Is the human race done with inventing all that needs to be invented? Marconi, Bell, Wilbur and Orville.. you know where this is headed, right? When was the last time that someone invented something that changed the very DNA of a society? The computer was one. You could say software and internet, but I’m not so sure. Radio, TV, airplanes; when was it last that some one invented something so basic that you could say it was created out of thin air. My friend reckons that everything this society needs has already been invented. We are just working on improvising existing platforms (the mobile phone was a step up from the landline).
Have we well and truly laid the foundations for all the requirements of a social animal? If the answer is a ‘YES’, then the 21st century will turn out to be quite a boring one. We’ll just move from alpha to beta to gama to zeta before the sun eats up the earth (or the Mayan calendar comes true; my money is not here). If the answer to the question is a ‘NO’, then whatever exits around us is one big joke compared to what’s in store. Imagine Rama’s wooden footwear placed alongside Nike’s latest shock absorbing nitro boosting cosmonaut sneakers.
It’s a fair thing to consider. Technology breeds itself and sooner or later we'll be beaming people around the world instead of flying them around in stupid airplanes. But again, that’s a case of extending the frontiers of science. My question is whether there’ll be another Galileo or Copernicus (in this century) who will pull another rabbit out of the hat and not just feed carrots to the ones that are already scurrying around.
1 comment:
First things first...Very nicely written post. However, I don't understand the title.
Coming to inventions...Let me pick one of them, say the wright brother aeroplane. Today we credit the wright brothers for inventing the first flying machine. However, they did not pull the first flying machine out of thin air. There were several failed attempts before theirs. But, when you see it from today's perspective, their invention stands out from the rest and hence the credit goes to them. Give it some time and you'll see the list of inventions showing up.
Inventions need not be gadgets. It can be drugs or procedures. We keep hearing about new drugs being discovered, or new procedures being invented to tackle a given disease.
Things are still exciting man!!
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