Philo Farnsworth, as I understand, was important in the development of television
So, to hell with Philo Farnsworth
FWIW, Philo Farnsworth disliked what television developed into and refused to let his son watch it. His stance, however, softened somewhat after watching the moon landing.
Philo Farnsworth, as I understand, was important in the development of television
So, to hell with Philo Farnsworth
Hey! He invented a way to transmit images from one place to another. His idea was for things like, have a camera hidden beneath/behind an easel and record the creation of a painting from there. And make it so people could see the wonder of, say, the Grand Canyon without actually having to go to the Grand Canyon. Or so you could see a relative of yours who was far away. One of his ideas was eerily like Skype, of a two-way thing where two recievers and two transmitters allow people to talk face-to-face from far away.
And since you could talk to people far away that way, all face-to-face like, it would be easier for leaders of nations to talk to each other. You know, make diplomacy at least somewhat easier. Or people in Europe could see how the Nile Crocodile moves (you can't get a good sense of the High Walk from still images or words) or they could see the Amazon Rain Forest. Or, at a wonderful concert where sadly only 10,000 people could be there (imagine something like the first performance of Beehtoven's Ninth Symphony), it could be broadcast to the world so poor people could get in on that music action.
He thought that if people could more easily see other parts of the world, people would get along better; and civilizations would be less likely to fight. Or you could record extremely rare languages and the guestures of the people who use them.
He never intended for it to have advertisements, or to be mostly run by corporations, or to be so that huge industries own the air time and the service to places. He wanted it to be a thing that any random person with a camera could make art. He wanted it to be more like books, where an individual author can make his own and self-publish. He never intended for tiny attention spans, Charmin Advertisements, and crap like that.
He made the television thinking of things like Reading Rainbow. And guess what happened? Disney Tweeneybopper Sitcoms.
It's not his fault, he tried to fight RCA and stop what they were doing. Telelvision didn't have to be as crap as it is. It could be almost as great an art form as books.
Blame RCA, not Philo T. Farnsworth. If Farnsworth had had his way, there would be no such thing as advertisements or corporate control of the television industry; any more than books have random advertisements taking up a bunch of the pages; and authors have to get a licensing deal with, say Samsung or Coca-Cola. Finnegan's Wake, Sponsored by Pepsi! Yeaaaah, no.
And before you say, "well, the corporations would have eventually taken it over no matter what happened." I ask this: Did the Corporations take control of books, plays, or sculpture?
Yeah, Philo and all the other inventors who made the components of the television (over 1,000 separate inventions are needed for television; and Philo only made 168 of them. When I talk about his hopes and intentions, I talk about him and an entire generation of inventors who made the components. It's not one man vs a corporation, it's a generation of inventors) lost the battle with RCA; and Television went the other way. But it didn't have to be that way.
Also, Philo's opinion on Television was basically Imipolex's, once RCA got control of it. He refused to let his son watch Television, and he regretted inventing important components of it. However, he said that seeing the Moon Landing made his invention worthwhile.
"Did the Corporations take control of books, plays, or sculpture?"
Yes.
But, overall, I see your point. I absolve Mr. Farnsworth of any wrongdoing.
I shall spit on RCA instead. *spits*
How? I don't see performances of The Importance Of Being Earnest sponsored by Pepsi; or Thomas Pynchon having to make a deal with Nike; or Peter Agostini needing financial support from Hasbro.
They took control of those things by shoving them out of the public consciousness, so that the average person regards "culture" as consisting of TV commercials and silly pop singers instead
They took control of those things by shoving them out of the public consciousness, so that the average person regards "culture" as consisting of TV commercials and silly pop singers instead
Not quite yet. You and I still exist. Lots of people like us still exist.
They took control of those things by shoving them out of the public consciousness, so that the average person regards "culture" as consisting of TV commercials and silly pop singers instead
They also took control of books via, you know, the book publishing industry...
Copyright length has been so extended and extended so many times that basically all entertainment that's even the least bit "modern" is copyrighted and commercializable. Despite the fact that media is, in its essence, a public good.
you're only a real person if you exclusively read novels with page counts in the quadruple digits. Everyone else is a mindless zombie.
Ethan Frome. Charlotte's Web. Call of the wild. I know why the caged bird sings. Island of the blue dolphins. Ivanhoe. Treasure Island. The witch of blackbird pond. The house at Pooh Corner. Mister Popper's penguins. To kill a mockingbird. Old Yeller. Beauty (by Robin McKinley.). The diary of Anne Frank. Utopia. Beowulf. Watership Down. And, most important of all, Danny and the Dinosaur.
On that personal computer, Seymour found that internet Google searches had been conducted between April 11 and 26, 2004, for the following topics: "undetectable poisons," "state gun laws," "instant poison," "gun laws in Pennsylvania," "toxic insulin levels," "fatal insulin doses," "fatal digoxin doses," "instant undetectable poisons," "how to commit suicide," "how to commit murder," "how to purchase hunting rifles in NJ," "pesticide as poison," "insulin as a poison," "morphine poisoning," "how to find chloroform," "insulin shock," "neuromuscular blocking agents," "sedatives," "tranquilizers," "barbiturates," "nembutal," "pharmacy," "chloral hydrate," "chloral and side effects," and "Walgreens."
Comments
Another battle that the side I was rooting for lost.
(Sure, legally, Philo is regarded as the inventor, but who ended up with all the money in the end?)
Philo Farnsworth, as I understand, was important in the development of television
So, to hell with Philo Farnsworth
prolly not
And since you could talk to people far away that way, all face-to-face like, it would be easier for leaders of nations to talk to each other. You know, make diplomacy at least somewhat easier. Or people in Europe could see how the Nile Crocodile moves (you can't get a good sense of the High Walk from still images or words) or they could see the Amazon Rain Forest. Or, at a wonderful concert where sadly only 10,000 people could be there (imagine something like the first performance of Beehtoven's Ninth Symphony), it could be broadcast to the world so poor people could get in on that music action.
He thought that if people could more easily see other parts of the world, people would get along better; and civilizations would be less likely to fight. Or you could record extremely rare languages and the guestures of the people who use them.
He never intended for it to have advertisements, or to be mostly run by corporations, or to be so that huge industries own the air time and the service to places. He wanted it to be a thing that any random person with a camera could make art. He wanted it to be more like books, where an individual author can make his own and self-publish. He never intended for tiny attention spans, Charmin Advertisements, and crap like that.
He made the television thinking of things like Reading Rainbow. And guess what happened? Disney Tweeneybopper Sitcoms.
It's not his fault, he tried to fight RCA and stop what they were doing. Telelvision didn't have to be as crap as it is. It could be almost as great an art form as books.
Blame RCA, not Philo T. Farnsworth. If Farnsworth had had his way, there would be no such thing as advertisements or corporate control of the television industry; any more than books have random advertisements taking up a bunch of the pages; and authors have to get a licensing deal with, say Samsung or Coca-Cola. Finnegan's Wake, Sponsored by Pepsi! Yeaaaah, no.
And before you say, "well, the corporations would have eventually taken it over no matter what happened." I ask this: Did the Corporations take control of books, plays, or sculpture?
Yeah, Philo and all the other inventors who made the components of the television (over 1,000 separate inventions are needed for television; and Philo only made 168 of them. When I talk about his hopes and intentions, I talk about him and an entire generation of inventors who made the components. It's not one man vs a corporation, it's a generation of inventors) lost the battle with RCA; and Television went the other way. But it didn't have to be that way.
Also, Philo's opinion on Television was basically Imipolex's, once RCA got control of it. He refused to let his son watch Television, and he regretted inventing important components of it. However, he said that seeing the Moon Landing made his invention worthwhile.
Yes.
But, overall, I see your point. I absolve Mr. Farnsworth of any wrongdoing.
I shall spit on RCA instead. *spits*
Ethan Frome. Charlotte's Web. Call of the wild. I know why the caged bird sings. Island of the blue dolphins. Ivanhoe. Treasure Island. The witch of blackbird pond. The house at Pooh Corner. Mister Popper's penguins. To kill a mockingbird. Old Yeller. Beauty (by Robin McKinley.). The diary of Anne Frank. Utopia. Beowulf. Watership Down. And, most important of all, Danny and the Dinosaur.