What Is 'IT'? Book Proposal Heightens Intrigue About Secret Invention Touted as Bigger Than the Internet or PC

PJ Mark 1/9/2001 12:12

Harvard Business School Press executive editor Hollis Heimbouch has just paid $250,000 for a book about IT -- but neither the editor nor the agent, Dan Kois of The Sagalyn Literary Agency, knows what IT is. All they do know: IT, also code-named Ginger, is an invention developed by 49-year-old scientist Dean Kamen, and the subject of a planned book by journalist Steve Kemper. According to Kemper's proposal, IT will change the world, and is so extraordinary that it has drawn the attention of technology visionaries Jeff Bezos and Steve Jobs and the investment dollars of pre-eminent Silicon Valley venture capitalist John Doerr, among others.

Kemper -- who has been published in Smithsonian, National Geographic and Outside among others -- has had exclusive access to Kamen and the engineers at his New Hampshire-based research and development company, DEKA, for the past year and a half. He tags the proposed book as Soul of the New Machine meets The New New Thing and won over his agent and publisher with e-mails describing the project in carefully couched language. He also included an amusing narrative of a meeting between Bezos, Jobs, Doerr and Kamen.

In the proposal, Doerr calls Kamen -- who was just awarded the National Medal of Technology, the country's highest such award -- a combination of Henry Ford and Thomas Edison. Doerr also says, a touch ominously, that he had been sure that he wouldn't see the development of anything in his lifetime as important as the World Wide Web -- until he saw IT. According to the proposal, another investor, Credit Suisse First Boston, expects Kamen's invention to make more money in its first year than any start-up in history, predicting Kamen will be worth more in five years than Bill Gates. Jobs told Kamen the invention would be as significant as the PC, the proposal says.

And though there are no specifics in the proposal as to what the invention is, there are some tantalizing clues. Is IT an energy source? Some sort of environmentally friendly personal transport device? One editor who saw the proposal went as far as to speculate -- jokingly (perhaps) -- that IT was a type of personal hovering craft.

Consider the following items, culled from the proposal:

IT is not a medical invention.

In a private meeting with Bezos, Jobs and Doerr, Kamen assembled two Gingers -- or ITs -- in 10 minutes, using a screwdriver and hex wrenches from components that fit into a couple of large duffel bags and some cardboard boxes.

The invention has a fun element to it, because once a Ginger was turned on, Bezos started laughing his ''loud, honking laugh.''

There are possibly two Ginger models, named Metro and Pro -- and the Metro may possibly cost less than $2,000.

Bezos is quoted as saying that IT ''is a product so revolutionary, you'll have no problem selling it. The question is, are people going to be allowed to use it?''

Jobs is quoted as saying: ''If enough people see the machine you won't have to convince them to architect cities around it. It'll just happen.''

Kemper says the invention will ''sweep over the world and change lives, cities, and ways of thinking.''

The ''core technology and its implementations'' will, according to Kamen, ''have a big, broad impact not only on social institutions but some billion-dollar old-line companies.'' And the invention will ''profoundly affect our environment and the way people live worldwide. It will be an alternative to products that are dirty, expensive, sometimes dangerous and often frustrating, especially for people in the cities.''

IT will be a mass-market consumer product ''likely to run afoul of existing regulations and or inspire new ones,'' according to Kemper. The invention will also likely require ''meeting with city planners, regulators, legislators, large commercial companies and university presidents about how cities, companies and campuses can be retro-fitted for Ginger.'' The invention itself is as interesting as the inventor. Kamen -- ''a true eccentric, cantankerous and opinionated, a great character,'' according to the proposal -- dropped out of college in his 20s, then invented the first drug infusion pump; he later created the first portable insulin pump and dialysis machine.

Kamen, an avid aviator who commutes via a helicopter, is also the founder of FIRST -- For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology -- a nonprofit organization that encourages young people to pursue studies and careers in math and science. He's a single man obsessed with his work and out of touch with popular culture. According to the proposal, Kamen was seated at a White House dinner next to two people he'd never heard of: Shirley MacLaine and Warren Beatty.

Kamen's most recent invention is the iBot, an off-road wheelchair that can climb stairs, cover sand and gravel and rise to balance on two wheels. A prototype iBot was showcased by wheelchair-bound journalist John Hockenberry at last year's TED conference in Monterrey, Calif.; the demonstration was greeted by wild applause.

IT/Ginger won't be revealed until 2002, the proposal says. No one has seen the project except Kamen, Kemper, the engineers and the investors -- which include Doerr, a partner in the venture capital firm of Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, which helped launch Netscape, Amazon, Juniper Networks, Excite, and @Home, among others; and Michael Schmertzler, managing director of Credit Suisse First Boston. Others who have seen the invention and signed confidentiality agreements include minor investors Paul Allaire, CEO of Xerox; and Vern Loucks, recently retired CEO of Baxter. Bezos, Jobs and writer/venture capitalist Randy Komisar sit on the advisory board. Kamen retains 85 percent of his new company, according to the proposal.

Why the secrecy? Kamen fears, as he states in a letter to Kemper that is included in the proposal, that ''huge corporations'' might catch wind of the invention and ''use their massive resources to erect obstacles against us or, worse, simply appropriate the technology by assigning hundreds of engineers to catch up to us, and thousands of employees to produce it in their plants.''

But such secrecy may have been enough to turn publishers away. ''The Internet changed the world, too'' said one editor who considered the project, ''but books about it don't really sell.'' As for the quarter-million-dollar price tag for North American rights: on the one hand, it doesn't seem to be a lot for a book about an invention which has mesmerized such well-known technology moguls. On the other, $250,000 is a lot to pay for a story about a product that hasn't been seen, defined or named.

''We were well aware of Kamen,'' says book editor Heimbouch, who says she's been publishing in this technology circle for a long time.'' (The bestselling The Monk and the Riddle: The Education of a Silicon Valley Entrepreneur by Komisar is hers.) So jumping on board for the book wasn't such a dilemma. Besides, says Heimbouch, Harvard Business School Press had intended to approach Kamen about doing a book anyway. ''He's an inventor of great technologies that make people's lives better,'' she says.

Harvard Business School Press, a division of Harvard Business School Publishing, is a wholly owned, nonprofit subsidiary of Harvard University. The Sagalyn Agency retains all but North American rights to the book.

-- Soliciting Guesses (make@guess.com), January 09, 2001

Answers

A FART MO-BILE???????????

-- al-d. (dogs@zianet.com), January 09, 2001.

I already have a FART-mobile on order...ordered through a gag-catalogue.

-- smell this (smellthisss@armoma.puf), January 09, 2001.

"the invention will 'profoundly affect our environment and the way people live worldwide. It will be an alternative to products that are dirty, expensive, sometimes dangerous and often frustrating, especially for people in the cities.'"

This must be an alternative to the car. What else is dirty, expensive, sometimes dangerous, and frustrating?

-- What else? (guess@com.com), January 09, 2001.

It is an anti-gravity, perpetual motion, cold fusion, artificially intelligent, perfectly formed playful female android designed to serve and service and never, ever complain. Inflation required.

-- Lars (larsguy@yahoo.com), January 09, 2001.

Al Gore really invented it...

-- Uncle Bob (unclb0b@aol.com), January 10, 2001.

(And once again, U.B. comes back with the best one-liner. Wish I had compiled them all, dude.)

-- (PatriciaS@lasvegas.com), January 10, 2001.

Finally the Jet Pack... wahoo!

Mar.

-- Not now, not like this (AgentSmith0110@aol.com), January 10, 2001.

My B.S./Hype Meter is activating, but if there's any truth behind this, I'd say it's some sort of battery-powered scooter, maybe a hybrid between a regular scooter and this guy's "ibot", all-terrain wheelchair. Fun, cool if true, but not quite earth-shattering.

I like Lars' guess better.

Soul of a New Machine is a great book, BTW.

-- Bemused (and_amazed@you.people), January 10, 2001.

He's a single nerdy guy,..I say it's going to be a vibrating hand. (Or have they already invented that?)

-- Sex Toy (kritter@adelphia.net), January 10, 2001.

When ITs cold, IT come slow IT is warm, just watch IT grow - all around me IT is here. IT is now.

Just a little bIT of IT can bring you up or down. Like the supper IT is cooking in your hometown. IT is chicken, IT is eggs, IT is in between your legs. IT is walking on the moon, leaving your cocoon.

IT is the jigsaw. IT is purple haze. IT never stays in one place, but IT's not a passing phase, IT is in the singles bar, in the distance of the face IT is in between the cages, IT is always in a space IT is here. IT is now.

Any rock can be made to roll If you've enough of IT to pay the toll IT has no home in words or goal Not even in your favourite hole IT is the hope for the dope Who rides the horse without a hoof IT is shaken not stirred; Cocktails on the roof.

When you eat right fru-IT it you see everything alive IT is inside spirit, with enough grIT to survive If you think that ITs pretentious, you've been taken for a ride. Look across the mirror sonny, before you choose de-cide IT is here. IT is now IT is Real. IT is Rael

'cos IT's only knock and knowall, but I like IT...

-- Genesis Lamb Lies Down on Broadway (supready@aol.com), January 10, 2001.

Genesis lamb--

LOLOL. You are gifted, more please.

-- Lars (larsguy@yahoo.com), January 10, 2001.

One of my favorite albums of all time-Lamb Lies Down on Broadway-the music to IT is excellant-the whole concept is brilliant. Do yourself a favor, anyone, buy this album.

-- FutureShock (gray@matter.think), January 10, 2001.

Oh my, I cannot take credit for this one. However, there is a lot more where IT came from.

IT is a song appropriately called "It" off of "The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway" (1974) CD by the group "Genesis" (Gabriel-era Genesis - Peter Gabriel front man, Phil Collins on percussion). "The Lamb" is not the best introduction to Gabriel-era Genesis - but it is still a masterpiece.

If you have further interest - "The Lamb" show has been recreated to painstaking detail by Canada's "The Musical Box" (name taken from another Gabriel-era Genesis song). People come from all over the world to see the shows in Canada(three times for moi) as their contract with Genesis only allows them to play in Quebec and Ontario Canada. Website is http://www.iquebec.com/musicalbox/index.html. The best Genesis website is http://www.genesis-path.com.

-- IT (supready@aol.com), January 10, 2001.

I am so out of it, thanks for the info. Maybe I'd recognize it with the music. Wonder if it's on Napster.

-- Lars (larsguy@yahoo.com), January 10, 2001.

The carpet crawlers heed their callers:
"We've got to get in to get out
We've got to get in to get out
We've got to get in to get out."
IS that not the BEST song? STill...today? YeS!!!!!!!!

-- kritter (kritter@adelphia.net), January 10, 2001.

I just bought a copy of "IT for Dummies". Way kewel!

-- (nemesis@awol.com), January 10, 2001.

Revenge of the nerds----

DEAN KAMEN

-- Lars (larsguy@yahoo.com), January 10, 2001.

From the above link. This must be IT.

Another project, to be unveiled in the next year, will necessitate building "the largest company in New Hampshire," Kamen says with characteristic bravura. He's shy about details, except to say it involves a consumer device unrelated to health care and will require $100 million in financing. Among the investors: Kleiner Perkins.

-- Lars (larsguy@yahoo.com), January 10, 2001.

kritter -

Have you heard The Carpet Crawlers 1999 rerecorded by the original members (Turn it on Again - The Hits CD)? - Peter and Phil share vocals - it is quite nice. As far as the best song ever, well, it is surely considered one of the gems in my book. However, as i'm sure you can guess by my e-mail addr - Supper's Ready is all time favorite - and the material off of Trespass, Nursery Cryme, Foxtrot, and Selling England by the Pound (in cronological order) is considered sacred in my book.

I wonder what al-d would think of "The Lamb". Even more curious, I wonder what he would think of "Supper's Ready".

-- Carpet Crawlers (supready@aol.com), January 10, 2001.

Not to turn this into a Genesis thread, but the only reason I still have my old turntable hooked up is because I stll listen to all those albums. I would hate to have to replace the entire collection with CD's...but I'll bet they sound great on Cd. I've managed to find some cool live stuff on Napster, but I haven't heard or seen the Carpet Crawlers 99 thing you talk about. Don't suppose you have it on mp3?

As far as "best song", there are a LOT of best songs...but I think I listen to Trick of the Tale and The Lamb the most. (And "I know what I like, and I like what I know..(In your wardrobe)..cool song!)

Are you new here???

-- kritter (kritter@adelphia.net), January 10, 2001.

i apologize for the off-topic also. But when i saw this thing called "IT" and nobody knew what "IT" was - i just couldn't resist.

i will check to see if i can find that MP3 for you. i will e-mail it to you when/if i do. I agree with Trick of the Tail also - very good material - i haven't listensed to it in a while and now that you mentioned it, i shall have to listen to it again.

As far as being new - i've been a lurkess for quite a long while (TB2K spinoff and prior). i am quite pleased to see some early Genesis fans in this forum. There are not a lot of us around these days. However i am not surprised - people here always seem to want to get to the truth and a path that comes so close is Genesis. At the bare minimum, exploring/interpreting the early stuff will send one through quite an extensive paper trail.

-- (supready@aol.com), January 10, 2001.

What Is 'IT'? Book Proposal Heightens Intrigue About Secret Invention Touted as Bigger Than the Internet or PC

Bah!

It's nothing but hype. Here are a couple of links for the patent:

Link 1

Link 2

-- nonehere (none@to.give.net), January 10, 2001.

"There is provided, in a preferred embodiment, a transportation vehicle for transporting an individual over ground having a surface that may be irregular. This embodiment has a support for supporting the subject. A ground-contacting module, movably attached to the support, serves to suspend the subject in the support over the surface. The orientation of the ground-contacting module defines fore- aft and lateral planes intersecting one another at a vertical. The support and the ground-contacting module are components of an assembly. A motorized drive, mounted to the assembly and coupled to the ground-contacting module, causes locomotion of the assembly and the subject therewith over the surface. Finally, the embodiment has a control loop, in which the motorized drive is included, for dynamically enhancing stability in the fore-aft plane by operation of the motorized drive in connection with the ground-contacting module. The ground contacting module may be realized as a pair of ground- contacting members, laterally disposed with respect to one another. The ground-contacting members may be wheels. Alternatively, each ground-contacting member may include a duster of wheels. In another embodiment, each ground-contacting member includes a pair of axially adjacent and rotatably mounted arcuate element pairs. Related methods are also provided."

-- But how fast would it go? (hmm@hmm.com), January 10, 2001.

-- I'd knew we'd figure it out! (this@is.it?), January 10, 2001.

Supper:

That stuff up through Lamb is unparalleled. Fountains of Salmalcas, Watcher of the Skys, etc. I miss the days of yore when these folks, and Yes, King Crimson, Soft machine, Renaissance, Brand X, etc where making music that challenged the mind AND the heart.

-- FutureShock (gray@matter.think), January 11, 2001.

Future Shock –

Since we figured out what IT is, I will indulge on your comment.

You stated it quite eloquently about the music being a challenge to both mind and heart.

You mentioned Yes and Renaissance – my two favorites next to early Genesis. I am also fond of King Crimson and Brand X. However, as well abreast that I feel I am in prog rock, I have never heard of Soft Machine. An investigation shall follow.

I will mention Canada’s The Musical Box again to say that the days of yore are back again. I cannot express enough superlatives to the efforts this band has put forth. I don’t know about you, but I was not able to see Genesis with Gabriel. I do own a ’73 video (several early Genesis videos actually) and the costumes, lighting, instruments, stage, props, choreography are replicated exactly and the singer (Denis Gange) even looks (and sounds of course) like young Gabriel. It replicates down to the expression on Denis’ face and when he takes a breath and how deep the breath is. The studio version of the music is replicated in these shows - and they are playing it live (on asks the question – is it live or is it memorix?).

The Selling England by the Pound show was easier to make because videos were available. The Lamb was much more difficult because there are only very short pieces of videos available. However, the artistic director (Serge Morisette) did his archeology work and they worked off of photos (they got one set of photos from one source of someone who took shots throughout the original show) several sources and memories from the Genesis band members and band crew. In addition, Genesis provided copies of the original 1120 slides from the Lamb (out of order and unnumbered). It was quite a puzzle for them to put the Lamb back together again.

I have been to many concerts in my life (Yes 8 times, Genesis with Phil 3 times, Peter Gabriel 5 times plus many more bands) and can say that the Selling England by the Pound show was the best show I have ever seen in my life. Included in the show in addition to SEBTP material was Watcher of the Skies, Supper’s Ready, Return of the Giant Hogweed, Seven Stones, The Musical Box, and The Knife. During this show I was literally shaking. When I saw the costume featured on the cover of Genesis Live (the triangular pink/purple mask) during Supper’s Ready’s Apocalypse in 9/8 at the part of “666 is no longer alone, he’s getting out the marrow of your backbone, and the seven trumpets blowing sweet rock and roll, gonna blow right down inside your soul, etc”, I almost past out.

The Lamb is my second favorite show – where they perform the entire Lamb album along with Watcher and The Musical Box as encores (just as Genesis did when they performed it).

Another great thing about these shows is that you are amongst people like yourself – who have a passion for the music. You have an instant sense of family when you are there. I have made many friends there from all over (including the band members and crew).

In reply to bands these days not being the same – there are new prog bands out that I have not listened to yet. I know PFM, IQ, and Spock’s Beard are among many of them. I have not been to one yet, but there is a prog festival called Nearfast held in Pennsylvania. Tickets go on sale in February (they sell out very quickly) and the festival is in June. I do plan to attend this year.

Again, it is nice to see prog rock listeners (especially Genesis) amongst this group. Please feel free to e-mail me if you would like more info or to would like to correspond re prog music.

BTW - doesn't the above diagram of IT kinda look like a take off from the Nursurey Cryme album?

-- (supeady@aol.com), January 11, 2001.

Those damn scooters are everywhere these days.

At least it's clear why Jeff Bezos laughed when he saw it!

-- Tarzan the Ape Man (tarzan@swingingthroughthejunglewithouta.net), January 11, 2001.

But it looks like it might be an all-terain scooter, like the wheelchair he made. That IS cool.

-- Buddy (buddydc@go.com), January 11, 2001.

That's just what I predicted, buddy GIMME SOM GODDAMNED CREDIT ONCE -

Sorry. I'll deal with it.

While I'm still cranky, I'll impose some musical insights on y'all - N E W M U S I C. Listen to Verbena, Yo La Tengo, Cibo Matto, Radiohead. It's not intimidating, it's just great stuff.

-- Bemused (and_amazed@you.people), January 11, 2001.

Bemused,

You win the Grand Prize for guessing correctly!

..and when I figure out what the prize is...I'll give it to ya..or maybe you have a request?..LOL

-- Peg (pegmcleod@mediaone.net), January 11, 2001.

I request a bigger font.

Abstinance makes the font grow harder.

(I am sorry about that.)

-- Bemused (and_amazed@you.people), January 11, 2001.

LOL!

-- Peg (pegmcleod@mediaone.net), January 11, 2001.

I've seen Gabriel a few times, the older shows were the best. Anything after Shock the Monkey wasn't as enjoyable. It's not that he's not great, but the audience is different now. They have no clue!

-- kritter (kritter@adelphia.net), January 11, 2001.

I agree that the Gabriel audience does not necessarily follow early Gensis. But the reverse is not true - the early Genesis/TMB audience is very well aware of all of Gabriel's material.

When I came home from work, I had to examine the Nursurey Cryme album cover again (actually, the limited lithograph I have along with two others of Paul Whitehead's artwork - Trespass and and Foxtrot). Sure enough, the lady behind little Cynthia has got double rollers attached to each of her feet and is crusing around with a bar held horizontally as if it was a balance/steering mechanism. Wierd. I'll have to tell Paul about IT. Maybe IT was his concept.

He has told me many stories over the past few years about when he lived with Genesis at the cottage and how some of the musical and artwork material developed but I never thought to ask him about the lady with the rollers on her feet. However, I did ask him if he thought that specific album cover was just a bit morbid.

-- (supready@aol.com), January 11, 2001.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A49849-2001Jan11?language=pri nter

Ginger: The Wheel Thing?

By Joel Garreau Washington Post Staff Writer Friday, January 12, 2001 ; Page C01

What could it be?

Respected inventor Dean Kamen of Manchester, N.H., we are told, has come up with a world-moving invention that will be "an alternative to products that are dirty, expensive, sometimes dangerous, and often frustrating, especially for people in the cities."

Has the man reinvented sex?

Harvard Business School Press is paying a quarter of a million dollars for a book on the subject. According to the book proposal, Amazon.com CEO Jeff Bezos says it's a "product so revolutionary, you'll have no problem selling it." Apple Computer CEO Steve Jobs says it will change the ways cities are designed. Venture capitalist John Doerr has invested millions in it.

The code name for this product is "Ginger." What could it be?

If anybody actually knows, they're not talking.

But the digerati of Silicon Valley who know Kamen well were convinced they had the answer yesterday.

Ginger, they claimed, is a wearable car.

Speculation and even drawings of a purported patent application flew feverishly around the Web.

The drawing looks like a pogo stick with a single wheel under it that you can't push over, no matter how hard you try. "Sort of 'B.C.' meets George Jetson in the form of a Razor on steroids," as Paul Saffo of the Institute for the Future put it yesterday.

If Ginger is indeed a kind of 60 mph wheeled witch's broom, there would be a sort of outlandish logic to it, given the inventor's background.

Kamen, who according to Wired magazine holds a Guinness record for the longest interrupted span of time spent dressed in denim, has a history of socially motivated invention. A physicist and engineer, he holds more than 100 patents, several for quality-of-life devices, including the portable dialysis machine.

His latest invention was the Independence 3000 IBot Transporter -- a sort of intelligent wheelchair. It includes onboard sensors, gyroscopes and computers that allow the device to place its wheels almost like feet so as to climb stairs and travel over curbs and rocks. He demonstrated it in July in the Senate and at Vice President Gore's residence.

Those smart miniaturized gyroscopes would presumably be at the heart of a Ginger machine that could whisk people magically through cities at high speed while never being a parking problem. (Maybe when you step off Ginger, it will fold itself up into something the size of a briefcase? Maybe you can then instruct the briefcase to follow you like a puppy?)

Sure, there will be bugs in the system. Literally. In your teeth and in your hair, if you are scooting along at high speed. But that could be solved by a sophisticated designer encasing you and your Ginger in an Armani egglike shell.

And replacing the automobile will not be easy. Where would you put your CD player on Ginger? Where would you put your beer? What about the teenage market -- people who see transportation devices as a means to make out? These are all difficulties that need to be ironed out. (Two teenagers getting to know each other standing up at high speed could actually be pretty awesome.)

But whatever the case, Dean Kamen comes out of a classic American mold, Internet pioneer Stewart Brand observed yesterday.

"Dean is a genuine Gyro Gearloose -- one of the best we have in this generation," he said. "He's in the tradition of Carl Djerassi and the birth control pill, Thomas Edison and the light bulb, Benjamin Franklin and the Franklin stove. And they really did change everything."

Whatever Ginger turns out to be, Brand, like other members of the Silicon Valley elite yesterday, was willing to believe that Kamen was onto something. "I don't think it's cold fusion," he said. "If Steve and Jeff were given access, their judgment is pretty good about what's new, true and important."

"On the other hand," he said, laughing, "it might be early investors' hype."

© 2001 The Washington Post

-- BuddyDC (buddydc@go.com), January 12, 2001.

Dean Kamen

-- BuddyDC (buddydc@go.com), January 12, 2001.