enough to kill any thoughts that I had of it looking "silly." Nate
  • >Once again, my friend, he STARTED the >competition for students to make robots and >battle them. Clarification: Battlebots is a completely different entity from the FIRST competition that Dean founded. While Battlebots and FIRST have similar goals, as is mentioned in pcwhalen's post, their approaches are very different. In FIRST, rather than the goal being to destroy another team's machine, the goal is to design a machine that can outperform the competition, with the only damage caused by normal robot interaction. Nate

  • IBot (Score:2)

    by DanMcS ( 68838 )
    I wanted to see what it looked like; didn't notice any pictures in the Wired article (not unusual, since it was about the man, not his inventions per se). I found these [indetech.com], and it doesn't look awkward at all, it actually looks very agile, this thing is amazing.
    --
  • Yeah but how well will it do in Battlebots!??!!?
    rhino


  • Are atomic weapons specifically against the rules?
    -----
  • Knuth is the only one I would say was definitely a scientist (though I
    guess that just shows my theoretical bias). And I don't think his is
    exactly a household name. Turing's is, but of course we're talking about living scientists.
  • For those of you that have the bandwidth, you can check out the Dateline piece about the iBot here: Dateline [msnbc.com]
    I also found the "jobs" email address for His company for those of you who read the story and thought, I want to work with him! (Like me) You can send your resume to: DEKA Jobs [mailto]
  • Unless they come in the kit of parts (they don't), can be purchased from Small Parts Inc (they can't), or are found on the Additional Hardware List (they aren't), then you can't use them. It would also be banned by the rule that bans intentionally damaging other robots. If you haven't gotten the point yet, FIRST [usfirst.org] is definately not about destroying other robots. It is however about encouraging science and technology by building robots. We are not, I repeat not, Battlebots nor do we have anything to do with them.

    Matt Leese

  • Thank you for your response and clarification. As it happens, I am not, nor have I ever been in an HMO. I have always had other forms of health coverage. So my comments were empathetic toward others, not based on personal experience.

    So was I making up accusations? No, everything I said about HMOs came directly from physicians complaining about the way HMOs have treated them. You say that the HMO decision-makers are medical professionals. The physicians I have spoken with say the opposite. The reality probably is that both are true in some cases. You are presenting the best-case scenario, and I was presenting the worst-case scenario.

    Although I thank you for setting a more balanced tone to my comments, it wasn't my intent to talk about HMOs as such. Rather, I was using that as a common example of the attitude of profits-over-people. If my example painted with too broad a stroke, my original point still stands -- there are numerous examples where corporations cause human suffering in the name of profits.
    ________________

  • Destroying other robots? No, I'm talking about destroying the corporate sponsors. Are there specific rules against rising up against humanity?
    -----
  • I wrote the Dean Kamen profile in the September issue of Wired, for what that's worth.

    It is, as it turns out, worth quite a bit. I have a new hero this week.

    Be proud of your work. You should be. It's an important article about an important person who I only barely knew existed. Far better than most of the trash in Wired, which tends to have maybe two worthwhile articles per issue, IMO. Congratulations on writing one of them in this past issue.

  • If you'd go to a corner in some crowded street in, say, L.A., and said those exact words: "Really, I just breathed in and then breathed out. Thought everyone might like to share.", I guess they'd probably share a few bucks with you.

    Here on Slashdot, that'll only get you moderated down. Goes to show which crowd is the wiser, huh.

  • If I remember correctly, hazarding the spectators is illegal and grounds for disqualification so I don't think your plan will fly. Why would you want to destroy the corporate sponsors? They provide money and engineers. FIRST is more about engineering than it is about winning.

    Matt Leese

  • Tesla was a true genius, and the smithsonian won't even recognize him.

    Hell, he's been dead for a long time. I doubt I'd recognize him either.

    -thomas


    "Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence."
  • Fair enough I have never been in a wheelchair, but my best friend is. And what you see as a crass comment I see as a joke, one which my friend would find funny too. I'm sorry if you feel so deeply on the matter. And I feel it ashame that someone as articulate as you doesn't spend more time posting comments that would benifit other readers. You don't like my jokes? Fine, I'm not bothered by that, but then for some reason don't try and pretend that you are some how better then me because of it....

    the only action you could relate to was one of violence...

    And just because I make a joke involving "violence" (A fight does not automatically pertain the use of violence) that does not mean I relate to it. Just like I don't relate to sexual promiscuity when I tell a sexual joke of a sexual nature.

    "I fasted for a week" - All I can say is great...

    "I lived in silence for another week - I'm impressed with your will power.

    Congraulation on all the above. But a real great man who had done this things would also be a humble man. There is no need to be aggressive towards me. There's no need to try and belittle me. If you've done these things, give yourself a pat on the back and move on. If I'm wrong, I'm wrong, who cares? All I can say tomorrow about this is that I had a good battle of words with you...

    So with this I bid you goodnight...
  • From the Questions kids ask us [nfb.org] section of the National Federation of the Blind [nfb.org] website:

    Will I learn more about blindness if I close my eyes or wear a blindfold?

    No, it is not a good idea to try to pretend to be blind. As a matter of fact, you could get just the opposite impression about what it is like to be blind. You might have a hard time finding things, you might bump into things, you might knock something over, or you might hurt yourself. You might feel frightened, frustrated or confused; then you might think this is what it is like for blind people. But it is not like that for us. Blind people (depending on how long they've been blind) have training and experience that you do not have, and we know how to do things (sometimes differently) that you do not. It is easier for us than it would be for you. If you want to learn more about blindness, instead of pretending to be blind, you might want to ask a blind person to talk with you. Perhaps you will want to contact a local chapter of the National Federation of the Blind.

    It's kind of a personal matter for me, as I've worked with a blind person once, (are you reading this, Eddy?), and that experience helped me understand blindness much better than I could have otherwise.

  • I also participated in this program for 3 years in high school. I pretty much had already decided to go to college for engineering, but there's things I learned in FIRST that I still use. The biggest thing I gained was exposure to the working world, along with deadlines and problems and everything else. FIRST is truely a great program. Also, I must say Dean does one heck of a job of it. You should see the show they put on at Disney World for the national finals. I last participated a couple of years ago, and even then they had 3 huge tents (the size of football fields) set up for the competition, complete with laser light shows and everything. It really was as great as any sporting event I've ever been to. And as they improved it every year that I participated, I imagine it's become quite a show since I left. Reading this piece brought back some nice memories of high school. I'd have to say FIRST was the most rewarding and useful experience I had back then. It's a lot more educational than working story problems in math class. (I know that stuff is important, too, but it just doesn't have the same kind of hands on feel to it...)

  • This is absolutely beautiful... (Score:3)

    by Chris Johnson ( 580 ) on Thursday September 14, 2000 @04:54PM (#780404) Homepage Journal
    It's so moving to see that there are still people doing this sort of thing... I can give you a historical reference, and a fictional one. E. E. 'Doc' Smith was just this sort of person, although more the engineer than outright inventor. He had a mastery of countless sciences, and just the same sort of 'cowboy science jockey' attitude (I love how Dean has _several_ different sorts of helicopters- it says volumes about him. Given a choice between a helicopter and a Humvee, which would you make your grand entrance in?).

    E. E. 'Doc' Smith wrote some of the finest early 'space opera' science fiction. It's easily scorned by modernists as there's no fashionable cynicism in it, plus it's good and cheesy and totally overblown- but there's one point that's very important, in 'Doc' Smith novels the super-hero is always an _engineer_, often a complete scientist- yet still with a movie-star 'cool' that would look good on Clint Eastwood or Arnold Schwarzenegger. It's like Arnold delivering an erudite and brilliant dissertation on how he's managed to enhance the beam intensity of his laser weapon into the terawatts- and then promptly turning around and using it in the classic tradition of the action hero. It's wildly overglamorous _science_ and _intelligence_. Contrast that, and the deification of scientists in the 40s and 50s, to the current (corporate-directed?) demonization of 'hacker' types, and the glorification of _dumb_ violence. "The Matrix" was a nice change from this (I particularly liked one small, 'Doc' Smithian detail- "Mouse", the ultra-geeky, scrawny little hacker type, is killed in a plot twist, but rather than have him perish cringing and wishing for pr0n, Mouse goes out in a blaze of glory with two blazing Thompson machine guns in his hands, veritably 'dies like a Klingon'. 'Doc' Smith would have understood that.)

    The interesting part is that people of this type are not just fiction- 'Doc' Smith was real, he existed. Dean Kamen exists. And you don't have to be a Dean Kamen with zillions of dollars and machine shops and helicopters- I do this stuff, too. I am convinced that _lots_ of Slashdotters do, that there are countless geeky-type people out there who have weird ducting fan systems pointed into their overclocked computers and have oddly bent pieces of wire in their cupboards for making taco shells stand up straight and not fold up when you bake them (truth! I'm eating tacos right now made using such a bent piece of wire). When you get right down to it, LOTS OF THINGS need to exist, on a day-to-day basis, whether it's objects, devices, processes (I recently invented a workflow for scanning pictures at a print shop that goes more than six times faster than the previous top speed) and there's a type of person who'll invent them and a type of person who'll do what they're told and wait to see if anyone thinks of something.

    The only thing that kinda saddens me is that this article gets between a quarter to a tenth of the attention people will give to making fun of Jon Katz :P I hope people are at least reading this stuff! Scientist hip is a quality that needs to be accepted. It _is_ cool. It sets the tone for what people are willing to aspire to. We geeky types are not simply a bunch of whiners looking to pirate mp3s from legitimate businessmen or to get script-kiddie exploits to DDS some law-abiding website. We, at our best, have the capacity to change the very terrain right out from under those record company execs and businessmens so none of the old rules apply anymore- but to really put the rubber to the road, it's gotta be _chic_. It has to be _cooler_ to look up a scrap of indie music online and be directed magically to the guy's website than it is to march off to Sam Goody's and buy what you're told to. It's got to be _hip_ to put together your own desktop movie and release it as VideoCD or DVD (no region) rather than sit there like a lump waiting on Hollywood to do something that isn't really stupid and calculating. In the 50s science was seen as _cool_ and lots of stuff ended up happening- do we really dare allow it to seem both lame and dangerous, do we dare to let it be seen as that stuff that 'evil hackers' do, creating nothing and causing destruction and damage?

    Dean Kamen, for one, isn't about to let that happen without a fight. I'm with him ;)

  • Are atomic weapons specifically against the rules?


    Yes, but only because they aren't on the official parts list.
  • No kidding. I always thought he was incredible, but my respect for him has increased considerably from reading the links people posted. I literally jumped up from my chair when I saw this [yale.edu]: "His method for rapid global travel necessitated the construction of a stationary elevated ring that would encircle the rotating earth like a donut." I'm positive I saw this proposed (linked from /.?) along with other similar ideas [spacescience.com] presented as "new and innovative".

    The man was a genius. End of story.

  • As someone who has known Dean for five years, this article was right on in its ability to capture and report the many facets of an incredibly talented, dedicated and devoted person. Well done Mr. Kirsner. Your post about needing to tone down the FIRST competition and its impact is comical - if only the editors at Wired would attend one of the FIRST events would they see that they are incorrect skeptics.
  • I hope people are at least reading this stuff!

    Judging from the mod points, I'd say they are...

    (Obvious, maybe. Days late, maybe. But I'd still like to make the point, to the author of the post if to no one else, and I have no mod points at the moment...)

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