Lessons from History
In the World of Edison, Zuckerberg and Google, Be Tesla, Winklevoss and Terravision
A brief history of three of the greatest feuds of all time.
Recently, Netflix released a new series “” which very elegantly and accurately shows the real face of a tech giant that, ironically has “Don’t be evil” as its motto. The series portrays one of the greatest feuds of all time which went unnoticed because — yes, you guessed it right — because that’s how these Big tech Giants want it to be.
It, however, raises the same old questions, which philosophers are trying to answer for centuries. Do bad things happen with the Good guys in our world? Do one have to be evil and conniving to make a mark in this world? And most important of all — Will there be a judgement day for the evil — when they have to pay for what they did?
Let’s turn to history and look at three of the most infamous feuds of all time before drawing any conclusion:
1. Tesla vs Edison
Edison invented the light bulb. At least, this is what has been taught so far. But in reality, he neither invented nor held the first patent for the light bulb. The electric bulb was patented a year before Edison filed for patent by a British inventor, ‘Joseph Swan’. Edison even lost the patent infringement suit which was filed by Swan against him. As a result, he was forced to make Swan a partner in his electric company.
The invention is a very complex social process where one builds upon the works of others. That’s what Edison did. Without the foundational works of Joseph Swan, William sawyer, Ebenezer Kinnersley, Warren De la Rue and James Bowman Lindsay, Edison would not have perfected the bulb as we see today. Edison, however, was a publicity hog and he publicised himself so that he can get the credit for the invention of the bulb.
Edison — on the account of his stealing the ideas — doesn’t seem to be a man of morals. And he was not. He did everything to stop Tesla from advancing. He condemned his futuristic views at every moment.
It is said that he hired Tesla and asked him to solve the problem in his DC generators which used to break down very often for a reward of $50,000. Tesla — being a genius — did exactly what he asked for and fixed all the problems and came back to Edison to claim his reward. Edison allegedly told him and I quote, “You don’t seem to understand the American humour system. That reward was a joke.”
Tesla quit the job immediately. He believed that Edison’s DC power system had many flaws — it travelled in the same direction, at constant voltage and would fade out completely in a mile — which Edison never seemed to accept.
Tesla’s AC current had no such limitations. When Tesla won over Edison the contract to wire and light up the world first fare, Edison became furious and launched one of the most brutal smear campaigns in the world against Tesla’s AC current.
Edison has already lost but he did everything to get back at Tesla. He published pamphlets that warned about the dangers of AC power. His associates electrocuted horses, dogs and even an elephant on the streets of New York to prove his point that AC was dangerous and make Tesla’s idea look even more far fetched.
He did succeed at the time but he couldn’t stop Tesla’s brilliance and his futuristic technology from lightening up America then and the whole world later on.
2. Winklevoss Vs Zuckerberg
Winklevoss brothers hired Zuckerberg to code their social network “ConnectU” after their lead coder left them before completing the work to join google. Zuckerberg agreed but soon went behind their back to a friend named Saverin who agreed to invest in his own social network
A few weeks later, again behind the Winklevoss twins’ backs, Zuckerberg launched TheFacebook.com, and the rest is history. Eventually, he kicked Saverin out too, resulting in a lawsuit, and a confidential settlement.
Winklevoss also sued Zuckerberg for stealing their idea. Zuckerberg knew what he had done (his IM chats with a friend revealed he said he is going to fuck them(twins) over) so he agreed to settle with them but harped on meeting only one brother because he was convinced that they would beat him up.
He met with Cameron Winklevoss in a glass-walled office surrounded by lawyers where he agreed to pay $65 million. The twins — against the advice of their lawyers — made a decision to take only $20 million and the rest as stock options. They both — like their lawyers — didn’t know at that time that Facebook would become such a huge company and their decision to opt for the stock options will turn out to be the better one.
When they bought stock, they weren’t after the money. They wanted to be a part of something which was their idea in the first place. However, they settled the feud and it never became the sensational story as it should have. And we weren’t able to see the evil face of Facebook any sooner.
3. TerraVision Vs Google Earth
TerraVision was a space-imaging company founder by Joachim Sauter and Axel Schmidt in the 1990s. It worked the same way Google Earth do today but they developed the technology that worked a decade before google showcased Google Earth.
These two friends had dreamt of a world in which Terravision would be used to create a democratic platform where information is free and available to all. Unlike Google, they didn’t want to make any money out of it.
The series shows how the chief programmer behind google earth met these two German brilliants, talked them into sharing all the tech details( about algorithms and problems which nobody had figured out until then) by letting them believe that google would collaborate and/or buy their company for 3–5 million dollars(which was a huge amount back then) and then, stole their idea to create EarthViewer — which was bought by Google and re-branded as Google Earth.
The most amazing part about the series is that it shows how tech giants like Google workaround patents and if they get in trouble, they use their big teams of Lawyers to get their way out of it. It isn’t hard to imagine how they treat thousands of small companies by either buying them or tricking them into selling their patented ideas for pennies.
The programmer who stole the idea from these two naïve but brilliant Germans allegedly perjured himself on the stand by saying that he didn’t think Google stole the idea from Terravision. However, the series lucidly shows how google stole word for word of their algorithms and other concepts.
The two brilliants from Germany lost the case. Still, the series gives us a glimpse of a perfect world where evil would accept his wrongdoings. It shows how tech giants work in the face of a loss and even agrees to give three times the damages initially demanded as long as they sign the non-disclosure agreement.
This shows why lying was the only way out for Google in this case. Had these two won the case, the ones who envisioned a better world would not have bowed before the huge money Google would have given them to keep their story a dark secret — as Facebook did in the case of the Winklevoss brothers.
They cared about the world, and more importantly, they cared about the small companies who dream big but are more often than not crushed by these big tech giants. They would have made their winning public, thus making their case the first precedent for the world looking for some justice.
Takeaway:
But that’s all an idyllic dream. Ain't it? We don't live in a perfect world. Evil does not accept what he is. Culprits often get out scotfree and history does not always remember and celebrate the good person.
The world is evil and you won’t get justice either. And history shows it has been always like this and it will be always like this. No justice. No equality. You may even see bad guys winning and having the time of their life while the good guys struggle to make ends meet.
Despite all these, we have earned one thing and that’s the most precious in face of all the above. Our freedom. Freedom to say the truth. Freedom to tell our story. And not for the sake of winning or getting justice or anything. But because someone — like you and me — will hear the story which spread only because we value freedom more than winning. It is this freedom that helps us tell and learn how the world really is.
There is a reason why I wrote the names of Tesla, Winklevoss and TerraVision first. I don’t know how history will remember all of them, but I’ll do my part of correcting it for the future generation by writing first the names of the ones who deserve credit for coming up with world-changing ideas before anyone else.
I don’t care if the newspaper didn’t print “Google is evil" or “ Fuck you, Zuckerberg". What I care more about is that every single person reading this knows in their heart and has the freedom to say it out loud, 'Fuck you, Google’. ‘Fuck you, Zuckerberg’, ‘Fuck you, Edison’.
“Nobody remembers you for the Good you did. That’s okay. But make sure , no one remembers you for the evil you did”
History may not remember them as they deserved to be. The world may not celebrate them as they should be. Everyone will not know what they did for us.
But, it Doesn’t matter. I will know. And now you know too. And that’s enough for the start.
