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Originally Posted by DarkFlame145
I'm not saying that FIRST is the reason why he deserves it it's just a another thing that I think deserves recognition. His work with water purification I think will be very impotent in the future. He has also brought comfort to people that are in wheelchairs with his Ibot and making them more accessible to places.
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Many people have done work in water purification. There are tons of effective, practical systems i've seen. The biggest thing, and the thing that will be worthy of a Nobel Prize, will be actually implementing these systems throughout the world. As for the other work Dean has done...
1)The segway. If this made him worth of a Nobel Prize, then why wouldn't Henry Ford have won an award for making automobiles readily available to people? Afterall, that revolutionized transportation far more than the segway might ever do.
2)The Ibot- how many times have you seen someone on an Ibot? Yea, they're helpful, and they're nifty, but so are a lot of other things. They help such a small percentage of people that it's rather insignificant when compared to some of the Nobel Prize winning accomplishments. Needless to say, it's a great idea, and the engineers that developed the Ibot deserve recognition for their work, but not to the extent of a nobel prize.
3)All the medical innovations he's made- They have generally been improvements upon technology that already existed, making it more handy for hospitals, but generally doing what other equipment has already been able to do. No great discoveries or anything of that nature. Giving him a Nobel Prize for this would mean that all the other inventors that have improved medical technology would deserve Nobel Prizes.
4)The prothestetic arm- this could be considered worthy of a Nobel Prize, I guess, but only after implementing it well. But what was said for the Ibot can be said for this as well. The influence isn't broad enough to truly be worthy.
5)FIRST- Yes, this was his brain child, but has he really been the one to inspire all the students? Or has it been the mentors that inspired? Also, it's not a very concrete thing to base a Nobel Prize on. One could argue that the people who leave FIRST and do great things for humanity would have done those things without FIRST. He may have inspired many people, but if that's the basis for a Nobel Prize, then why didn't Linus Paulings high school teachers get a Nobel Prize when he did?
The truth is, Dean has done a lot of impressive and cool things through life, and he has made a difference, but the culmination of things he's done and the differences he's made aren't broad enough to be worthy of a Nobel Prize. We'll see where the water purification goes. If a few years down the line, clean water is available to everyone, then he'll definately deserve a Nobel Prize. Assuming no one beats him too it.