The prevailing myth of invention is
that it is the product of a solitary genius. Steven
Johnson takes on this myth in How We
Got to Now.
Johnson’s book is a history
of invention with a focus on six particular innovations. He demonstrates that
simultaneous invention is common, suggesting that societal knowledge, norms and
expectations play a part in invention—at least in providing an environment in
which certain types of inventions can be created and flourish.
Thomas
Edison and the light bulb is the classic myth challenged by simultaneous
invention. Humphrey
Davy demonstrated an incandescent electric light in 1802 and Frederick
de Moleyns received the first patent for a light bulb in 1841. By the time
Edison got involve, people had been working on light bulbs for 30 years, and
the potential for electric light had been now for 70 years. Edison and his team
of collaborators deserve a lot of credit for creating a commercially successful
electric lighting system, inventing solutions to many problems along the way,
but is a story of systematic hard work.
Edison’s electric lighting system depended on a lot of prior
technology, which relates to another of Johnson’s points: clusters of
inventions. An invention can illuminate a previously unnoticed problem (or
create a new one). For instance, the availability of affordable books that
follow Johannes
Gutenberg’s invention of the printing press revealed that many people were
farsighted. This sparked a demand for reading glasses. The tinkering with
lenses led to the invention of telescopes and microscopes. Galileo took up
the telescope and made discoveries in astronomy that
reshaped how people saw the world. Robert Hooke
used the microscope to explore a seemingly alien world of the very tiny thing
all around us, though the revolution he inspired took longer to bloom.
Johnson explores other aspects of invention and society. I think it is
fair to say that his view of how invention works is a lot messier than the
myth. Inventors are at the right place at the right time, with open minds that
are prepared (likely by accident) to make a connection and a willingness to do
the work of thinking, testing and making something new. They probe the boundaries
of their fields, tinker and throw themselves into hobbies that bring them,
often with companions, to crossroads that challenge their notions of where they
can go and how they can get there.
On the whole, Johnson presents a vision of hope in our history. We are
not dependent on genius or serendipity; human creativity is both a social and
an individual process in which the collision of ideas leads to new ideas. We
live in an era where the collision of ideas may be more possible than ever.
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