The Imaginary Engineer – Karl Hans Janke's Flights of Fancy
10 comments
·March 4, 2025ge96
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
kurthr
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
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
daveguy
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
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.
robocat
Beautiful examples - reminds me of some art.
It makes me wonder how much of technology is driven by the need to look cool.
Animats
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...
charlie0
Is this where the word "janky" comes from?
cytocync
[dead]
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...