I happened upon this on CNN.com and thought someone here might be interested.
http://www.cnn.com/2005/TECH/05/11/visionary.kamen/
Edit: You can vote for your favorite visionary here:
http://www.cnn.com/SPECIALS/2005/vision/visionaries.html
Very cool. Too bad they didn’t ask about FIRST as well. I like his quote under his picture, “A city needs a car like a fish needs a bicycle”.
So far Dean Kamen is in the lead, it takes like 2 seconds to vote so everyone should do it :]
VOTE!
I did.
So far 1st place Dean Kamen with 13%; 2nd place Aubrey de Grey with 9%; Norman Foster with 7%.
Go Dean! 14% with my vote.
Dean is now running away with the vote, at 19%! Everyone should help out and vote!
19% for Dean now. I did kinda want to vote for Burt Rutan also because I am really interested in the work he is doing. I am going to be an aerospace engineer, and working with Burt Rutan at Scaled Composites would be one of the coolest jobs I could think of. However, I had to vote for Dean in the end. As much as I like the work Burt Rutan is doing, Dean’s work has a much greater positive and immidiate impact on human quality of life.
Yes, I almost cast my vote for Burt Rutan as well. I think it is the ultimate irony that NASA, DARPA, and Boeing are now calling on Burt Rutan and Scaled Composites to use the White Night to carry the X-37. Burt defines thinking “outside the box.”
http://www.cnn.com/2005/TECH/space/05/31/white.knight/index.html
http://www.cnn.com/2005/TECH/space/06/23/white.knight/index.html
From what I can recall, Burt Rutan attended the 1992 U.S.FIRST Robotics Competition. My co-workers who were on the Delco Electronics (now Delphi) - Kokomo HS team talked about meeting Rutan.
So, Rutan and Kamen have some sort of relationship. I wonder if there is a way to get Rutan re-interested in FIRST, and have him attend future FIRST events. Does anyone out there have contact with Rutan?
Andy B.
Voted, now at 22%.
I don’t really think there’s much of an option between DK and the rest of the visionaries. So indeed, I voted for Dean, still @ 22%.
Yes. Getting both Rutan brothers involved in some fashion, along with a few other folks that might be recognized, is being pursued.
-dave
…a quote which was ‘inspired by’ that of Irina Dunn’s 1970 witticism – “A woman needs a man like a fish needs a bicycle.” …how visionary 
voted, Dean Kamen at 27%
I am sure that FIRST is way ahead of me on this but some other names that come to mind that are connected with Scaled Composites like Paul Allen, Sir Richard Branson, and Steve Fossett may be a great source of support for FIRST. These guys all seem to be huge supporters of projects like FIRST that inspire great thinking and change and technological advancement while “thinking outside the box” and have the resources to do just about anything they want. If the right people got together with the right people there is no telling what great new things could happen for the FIRST program.
With my vote Deans at 28% go DK, and I don’t mean Donky Kong:)
30% with my vote.
31% 
32%
Does anyone get the feeling that we’re swaying the vote? Just a thought…