Inventors and their inventions are never divorced from the cultures and problems they were trying to solve. Both inventors and their creations are shaped by their environments. It’s not a surprise that seemingly identical inventions pop up almost simullataniously around the world. The ideas “come to mind” at the same moments in human history, driven by similar cultural pressures and similar problems. Language, agriculture, stone tools, paper, books, calculus, electricity, and even lightbulbs roll over human populations like waves. Necessity is the mother of invention, as the saying goes. And inventions build on each other — can’t develop metal weapons prior to discovering how to smelt; don’t need writing until the population gets large enough that transactions need to be recorded (yes, the first “stories” were spreadsheets); can’t have lightbulbs until there’s electricity to power them; don’t really need agriculture until the population pressure forces the issue of reliable food source without migration. We live in the age of accelerated pace of discovery. One individual can no longer know or read all there is to know, not to mention master it. And arguably one of the most civilization-changing discoveries is upon us — artificial intelligence. Whether or not the algorithms…
