More anniversaries

Speaking of anniversaries, this year is the centennial of the transistor. In 1925 Julius Lilienfeld patented the field-effect transistor. It looks the same as the much later (circa 1968) FET, and his suggested manufacturing technique is also remarkably similar to the later technique.

Wikipedia gives Lilienfeld a slight mention in its article about Big Science Events of 1925. Most of the attention goes to the Quantum hoaxers, who first pioneered their quackery in ’25.

The conjunction is important because most tech books use the Bell junction transistor in 1947 as the ultimate proof that Quantum Quackery is the only way of explaining the universe. Raw nonsense. The transistor gradually evolved from a long-standing notion of pinching off current in a conductor, first suggested in the 1840s. Experimenters and radio hams in the 20s were setting up circuits similar to the junction transistor, which didn’t work well because MATERIALS and METHODS weren’t ready to put the whole thing together. Lilienfeld made the FET happen, at least experimentally, because he understood MATERIALS. The Bell team made a cruder version work because they had better MATERIALS and METHODS available. Finally the Lilienfeld idea was practical after further developments in MATERIALS and METHODS.

Lilienfeld couldn’t have based his device on Quantum ideas because the Quantum Hoax was first imagined elsewhere at the same time. It wasn’t yet the Only True Gospel Of Science.

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Later thought. When hoaxes and swindles take over a field, real innovation declines because the hoaxes are absorbing all available money and academic energy and business effort. Since quantum became the Only True Gospel of Physics, research based on waves and fields as the main explanation can’t get grants or publications. Since Share Value became the Only True Gospel of Economics, alternate ideas like Mutual Benefit Societies or old-fashioned products for profit are starved for capital and attention. Since “rights” became the Only True Gospel of Politics, other paths favoring Natural Law are unthinkable.

Swindles steal everything in their vicinity, not just the money of their specific victims.