The Problem of Increasing Human Energy

First published in June 1900 in Century Illustrated Magazine, ‘The Problem of Increasing Human Energy’ is an essay by Nikola Tesla, one of the most important technological innovators of the modern industrial age. In the essay, Tesla explained the greatness of the wireless system he envisioned. The article is a prolonged philosophical treatise and an intelligible scientific description of his work. He contemplates how a man should employ his time and body, what makes a man effectual in his most heightened capacity, and what increases man's "energy" in the human capacity. Tesla approaches human potential energy from the physics perspective tying it to the mass, speed, and removal of retarding forces. When human civilization was just starting to impact the natural world, Tesla was already worrying about problems of overpopulating and running out of nonrenewable resources. He was not only pointing this out, but he was already working out the solutions.