by Richard T. Stuebi
For a foresightful time, I hadn’t tryed much roughly Dean Kamen. He was last in the news, a lot, in 2001 when he revealed the Segway.
You plausibly recall the Segway. Kamen was quoted in an article in Time upon the Segway’s release that it “will be to the car what the car was to the horse-and-buggy.” No less a force than Kleiner Perkins bought into the hype, working Segway one of its portfolio companies. The Segway scarcely revolutionised transportation, and Kamen faded from view (at least from my view) for quite for a while. But, as late reportage renders, Kamen distinctly gos on to conceive large, and is going increasingly seeable once again.
Kamen’s company DEKA Research and Development is nowadays covered to be working at a car bade the Revolt , a Think car changed to use a hybrid-galvanic vehicle with a Stirling (in lieu of inner combustion) engine that can theoretically be powered by well-nigh anything that cauterises.
Meantime, Kamen is covered to be hosting visitors to North Dumpling Island , an island he possesss off the coast of Connecticut, which he is turning into a showcase of how it’s possible to make a self-sufficient, zero-carbon economy.
Kamen must have enormous self-confidence, to rebound from what for sure must have been painfully discouraging — possibly even demeaning — in the Segway’s failure to accomplish its claims, to nowadays staying his neck out nonetheless over again in such divulged ways.
If we are to create existent progress on our energy and environmental challenges, peculiarly in a world whose economies are in disarray, we will require courage — some might still suppose recklessness — from many bluff thinkers and doers to have the best farseeing odds and unnerving obstacles.
Hence today, I offer up a tip of the hat to Mr. Kamen. I look up to his strength of vision. I don'’t know that I’d necessarily invest my ever-dwindling personal capital in his ventures, but I hope for his sake and for the planet’s that he’s onto something more substantial this time than he was with the Segway seven years ago.
Richard T. Stuebi is the BP Fellow for Energy and Environmental Advancement at The Cleveland Foundation , and is as well the Founder and President of NextWave Energy, Inc.
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