Monday, April 12, 2010

Leonardo and Big Think


Manuscript B, folio 83 v.
Aerial screw (1483 and 1486) (
http://www.museoscienza.org/english/Leonardo/vite.asp)


There are times when we are nowhere. (Sam to Leo in West Wing)

We spin our wheels looking for a way towards or away from something, from someone, from someplace. And yet we remain in place. There are other times when links, connections and Ureka moments leave us feeling that there is order in the world.
One of Leonardo DaVinci’s best known invention tells us that time is not linear. It is unlikely that the machine could have lifted of the ground but the idea remained all due to this small drawing. But be assured, from that point on it existed.

The Aerial Screw by many is accepted as being the ancestor of the helicopter. “The only drawing accompanying Leonardo's note is the sketch of an aerial screw with a diameter of 5 meters, made of reed, linen cloth and wire, operated presumably by four men who might have stood on the central platform and exerted pressure on the bars in front of them with their hands, so as to make the shaft turn”.

What we leave behind is as important as what we do today. Sharing those big dreams, small ideas and generally keeping people in the know may lead to great discovery, stronger communications, even enlightenment. Maybe not, but we can and do affect the way in which people see the world around them by our own interactions with them,

Be the teller,


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