# Did Tesla predict the smartphone? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [March 28, 2015, 5:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-tesla-predict-the-smartphone/716220 "2015-03-28T17:33:44Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Amateur\_Barbarian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/59ef9b/32.png) [@Amateur\_Barbarian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Amateur_Barbarian)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2015, 5:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-tesla-predict-the-smartphone/716220/21 "2015-04-06T17:24:27Z")
My favorite bit about Tesla is that all the biographers include the wak-ee story about him compulsively computing the cubic volume of the food he ate, particularly in later years. What they omit, and I read in an unsympathetic contemporary account, is that he also calculated the cubic volume of his, um, output. ---
**Author:** ![sweat209](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9fc348/32.png) [@sweat209](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sweat209)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2015, 6:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-tesla-predict-the-smartphone/716220/22 "2015-04-06T18:31:28Z")
> [@Exapno\_Mapcase](#): > > That’s why I say that 1901 is a dividing line. All of Tesla’s Big Ideas were nuts. I’m not technical enough to know whether the minor patents he filed were. I don’t think so. There’s some nuts and bolts stuff in there that could be just fine. > > Reporters loved both Edison and Tesla because both were willing to make the most gigantic sweeping statements that were great for headlines Edison was completely capable of taking both sides of any argument and stretching each to an extreme - he would never use an invention to hurt people, but when he invented a weapon it would be so terrible it would end war. Tesla talked about Martians and death rays. > > Edison was less than a decade older, but he too didn’t do much great stuff in the 20th century besides running his mouth. They weren’t all that far apart in the end. And both would have hated my saying that. He had good idea but a problem with why we don’t have death rays guns used in wars is they would need power cable hooked up to big power source. So it is major power source problems why death rays guns and laser guns. And batteries cannot hold that much electricity. ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2015, 6:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-tesla-predict-the-smartphone/716220/23 "2015-04-06T18:40:50Z")
> [@sweat209](#): > > He had good idea but a problem with why we don’t have death rays guns used in wars is they would need power cable hooked up to big power source. So it is major power source problems why death rays guns and laser guns. And batteries cannot hold that much electricity. He didn’t have a good idea. Everybody from the time of Wells onward thought about death rays and variants, and dozens of people talked about them before Tesla. Edison himself talked a great deal about electric weapons. They don’t work because they can’t work. Tesla’s in particular didn’t work because his power source was imaginary. There’s nothing there that can be called good. Stop thinking about them. Believe in fairies and elves instead. You’ll get farther. ---
**Author:** ![Son\_of\_a\_Rich](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/son_of_a_rich/32/5439_2.png) [@Son\_of\_a\_Rich](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Son_of_a_Rich)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2015, 6:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-tesla-predict-the-smartphone/716220/24 "2015-04-06T18:42:13Z")
> [@Exapno\_Mapcase](#): > > Edison was completely capable of taking both sides of any argument and stretching each to an extreme - he would never use an invention to hurt people, He was at least complicit in the implementation of the electric chair. ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2015, 7:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-tesla-predict-the-smartphone/716220/25 "2015-04-06T19:36:14Z")
And he enthusiastically worked with the government to develop weapons in WWI. That’s why I said he talked out of both sides of his mouth. ---
**Author:** ![Amateur\_Barbarian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/59ef9b/32.png) [@Amateur\_Barbarian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Amateur_Barbarian)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2015, 8:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-tesla-predict-the-smartphone/716220/26 "2015-04-06T20:00:36Z")
> [@Exapno\_Mapcase](#): > > And he enthusiastically worked with the government to develop weapons in WWI. That’s why I said he talked out of both sides of his mouth. The problem with Edison being that _his_ fanbase turned him into a virtual saint who had fully developed inventions leap from his brow. ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2015, 12:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-tesla-predict-the-smartphone/716220/27 "2015-04-07T00:09:33Z")
> [@Amateur\_Barbarian](#): > > The problem with Edison being that _his_ fanbase turned him into a virtual saint who had fully developed inventions leap from his brow. Gerrett Serviss’ _Edison’s Conquest of Mars_ goes way beyond mere sainthood. A follow-up to Wells’ _The War of the Worlds_, Serviss has Edison single-handedly inventing a ton of superweapons to wipe out the Martians and make the universe safe for American imperialism. This was 1898. Cuba didn’t stand a chance. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-tesla-predict-the-smartphone/716220.md?page=1)