Invention Guides

How do you explain the decline in earth shattering inventions?

Within the past many earth shattering inventions were made (i.e. internet, telephone, cars,etc.) now days every invention seems to be a spin off or an improvement to another previous invention. How do you explain this? Is it natural or Unnatural?

Public Comments

1. The car was a spin off of the carriage, Internet was a spin off of military technology, we had it in the 50's, telephone was a new invention but not realized for a long time. You tend to telescope history too much. Things do not move that fast. Remember there have been more things invented in the last 20 years then in the entire history of mankind. Jarvick artificial heart, cell phones, relatively new, clean emission cars, go to the Internet and look up inventions and see that the ones you mentioned are hardly earth shattering. The air conditioning systems and Television were but not the others.
2. Nature is the only existence. The reasonable answer is patent monopolization; the ideas are there, but are retained in the Judgment of an other. The Will is positive, the Judgment is negative.
3. I think you are mistaking a fall in brilliant inventions with the over abundance of brilliant inventions. The level of creative innovation in our modern society is staggering. Yes, we stand on the shoulders of giants but if you regard past invention as the raw materials of the modern inventor just as electricity, wire and glass where the raw materials and in turn as copper ore, and sand where raw materials etc. We live in an age when our raw materials can be as elemental as a segment of a DNA strand or as complex as a micro-processor and where the pace of innovation makes invention seem mundane.
4. Not necessarily unnatural as "unearthly". The alien intelligences who have provided the secret to most of mankind's modern inventions have stopped coming to this planet - they have decided we are on the road to destroying ourselves anyway, so "Why bother?"
5. {necessity is the mother of invention.}..so many creature comforts have been invented/designed to date.... now most of the innovations are about "war" /"entertainment"/ "technology" which has aided in creating a world where little or no effort to exist is needed...if you live in a capitalist society that is... most people are inundated with signals from television and the like...so the average of forward motion in inventions/innovations seems limited or less then.. however...there are some Fantastic people working on inventions in producing clean water and energy .... it is my belief that if one looks for an existing human dilemma/need then the potential for new ideas come into existence. So i believe that it is natural for those of us that have been born within the last 50/100 years to think that there are less earth shattering of substantial inventions...
6. people learn always and we keep making better things. or at least more powerful and efficient things.
7. I think there are still many earth-shattering inventions and discoveries being made but because of the time we're living in they seem to be confined mostly to the medical field because contemporary society is absolute obsessed with health care and avoiding pain and disease at all costs (while still trying to hold on to their unhealthy lifestyles). Living in this super-technological age, we won't see many great strides in literature, philosophy or the arts because people don't care as much about those things right now. Health care and cures for diseases are in high demand and so that's where the work is being done (and that's where the funds are going, too, by the way). Invention takes brains and talents....and money!
8. I would support the argument that there are tons of earth shattering inventions still happening out there. We, in the developed western nations, just don't pay attention to them because of two factors #1 Many inventions don't seem to affect our day-to-day lives and #2 The ones that do are seamlessly introduced. Where was "Google Earth" and "Mapquest" ten years ago? When was the last time you needed to have the silt settled in your drinking water? A chemical added to dirty water in developing nations can settle the silt in seconds...that is lifechangeing in their world!!! How about the processes used to recycle plastic bottles? Polar fleece....that's a good one...lightweight and warm like wool, not itchy and dosen't shrink in the wash.....a dream fabric....right up there with Goretex. Hybrid Cars, The Segway people mover thingy, The Cocklar Implant, Button batteries ( those little suckers made a lot possible!!!) LED lights, low energy light bulbs, solar panels, microchips for your pets, dry erase markers and post-it notes. Permanent ink markers...anyone remember the good old days of grease pencils? Staples and staplers.....another HUGE invention, but considered very common. Paint rollers....they didn't exist in the 60's. I have a 6-in-1 fax/copier/printer/photo printer/media card reader thingy that would have cost me hundreds of dollars a mere 5 years ago...got it on sale for $50. As a small business owner, this changes my little world to a more efficient, cost effective one. Anyhow, I think you get the point. There is another interesting phenonmeon surrounding inventions....similar inventions will appear in clusters, at around the same time in different parts of the world but invented independantly. I read about it once.