Mysterious 'IT' Inventor Downplays Hype

N E W   Y O R K, Jan. 15 -- The inventor of a mysterious new gadget said to be more important than the Internet has stepped forward to say "IT" may not change the world, after all.

"We have a promising project, but nothing of the Earth-shattering nature that people are conjuring up," said Dean Kamen, president of Manchester, N.H.-based DEKA Research, in a statement.

Fuzzy details about Kamen's new product were leaked in a book proposal last week, setting off a wave of speculation in the media and on the Internet about what the invention — which is known simply as "IT," or by the code name "Ginger" — might be.

Was it a new, revolutionary type of computer or maybe a personal scooter, similar to a hovercraft?

It was the frenzied guessing games and overblown reports of what IT might be that encouraged Kamen, who had refrained from any comment at first, to issue the statement on Friday.

The invention had been described as having the firm backing of such high-tech leaders as Apple Computer co-founder Steve Jobs and Amazon.com founder Jeff Bezos. An article on Inside.com published Tuesday said the two executives deemed IT to be of great social and economic importance.

But in his statement Kamen said several of the comments cited in the book proposal were taken out of context.

"The leaked proposal quoted several prominent technology leaders out of context, without their doubts, risks and maybes included," Kamen said in the statement. "This, together with spirited speculation about the unknown, has led to expectations that are beyond the mere whimsical."

Is IT Publicity Good-Science?

As soon as the proposal was leaked, top scientists commented that it was a very unusual way to introduce an idea or a product to the world — but it was a fantastic sales strategy.

“Usually, there’s a scientific background and then you would imagine seeing things in published literature in peer review” before a new scientific advance is described in a mass-market book, says Nobel Prize-winning chemist and physicist Alan Heeger.