Polaroid In The News....(UK)

[Tom Kershaw]

Martin,

How was a Polaroid 8mm system supposed to work?

Tom

[Martin Reed]

It was pretty much the same as the later 35mm Polaroid film system, so something was salvaged from it, an additive lenticular set-up, sort of modern day Autochrome. Chapter & verse here;

http://wapedia.mobi/en/Polavision

[Q.G.]

Land's approach to research embodied the same enthusiasm and motivation but taken to a new level, large teams of supremely skilled individuals, but still the genius at the core.

Had to look for it. Found it now: Land's view on science as a group effort.

"There is something warm and appealing and cozy about this picture of the human race marching forward, locked arm in arm and mind to mind; and there are insecure ages in life and insecure people in life to whom this vision of progress by phalanx brings comfort and strength. But i, for one, think this is nonsense socially and nonsense scientifically.
I think human beings in the mass are fun at square dances, exciting to be with in a theatre audience, and thrilling to cheer with at the California-Stanford or Harvard-Yale games. At the same time, i think, whether outside science or within science, there is no such thing as group originality or group creativity or group perspicacity.

I do believe wholeheartedly in the individual capacity for greatness, in one way or another, in almost any healthy human being under the right circumstances; but being part of a group is, in my opinion, generally the wrong circumstance. Profundity and originality are attributes of single, if not singular, minds.
Two minds may sometimes be better than one, provided that each of the two minds is working separately while the two are working together. Yet three tend to become a crowd."
Edwin H. Land addressing the Boston Patent Law Association in 1959.

Very much "the genius at the core" then.

[Martin Reed]

Sounds like a recommendation for frontal lobotomy though, doesn't it? :-)

ALL people who get to that position must think like that - Stanley Kubrick always put his collaborators in the position of friend/confidant/employee/serf, used them up & discarded them. As a model it seems to work if the power & ego are all there, but occasionally there might be a revolution.

[Q.G.]

Yet there is someting to it.

People who think out of the box can come up with great things, but don't function when pressed to cooperate with people who do not share that way of thinking.
And function even less when pressed to cooperate with equally original thinkers (a recipe for a small scale war, that).

[Martin Reed]

I think we're talking evolution here - it's necessary to have mavericks, whether or not they're called genius, to bring about change. I know one or two people who fit the maverick mould, they're not particularly pleasant people, but they get results & respect (sometimes grudgingly).

[fotch]

Off topic a bit but Edison never invented anything.

....

Interesting. Do you have proof to back up your statement?

[Q.G.]

Name one thing that Edison is supposed to have invented, do a bit of research, and you'll find someone else who did it before, or for, him.
Guaranteed.