From: Joshua Fox (joshua@joshuafox.com)
Date: Wed Aug 09 2006 - 11:42:31 MDT
Phil,
True innovation is not visible as it is happening -- for example, a
few years before the date that we now identify as the invention of
airplanes, telephones, etc., no one would have said that these were
the recent innovations, even if multiple inventors were competing to
achieve the same thing; a few decades earlier these were just ideas; a
few years after the invention these would be considered
scarcely-functional toys for tinkerers or the wealthy; and only a
decade or two later could one truly identify the important
innovations.
Most great inventions actually take decades to come to fruition, so
even if you were able to track innivation as it occured, you'd have a
hard time pinning down one date as the moment of invention.
With technological acceleration, we can now identify innovation
faster, but on the other hand there is so much going on that it is
harder to put a finger on the important ones.
Joshua
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