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[Jopax]

My friend read a title of a random internet article moments ago, "Americans vote Steve Jobs a bigger innovator than Tesla."

wat

[Cthulhu]

It wasn't Americans, it was American teenagers.  They don't know anything, and Tesla wasn't even on the list.

[RedKing]

And to be fair, if he was, people would be more likely to think of this:



rather than this:




EDIT: The really sad part is that Edison came in 1st place.

[Cthulhu]

Contrary to popular (Read: Cracked) belief, Thomas Edison was not the devil.

[Aqizzar]

Yes, how tragic that the world's most famous inventor would be voted the world's most famous inventor.

And I'm genuinely surprised that not only did Tesla not win, but apparently didn't even place.  If this forum is any indication, you can't talk science on the Internet more than ten minutes before people start talking about Tesla's "achievements" like Chuck Norris jokes without the punchlines.

[RedKing]

Contrary to popular (Read: Cracked) belief, Thomas Edison was not the devil.

No, but he wasn't as innovative. He was *successful*. There's a difference. Also, probably why he's so much more well-known.

[Aqizzar]

God forbid the guy who made the lightbulb, the typewriter, the phonograph, and the moving picture economically viable be declared innovative just because he wasn't the first guy to have the idea.

[RedKing]

God forbid the guy who made the lightbulb, the typewriter, the phonograph, and the moving picture economically viable be declared innovative just because he wasn't the first guy to have the idea.

...That's kind of the point of the word "innovative". Edison just took good scientific ideas and made them into something people wanted to buy. Hmm...kinda like Jobs. If we're talking about business innovation, I've got no beef (and in that regard, Tesla was terrible). If we're talking about scientific innovation...

[GlyphGryph]

You don't have to be a Tesla fan to knock the guy though - he made a lot of money off patenting what were essentially other peoples inventions, often screwing them over in the process.

He was a very good businessman who started a very successful company that pushed a lot of technology into wide use, though, and that definitely gets some respect.

[Greiger]

Well Tesla claimed to make an earthquake machine and apparently had thoughts on how to blow up the earth with precision explosions.  According to my limited knowledge (mythbusters) so he might have been a touch nuts too.

[Loud Whispers]

In an ideal world, our politicians would come from a healthy mix of scientific, engineering, medical, legal and financial backgrounds.
Sadly many of these people are too busy making real contributions to society to play the game.

In an ideal world

Just read the new google TAC, they're accepting ACTA :*(

[Cthulhu]

I've just soured on the whole Tesla/Edison thing.  Cracked and Badassoftheweek have made it so you can't bring up science without people screaming about Tesla, martial arts without screaming about krav maga, marksmanship without screaming about Simo Hayha, and probably a lot more stuff I can't think of right now.

[Jopax]

Pretty much, but for me he's gonna be an awesome dude no matter what, mainly because he was so out there and it kind of made him so good at what he did (also partly because he was a fellow countryman), so whenever the discussion comes up I just say "Tesla's cool." and stop there

[RedKing]

And you know who's even more badass than Tesla (and also didn't make the list)?

Leonardo "I-designed-a-fucking-helicopter-in-the-15th-century" Da Vinci. Da Vinci was probably one of the smartest, most innovative mofo's to ever grace the human species.

[Descan]

Aw dude, I even forgot about Da Vinci! And he's my favourite person! D: