Dean Kamen has a track record that is typical of any serial inventor, some hits, lots of misses. He sometimes is way ahead of the curve and manages to get it right, most of the times it goes nowhere.<p>Still, he's better off than most of us and he's living proof that inventors don't need to die penniless.<p>Whatever he's saying, there is always some little gem in there that you probably hadn't thought of. The world is a -much- better place with him in it, an interesting and productive person and with a reasonably nice personality.<p>Truely an original and inspiring figure for anybody that likes to invent things or that dreams of improving the world.<p>Here is a picture of his house by the way, I've never seen anything quite like it:<p><a href="http://farm1.static.flickr.com/55/119467546_72bf35b18c.jpg?v=0" rel="nofollow">http://farm1.static.flickr.com/55/119467546_72bf35b18c.jpg?v...</a>
I made a lot of DK jokes after the Segway came out - I thought it was a solution in search of a problem, and its high price made it an expensive toy more than anything else. But I was impressed with his water purification machine last year, and I share his frustration* with much of our technological effort and spend going towards frivolous things.<p>* while recognizing that some of this stems from not being able to make even more money :)<p>Article ended just when it was starting to get interesting though.
I think Kamen is wrong for dismissing a video game (or any kind of software project) as frivolity. I'm not sure that giving a water purifier to a starving village is necessarily "better" than a video game that provides millions of people with a few hours of entertainment every day. I tend to be wary of people who rush to grab the moral high ground.<p>I think it's noble that he choose to dedicate his genius to helping people, but there's no need to belittle the work of others.
Is it me or is he basically saying: no one wants to spend the money to buy my products?<p>He talks about global changes and stuff, but he prices his things too high. I really wanted, and could have used, a segway - but I took one look at the price and just laughed.<p>I don't know how much the slingshot costs, but I bet he wants tons of money for it.<p>He is great at making stuff. He's great at selling (as in convincing) people. He's terrible at selling (as in moving product).<p>He needs someone to act as a reality check, AKA market research person.
<i>"More than ever, the world needs good engineers. However, the pool of talent is shrinking not growing."</i><p><i>That's not all. According to Kamen: "Today's children are the first generation in which it is highly probable that their average quality of life, and education level, will be less than it was for their parents."</i><p>Are both of these statements really true worldwide? (I can see how they might be true in the United States, although I think the latter is too pessimistic even then)
<i>In order to put them in volume production, you need a well-defined market and a distribution strategy</i><p>Dean's frustrations with the realpolitik of the world are somewhat surprising.<p>A man of his intellect should have understood a long time ago that broken states are not going to be fixed by technology. But I suppose he's also a great idealist and that would color his view of the world.<p>The bottom line is no matter how great your technology for clean water or dung powered engines is, it can't fix a broken state run by thugs and criminals.<p>Truly fixing the world is much harder then building sterling engines. But it is possible. The proper reaction is not to get frustrated but to change strategies.<p>Dean is smart and while he may not be as experienced with 3rd world politics as he is with technology, his wealth and intellect could make a GREAT difference IF he truly looked at realpolitiks as an engineering challenge, rather then get frustrated and discouraged by it.
I respect Dean Kamen's intelligence and creativity, but it appears to me he is trying to solve problems that may not exist. His frustration stems for this idea that he needs to create a "sustainable" world. What if he is wrong? What if the world is "sustainable" without his inventions? I agree with his premise that there is too little long term planning, but long term vision is more educated guessing than science. Look back in history and see how wrong many of the predictions have been, especially ones of doom and gloom. <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Population_Bomb" rel="nofollow">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Population_Bomb</a> While things are far from perfect and could be improved, the sky isn't likely to fall.
"In order to put them in volume production, you need a well-defined market and a distribution strategy. The problem is that most of our commercial partners - even the giants - do not do a lot of business in the underdeveloped parts of the world. This is not a shortage of technology. It's a shortage of courage, vision, awareness: a lot of human things."<p>Social and business processes are a technology in need of inventing too. The creativity behind Grameen Bank, Kiva, DonorsChoose, etc is just as important as the tech behind his Slingshot and motor.<p>I love Kamen but right now he sounds like a whiny engineer wondering why the world isn't beating a path to his door. The job isn't over once the technology exists.