Nostalgia over Segway's demise

In 1993, my high school partnered with Baxter Laboratories in the "U.S. First" robotics competition sponsored by a guy named Dean Kamen.

Kamen was a legendary figure to the Baxter engineers. "He wears blue jeans to work when everyone else is wearing a tie. Why? Because he's Dean Kamen. He even owns a private island!" It was Steve Jobs-level reverence.

I also remember hearing that Kamen was working on "something big," which -- to a 17 year-old -- meant nothing, but turned out to be the Segway. When it came out in 2001, it was supposed to revolutionize public transport.

Sadly, that turned out to not be the case. Kamen's vision of changing the world ran smack-dab into the twin realities of limited usefulness and costing money. It turns out using your feet to walk is cheaper, easier, healthier, more flexible, and more intuitive. [Source]

Paul Blart: Mall Cop notwithstanding, the Segway had zero influence on my life. But this much I took away from the U.S. First competition -- anything's possible if you have time, money, and imagination. Other teams had designed stuff that our team didn't think was possible.

So I'm sorry to hear you couldn't revolutionize the world with the Segway, Mr. Kamen. But you still had an influence on me.