Tesla and Edison are one of energy history’s great duos.
Both have granted their names and legacies to companies and entire fields of study, employment and business. But unlike some more distant figures of the past, people are still arguing about which was more important and which more inventive.
At a time when innovation is the biggest industry buzzword and technology is at the core of promises for a better economic future, the legacies of Tesla and Edison have never been more important or more current.
When Forbes magazine can run an article declaring that Nikola Tesla wasn’t god and Thomas Edison wasn’t the devil, you know that the debate over each man’s legacy is far from over. Both men presided over one of the most sweeping changes in mankind’s recorded history – the advent of electric lighting – and lived to see their work implemented on a global scale, turning our planet from one that used to go dark at night to one that glitters from space and lets us live in unprecedented ways.
The Department of Energy has asked some of the liveliest minds to debate the subject of Tesla versus Edison, and I’ll be moderating a Google Plus hangout hosted by DOE this week.
Our speakers will include Deputy Director of the Energy Department’s Advanced Manufacturing Office Dr Rob Ivester and Commercial Building Engineer Dr Stephen Frank from the National Renewable Energy Laboratory. They’ll be joined by University of Virginia professor of science, technology and society Dr. Bernie Carlson, who is the author of Tesla: Inventor of the Electrical Age.
The Energy Department is looking for your questions during this hangout, which is scheduled for 12:30 PM EST on Thursday, November 21, 2013. Visit their Google plus page here to find out more, and tweet @ENERGY or @BreakingEnergy or @petergardett using the hashtag #EdisonvsTesla to get your questions and comments included in the discussion.
It is possible we may never fully settle the issue of Edison versus Telsa, but talking through their contributions can help us understand the world we live in today and hopefully give us foresight into the coming future of energy. Among the questions about the two that resonate today are whether Edison was truly a great inventor, or a great CEO instead; what would surprise them about today’s technology; and who are the Edisons and Teslas of today and what can we do to guarantee their innovations and inventions get the credit and distribution they deserve?
