Inside The Museum Of Nikola Tesla, The Mysterious Man Who Predicted The 21st Century | Art of Saudade

Legend has it that Einstein was once asked what it was like to be the smartest man alive. His answer was: “I don’t know, you’ll have to ask Nikola Tesla.”

Tesla’s estimated IQ between 160 and 310 is not what made him the smartest man in the world. The truth is, if it wasn’t for Tesla, we could hardly imagine the 21st century the way we know it today. The radio, remote control, three-phase electric power, neon lamp, or even wi-fi may have not existed (or would have been invented later) if it wasn’t for his experiments and patents.

Tesla was fluent in 8 languages: Serbo-Croatian, Czech, English, German, French, Italian, Hungarian, and Latin.

From Tesla’s archives, Nikola Tesla Museum, Belgrade

As someone who comes from the Balkans, Tesla’s name has always resonated in my mind as one of the most important historical figures in world history. When I told a friend I had visited the Tesla Museum, she said: “Wait, Tesla? The car?”. I realized that Tesla was not necessarily known worldwide, and that’s a pity.

People often say that Thomas Edison stole Tesla’s ideas, and that is debatable. Oh, well, Tesla worked for Edison, what else could you expect?

This doesn’t deny the fact that Nikola Tesla, born during a lightning storm into a Serbian family in Smiljan, Croatia, is perhaps the biggest genius of all time. Way ahead of his time, he discussed renewable energy and the use of solar and wind energy.

As you can imagine, he was a workaholic and had only 2 hours of sleep. He was a vegetarian, adored pigeons, and was a real lone wolf.

Tesla predicted the 21st century

What is truly shocking is that in 1926, Tesla predicted the future:

“When wireless is perfectly applied, the whole earth will be converted into a huge brain, which in fact it is, all things being particles of a real and rhythmic whole. We shall be able to communicate with one another instantly, irrespective of distance. Not only this but through television and telephony, we shall see and hear one another as perfectly as though we were face to face, despite intervening distances of thousands of miles; and the instruments through which we shall be able to do this will be amazingly simple compared with our present telephone. A man will be able to carry one in his vest pocket.”