Is Invention Dead?

Has the complexity of modern technology progressed to the point where it has become nearly impossible for an independent man or woman to invent something that can change the world for all mankind forever, without the assistance of multimillion-dollar equipment available only to universities and billion-dollar corporations?

Let me explain ...

In the days of Alexander Bell, Thomas Edison, and the Wright brothers, a person could go to his basement or her lab and invent something that changed the world for all time, and forever changed the way people would interact with the world.

For a time, this was the way of great innovations. People thought of as eccentrics labored away isolated from the public and then one day shocked the world with their creation. As Mark Eppler said in the article “The Death of Impossibility” (Mar/Apr 2004), "When the Wright brothers solved the problem of manned flight, they achieved a technological breakthrough that stunned the world. It was an incredible achievement with no modern parallel. The only thing that might come close would be if Neil Armstrong had landed on the moon in a craft he had built himself and paid for with a part-time job!”

Has this type of invention disappeared? Is it now impossible, or is it merely dormant (hopefully the latter)? Has there been such a breakthrough in the past 25 or 50 years? The natural response is, what about companies like Google, Amazon, eBay, Microsoft, Facebook, etc., companies that are changing the way we live every day? Or, companies on the horizon that are changing the way we will live?

These innovative companies are certainly the result of great inventors who deserve enormous respect. However, their “inventions” have one obvious differentiator from the great inventions in the past: These lifechanging innovations were creations of software. They are new variations of code that allow for information to be used in a new way.

But, let’s assume for a moment that software innovations are not truly “inventions” in the purest sense but, rather, extremely creative uses of a previous invention, the computer and the software that makes it useful. For example, Google was more an incredibly inventive use of software than it was an invention itself.  (This is not to take anything away from Google or the other these other great companies.)

With that assumption, it could be argued that truly life-altering inventions of the future cannot come from individuals (or even small independent groups) with an idea. What are some examples that would change our physical world the way that the previously mentioned inventions did? The elimination of disease, overcoming death, easy travel into space, cheap reusable energy for everyone on the planet, the ability to negate gravity, teleportation, etc.

Sound like science fiction? No more so than flight was before the Wright brothers accomplished it. But, these NEXT great changes to our world rely on such complex science, such as quantum physics, nano-engineering, and microbiology, that the independent inventor with an idea and a passion cannot even hope to pursue his or her idea without the assistance of large organizations. Or can he/she?

There will always be entrepreneurs who earn billions with new ideas, gadgets, and technologies. But, is it possible that the next GREAT invention could possibly be the brain child of some independent person working in his or her basement, funded only by enormous hopes and dreams?

Or, are we doomed to a future where we have to rely on the creativity of governments, large companies, and institutions because of the complexity of the technology necessary to achieve the next generation of life-altering innovations?

Personally, I believe these innovations can be the creations of inventive individuals who approach the problems from entirely different perspectives -- necessitated by their limited resources.

I look forward to your responses.

Originally published in AdvantEdge magazine (May/June 2006)