SkyTran Key Personnel

Who is Jerry Fass? This is a simple question to ask, but a bit tougher to answer. Mostly, I work hard on being a nice guy, who tries to help make the world a better place. I do this by varied mechanisms. One is via my long career as an inventor. What? You have never heard of my many inventions? You are not alone. So far, few have heard about them, and maybe few ever will. Perhaps this is for the best? I try to compensate for my lack of success in this field by trying to better life on this planet, in several other ways.

One is by aiding other creative people a bit, who are more successful than I, such as http://squeak.org/us/ted/ Ted Kaehler and Doug Malewicki,
www.skytran.net/13AboutUs/bio01-Malewicki.htm to realize their dreams.

I have worked hard on the Open Directory Project: ODP. There, I am editor of several categories where I hope my knowledge might make a difference to someone: http://dmoz.org/profiles/jerryobject.html

I speak publicly when asked, with an animated, hyper, yet oddly low energy, delivery. This activity is intermittent, and usually involves teaching about computer or health topics, often for free. I have taught dozens of people how to use computers, even with some ghastly pseudo operating systems, sometimes at community centers in Milwaukee's inner city with my selfless friend James Logan. I have helped several people, and other animals, through various diseases and conditions. A few relatives and friends credit me with extending their lives. I derive some satisfaction from this, but cannot accept the credit, except as a conduit for information. The real credits belong to http://www.johnrobbins.org/ John Robbins
http://www.kushiinstitute.org/ Michio Kushi http://www.kurzweilai.net/meme/frame.html?main=/meme/memelist.html?m%3D16 Ray Kurzweil, Ph.D.,
http://www.ornish.com/ Dr. Dean Ornish MD,
http://www.drmcdougall.com/ Dr. John McDougall, MD,
http://www.pcrm.org/about/ Dr. Neal Barnard, MD,
http://www.mollen.com/ Dr. Art Mollen,MD,
http://www.drweil.com/ Dr. Andrew Weil, MD,
http://www.walford.com/ Dr. Roy Walford, MD.

I tend to be a rather constructively critical sort of person, likely because I know something about science, technology, politics, and history, and thus see the vast, massive, unending, relentless, incredible waste of human potential, and how radically short of realizing or using most people's talents, is the world. And, in this context, I know that it would not be that technically or economically difficult to fix much of this. I find this all depressing, but this is life as it must be lived. Many people lack such knowledge, and are far less bothered by the horribly ugly state of the human world around them. Pity. SkyTran can help end some of this waste.

I have had many kinds of jobs. Some view this as erratic and evidence of unreliability. I view it as reliably erratic evidence of a willingness to try different things, and as a corpus of experience that gives me a broad view of how the world works, or more often, doesn't. Among other things, I was a part-time newspaper journalist in the early 1980s, at the late http://www.jsonline.com/ Milwaukee Sentinel focusing on technology, science, and defense issues. I have had a modest livelihood of sorts as a small time personal computer consultant, focusing on aiding purchasing, tutoring, and software setup.

I was involved in a financially and emotionally draining and ruinous five year foray into venture capital. I view this experience as only slightly more enjoyable than caring for my father, during this same time, mostly alone, as he slowly died of ALS, Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis, Lou Gehrig's disease. But both ordeals taught me a vast amount. One very good thing that came out of the business disaster was that I temporarily joined the American Society for Quality Control, ASQC, now generalized and shortened to http://www.asq.org/ American Society for Quality, ASQ. This exposed me to some very important principles which can save huge amounts of effort, if applied correctly. One of the main principles of Total Quality is to eliminate variation, problems, defects, before they occur, to design out things that cause defects. SkyTran is highly optimized in this regard. Most of the defects that cause problems in our transport systems are gone, absent, in SkyTran. Most problems simply and elegantly cannot occur. Wow, what a concept.

I have developed a philosophy of life, of sorts, or at least an attitude. Life is struggle: help the good guys, hurt the bad guys. Try to do things that matter more. That's all there is. Nothing else matters. All of us are on a conveyor belt to the grave. On our way, we should try our hardest to do some good in the world, before its too late. One of the most potent weapons in your armory is humility. Adopt a policy of radical functional humility before the universe, and other people, and at least you will be far more able to learn, and far less likely to waste your time. Opinion is irrelevant, except as it informs actions. Only actions have a chance to change anything. US popular culture places extraordinary, pathologically high value on opinion. Many people deeply believe in many things, and that their beliefs truly matter, and will often put great emotion into expressing them. They truly think that this matters. So what? Always ask yourself: What difference does this make?!
How is this helping? Did you vote? If you can't generate a satisfactory response, you are spinning your wheels. Stop. Think. Act. Observe your results. If they are working, keep it up. If not, repeat this loop, until you do something useful. In 100 years, what will be left of you, of your beliefs? What of your actions? Contemplate this. Its very important. Its your future.

I have a few hobbies, which wax and wane over time: internal combustion engines, rotary engines, computers, cataloging operating systems and programming languages, space exploration, astronomy, physics (elementary particles and fields, nuclear, relativity, quantum mechanics, and of course, a wee smidgen of fusion reactor plasma physics), geology, urban studies, 20th century architecture, technology of many types (earthmoving equipment, cars, aircraft, transport, communication, machine tools), military issues, 20th century history especially World War II, several types of music, bits and pieces of a few foreign languages for which I lack skill but often have good pronunciation (but not Chinese). I try to maintain a modicum of pop cultural literacy, but am overwhelmed by the vastness, and frequent banality, of this project. I have a compelling fondness for a wide and growing array of ethnic foods, and am mostly http://www.vegsource.com/ vegetarian for health and moral reasons. I like animals, including dogs and cats, and try to relate to animals as small stature equals with weak language skills (I sometimes make an exception to this enlightened policy for stinging arthropods that get too close). I have been accused of being a walking encyclopedia, but generally feel quite ignorant of almost everything.

Since childhood, I have been very interested in transport and vehicles:
http://dmoz.org/Science/Technology/Transportation/
When I was still a child, I subscribed for years to Popular Mechanics and Popular Science. Then in my mid teens, I discovered science fiction. I read several books of it per year, until 1987, when I read http://www.foresight.org/FI/Drexler.html K. Eric Drexler's http://www.foresight.org/EOC/">Engines of Creation, which caused me to lose most interest in science fiction because much of it seemed unimaginative in comparison. I was also fortunate to have lunch and dinner with Dr. Drexler, who may be the most intelligent person I have met on our planet thus far. Though I no longer take time for science fiction literature, I well remember the thought of Arthur C. Clarke, who has written that he refuses to ride in any form of transport in which he cannot read as he travels. I agree with this sentiment, though I must sometimes do otherwise. I look forward to the day when I can live my beliefs, via SkyTran.

My interest in transport safety was sharpened and personalized dramatically by some recent events. In February 2000, my schizophrenic brother died while hitting a semi-trailer truck almost head on, without seatbelts. Witnesses reported some impressive pyrotechnics. I identified his body for the police. In February 2001, my mother was permanently injured when her tiny http://www.epinions.com/auto_Make-1990_Honda_Civic_2_Door 1990 Honda Civic was hit by a huge http://cmms.cat.com/cmms/servlet/cat.dcs.cmms.servlet.GetModelSummary?classid=
406&langid=en&rgnid=NACD&view=html&prdname=D400E+Series+II&prdid=D400E+Series+II&
familyid=455&subfamilyid=281&dsfFlag=0&subfamilyheader=Articulated+Trucks articulated earthmoving truck. In January 2002, my remaining brother had only a minor crash, thank heavens. In August 2002, my best friend was injured, and almost killed when hit by a young driver trying to beat an intersection traffic light.

I have been known to talk to some homeless and mentally ill people for long periods of time on the street, just to make them feel appreciated, even though I sometimes cannot fully follow the course of the conversation; when I can follow some of these views, I grow concerned about my own mental state. One old schizophrenic man, the late Sir Hugh (his preferred title), once told me that I was the only person who talked and paid attention to him at some times. I treasure this as one of the finer compliments I have ever received, and am moved to encourage others to try such behavior. You may even learn something.

I admire some men more than others, many of whom have influenced my thought deeply over the years, such as: Albert Einstein, Arthur C. Clarke, Isaac Asimov, Moses, Jesus of Nazareth, John Lennon, http://www.rmi.org/ Amory Lovins, http://www.schumachersociety.org/ Ernst F. Schumacher, Professor Dale Snider, Paul C. Davies, Edward Teller, http://www.foresight.org/FI/Drexler.html K. Eric Drexler, Richard Dawkins, Marvin Minsky, http://www.bootstrap.org/ Douglas Engelbart, http://www.deming.org/ W. Edwards Deming, http://www.juran.com/ Joseph Juran, http://www.stallman.org/ Richard Stallman, http://www.ries.com/ Al Ries,Verne Schweiger, http://squeak.org/us/ted/ Ted Kaehler, James Logan, Doug Malewicki.

Unfortunately, I am unlettered, with little formal education. While, within the severe limits of my extant trivial knowledge, I may evince some slight erudition, it is mostly autodidactic, and is not vetted by any sanctioning body or institution. Ergo, a priori, it does not exist, at least in the eyes of some people who run things. Go figure. Fortunately, Doug Malewicki thinks differently. Thank you Doug. I hope you do not regret it.

Actually, I did have one year of college, but did not finish. Why? Partly because my health is fragile in some ways. I have asthma and a host of allergies, and seem always to be within a few stressful, sleep deprived days of getting bronchitis or pneumonia, which I do fairly often. This makes continuity of education or employment problematic, at best. I am also learning disabled, which I first learned in 1999. Now I know why I read like a snail. This was not a problem when taking fun courses such as physics or mathematics, but in school, as in life generally, one cannot do only fun things. One must study history and literature, which involve extensive readings. When one reads slowly, and is confronted with 300 to 400 pages of reading per week ... ouch! For about two decades, I didn't understand all of this, and felt deeply ashamed by what then was the crushing, unexplained stigma of this failure. I still feel embarrassed, but at least I no longer try to conceal this shortcoming! Who knows? Maybe someday I will be able to laugh about it. If you've similar problems, take heart, somewhat. You will likely never get where you might have if you were normal, but you still have a chance to make a positive difference. Work at it, very hard. Its worth it.

Given my limitations, I could do as many people do, and dull my mind with alcohol, the mass media, and high fat junk foods, and say things like: "Oh yeah, those [pro sports team name] are gonna' make it this year." But, there is something within me that wants to learn, and grow, in my humanity, or whatever it is that ennobles our blighted species, and to make some larger contribution. To quote the ever indomitable Mr. T: "I pity the fool."

By the way, if you found this profile a bit entertaining, or thought provoking, good. Deal with it. ;-)

SkyTran - About Us