Without the accessibility of their public library, and public workers to guide them, they would have never been able to acquire the required knowledge in aeronautics
Isn't that a bit like saying that every innovation depends upon milk? I guess, technically, every innovation does begin with a baby drinking milk, but it seems like a stretch to attribute the innovation to the milk, rather than to the mind of the individual who may or may not have been fueled by milk?
> it seems like a stretch to attribute the innovation to the milk, rather than to the mind of the individual who may or may not have been fueled by milk?
What ever it been fueled with, knowledge wasn't created at an individual's birth, it's an accumulation of a collective and shared effort
The point i was trying to make in my post is; it always starts from the people, for the people to continue, for the people to achieve a civilizational ascension
If we build the means to generate infinite energy for free, then we'll have to ask ourselves if giving that much power to the individual a safe endeavor, or if we should make sure the prospect is for the collective to ascend
Thanks to this achievement, many will learn from it and acquire knowledge to pursue that goal, would it be the case if it was a solo for profit effort? i doubt it greatly
The open source tech industry thrives because it's a collective and shared effort, funding issue persists but that's due to us, individuals, living civilization's transition, it'll be a solved problem shortly
Do you have any source information for this? As far as I understood, the Wright brothers started out by building hobbyist gliders in consultation with fellow aviation pioneer Octave Chanute.
I checked the Wikipedia entry, but the only reference it maintains for the Smithsonian having helped the Wright brothers is that they apparently gave Wilbur an award in 1910, after having tried unsuccessfully to steal credit from him for building the first heavier than air flyer. Somehow I doubt that's the kind of government contribution to innovation to which the previous poster intended to refer.
Wilbur Wright asked for the Smithsonian's aeronautical research. They still have the letter. The very Wikipedia article you're referencing, in the exact paragraph you're talking about, contains the words "Orville Wright, whose brother had received help from the Smithsonian when beginning his own quest for flight."
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wright_brothers#Smithsonian_fe...
Sure, the Smithsonian people were assholes about it. That doesn't negate their contribution to the Wright brother's work. Incedentally, in modern timesif you visit the Air and Space Museum you can see the exhibit where they own up to the shabby attempt to promote their late leader over the Wrights. They cover the feud pretty thoroughly -- including having both aircraft.
Yeah but the Wrights were following research from all over the world, including England and Germany. You might as well say that the Wrights were also funded by the British government.
The Wrights didn't start from a government-funded initiative. Using govt resources, like public roads or receiving public schooling as a child doesn't make every subsequent output a "government initiative." This is semantics at this point though. You've made up your mind, and so have I, and you're obviously sitting on this thread to rapid fire rebut on this Tuesday night. Here you go, have the last reply:
I didn't say anything about roads or school. The Smithsonian actively executed aviation research by physically building and flying powered aircraft. These experiences were among the information sent to the Wrights. The Wrights' work was directly informed by government experimentation at the Smithsonian. I don't understand how better to communicate this, and I don't understand why you got weirdly personal about it. I hope things get better for you.
