A genius just died - why wasn't he famous?

[VK3DRB]

http://www.theage.com.au/digital-life/games/ralph-baer-the-man-you-never-heard-of-who-changed-technology-forever-20141212-125kd9.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ralph_H._Baer

This world sometimes is quite fickle. Ralph was a genius but few people have heard of him. artists like Justin Beiber, Kim Kardashian and that birdbrain Hilton are far more famous and wealthy than brilliant inventors like Ralph Baer. I would hope people like Ralph are long remembered when the artists are long forgotten.

Electronics engineers and technicians as a group should be heralded as the greatest contributors to the betterment of mankind in the last 2,000 years, alongside medical researchers. Instead they are barely recognised. In Australia, the average drongo has no clue what an electronics engineer is.

[justanothercanuck]

A lot of people consider Baer to be the "father of video games", although the Magnavox Oddysey was pretty crappy.  Nolan Bushnell and Atari better fit the title, in my opinion.

[dannyf]

Electronics engineers and technicians as a group should be heralded as the greatest contributors to the betterment of mankind in the last 2,000 years,

Ahead of those who ignited the agriculture and industrial revolution? probably not.

As to the Baer guy, does he want to be famous? should he be famous? is his contribution to society that significant? None established in my view.

[EEVblog]

Electronics engineers and technicians as a group should be heralded as the greatest contributors to the betterment of mankind in the last 2,000 years, alongside medical researchers. Instead they are barely recognised. In Australia, the average drongo has no clue what an electronics engineer is.

Take a number.
Replace the words "electronic engineer" with almost any other field and there will be a bunch of people crying for exactly the same thing. And they would have very good arguments for being heralded above engineers.
I'm with you of course, but there are countless people in many fields who deserve public recognition.
I wish for the return of the age where theoretical physicsts and scientists where heralded as the most famous people in the world. Such a world did exist once.

[coppice]

There are a number of very well known figures from the history of video games. Some because they were self promoters. Some because a company pushed their names into the public eye. Have you considered that Baer might have enjoyed his anonymity?

[EEVblog]

There are a number of very well known figures from the history of video games.

To the general public, I greatly doubt it.
I think you'd be hard pressed to name one that Joe Public knows.

[timb]

There are a number of very well known figures from the history of video games.

To the general public, I greatly doubt it.
I think you'd be hard pressed to name one that Joe Public knows.

Steve Jobs.

The iPhone basically made casual gaming cool. Collectively, the iDevices outsell Nintendo 100:1, more if you count Android.


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[EEVblog]

Steve Jobs.
The iPhone basically made casual gaming cool. Collectively, the iDevices outsell Nintendo 100:1, more if you count Android.

I knew someone would say Jobs (or Woz). But Jobs is not known for gaming. Joe public would not know that we worked on Atari games, all they know is he founded Apple computers, a personal computer company, not a gaming company.

[timb]

Yes, but he's now connected to gaming due to the success of the iDevices in Joe Public's mind. Bill Gates would be another contender, because a good number of people think he invented the home computer (and later the Xbox, etc.) so it doesn't have to be factually correct for the public to think it.

A good example to my point is that a lot of people think Apple is responsible for every app and game in the App Store.

By the way, they changed their name from Apple Computers to just Apple several years ago. They make hardware, software and publishing channels for content.

So that's why gaming would be associated with Jobs and Gates by J. Q. Pubic.


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[EEVblog]

So that's why gaming would be associated with Jobs and Gates by J. Q. Pubic.

I think if you want out and did a poll of Joe Public you'd find that wasn't the case.
If you asked what Jobs is famous for it would be "computer", iPhone, iPad, iPod, or some such hardware. My guess is very few would says anything to do with "games".
Same for Bill Gates.

In any case, even if they didn't they would be factually wrong, because they aren't the least bit famous for anything to do with games.

[coppice]

There are a number of very well known figures from the history of video games.

To the general public, I greatly doubt it.
I think you'd be hard pressed to name one that Joe Public knows.

I was thinking of names known to gamers. Baer isn't even known to most gamers.

[timb]

My point is that the iDevices (and then Android) brought portable gaming to non-gamers. It may not be true for yourself, but a lot of people who otherwise would have never played a video game are now doing so because of smartphones. Thusly, they associate gaming with their iPad and their iPad with Steve Jobs.

I've literally heard the words "Steve Jobs turned me into a gamer" from numerous people, including a 92 year old great-great-grandmother of someone living nearby. It's a case of people associating a person with a large company or shift in technology. I heard the same thing in reference to Bill Gates in the 90's.

Casual gaming is now a multi-billion dollar industry, due pretty much to how easy Apple (and subsequently Google) made it to purchase apps (and more importantly the monetization of free apps via IAP) from a single, secure provider. Apple isn't a gaming company just like they're not a music company.


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[Rigby]

I think the assumption that engineers want lots of attention and fame is wrong.  It makes perfect sense to me that they aren't known -- they don't want to be known.  Believe me, if an engineer wants to be known, they'll do things to increase their surface area in popular culture.

[Richard Crowley]

"Fame" or even "awareness" of someone or something is largely dependent on what people in the "news" and "publicity" games choose to (or are paid to) tell us about. My level of satisfaction with the mainstream press (of all types) asymptotically approaches zero. At least the interweb allows us some ability to search out information for ourselves unfiltered by the opinion of the "news professionals".

[Kevman]

There are a number of very well known figures from the history of video games.

To the general public, I greatly doubt it.
I think you'd be hard pressed to name one that Joe Public knows.

Steve Jobs.

The iPhone basically made casual gaming cool. Collectively, the iDevices outsell Nintendo 100:1, more if you count Android.


Sent from my Tablet

That's an extremely tough sell unless you are one of those Jobs lovers.

Remember, when the iPhone came out Steve Jobs really didn't want native apps for the thing and web apps were too slow for even casual gaming.  It was the jailbreakers that really made gaming on the iPhone possible, Apple only added native app support later. Of course everyone forgets that. And not one person on the planet will bring up Video games when you mention Jobs, only the other way round will ever ever happen. And even then very rarely.

Not that he ever did anything to promote video gaming, either.

Many people know Will Wright and Miyamoto. Of course, if you don't play video games, why would you know any of those names? I've found most people have never heard of Itzhak Perlman, either.

[dannyf]

I've found most people have never heard of Itzhak Perlman, either.

My example of "famous people no one knows" is Robert Bugbee.

Now, beat that,

[andersm]

For a long time, Nolan Bushnell was popularly given credit for inventing video games (Computer Space was released before the Odyssey, and no-one knew about the existence of the "brown box" prototype). It wasn't until maybe ten years ago that Baer received more wide-spread recognition.

[edavid]

Why do you call Baer a genius?  Did he do more than have an idea and patent it?  Did he actually design anything?

[Rigby]

Did he actually design anything?

Sigh.  Yes.

[EEVblog]

Many people know Will Wright and Miyamoto. Of course, if you don't play video games, why would you know any of those names? I've found most people have never heard of Itzhak Perlman, either.

I don't know any of those three.

[VK3DRB]

Why do you call Baer a genius?  Did he do more than have an idea and patent it?  Did he actually design anything?

He designed the first "pong" game (without a score). It is in the Smithsonian Institute. Along with one of the the very first wooden Apples, an example of the first IC and the first germanium transistor. 

[VK3DRB]

...My level of satisfaction with the mainstream press (of all types) asymptotically approaches zero. At least the interweb allows us some ability to search out information for ourselves unfiltered by the opinion of the "news professionals".

Agreed. The web is exposing truth that the mainstream press and governments cannot hide, like . Alternative information services also help expose activities by rogue organisations such as the CIA.

There are some decent mainstream news services though... BBC World Service, Deutche Welle, Al-Jazeera and the ABC News (Australia) to name a few. In comparison to totalitarian states like North Korea and Peoples Republic of China, we in the west have it easy.

[westfw]

with almost any other field

Here's an interesting thought to go along with that.
"History", as it is usually taught, is mostly about politics, governments, and war.
I think you could probably make up an equally valid "history" centered on technology instead.  Tech occasionally gets a mention: cotton gins and interchangeable parts, for example.  But you could make it central: "in the late 15th century, the state of shipbuilding and navigation permitted the discovery of the new world, and a technology race between competing nations to perform ever more dare feats of exploration."   The history might be a bit distorted, but that mostly makes me think that the history we're taught is ALSO distorted.  Not only that, but you could probably pick particular sub-fields.  (one interesting treatment is http://www.cavemanchemistry.com - the history of the world by major developments in chemistry.  Starting with fire.)

[EEVblog]

Along with one of the the very first wooden Apples

There was no such thing a wooden apple 1.
People make that mistake thinking there was because someone's personal hand hack wooden case version made it into the Smithsonian.

[dannyf]

we in the west have it easy.

This very thread would suggest otherwise.