Consumerism, Not Necessity, Is the Mother of All Inventions


Consumerism is what makes inventions successful. If a great
innovation comes to the market but no one is interested in buying it, it
is worthless. We give credit to great inventors for improving our lives
immeasurably, but forget the end-users who created the demand for
the product in the first place. For example, Thomas Edison is widely
remembered as the inventor of the electric light bulb. What if no one
wanted to use electricity and we were all just as happy with candlesticks
and fireplaces? Without end-users to clamor for his brainstorm, like so
many before or since, that invention would have vanished into thin air,
along with Edison’s estimable legacy.
Instead, the light bulb became a big success because of the common
person’s desire to use that technology to achieve a higher standard of
living. Candles, matches, flames, and candleholders evolved to light
bulbs, fixtures, light switches, and remote controls. As long as this
desire to improve our lives continually exists, human technological
evolution simply cannot be stopped. Inventors’ innovative ideas are
absorbed by the commercial market as quickly as they appear, although
not all inventions are successful.
Even though intellectual efforts are important, the truth is, even if
those scientists were never born, someone else would have created
those inventions later. Human evolutionary activity is a collective effort
and does not bear adherence to any one individual. The technological
evolution is as natural as human life. Regardless of how consciously we
consider it (if at all), we are all part of this natural process.

Slow and Steady Wins the (Human) Race
If, on the other hand, an innovation were too futuristic for current
times, it would remain on the back burner until its day finally arrived.
Evolutionary changes have to be slow and steady to match the
absorption capacity of the market; it takes time for people to adapt to
these changes. For example, some of the inventions of Leonardo da
Vinci never saw the light of the day during his own lifetime or for
centuries later. They remained on paper all the time waiting, in effect,
for history to catch up with the great inventor. Now, after so many
centuries, scientists are able to analyze and understand what he was
trying to bring to life.
The same argument goes for many of Einstein’s theories, from the
theory of relativity to dark matter. Some theories are even too futuristic
for us to understand today, let alone consider using them in our
products. As human knowledge advances, however, those futuristic
concepts will be verified and eventually absorbed into the system.
Until then, sadly, they will remain on the evolutional back burner until
we as a species catch up to them.

-By RS Amblee
Author of "The Art of Looking into the Future: The Five Principles of Technological Evolution"

Amazon Link:
http://www.amazon.com/Art-Looking-into-Future-Technological/dp/0983157405/ref=pd_rhf_gw_p_t_1

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