The Tesla Journal - Number 1 - 1981 Page 14

Nikola Tesla: Elements Of A Cosmology Nikola Tesla (1856-1943) was a natural scientist, theoretical physicist, electrotechnician, innovative engineer, and poetic humanist. Undoubtedly, he was a sincere friend of both science and technology. His holistic perspective upon things soared above the mundane toils and troubles of this world in order to embrace fertile ideas and awesome visions for the ongoing progress and enrichment of our species. Tesla founded three major fields: AC electrical power, high frequency and high voltage phenomena, and radiotechnology. He alone created the entire modern polyphase electric power system of alternating-current motors and generators which provoked an essential and profound revolution in the industrial generation, transformation, longdistance transmission, and utilization/distribution of energy into myriad practical uses for enhancing human existence. His original ideas resulted in nearly a thousand patents for the advancement of society and civilization. Curiously, Tesla never took his friend Einstein's theory of relativity, and its far-reaching implications for atomic energy as power, seriously. Nevertheless, he did investigate electromagnetic Iwaves and electric resonance phenomena. As a consequence, he discovered that the earth itself is an eletrical object and subsequently became the first to use an antenna and our planet for the wireless transmission of electrical energy over a great distance. Tesla's overflowingly gifted intellect explored the material substance and natural forces of the cosmos. He selflessly sought to penetrate as deeply as possible into the seemingly inscrutable workings of this universe. His greatest achieveIment was in the area of energy research (this is what makes him singularly relevant, particularly in this modern age with its increasing demands for more power but at the same time growing concerns for the diminishing sources of terrestrial energy). Interestingly, this same problem had also been both intuited and articulated by the natural philosopher Božidar Knežević, one of Tesla's great contemporaries and fellow countrymen. As a humanist, Tesla's researches and discoveries involved global aspirations from a cosmic perspective. He desired to liberate humankind from the enslavement of hard physical labor through the provision of unlimited energies, which would thereby free time and work for artistic and intellectual pursuits. He himself envisioned: robots, radar, rockets, the cyclotron, guided missiles, the wireless transmission of both intelligible signals and power around the earth, and even the use of cosmic resources for tapping new energies. His own massive scientific and technological contributions have made possible the engineering of this planet as well as of other worlds throughout the universe. As a citizen of our planet, Tesla vigorously advocated the establishment of perpetual world peace as well as a deliberately coordinated eradiIcation of ignorance. He even became involved with the possibility of interplanetary radio communication with Mars, a planet which he held to be inhabited by lifeforms including intelligent beings. In fact, the systematic and interdisciplinary quest for life/intelligence through the use of radio astronomy has become a legitimate and serious concern of our modern space program. Some of Tesla's own marvelous discoveries play a crucial role in both the unmanned vehicle exploration of outer space and the radio search for extraterrestrial life/intelligence among other assumed solar systems more or less analogous to our own. Nikola Tesla claimed that it is humanized science which will light the way of the future. He meditated that the sun represents the past, our earth the present, and outer space our future (as symbolized by our earth's natural satellite). Only 26 years after Tesla's death, American astronaught Neil Alden Armstrong became the first Iman to walk on the surface of the moon! As a poetic humanist and scientific mystic, sui generis, Nikola Tesla did not need even to try to reconcile science and theology. A pervasive monist/materialist, he taught that man is merely a complex organic machine whose mental activity is capable of understanding as well as predicting and controlling the basic principles of physical reality: mind's ultimate purpose is to master completely the laws of nature and thereby exploit its energies for the satisfaction of human needs and desires. Nikola Tesla concluded that everything in material reality operates on the cosmic principle of vibrations which correspond to alternatingcurrents that pervade the entire universe. As such, nature is dynamic, for all existence is the incessant series of changing manifestations of various energies. 14