Okay - it's late but I need to get this off

my chest....

When was the last time anyone in this country really created something? I mean something in the likes of Thomas Edison, the Wright Brothers, Alexander Graham Bell, Jonas Salk? I realize that there is Steve Jobs and Bill Gates but my thought process here is that there hasn't been anything spectacular to come out of this country in the last 30 or so years that it makes me wonder what direction this country is going - is the collective so wrapped up in the now that we have lost the ability dream the impossible as the people above did? Please correct me if I haven't recognized anyone that has done something great.....

Look at the entertainment industry. Mick Jagger at the Super Bowl?

What great endeavor has America done for the benefit of all Americans.

Here are some examples: the railroads, the Highway system, Hoover Dam.

Nothing major has been done for the country's benefit for over 50 years...

nothing big and countrywide... No 'public works' kind of things.. (ok the big dig in Boston - but nothing productive for all).

but can you name the guy who actually pulled it all together in 3 seconds? And it's not Al Gore..:freak:

as "done for America," in terms of infrastructure that benefited the entire commons.

If by Hoover dam, you mean the whole CCC program. well yeah, that was a major government investment in the general good. The policies pursued in terms of water in the West though (as distinct from the CCC) weren't so generally good or necessarily rooted in the common good.

The Railroads were a complete rip-off from beginning to end, in terms of the common good. While it can certainly be argued that having railroads is important to development, the way the railroads came to pass set the stage for major monopolies that led directly to the gilded age. Which while good for a very few was brutal on the vast majority.

However, I believe your sentiment is good. I have always thought a national service would be good for the country.

it's a way that people, especially young men and women, could make a contribution to the country and in return would receive government paid higher education, housing assistance, and job training/experience.

There are so many unmet needs in our society that having a national service would be a way of addressing those needs while providing a means of upward mobility to our people.

The segway.
The digital camera. And the digicam small enough to put on a cell phone. (both are US patents)
The ipod and the DVR are the beginnings of a revolution in the way we deal with non-written media; until vrey recently, the experience of media was directly tied to the time of broadcast. That is changing and will continue to change until synchronicity becomes either an unnecessary luxury you pay extra for (like a concert or a theater experience) OR (and this is my hope) that it returns to the real world, where we do things with people in real time, and experience media in leisure time. (I.e. like it was before television and radio, when people interacted.)

We're in an incremental stage of advance right now, but... something's coming. Change is in the air. If we can hold on long enough...

Clap on...Clap off...

perfect!

:)

I also forgot about the Chia Pet too.....:7

We began as a creative force, a manufacturing force, to one whom neither creates nor manufactures. We serve. We are in deep doo-doo.

Weren't they invented in the late 60's or early 70's?

you question when they were invented....when was the last really great thing that the whole country stood up and said "Bravo"?

When the the inventions of the early 20th century were coming about, there wasn't a lot of "Oh, Bravo!" for them. In fact, there was a lot of skepticism, concern about actual impact and popular certainty that X was just a passing fad, and no one had really invented anything of importance since the Cotton Gin.

The automobile was considered rather a stupid thing, since, unlike it's equine predecessor, you couldn't fall asleep in your seat and depend on your horse's memory to get you home. You HAD to pay attention. Plus, it ran on things you couldn't grow. How were you supposed to feed the stupid thing once all the petrol was used up? (Hm. Some things never change.)

People seriously believed that one telephone would serve for ten or more households. If you read papers of the time, especially the editorial section, radio, electric lights, phonographs, etc were all met with at least some skepticism and a lot of world weary cynicism.

Not much has changed in several hundred years - there's a roman quote about (I'm paraphrasing, please forgive) the fact that children disrespect their elders, morals are sunk and surely the end of days is at hand.

We may not have invented new things, but we definitely have invented new ways of doing things: ecommerce, which means that rather than 10,000 people getting in their individual cars and going for a drive to the record shop, 1 person gets in the UPS truck and brings the record shop to the 10000. Something that resembles equality - there aren't Help Wanted - MALE and Help Wanted - FEMALE classifieds anymore.

And don't forget, Marconi, Edison and Westinghouse shafted the guy who really invented what made them rich and famous....

have to wait for the wee ones to be in bed and stuff is done...yadda yadda - I do know my history rather well and realize that the inventions in the early 20th century were not immediately lauded as fantastic breakthroughs in the advancement of the society. But that being said, in today's world of on the spot media, it would be hard to invent/create something spectacular without everyone knowing it ...i.e., cure for cancer, real estate on the moon and the transportation to get us there, artificial intelligent holographic, etc. I guess with all the gross misdeeds of congress, the president, the occupation of Iraq and the just whole administration, I was feeling like that there hasn't been anything wondrous to have come out of this country. I would be a real boon if something did.

I actually think the "on the spot media" might be part of the problem - real inventions don't have the time to bench test, marketing kerfluffle gets a lot of press, but is basically vapor sans substance, and for the average potential early adopter, wading through the difference between kerfluffle and real inventions is complicated by too much information. And I don't think enough people in journalism have the science background to really understand when a breakthrough happens what it means.

Example: I work casually for a company that is developing low orbit, medium payload transportation - i.e. what Fedex wants to be someday. (Need it there this afternoon? Drop off your package at XXXXXX by noon and it's at the destination by 5. Basically, we're perfecting jump-jets.) Have we invented something altogether new? No. But we have invented several small components of space tech, and when we put everything together, we will have taken another step on the road to space. We're very much incrementalists. One step at a time.

And there's a lot of that out there: a dozen people saving baby turtles, a handful cataloging heirloom vegetables, a score looking for NEOs, 6 working on SETI. And that's okay. We make progress one step at a time and that's the way we've always made progress.

I don't think the days of Wow are over, not permanently, but I know the wow factor is harder to catch because there's so much else competing for our attention and there's so much that's just appalling. But it's happening.

that was the 'something' I was looking for - but wouldn't it be a shame if the Repugs and Fundies got a hold of how that technology/science is used? Kinda like trying to ban the vaccine to help prevent the HPV virus?

we seem to value intellect and education much less than I recall. Or maybe it's rose colored glasses.
But PC's aren't the last thing, we've also built the internet to go with them. I know there is lots of artificual intelligence work going on in the industry as well. I'm sure there is lots going on. We just need to get an anti-intellectual like our current pResident out and restore support for such things.

Windshield wipers were invented by a woman named Mary Johnson (I think that was her last name) in 1903? Within a decade they were on Ford's assembly line. There are probably hundreds of things we use in everyday life that were American innovations.

The 20th century was filled with tremendous, world-changing inventions. I don't think it's fair to say we've lost our edge. I think we're just waiting for humanity to catch up with all this technology. I mean, in my father's lifetime (he died last year at age 98), he went from a horse-and-buggy mentality to having to wrap his mind around nuclear power, space exploration and the computer age (which he never caught on to).

We now have cloning and the possibility of prolonging death for extended periods (e.g., the Shiavo case). Doctors can now perform quadruple bypasses as a minimally invasive procedure. http://www.intuitivesurgical.com/products/davinci_surgicalsystem/ (Last I read, there were only about 100 of these Da Vinci robotic systems in the whole world and most of them are in U.S. hospitals.) And 92-year-old men are getting knee replacement surgeries. The Human Genome Project completed its work 2 years ahead of schedule and we are already beginning to feel the (mostly positive) effects of that ground-breaking work. We are on the verge of no longer needing men to create a baby!

There's still a lot of innovation and discovery going on under the radar screen--maybe just not as dramatic as what the 20th century produced. Maybe we are simply taking a collective deep breath between "ages" (i.e., what comes after the information age? We're running out of "post" names; personally, I hope it has something to do with time and interstellar space travel--I'd like to see people going to different galaxies in my lifetime!)

Peace,
AL

I would absolutely become a groupie of the person who invents the transporter......beam me up scotty!

My thought process was that we as a collective group of Americans do not know who half the people are that are making breakthroughs and discoveries...

But, do you think Edison and Bell and the guy who invented the TV were all that popular during their respective times? I really think it takes hindsight to give societies perspective. Right now it feels like we're getting hit with info. left and right. It's hard to sort out what's going to wind up being most relevant. That's why I think journalists (the real ones--not the papparazi--but the Edward R. Murrow, Robert Fisk types) are so important as an institution. Fisk put it so well in an interview I heard on NPR recently: Journalists get to write the "first draft of history." And I, too, think we're on the verge of something big--that will change the course of history.

Go to the nav bar on the left for lots of new stuff. (The militray is making tremendous strides in ways to wage war.)

http://sciteclibrary.ru/eng/catalog/invn/

Loved the Da Vinci pic - but I didn't see anything that made me go "whoa"...and the war stuff, :scared: and :boring: (cool, got to use the bored icon at last!)

and we're just improving stuff right now.

Actually, in science and high tech, there are alot of fascinating advances, but they're obscure until they're applied to something that affects the average guy.

and George W Bush

this is BIG.. not a cure for cancer but over a billion people will hang my picture in their homes, and i am not kidding.

actually the really big stuff that would actually change the world, is just hidden so not to cut into corporate profits..

like the Big National Solar Project.. which will provide over 70% of the daytime electricity for the nation.. from 3 or 4 sites in the South West each 10 miles square

Please don't take offense, I mean none. Much time, effort, and money goes into developing an invention. You are welcome, of course, to do as you like with your own invention. I can't tell you what to do.

But, as a non-inventor but follower of technology, I see history filled with so many cases where promising inventions seem to die with the inventor because they can't arrange the patent issues. I'm a fan and longtime user of open-source software, and patent and copyright issues are central to the whole open-source movement. With an invention, there is the question of monetary compensation, questions of control, and there is the social effect of having it out there in society. Open source copyright and license arrangements give up the monetary compensation, retain the control in the sense that no-one else can hijack the invention, and get the thing into people's hands. The notoriety can get you a better job in the field, and, frankly, glory.

Patent laws were originally promulgated in an era where there were no corporate gorillas gaming the system. Since corporations can just outlive the inventor and his or her patent rights, and have no particular need to improve human society per se, how much innovation is postponed until corporations can get their grubby hands on it? Is there another way? Are there open-source-type patents that could apply to your invention?

Still, I realize that software is far more conducive to this. No manufacturing costs once the research is done. The marginal cost of any program is essentially zero.

myself who are social pariahs with a system that is proved to cure learning disabilities, but because there is no money in it.. it is not being used.

yes.. my unique abilities are worth monetary gain.. would you work for nothing all your life and live in poverty cause you are different

that was instituted in Kennedy's day had a ton of spin-offs and when the program died things slowed down.
We have the CAT Scan, the MRI, micro-surgery, ultra-sound to name a few. A lot of advances in the medical field but they still can't cure the common cold.<G>

Will we ever cure it? probably not. Should we? probably not. Wide-spectrum anti-virals for the cold would be like over-dispensing antibiotics. Bad news in the long run.

There is a part of me that believes we have met up with the impossible...the laws of physics. And unless we can break those laws...including the whole time travel thingie...we might not be making huge wonderous advances.

And when you think of it...it was only 10 years ago that I got connected to the Internet. Christmas, 1995. Compuserve. That seems like the dark ages to me now. We've made huge leaps while at the same time taking all the fun out of getting drunk. Nothing to argue about. Remember? You'd try to figure out some meaningless question like how many time zones there are on the moon? You just look it up on the Internet now.

And the gnome? That's pretty cool. And anyway, maybe globalization has made it all but impossible for America to be an isolated inventor. Remember the race to find the HIV virus? It was going on in labs all over the world and there is still a dispute over whether it was the French guy or the American guy.

;-)

Wireless (Cellular) telephony

Magnetic Resonance Imaging

Fiber Optics (and Dense Wavelength Division Multiplexing)