Leonardo

comet

Great program on BBC on Sunday nights about Leonardo de Vinci and his incredible all round genius, he left few topics untouched. So I'm wondering if he was around today what discoveries would he be making? Also on another point is it true to say that because of the vast amount of knowledge we have now is it harder for geniuses to make great discoveries these days. Can a single person make as much of an impact on the world anymore?

thedrowner

yeah but with all the new diseases, and discovering how the old ones work i'm sure there'll be plenty of people making names for themselves when they discover the cures

GuanYin

If he was around today he'd probably have been snapped up by industry where he would have his soul destroyed by the endless red-tape and heartless mercenaries.

Seriously though, there are some true geniuses out there, but in science all the greatest minds tend to get swiped by corporate sponsors where they get huge amounts of money to spend as they want, but may have their publishing delayed so the companies can patent any commercial products.

Basically what I'm trying to say is, there are as many, if not more minds in science, but its a different age we live in....

bonkey

Originally posted by comet
So I'm wondering if he was around today what discoveries would he be making?

Its an interesting concept.

First of all, though, consider this....did Leonardo really discover that much?

Let me explain....he drew his concepts for many things which came to pass - the helicopter, the plane, the tank, and so on.....but he rarely if ever built them and made them work.

Were he around to day, would he actually invent anything? Or would he simply be theorising about what will be invented in later years. If so, would those theories be held in esteem, or just laughed at until someone actually did it. The tendency of society tends towards the latter, methinks.

Had Leonardo set about to really build a flying machine, I have little doubt that he would have managed it. I also have little doubt that it would have taken so much of his life that we wouldnt have seen the same proliferacy of output.

So....I dunno.....maybe he'd best appear in a modern incarnation as something akin to a science-fiction author

Look at someone like Mr. Asimov for a modern day visionary who has "invented" such a massive amount of stuff through his writing...much of which has come to pass, or can at least be seen to be possible when technology advances to a sufficient level.

jc

Gordon

Many geniuses are laughed and ridiculed for their beliefs. Who knows, maybe David Icke will be such a genius!

sceptre

Originally posted by Gordon
Who knows, maybe David Icke will be such a genius!

I remember the ep of Wogan where he came out as the Son of God.

Adding little to the discussion but these days it would be very hard for a Leonardo to spend time on so many fields, due to everyone specialising in particular areas (partly due to the amount of knowledge we do have but also to do with neo-classical economics kicking in with regard to productivity, leading to specialisation). Interesting that bonkey mentioned Asimov - sci fi writers are one of the few professions where thinking and speculating on what will affect all parts of society in the future is a must (and they've the time to do it). Of course, that's the reason he mentioned Asimov but it's still interesting:D.

comet

Yeah, I suppose the thing was most of leonardos ideas were put down on paper, this worked fine for paintings but was not very good for flying machines etc. I suppose he couldn't get sponsors to finance the realisation of his ideas. Sad thing was his wealth of knowledge was lost in time really, written in code on scraps of paper. In some ways Asimov and Arthur C. Clarke etc. ideas get to be much more powerful because they reach an audience of millions and inspire someone to maybe go and implement them.

GuanYin

Well there are an awful lot of thinkers out there who put up the ideas and come up with intellectual property behind the scenes.

Generally they have postgrads and postdocs doing the practical work.

Were he alive today, my bet is, Leonardo would be one of these....

sceptre

Originally posted by comet
not very good for flying machines etc. I suppose he couldn't get sponsors to finance the realisation of his ideas.

I have to admit I don't know a great deal about Leonardo's life. I would have thought though, that an army with flying machines that could be used to drop rocks on the enemy would have been the kind of thing the deMedicis would have jumped at.