Slashdot Mirror
On Afghanistan's Thomas Edison
13.7BillionYears writes "The Institute for War and Peace Reporting details on the exploits of Ghulam Sediq Wardak, a 62 year old semi-literate Afghan with 341 clever inventions to his credit. His first was a radio powered by the low voltage produced by the human body. His most recent is a 1980 Volkswagen rigged to run on solar power. A handful of others are mentioned. Like many a Slashdotter, his parents were once very worried and he eschews patents. 'The main purpose of my inventing is not to earn money,' he says. 'I want to render a service to my countrymen and to all people in the world.'"
This man deserves some kind of geek homage. His picture (which I could not readily google up but would love to see) belongs on a Slashdot category icon. To "wardak" should be the expression to replace "jerry rig." If Futurama were still on, there would need to be a character named "Sediq." If we can invoke Kent Brockman here, we can honor this noble man.
I for one welcome our new clever, semi-literate Afghan overlord.
"...all the labours of the ages, all the devotion, all the inspiration, all the noonday brightness..." yada yada
Now, why can't this attitude be shared by more people? Really?
If he wanted to that more completely, he could have gone about patenting his inventions and through that legal ownership making them freely available for all to use. Maybe it would be nice if someone used the system against itself once in a while, eh?
My father's foot was largely undamaged when one of these went over his foot. Nonetheless these aren't the lightest cars in the world. There's no way you could drive this at anywhere near 25mph on solar panels alone. I have some doubts about this feel good story.
Doesn't it make you feel good to know that our freedoms are protected by politicans, lawyers and journalists.
"The main purpose of my inventing is not to earn money," he says. "I want to render a service to my countrymen and to all people in the world."
Sadly a rapidly diminishing breed nowadays, what with overwhelming patenting and copyright laws and abuse. Hats of to this guy.
An Indian-American Hindu committed to non-violent thought/speech/action alarmed by the global explosion of radical Islam
Notice how his goal isn't to make money.
The inventions are just things that happens along the way.
Edison was notorious for jealously guarding his patents and squeezing them for every dollar he could. This man is a much better human being.
"I hate to advocate drugs, alcohol, violence or insanity but they've always worked for me" - HST
just think what he could have done with a formal education
To be fair to westerners, many Open/Free Source Developers are coding for the same motives. I hope that brilliant Afghan will not have to face up to these idiotic IP patent attacks that is happening over here.
Web Sig: Eddy Currents
I might be hallucinating, but wasn't Edison (who invented AC generators, the phonograph and the motion picture camera/projector system) a patent hawk who did everything he could to extract money for every little invention he had a hand in creating? In fact, IIRC, that's why the motion picture industry set up shop in the (then) isolated desolation of Hollywood, California -- they wouldn't have to pay his exorbitant licensing fees out there.
Correct me if I'm wrong, but it sounds like comparing this guy to Edison is like comparing Linus to Bill Gates.... in a comparative sort of way.
"Lawyers are for sucks."
- Doug McKenzie
From what I was taught, Franklin would invent something, then publish the design in his newspaper.
I'm not sure if Edison did that.
If Franklin did obtain patents, he obviously did so to ensure that nobody else would patent it first and keep the specs secret.
I'm not sure what type of VW he's got, but given that he's in Afghanistan I wouldn't be surprised if it's not an air-cooled Type 1 (Beetle). But it could be a Type 2 (Transporter), too. Could even be a Golf -- it's the best-selling model they've got. We Americans are the only market that shuns it in favor of the Bora (Jetta) -- though I love my lil' white Golf IV!
:)
I found a few more electric VWs with a little bit of looking:
Diesel-Electric (1.3L TDI) New Beetle
Electric 1969 Kharmann Ghia (the Ghia is a Beetle derivative)
Electric Rabbit (US Mk1 Golf)
And that's just for starters. VW AG itself considered a hybrid diesel-electric powertrain option for the Concept 1, which later became the New Beetle, but so far only the diesel portion has survived (the TDI is an option in the Golf, Beetle, Jetta, and now the Passat and the Touareg in the US, and in the rest of the model line elsewhere in the world.)
I'd love to see VW build a Golf-based CR-V competitor with a hybrid diesel-electric powertrain and the race-bred DSG transmission.
But yeah, this guy gets geek points from me.
i am a soviet space shuttle
One atmosphere of pressure is about 10 meters of water. You can't pump water any higher than that. I smell exaggeration.
Um, you can't suck water higher than 10 meters. How to you think water gets to the toilets on the top floor of a skyscraper?
A formal education has a tendency to specialize a person enough that, while they may make great advancements in a field, they won't be general enough to be of too much note to most of the world.
>the fact that he has persisted with his tinkering in the midst of an Arab culture speaks of incredible curiosity, freethinking, and persistence.
And you think that the American legal and social system encourages tinkering? Ever read the DMCA (just to name on instance)?
The surprise isn't how often we make bad choices; the surprise is how seldom they defeat us.
not getting patents doesnt make him better.... it just lets others rip him off.
now, lets say this obviously charitable guy gets his due, and decides some of it will be used to futhur even more charitable inventions, then his good can be multiplied greatly. maybe hire an assitant, or get some parts.
heck, he could donate it all if he doesn't want it, but he's lining someone elses pockets if he doesnt get it himself, and I doubt the other guy is as scrupulous as he is.
There's nothing Intelligent about Intelligent Design.
The problem that Islamic countries in general have is not that they have stopped being inventive, but that strict prohibition of usury makes it difficult to create the kind of economy that we know in the west. Much of todays technological innovation requires big bucks to bring it to market, and it's hard to start up a technological firm without borrowing money.
I'm sure the decades of economic isolation, Soviet occupation, Taliban rule, and then having the living fuck bombed out of them by the U.S. had NOTHING to do with it. :)
You are not the customer.
'The main purpose of my inventing is not to earn money,'
Then he's definitely not like Thomas Edison.
-Adam
Patents require you to publicly disclose the specs. In fact, you can download them for free from the USPTO website. The "problem" with patents is not that they are secret, it is that they grant monopoly power.
If you don't know where you are going, you will wind up somewhere else.
Of note- just a few years ago, he would have gotten in a lot of trouble for his little radio, especially if it played music or was used by a woman. Hmph. Maybe getting rid of a totalitarian regime can have a positive outcome after all!
That, to me, seems like racist sentiment.
Just out of curiosity, is "racist" the opposite of "truthful" to you, or can something be both simultaneously?
I wasn't the parent poster, but although the numbers are great, Arab culture hasn't contributed shit to the world for the past several centuries.
Why? Because the middle east has largely been ruled by dogmatic, corrupt and brutal dictors or otherwise severly backwards regimes for the past several centuries.
Even this 'inventor', admirable as his tinkering is, creates crude versions of things we've had here for decades, with leftover pieces of western origin.
That folks in afgahnistan now have the freedom that is a prerequisite to becoming a country that contributes more than raw materials to the world is fantastic.
Certainly, if Ghulam Sediq Wardak's curiosity and methodology is allowed to proser and spread, we can expect good things from Afgahnistant.
My point then is that the parent poster wasn't too far off in implying that Arab culture has added little to the world besides some (admittedly very useful) math hundreds of years ago.
They couldn't even get their own oil out of the ground if it wasn't for western engineers and equipment.
Much of middle east/arab culture is clearly diseased. Only by shedding it and adopting lessons from people more advanced then them in science, organization or particular skills can they hope to once again contribute to civilization.
Don't call me racist, either, because I'm talking about culture, which is a learned set of behaviors and attitudes. And spare me any notions of cultural equivalancy, as such talk seems more geared to keeping the world a quaint tourist attraction for the western world instead of a functioning society.
Some cultures are better than others. Western civilization is clearly superior to the Arabic/Islamic subcultures that supply anti-US terrorists. Don't believe me? Think I'm prejudice? Go ahead and come up with something that the Arab world does better than the western world in modern history.
500 year old contributions were great... 500 years ago.
Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms should be the name of a store, not a government agency.
I have often wished that houses had a single AC-to-DC transformer along with DC power sockets to alleviate the need for all the wall-warts laying around. So I do sympathize with your goal.
However, even if 80% of the devices in your house take AC power it doesn't mean they use 80% of the power. Far, far from it.
Like you said, anything with a motor. That means: Refridgerator, air conditioner, ceiling fans, exhaust fans, furnace, vacuum, washer, dryer, dishwaser, pool/sump/cistern pumps, etc. Add incandescent lighting and electric stoves into the mix, and I bet you can account for 80% of household electricity usage right there.
And, as someone else said, AC-to-DC is a lot easier than DC-to-AC.
Random and weird software I've written.
In response to the grandparent post, creative work without pay is ridiculous. So authors shouldn't expect to get paid for commercial publication of their stories? Or we just shouldn't try to make money off of our work at all--since, god knows, no one else on earth gets paid for the work they invest in whatever it is they happen to do. Books should be published for free, without any regard for paying all those involved and the cost of production? Please. Maybe it would work for someone who is creative as a hobby who just posts stuff on their geocities site, but not for someone like me who, uh, wants to avoid getting a "real" job. (Coincidentally, suggesting that ALL programmers should do open-source work without pay of any kind is also ridiculous for all practical purposes, and seems to be what is being advocated here.)
Now, adopting a more open-source approach to creative works IS a good idea and one that I strongly advocate. In fact, I license all of my publically-available work with Creative Commons, and if you haven't heard of them, it's much like the GPL adapted for creative works. (Images, text, and even music now.)
As a writer and artist, I want money for COMMERCIAL uses of my work. I don't want people taking credit for my work itself, either. The only copyright violations that upset me are the use of my work for commercial purposes without my permission and other people taking credit for my work. If someone's making copies for personal use, to share with friends, or making a derivative work (using an image in a collage, fan fiction, quoting me, whatever), I'm frankly flattered and I don't care. That's not the same as just giving it away free for anyone to do what they want with it, but this attitude is not shared by some (very famous and successful, by the way) authors and most big publishers, which I think is sad.
That's just my take on the issue, and I think it's a nice compromise between idealism and the fact that you actually need to make money in order to survive, and of course, to afford the materials necessary to make creative works to begin with.
the parent of this post seems to think Arab culture stifles creativity. That, to me, seems like racist sentiment.
Culture is a set of learned behavior and ideals. It's not racist, it's a behavior, unless you think that Arabs (and their sympathetic formerly taliban ruled neighbors) cannot behave in a way other than what is considered 'arab culture.'
And then that would make you the racist, because you'd be saying genetic heritage determines behavior more than anything else.
The parent post is correct. The diseased arab culture that is the source of our enemies does stifle creativity.
Why do you think that folks like you can only point to 500 year old contributions to math when someone implies that Arab Culture is a failure? Practitioners of western civilization- an identifiable set of attitudes and behaviors- have created the modern world.
Asian cultures certainly contribute greatly to the modern world, but their cultures have a lot more going for them than Arab cultures, and over the past 100 years, Asian countries have shown a great eagerness to adapt the practices of people who were better than them in many areas. That's why japan, with no natural resources to speak of, is an economic powerhouse, and became so only in the past century.
Many muslim/arab countries wallowing in poverty and despotism have a lot to learn. They simply refuse to do so.
Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms should be the name of a store, not a government agency.
A millenium ago, the Christian world was benighted, mired in superstition. Literature and art were at a standstill. The greatest minds of the era (e.g., Moses Maimonedes) fled to the Arab world, where they wouldn't be hunted down and set on fire. It wasn't safe to be a Jew in Christendom; many of them fled to Muslim-controlled territories.
Today, the Arab world is benighted, mired in superstition. Literature and art are at a standstill. The greatest minds of the era (e.g., about half of the engineering faculty at most American universities) flee the Arab world, so they won't be hunted down and set on fire. It isn't safe to be a Jew in the Arab world; many of them choose to live instead in Christian nations.
The wheel turns.
--grendel drago
Laws do not persuade just because they threaten. --Seneca
The Philips Compact Cassette was introduced in 1965 http://history.acusd.edu/gen/recording/tape4.html e tte.html
and was first shown 1963 and mass produced starting 1966 http://www.sony.net/Fun/SH/1-17/h1.html
Also, more here http://www.fact-index.com/c/co/compact_audio_cass
In 1964, when he was 22, a theft in his village inspired him to invent a burglar alarm that would also take a picture of the intruder.
His system involved surrounding a house with concealed wires that were attached to a battery, an audio cassette player and a camera. When the intruder stepped on the wire, it triggered the cassette player, which played a tape shouting, "There's a thief!". It also activated the camera, which would take a picture of the burglar.
So I dont believe he had an audio cassette player in 1964.
Also, he has to be very rich, outfitting his 1980 VW with solar panels,
120w solar panel costs like $500 or more. To power a car he needs lets say at least 10hp engine, so this is 7456.999 watt. lets say his electric engine is close to 100% efficient, so he will need only 62 panels * $500 = $31k.
the panels will need 62*1.425*0.652 = 57.6042 m^2 area which is about 7.5*7.5 meters or 22*22 feet for americans. good luck fitting this on any Volkswagen.
I SMELL BULLSHIT!
30 meters of copper wire makes a noticable resistor in a circuit that is only operating on a small voltage like 5 or 12 volts. Thus the voltage you get at the wall socket would vary tremendously depending on how far the socket is from the house's transformer. (or you'd have to use much more expensive house wiring.)
This would mean the standard would have to have a large tolerance window on the voltage the appliace should expect to receive from the wall socket, enough of one to be largely useless. (There is some tolerance in the large voltage AC currents too, but from the point of view of a relative ratio, the difference between, say, 107 volts and 110 volts is not nearly as signifigant as the difference between 9 volts and 12 volts, even though both are only "three volts apart".)
(By the way, in response to another point you mentioned, there do exist AC motors.)
Don't label something "offtopic" unless you know the topic well enough to tell what's on topic.
The parent post is correct. The diseased arab culture that is the source of our enemies does stifle creativity.
...
Don't take me wrong, but could it be possible that you might not actually know enough about "arab culture" to make the this kind of sweeping pronouncement? The reason I say this is the way you use the term "arab culture" to talk about a distinctly non-arab country. The Pashtuns, for example, are no more Arab than Spaniards are Scandanavian.
Why do you think that folks like you can only point to 500 year old contributions to math when someone implies that Arab Culture is a failure?
Well, making sweeping pronouncements about vaguely defined "arab culture" invites this response, does it not? Having no detailed knowledge of the particulars of the history of a part of the world does lend itself to seeing a kind of grand sweep of history. Knoweldge of the particulars allows you to see the uniqueness of each country's situation. There's value to having both perspectives, because you aren't trapped by historical or cultural determinism.
Asian cultures certainly contribute greatly to the modern world,
Isn't it possible that culture has other functions than to contribute to people outside of them?
Post may contain irony: discontinue use if experiencing mood swings, nausea or elevated blood pressure.
the huge cash crop of Opium
Sure but what are the chances that this money actually goes back to the Afgan people?
Karma? Hey I just call it as I see it.
Edison was a strictly for profit dude. Ever heard of Edison Electric a.k.a. G.E.?