[HN Gopher] The problem with big innovations
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The problem with big innovations
Author : ChanningAllen
Score : 34 points
Date : 2022-08-01 16:47 UTC (6 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (www.indiehackers.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (www.indiehackers.com)
| zh3 wrote:
| Reminds me of Sheldrake's theory of morphic resonance. Unlikely
| (to my way of thinking), but is an amusing alternative
| explanation of why breakthroughs happen at the same time (it's
| all those minds resonating through spooky action at a distance,
| not quite like the clocks on Huygen's shelf but loosely
| analogous).
| imadr wrote:
| It's like the technology tree in the game Civilization, each
| discovery depends on others that came before it
| kabes wrote:
| The higgs boson was also theorized by 3 teams independently of
| each other around the same time
| bena wrote:
| I've talked with someone about this recently and that was their
| take as well. That eventually, certain discoveries are
| inevitable. Because everything builds on everything else.
|
| If it wasn't Newton/Leibniz, it would have been someone else.
| Galileo may have been the first/most prominent, but if it weren't
| him, it would have been someone else.
| spaetzleesser wrote:
| Agreed. Darwin had to rush publishing the theory of natural
| selection before Russell did it.
| mikewarot wrote:
| Charles Babbage clearly invented the CPU in 1837, under a
| different name, "The Analytical Engine"[1], he just didn't finish
| it. The technology of the time was barely up to the task of
| making a difference engine, but his failure to manage his
| relationship with his machinist, meant that it didn't happen. If
| he had a competent and aggressive project manager, it could have
| been done.
|
| As for the simultaneous rise of agriculture everywhere, could it
| simply be that much of the productive farmland got flooded circa
| 12,000 BCE when the sea levels rose 100 feet? [2]
| [1] - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Analytical_Engine [2]
| - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Early_Holocene_sea_level_rise
| bumbledraven wrote:
| 200 feet! Wikipedia sayeth: "The early Holocene sea level rise
| (EHSLR) was a significant jump in sea level by about 60 m (197
| ft) during the early Holocene..."
| gumby wrote:
| > As for the simultaneous rise of agriculture everywhere,
|
| Not to mention that such a phenomenon is not exact (there's no
| sharp dividing line between "non-ag" and "ag"), "agriculture"
| embraces lots of disjoint activity (rice needing water to
| support it vs wheat in a dry field), and "simultaneously"
| covers centuries if not millennia.
| beautifulfreak wrote:
| It's not a given that Leibniz invented calculus independently.
| https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leibniz-Newton_calculus_contro...
| jmmv wrote:
| This reminds me of how I was described self-driving cars at some
| point: yes, they are a great invention, but actually... they
| would not have been possible without many more other inventions
| happening earlier: GPS, digital maps, route mapping algorithms,
| computer vision, neural networks, etc.
|
| We easily see the flashy invention that combines everything that
| came before but often fail to recognize those dependent
| inventions.
| spaetzleesser wrote:
| I think the iPhone is a great example. Apple was very good at
| recognizing the time when all the pieces needed for a great
| phone were available or possible within a reasonable time
| frame.
| baxtr wrote:
| And even with all those inventions, self-driving cars are not
| available at a mass scale yet. I hope the tech won't suffer the
| same fate as fission: Always just around the corner!
| manmal wrote:
| This reads like a summary of ,,Where good ideas come from", a
| book that I'd recommend if you want to dig deeper and potentially
| improve your own having-good-ideas game.
| planarhobbit wrote:
| > So what's going on here? Magic? Graham Hancock thinks a lost
| civilization of advanced humans visited the peoples of different
| continents and shared techniques like agriculture with them. Now,
| I like science fiction, but I think there's a better and simpler
| explanation for the agricultural multiple as well as all the
| other examples of simultaneous invention that have puzzled
| scholars over the decades.
|
| Not to detract from the rest of the article but this is probably
| the least derisive, fair summary of GH's work I have come across
| anywhere close to on a "mainstream" tech news site. Hell must be
| freezing over if people aren't calling him a charlatan without
| actually bothering to read his work and listen to him, first
| hand, articulate his rationale.
| Apocryphon wrote:
| Isn't this just the ancient astronaut theory without space
| travel.
| tabtab wrote:
| The original inventor(s) often doesn't make much money, at least
| not proportional to the power of the idea. It's usually somebody
| who comes along and implements it better who gets rich. Truly
| innovative things often take tinkering to become practical.
|
| Examples: TV, jets, VCR, desktop computer (existed in 60's), GUI,
| personal digital assistant ("smart phone"), neural nets.
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