Invention
From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia
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An invention is a new composition, device, or process. An invention may be derived from a pre-existing model or idea, or it could be independently conceived in which case it may be a radical breakthrough. In addition, there is cultural invention, which is an innovative set of useful social behaviors adopted by people and passed on to others. Inventions often extend the boundaries of human knowledge or experience. An invention that is novel and not obvious to others skilled in the same field may be able to obtain the legal protection of a patent.
Downside of inventions
As Paul Virilio has noted, every new invention has a downside which we are unwilling to acknowledge in the name of progress: the invention of automobiles inaugurated car-crashes; the invention of nuclear energy, Hiroshima and Tchernobyl. The technologies of instant communications have invented pure war.
See also
- Creativity
- Creativity techniques
- Diffusion of innovations
- Discovery
- List of inventors killed by their own inventions
- Mad scientist
- Mind's eye
- Multiple discovery
- Technology
- The heroic theory of invention and scientific development
- Timeline of historic inventions, for a detailed list of inventions, listed by date of invention