Ingenuity R.I.P.

There was a time when the idea of using fencing wire to fix everything on the farm was the height of ingenuity. So much so, that we (New Zealanders) named the process of invention after it. The ‘Number 8 Wire’ mentality now describes an invention out of a necessity and usually with limited resources. This brings me to two important points. Are we as a planet reaching a plateau in terms of necessity and are we now limited by the resources we have?

After trawling through the latest issue of National Geographic (Jan 2013), I was disappointed to learn that the idea of inter-stellar travel is no closer than it was 50 years ago. We essentially need to mark it as ‘too hard’ and wait until someone comes to us with their awesome technology. Mars is possible but it may be a money pit for a while and talk of mining asteroids for platinum in this issue sounded promising but first you have to find one.

Number 8 fencing wire…best invention ever?

So if this planet is all we have and we aren’t leaving any time soon, what will the next great invention be? There have been some great inventions over time. ‘Fire’ was important for cooking Mammoth burgers, The ‘wheel’ has been useful on occasion in terms of increasing the area that we have access to and the Earl of Sandwich is a personal hero of mine. But in terms of what has been invented in the past compared to what is invented now. I think we have seen a great slow down.

Back in renaissance Italy, Leonardo da Vinci was not just a painter but also a great architect and inventor. We have him to thank for some of the earliest designs of the helicopter, the hang glider, the cannon and an armoured tank. He also created very accurate schemata for the human anatomy. He was a genius and it looks as though he was a glutton for using up the space where ingenuity was absent. Fast forward to the industrial age/machine age and in the Victorian era any number of motors and engines requiring coal/steam/diesel and eventually electricity changed the world of manufacturing for good. Then there was another slow down. Fossil fuels may change motor transportation eventually but it will only be out of necessity (ie very high gas prices) that brings great change there. There is now a plateau and as far as I can tell the Land Rover Defender doesn’t look that much different than it did 30 years ago( that’s a good thing – one of my favourites).

It is the information age that has brought the next bout of change. The most important invention to me has to be the internet. It’s easily the most efficient way to communicate, shop, learn, read. You name it, it is available to anyone with a connection. It has shrunk the planet and made every shop front available to any passer-by. The other great progression is simply greater and greater amounts of memory stored on smaller and smaller devices and of course the compiling of what were very separate technologies. The best example of this ‘compilation’ is the iPhone (or smart phone) to do what your iPhone does now twenty years ago you would need a shelf full of cd’s a shelf full of DVD’s (or VHS) a small library of books, a large telephone connected to the wall, a cupboard full of board games, a couple of boxes of risqué magazines, a large wall clock, a big clunky calculator, a large notepad, envelopes, a book of stamps, a camera (with tripod), a heavy CRT television….you can see where I’m going. The list goes on and on. However this is merely consolidation of many great inventions. Since the internet it has simply been shown there is vast room for improvement. But I’m going to stick my neck out there and say nothing truly revolutionary has been invented since the internet (although technically that particular revolution is still going).

My question to you is this: What will be the next truly life changing invention? And don’t say ‘I don’t know, it hasn’t been invented yet’. Necessity is the mother of invention and there will be some great necessity in the future, but what?

My own guess is water or something water related.  As long as we remain 70 percent water there will always be a need and it is already more expensive to buy water than coke or even alcohol from some retailers. There will be some revolutionary water treatment invention in the coming decades. Either that or we’ll all be getting pretty thirsty. Obviously the inventor won’t be Irish as there’s no great hurry here…but it will happen.

What do you think the next great invention will be? Leave a reply.