Genius is Alive and Well.

Ada Byron Lovelace

New technology is creating a DIY revolution in desk top manufacturing; barely 25 years ago, it was desk top publishing.  Genius is alive and well in the 21st century and tech geeks like Limor Fried and Nathan Myhrvold are paving the way for spectacular inventions along with whole new business models.  Today there is no shortage of visionaries who think outside the box, but unlike past visionaries like Leonardo DaVinci, today's prodigies have the technology and the materials to realize their visions.  From the arts and sciences to tech savvy entrepreneurs, this century may prove to be the most prolific nursery of genius in the history of the world.  Check out the interview with Limor Fried in this April's Wired Magazine. Limor  runs a New York based company called Adafruit Industries; she is truly a modern day Ada Byron Lovelace.*

Q&A: Open Source Electronics Pioneer Limor Fried on the DIY Revolution

* Ada Byron Lovelace was the daughter of the English Romantic poet, Lord Byron.  She was a mathematical prodigy, privately tutored, who collaborated with Charles Babbage on his Analytical Engine -a machine never completed- for the express purpose of solving polynomial equations and other complex problems.  Ada Byron Lovelace is credited with writing the world's first computer algorithm for the Analytical Engine, for which she was inspired by the patterned punch cards of the Jacquard loom.  The modern computer programming language, Ada, was named for this visionary daughter of Lord Byron.  It would take nearly 100 more years for Ada Byron's and Charles Baggage's project to be fully realized, for what they were working on was yet to be invented.