Nikola Tesla, the grates inventor ever liven.
But the forgotten inventor.
Nikola Tesla

Opinions

Yes, he was the inventor of the AC Electric system.
I think he killed an elephant with that to show the power.

Another great inventor, lagely forgotten was Charles Babbage,
who almost finished a working computer in 1837.
If he would have succeded, we would have had programmable computers 100 years earlier.

He didn't killed it to show the power, he used the AC system to show that it can kill and to show that his co-current flow is better.

It wasn't Nikola Tesla who electrocuted an elephant, it was Thomas Edison. He wanted to discredit Tesla's AC system by showing it was more dangerous than his DC system as well as to promote his system. Apparently he instructed his technitians to kill quite a few animals with AC systems.

Thomas Edison isn't a great inventor. He was a cruel, plagrising **** who stole Nikola Tesla's fame.

This competition was called the 'War of Currents'.

Its actually a funny way to discredit a competitor.

Imagine Nokia making a commercial where someone cant
call the Ambulance because he holds his iPhone4 in a
wrong way.

Nokia didn't made something like this yet, but Verizon made a similar campaign called "there is a map for that"

Well I wouldn't call him the "forgotten" inventor as he did get some credit for lots of things. It's true though that some of his inventions were more or less "stolen" with him actually being the first one to invent them...

There also are some rumors about some of his inventions where we don't really have lots of details on. It ranges from "free energy devices" (but I don't know if there actually exist hints on actual designs or if it's just about some ideas of his) to things not really understood because of a lack of details (which he didn't give because he feared it would be stolen again). I for example remember that he had a design for something which pretty much were some foils or anything like that put on the top of a pole and he claimed to be able to get electrical power by putting that pole at quite a height and if I remember correctly it was about light or radiation his device could convert. But as said it was like the request for a patent where he left out any details so no one would steal the idea...

He definitely was a great inventor but also one of the poor guys of history who got used by others and didn't get the credit they deserved. I think to this day even school books didn't change the actual inventor to his favor although we now know that he was first with certain things...

i like david bowie as nikola tesla in the movie "the prestige".

there also is a game by warren spector which features nikola tesla as a character:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ultima:_Worlds_of_Adventure_2:_Martian_Dreams
i found it very fascinating as a child but didn't come very far. probably i was too young. maybe i should try to play it again.

We could have now the "free energie".
But you can`t make any "or alot" money with it.
Thats wy Nikola Tesla died alone and poor.
Thay even destroyed his generators that he build.
and ofcource;

It's true though that some of his inventions were more or less "stolen" with him actually being the first one to invent them...

Would money not rule the world, we all could live in a paradise.
Thats the hole and sad truth.

I realy hope the worl chances fast, before everything goes realy bad...

this is a (flat) argument i hear often.

Seriously:
Without a money driven economy, we would not live in paradise at all.
If there where no money, it would be a sign of an undeveloped society.
we would live in Anarchie and Despotism.

Money does not shape a society, But a well developed society
will invent money as a transaction tool.

We simply dont live in a world of 30 people living in isolation and sharing their
villages property. But in a world of 6 billion.
Money is a necessity.

--

Its different when you say: given our money driven economy, how
can we invent rules, taxation and exchange systems to
keep fair to all participant.