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Da Vinci's Purposeful Mistakes

Posted by timothy on from the like-the-cheesegrater-parachute dept.

puppetman writes "According to a story out today, Leonardo Da Vinci deliberately introduced mistakes in his inventions. The series, Leonardo, produced by the BBC, claims that simple mistakes were introduced; mistakes that would not become apparent until after the contraption was built. The series hypothesizes that this was either a form of patent protection, or a way of ensuring his work did not end up being used for military purposes (Da Vinci was a gay, vegetarian pacifist)."

4 of 93 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Minority groups by Cokelee · · Score: 2, Insightful

    HAH! More like he'd be praised by mass media and loved by everyone in Hollywood!
    Geez, what society are you living in???

  2. Just what I was thinking by GuyMannDude · · Score: 3, Insightful

    The fact that Da Vinci was a "...gay, vegetarian..." really helps drive home the point that he was a pacifist. Thanks for the wonderful insight.

    I assume you're being sarcastic here. Yeah, I had to chuckle when I read the post too. Being gay or vegetarian really has nothing to do with being a pacifist. It's just to poster slipping his personal stereotypes into a slashdot article. People become vegetarian for a variety of reasons, mostly independent of whether they agree with whether wars are a necessary part of humanity or not. As for being gay, well, I'd like to see some stats that prove that gays are more likely to be pacifists than heteros. You'd think that with all the hub-bub about Trent Lott these days that people would be a bit more careful to let slips of the tongue (or keys, in this matter) say more than they really should but, oh well...

    GMD

    --
    watch this
  3. ... was one of the most effective political tools by jolshefsky · · Score: 4, Insightful
    Leonardo was accused to being gay very early in his life, as it was one of the most effective (and highly used) political tools of the time.
    Heh heh. "Was."
    --
    --- Jason Olshefsky

    Karma: Poser (mostly affected by adding this line long after everyone else did)

  4. Life protection. by Irvu · · Score: 3, Insightful

    IMHO It could also be a life insurance policy. Think about it, although Machiavelli's insights onto how to run a kingdom were not widely availible (The Prince wasn't written until 1513 the same year that Da Vinci died) there was enough backstabbing and evil to go around in DaVinci's day. What's to stop the local prince (or would-be prince) from killing or torturing the man himself and stealing all his books and papers. Only the fact that without him the designs are useless. If you want the weapons then you'll need the man, alive, well, and on your side not in your dungeon.