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Energy Conversion Devices:
an interview with Stan Ovshinsky and the rest — you said in a paper you wrote, “I am prouder of the organization and working climate we have built [in my company] than of any of my inventions.” SO: Well, Bill, you come from Detroit and you understand, if you’ve worked in a factory. One guy told the factory foreman he was going to get married, and the foreman said “You didn’t ask me,” and the foreman fired the guy on the spot. Brutal working environments. We all have to work for a living, and we ought to be happy and get the best use … well, as Norbert Weiner said, “the human use of human beings.” If you are able to build in intelligence into machinery, then you can have humans doing what they should be doing best because they’re the only ones on the planet that really have the kind of intelligence to do things creatively. So you treat people in a way that can bring out the best in them, protect them, and really catch the creativity that’s in — and I hate to use the word — “ordinary” people. I don’t find people ordinary, though. So here at Ovonics, we have over 35 different nationalities. They would be killing each other where they come from. They work in perfect harmony. The only arguments we have are when we have dinners together and that’s about who has the best food. We have Arabs, Poles, Ukrainians, Russians, Chinese, and on and on. Chinese work next to Russians and they don’t speak each other’s language — or English — but they all work together. So I felt if we could do that when we had 10 people, we wouldn’t be able to do it with a 100. But now we’re up to 800 people, and the culture still is alive. So I’m proud to say there is an actual model of a working society that does incredible things other companies can’t do, but all for the good and working together. I’m not trying to be Utopian about this but, as I’ve said, all I want is a better world. BB: You pay a lot of attention to creativity and the power of science and thinking, but I also hear compassion as a major subtext. You know, the recognition of oneself in other human beings. SO: I think you understand what’s the driving force here. By the time I was 11 years old, I’d beat up every bully in the school. Not kids, the bullies. It just always bothered me that some people would pick on and humiliate other people. My instinctive nature has always been one of compassion and, therefore, I always felt a responsibility to, a solidarity and fraternity with, the people who don’t have the opportunities and options in life. You don’t have to choose sides for anything but just see how someone treats people. If you think its leftist, it’s not because it goes for leftism, too. Right now, a guy like Castro who wears epaulets and oppresses his people, well I’m against that. I’m for peace but does that mean I’m for Saddam Hussein? Of course not. He’s not a good person. They asked me to give a talk in Israel. I told them what I thought about their treatment of the Palestinians. There was a stunned silence but, surprisingly, I then got applause. China and Russia let us in because they believe what we’ve always been preaching, to use science and technology to build their society. In Mexico, I have a picture of a Mexican Indian woman climbing up a mountain that a donkey couldn’t get up. She’s carrying a photovoltaic on her back to electrify her village. I get chills thinking of it. They’re electrifying the villages for schools as well, so her child will be able to go to school. Technology and energy, these things are necessary if you are going to have a world that really operates and works, that transcends old national hatreds and borders. To get information about ECD-Ovonics and Stan Ovshinsky, you can go to their website at www. ovonic.com, or I recommend doing a Google search which turns up many sites with interviews and information on the range of the Ovshinsky’s work. |
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