It seems Nikola Tesla and Mark Zuckerberg had a few things in common. For one, they both wanted to read your mind. Nikola Tesla had a lot of crazy thoughts and one of his inventions was designed to photograph them.
If it wasn’t for the fact that so many of his wild ideas have come true, like his prediction of massive use of cell phones as early as 1901, it would be easy to pass this off as insane.
The Interview With Kansas City Journal-Post
On September 10, 1933, Carol Bird interviewed Nikola Tesla, then 78 years old, about several of his projects, including his revolutionary power project and the completion of his process for photographing thoughts.
“I’ expect to photograph thoughts,’ announced Mr. Tesla calmly, in the same tone of voice that a person occupied with some trivial things in the scheme of life might announce that it was going to rain.”
“Now if it be true that a thought reflects an image on the retina, it is a mere question of illuminating the same property and taking photographs, and then using the ordinary methods which are available to project the image on a screen.
If this can be done successfully, then the objects imagined by a person would be clearly reflected on the screen as they are formed, and in this way every thought of the individual could be read. Our minds would then, indeed, be like open books.”
According to Carol Bird’s interview: “It must not be forgotten, as Mr. Tesla points out, that the ideas of television and radio and airplane were scoffed at in their infancy.”
Laugh All You Want, Just Don’t Think Out Loud!
In a June 30, 2015 Q&A session on the future plans of facebook, Mark Zuckerberg himself seemed to be channeling Mr. Tesla:
“One day, I believe we’ll be able to send full rich thoughts to each other directly using technology. You’ll just be able to think of something and your friends will immediately be able to experience it too if you’d like. This would be the ultimate communication technology.”
Yes, it sounds a little “off”, but admit it, facebook already knows your likes and dislikes, wishes and needs, and predicts your probable actions better than most mates you’ve ever had.
So whatever you do, don’t think too loudly. You never know who’s listening – or photographing.
Racing Nellie Bly
Victorian Secrets From Footnotes In History
