Dean Kamen’s Miracle Water Distiller, It’s Not Going to Save the World
A few minutes ago I watched a video of inventor Dean Kamen (creator of the Segway) on The Colbert Report. He was showing off his latest invention, “Dean Kamen’s Miracle Water Distiller”. In the clip, Kamen claims his distiller can turn any liquid into water, without the use of chemicals, membranes, or filters. Watch the clip below…
So Kamen claims this new distiller will “wipe out 50% of human disease”. Really? Just how the “Segway will change the way people travel forever“? Okay, let’s just hypothetically say that his device is capable of bringing water to everyone on earth. Cool. Now they can finally drink some clean water. Great. However, bringing clean water to everyone on earth isn’t exactly going to save it (as some people are claiming, just Google “Dean Kamen Water”). A few problems remain and some are created when Kamen’s filter is introduced to a third world environment.
- Even if his filter could “wipe out 50% of human disease,” it wouldn’t do anything about the main problem most of these countries face; Hunger. In fact, if it did do what he says it can do, more people would live and reproduce, creating an even larger need for food. So where people once died from disease, they now die from hunger. You’re trading one horrible way of dying for another… and increasing the population while you’re at it, which in turn increases the amount of suffering.
- The majority of places that this would help, have no electricity. Can this thing be solar powered? Does it need fuel for a generator? Is the company that donates it going to provide unlimited power for it? Who pays?
- He fails to acknowledge the fact that a large part of the people living in poor water conditions aren’t effected by the water. Just how Mexicans living in Mexico can drink the water, but American visitors can’t, their bodies are used to the water and have built immunities. It’s not bad water causing these diseases, it poor sanitation and few (if any) medical facilities.
- Vapor Compression Distillers have been around a long time and haven’t changed the world or saved third world countries yet… Kamen is just smart enough to know most people don’t know his “invention” already exists. But don’t tell anyone, it’ll kill the PR buzz.
So in closing, Dean Kamen’s water filter is greatly over-hyped. While it is a fantastic goal to bring clean drinking water to everyone on earth, there’s no way this device is going to save it. I’m all for creating a filter than can turn sludge into clean drinking water, but please, stop touting this thing as the savior of the third world. I mean think about it… it’s coming from Dean Kamen, a man known for hyping the shit out of his inventions in hopes of making more sales. How’s your Segway working out?
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1
Tex — March 23, 2008 #
I totally agree. This is a wonderful invention if it works as advertised, but people are once again buying into the Kamen-Hype. Gotta hand it to the guy though, he knows how to market himself.
2
HelioMan — March 23, 2008 #
are you stupid? this thing is going to change the world as we know it! think if you couldnt drink water and now you could drink ALL THE WATER YOU WANTED.
water is a basic human right and this man is helping people.
nobody gets hurt here.
3
DCraig — March 23, 2008 #
lol, I remember reading stories all of the internet a few years ago about how the segway was going to change the world.
it didn’t do shit and neither will this “miracle distiller”.
4
so1o — March 23, 2008 #
If you didn’t mention the fact that vapor compression distillers already existed, I was going to. It’s like if I tried to sell my new invention called, “The Wheel”…
5
CSpy — March 25, 2008 #
Read up a bit before attacking someone, and I mean, a bit farther than Googling opinions. I agree he didn’t explain the contraption on the show, who knows why, and he just publicized it instead. He should have shown us quickly how it worked or something like that. But there is plenty of information on the Web about it.
1) 50% of diseases are transmitted through water supply, right? That means that we would be reducing rate of transmission by 50%, which is essentially the same thing. Yes, there are existing diseases, but a good part of them aren’t even contagious human-to-human, and would die off with that generation. Your argument about hunger is quite difficult to swallow. That’s saying “let’s not work on their water supply, because they’re troubled by famine, war, and poverty anyways; they won’t appreciate it.” Let’s take it a step at a time, solving one problem at a time. We wouldn’t be trading problems. We would have one less problem.
2) He didn’t explain it on the show, but this thing has the potential to generate SURPLUS power, on top of distilling the water. It uses Stirling engine designs that Kamen reworked. That’s what’s so different about it from other distillers.
3) No, he’s right. These aren’t facts he’s dreamt up or correlations he created from imagination (”Oh, they’re sick, it must come from the water”). There has been analyses of source water supplies in several areas. So how do diseases get transmitted to the population through water supply if they’re immune to it? We’re obviously not talking about places like Mexico, or if we are, that would mean that they are just partially immune.
4) That’s exactly it. First of all, this invention doesn’t exist, not to my knowledge. Like I said before, this thing uses a closed-cycle and regenerative heat engine. Second of all, someone NEEDS to hype these things, or else it will never be known to anyone, and nothing will ever get done using them. These scientists have to popularize their discoveries and inventions through popular means. Very few have done that up until now but Kamen is definitely attempting to do so.
Bottom line is, I believe Kamen has fundamentally good values and wants to do good in the world. Who doesn’t want to live comfortably and be successful, either? Going on the Colbert Report and “hyping” the product is going to get the word out there better than most science journals.
However, I do concede that the world will have to settle more of its differences and look at real human and environmental issues before we can get this kind and other kinds of help, real help, out into the world. Has it happened yet? No. Will it happen? I sure hope so.
6
cm — March 25, 2008 #
yours is the opinion of someone from the “first-world”, someone who is well-fed, someone who does not have the displeasure of seeing his or her family members die of easily-preventable illnesses.
7
subigo — March 25, 2008 #
Come back to this post in five years, when it hasn’t done a thing for third world countries.
8
CSpy — March 25, 2008 #
Yes and like I said…
Because the world isn’t ready to REALLY help these people, yes, it will take time. It takes more than one person to change the world for good. So we agree here.
But no, Kamen hasn’t just re-packaged it, his can also generate surplus power, which would be a huge development.
9
SYoung — March 31, 2008 #
In response to criticism #2 about power generation: The device runs on 2% of the power alternative purification devices. Kamen created a power generator that can be efficiently run on animal feces which will power the purifier and more. Read http://blog.wired.com/gadgets/2008/03/dean-kamen-save.html
10
water distiller — April 27, 2008 #
[…] not bad water causing these diseases, it poor sanitation and few if any medical facilities."http://skewism.com/dean-kamens-miracle-water-distiller-its-not-going-to-save-the-worldWelcome to Unique Marketing one of the foremost web locations for …Click the "Distillers" […]
11
dean kamen — May 4, 2008 #
[…] not bad water causing these diseases, it poor sanitation and few if any medical facilities."http://skewism.com/dean-kamens-miracle-water-distiller-its-not-going-to-save-the-worldmakezine.com: More from Dean KamenWilliam Lidwell interviewed ??bermaker, technology visionary, and […]
12
Arji — May 5, 2008 #
In response to Tex. He did not claim to turn any liquid into water. Your bias has gone to your ears. It will filter water…..that’s his claim. Even if it can produce drinking water from sea water, that would be a huge step in portable desalination devices. Also, humans can live a lot longer without food than they can without water. Water is the basis for all life on this planet. You also didn’t even think about the fact that with clean water, people can grow clean crops. Contaminated irrigation water is one way of giving everybody ecoli bacteria. So your food issue is a moot point. Clean water will help in growing the food that is also needed. Of course, it’s not the whole solution but it’s a good step further.
13
BEM — May 5, 2008 #
What about using that clean water machine to irrigate? Then you could begin to deal with hunger too!
The big question is powering it which, I think, will require nuclear power.
14
BEM — May 5, 2008 #
I didn’t mean hooking up a nuclear power plant to one machine but using nuclear power to create power grids, which, in turn could power water distillation machines like this one.
15
dean kamen — May 9, 2008 #
[…] not bad water causing these diseases, it poor sanitation and few if any medical facilities."http://skewism.com/dean-kamens-miracle-water-distiller-its-not-going-to-save-the-worldSegway - About Segway - Who We AreOne day dean kamen saw a young man in a wheelchair struggling to […]
16
u-shit-in-our-cereal — May 16, 2008 #
so it’s not the ultimate solution. it’s still a large leap in the right direction, and you fail to acknowledge that.
this is the most bogus logic i’ve heard:
“So where people once died from disease, they now die from hunger. You’re trading one horrible way of dying for another… and increasing the population while you’re at it, which in turn increases the amount of suffering.”
you’ll always be trading one way of dying for another. fill in obesity and heart disease from gluttony in your argument and still makes as much sense as the way you phrased it.
you could have saved me some time and anger by writing:
“i think this device is over-hyped because of the lackluster segway.”
17
Damien — May 20, 2008 #
Water is more important than food
18
Tim — May 28, 2008 #
You have some good points but i would have to disagree with your position. The water crisis in the world is tremendous and it is not restricted to third world countries. The product could be put into place in America as well in the case of a drought. Also, no SINGLE thing is going to save third world nations. I suggest reading into “Plumpy-nut” and newer versions of GMOs that could tremendously impact the third world’s hunger problem. There are multiple tiers to the problems.
As for the energy problem, easily solved with only minor maintenance with the use of solar cells.
Just because his previous invention didn’t have the impact advertised doesn’t mean this one can’t.