[HN Gopher] The Imaginary Engineer - Karl Hans Janke's Flights o...
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The Imaginary Engineer - Karl Hans Janke's Flights of Fancy
Author : areoform
Score : 17 points
Date : 2025-03-04 18:12 UTC (4 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (www.cabinetmagazine.org)
(TXT) w3m dump (www.cabinetmagazine.org)
| robocat wrote:
| Beautiful examples - reminds me of some art.
|
| It makes me wonder how much of technology is driven by the need
| to look cool.
| Animats wrote:
| Late 1950s concept cars. GM's Firebirds.[1] Turbine powered and
| self driving in 1960!
|
| A few locomotives. The GG-1 is considered one of the best of
| the streamlined designs.[2] The driver visibility is terrible,
| for no good reason. Steam locomotives had a visibility problem
| because the boiler was in the way. This is an electric; the cab
| and driver can be anywhere.
|
| The Juicero Press.
|
| 1960s Olivetti calculators.
|
| All those comic and SF spaceships that had rocket propulsion
| out the back but somehow achieved level flight without wings.
| This guy liked that kind of vehicle. Doesn't work.
|
| The Corliss Triumph steam engine.[1] Obsolete when built. There
| were other more compact steam engines of higher power at the
| same exhibition.
|
| All of steampunk, of course.
|
| [1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z9_sLcgQ9LM
|
| [2]
| https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pennsylvania_Railroad_class_GG...
|
| [3] https://energyhistory.yale.edu/william-dean-howells-
| describe...
| ge96 wrote:
| Damn I can relate, I used to make crazy ass claims backed by
| nothing it was cringe, at least I got out of it/know what reality
| is now. Not saying you should limit your imagination but reality
| is reality (until it's changed).
|
| Unfortunately reality is also money (does your idea actually make
| money)
|
| Edit: I also realize there is a difference in not knowing and
| enthusiasm too, a kid probably doesn't know about the thermo laws
|
| If nothing else art/sci-fi sells
| daveguy wrote:
| You know, sometimes an idea doesn't have to make money. It can
| be a purely academic question, and the answer can produce a
| breakthrough. Requiring everything to make money is how you get
| into artificial minima and maxima. It's detrimental to
| discovery.
|
| It does, however, have to be testable.
| ge96 wrote:
| I'm only fixated on money because I made myself in debt,
| unfortunately that's my primary driver atm.
|
| But me equating money with reality well that's what keeps you
| alive/shelter unless you're self-sustaining somehow like a
| homesteader
|
| edit: the other bit on reality, has to be reproducible
| against science
|
| Personal annecdote too, before I became a developer I had all
| these crazy ideas/high traffic websites to make when I was
| younger. Later on I'm at that point where I can "make
| anything" (CRUD realm) but now I don't have that same blind
| ambition/energy anymore. Reality is like "will it make
| money?" I get joy is a driver too but yeah.
| kurthr wrote:
| It seems like there's a lot of stuff over the last 10-15 years
| that has "created" a lot of "value", but hasn't made much if
| any profit.
|
| Whether we're post-truth or not, the "market it until you make
| it" is real, and the market can remain irrational longer than
| most expect.
|
| He'd have done much better, post 2001.
| ge96 wrote:
| I wonder though, if you look at a drawing of some spaceship,
| I imagine an engineer could readily tell if it was a bunch of
| BS or actually plausible. Still what about Theranos or
| Hyperloop/feasible vs. fraud.
|
| Nothing wrong with imagination sure
| charlie0 wrote:
| Is this where the word "janky" comes from?
| ricardobeat wrote:
| All the links in the article are dead, and not captured by the
| Archive, but I found a gallery of 3435 (!) of his drawings:
|
| https://deutschefotothek.de/ews/ete?action=queryGallery&inde...
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