all about his need to figure out how human flesh What Leonardo’s fate was to become was what he
works; it’s got nothing to do with him trying to had most wanted to be, all along — Leonardo from
cure people or give them any kind of benefit. Even Vinci, an Officially Amazing Guy. He finally died,
his dead cadavers seem surprised and impressed much respected and pampered, in the entourage of
by him: “Wow! Look! Leonardo cut me open and the King of France. The King never asked Leonardo
learned my anatomical secrets!” In his autopsy to do anything much or carry out any practical
assignment. It was more than enough for the King
Leonardo sketched tens just to listen to Leonardo ranting about the amazing _{stuff he’d figured out.}
of thousands of fantasy Leonardo was blazingly eager to do incredible
things, using secret techniques he had learned him-
machines, from ball-bear- self, demonstrated in as public and showy a way as
possible. For Leonardo, that’s what technology was

ings to gigantic cranes, all about. So he was an engineer. And mostly an artist. _{yet somehow, they always} But above all, an ego-driven, visionary entrepreneur. _{Bill Gates owns his codices. Leonardo da Vinci was} stay on one message: the father of the modern geek. “Leonardo is amazing.”

work, Leonardo radiates hackerly glee at having pulled off a scary, little-known, semi-legal, very difficult stunt.

Leonardo is always particularly eager to do amazing things that any normal guy would consider impossible. So quite a few of his coolest inventions really are impossible. It’s not that Leonardo is ever a fraud — for instance, he manages to figure out, from his own researches, that perpetual motion is a swindle. That’s a genuine tribute to his common sense. But the science of physics hasn’t been invented yet, so Leonardo has no way to calculate how much energy his imaginary machines require to run.

Leonardo sketches out ingenious systems of worm gears, cranks, and ratchets — spinning wheels, counterweights, giant timber beams

— but where’s the engine? In Leonardo’s world the “engine” is usually a solo guy. He’s the ideal Leonardo engine worker, and when Leonardo sketches him out, he’s commonly this tiny little guy in the corner — half-naked, firmly muscled, and

In his Codex Atlanticus,

really getting into his labors. _{Leonardo stated about his}
He looks pretty much like Charlie Chaplin parachute: “Anyone can
trapped by machinery in Modern Times, but full of ^{jump from no matter what}

Renaissance. When it comes to a really tough job, ^{height without any risk} whatsoever.”

like flying, Leonardo will put four guys on the job.

Leonardo’s helicopter has four guys running around pushing capstans and driving a big paper screw up into the air. In reality, those four guys would have to be four 200-horsepower aircraft engines.

What Leonardo needed, to make his dreams leave paper and take flight, was the Industrial Revolution. Bruce Sterling ( bruce@well.com) is a science fiction writer