A good friend, who was thinking very positively, sent me this video. I looked at it, and concluded that while this fellow seems to believe that he created this device, he really didn't. I realize that there are different views on this.
What do you think? Please put your comments below.
I have two reactions, one visceral and one more reasoned. My gut reaction is that it doesn't matter whether he "created" it or not. Brock uses the word "designed," but I don't think it matters whether or not he did that, either. Terms like "created" (by a particular creator), "designed" (by a singular designer), or "invented" (by a specific inventor), are useful mostly as gate-keeping devices, to separate the sheep from the goats, or to pass some kind of (not-very-useful) judgement on the validity of someone-else's efforts.
ReplyDeleteMy more reasoned reaction is that much depends on what is meant by "create." If all was "without form and void" and Zion Brock said, "Let there be an object in the shape of an old AM radio that uses an MP3 module, audio amp, and speaker, and that easily plays old radio programs for a cognitively-challenged old man" and then there *was* such an object, then, sure, I'd say it was an act of creation. It didn't exist before, now it does. It exists now because he made it exist. He created it.
I'd also say that deciding the shape and styling of the device was an act of design, formalized in CAD software for 3D printing. That it was inspired by existing ("retro") forms doesn't mean it wasn't a "design" and that Brock was its designer. *All* designs, of any kind, are inspired by existing forms.
So if Brock was both creator and designer, does that mean he's also an "inventor." Here the case is thinner. There's been lots of MP3 players built in the form of a radio, so many in fact there'd be no way of finding out who "invented" it. This particular radio-shaped player, though, was designed and created for a special application and uses a single button to step through pre-loaded radio shows. It doesn't have the usual user interface that would allow selecting the program, displaying its title, or changing ("shuffling") the order of them. Perhaps it could be said he invented the player for that narrow purpose.
But now my gut takes over again. The whole point of Brock's presentation is that "his" radio-player has become a crowd-sourced *project* that's taken on a life of its own. My gut says: yeah, that's what all creation, designing, and inventing *is*. Everything is crowd sourced, whether the creator, designer, or inventor admits it or not. All an individual ever does is act as a channel and a nexus for the work of millennia of other people.
For convenience and for certain practical considerations, we credit specific individuals with creation or invention. We might give them a prize, put them in a hall of fame, or grant them a patent for a (very) limited time, but let us not be fooled by any of that. If Edison (and his staff) hadn't invented the electric incandescent light, someone else would have. In fact, several others were working simultaneously on the same idea. Likewise for Armstrong and FM modulation, Farnsworth for raster-scanning television, or Shockley for the bipolar transistor. As a legal maxim, "first in time makes first in right" is a practical expedient only. It has no basis in morals or ethics. Justice is a balancing act, not a horse race.
Sorry Todd, I disagree. I took a look at the video again, and this fellow and his supporters drone on a lot about his "making" this "vintage radio project" the "magic of integrating the electronics." This guy is mostly a 3D printer and a music producer. That is fine. But I don't think -- by our standards -- he is a radio builder. Helge, LA6NCA IS a radio builder. Pete Juliano N6QW is a radio builder. As a kid, Jean Shepherd K2ORS was a radio builder. We have lots of real radio builders among the listeners of the SolderSmoke blog. 3D printing a retro looking case and putting a couple of boards in it just doesn't make you a radio builder. It comes down to the phrase "by our standards." I think his work is a good example of a project that -- at first -- looks like a radio build, but on closer examination, is not. This is sort of like the discussion about what constitutes "homebrew." Would 3D printing a nice box, then putting a commercial SDR board inside it make that project "homebrew"? Is that something that we should celebrate here? No. 73 Bill N2CQR
DeleteWell, no, of course it's not a radio build. Neither Brock nor I claimed it was any such thing. It's an MP3 player shaped to look like a radio for nostalgic effect. I thought that was clear from the beginning.
ReplyDeleteI didn't take your question, "did he really create this *device*" (emphasis added) to mean "radio." I thought you were posing a mostly-philosophical question on the nature of making and creating things as an essentially-communal act rather than an individual one.
I agree Brock's creation isn't something that is typically celebrated at Soldersmoke, and I'd never suggest it should be. But then that begs the question of why it's here in the first place.