Edison vs. Tesla by Martin Joel

Author:Martin,Joel
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Skyhorse Publishing
Published: 2017-08-17T19:33:53+00:00

Chapter 12

Edison, Tesla, Robots, and Artificial Intelligence

Both Edison and Tesla had arti­culated exotic and unconventional theories about artificial intelligence. Edison’s belief (shared with Tesla) that everything was alive helped form the basis of his theories for the development of the spirit phone. Edison wrote extensively about what he termed “life units,” primary elements of life, particles of electrical energy, which were the basis of all existence. Even things that seemed inorganic, such as rocks, were infused with life units that gave them substance. In this regard, Edison quite presciently foresaw the modern theories of Gaia, the living Earth. Edison was giving a technological explanation to what primitive people said was living nature, a world motivated by deities that were responsible for how things came into being. This may seem strange for a man who was imbued with devout Methodist beliefs, but Edison was remarkable in that he had the ability to assimilate different strands of thought and belief, faith and science, into an aggregate vision of working reality. This was how he managed to combine scientific theory and spiritualism into a design and process for his spirit phone.

Edison’s theories of intelligence abstracted from human form diverged from traditional theories of existence in the way life units organized themselves. Edison believed that if these electrically charged units existed after the death of the body, they would be attracted to each other—a precursor to Einstein’s theories of quantum entanglement and spooky action at a distance—in such a way as to operate with a form of abstract intelligence. This intelligence, Edison believed, could be identified and pinged by a device that registered these floating but cohesive life units.

Modern Quantum Theory and Edison’s Theories of Consciousness

It has taken almost one hundred years, but theoretical physicist Sir Roger Penrose, basing his argument in part on near-death experiences, has argued that the microtubules in human cells can exist after the death of the body as quantum information. They exist as separate, but cohesive, units apart from the body, entangled with each other according to Einstein’s theory of spooky attraction at a distance. Just as Edison predicted, Penrose argues that the cohesive quantum units remain entangled, providing a form of consciousness.53 They can even return to the body cells if the body itself comes back to life. This, he argues, is his proof of existence at a quantum conscious level after the body’s death. In this theory, Penrose is supported by physicists at the Max Planck Institute for Physics in Munich.

Tesla’s Theories

Tesla went a step further than Edison. Like Edison, he believed that all existence, organic and inorganic, is imbued with life. He based his theory on what he stated as a fact that everything we see around us is capable of responding to irritant stimuli. According to Tesla, as quoted in the New York American on February 7, 1915, “Even matter called inorganic, believed to be dead, responds to irritants and gives unmistakable evidence of a living principle within. Everything that exists, organic or inorganic, animated or inert, is susceptible to stimulus from the outside.

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