James, a fellow reader and thinker, is always tossing me ideas to pursue.
I finally told him, "Keep 'em coming, but let me warn you: there are no original ideas."
"Don’t be such a Debbie downer. There’s always new ideas," he replied, and then tells me about Henry Ellsworth, who was the Patent Office commissioner in 1843. In his report to Congress, he wrote:
"The advancement of the arts, from year to year, taxes our credulity and seems to presage the arrival of that period when human improvement must end."
Well, Mr. Ellsworth had some doubts about human ingenuity. But he was wrong.
I did a shallow dive online into the world of patents and found some fun facts. According to U.S. Patent reports in 2020 there were 34,877 design patents granted.
Then I find a list of "cool inventions" that included a walking assist robot, a need-to-pee predictor, and a desk bike to charge your phone.
Time magazine also printed a list of 200 innovations such as a Hologram Zoo in Australia that projects images such as polar bears and whales in action. No live animals in cages.
And so ... I am reminded of a great quote from author Victor Hugo:
"Nothing else in the world … not all the armies … is so powerful as an idea whose time has come.”
I’m Lonny Cain … and that’s my Perspective.
