- Eric Nichols, KL7AJ -
- Author of Plasma Dreams, available online at Amazon.com and most other online bookstores. -
How many of us hear the saying, "Necessity is the mother of invention," and just accept it as truth? If you look at the history of human innovation, it becomes pretty obvious that quite the opposite is true. Invention is the mother of necessity. Look at all the things we have that we consider "necessary." Upon close investigation, we learn that every convenience we now enjoy was, at one point, the result of some experiment having gone awry. Sheer curiosity always results in greater technological leaps than can result simply as the answer to a perceived need. Think about this:
How many people "needed" a radio in 1880? For that matter, how many people "needed" a car in 1880? Did the Pilgrims need microwave ovens? If none of these inventions had ever come about, life would still exist....perhaps quite differently than it does now....but nevertheless, doable, and arguably, even better, in some respects.
This is not to discount the value of technology in any way...after heating my house entirely with wood through 16 brutal Fairbanks winters, I was elated to finally switch to heating oil....although with current oil prices, the old woodstove is looking better all the time.
No...the point here is to recognize where technology comes from. As has always been the case, it is the visionary and the theoretician who has preceded the technologist. We cannot replace basic research with technology. Technology can tell us how to do something we already know something about, but only basic research can lead us into areas we know NOTHING about...and this is where the real fun is. We ASSUME that computer technology is the ultimate in "high-tech" because that is where the energy and money has gone. Could it be that we have totally missed some entirely new field of human endeavor that has nothing to do with silicon, electricity, or the internet? The squeaking wheel always gets the grease. How many failed lab experiments get swept under the carpet because of lack of funding or interest? How many realize that the field effect transistor was invented...or rather DISCOVERED...before the vacuum tube? What would technology look like today if the FET had gotten all the attention 70 years ago, instead of the tube? There are probably countless unknown examples similar to this. Being the way commercial interests and human nature go, we always work with what gives us the most immediate positive feedback, with the sad results that most of the really interesting technology goes entirely unnoticed, unfunded, and undeveloped.
Even worse, for experimenters such as hams (or at least we SHOULD be experimenters) the temptation is to concentrate on the latest fad, rather than explore new frontiers. In the late 70s an intrepid bunch of hams came up with packet radio. It was like nothing else on the bands. It was new, original, and admittedly bizarre. Most of what has been developed in the past 30 years, however, has been pretty derivative. What are we doing NOW that was as radical as packet radio was thirty years ago? I'm not talking about minor tweaks, or such obvious "innovations" as APRS. I'm talking about entirely new trails. Where are our Michael Faradays, our Edwin Armstrongs, or dare say I, even our Steve Jobses?
Much of our amateur radio these days is directed toward "fixing" known problems...a noble effort as far as it goes. But fixing problems is a rather severe demotion from blazing new trails through a God-forsaken desert. The fascinating must NEVER be subjugated to the practical.
Michael Faraday, after he demonstrated electromagnetic induction, was immediately accosted by one of the "elder statesmen." He said, "This is all very interesting, Mr. Faraday, but of what practical value is it?"
Faraday didn't blink. He immediately responded with the perfect answer...the ONLY answer to such a stupid question. He said, "Of what practical value is a baby?"
Let's not kill our babies because we don't know what they're for yet. Remember....Invention is the mother of necessity!
Respectfully submitted,
Eric Nichols, KL7AJ