Are Humans Running Out of Ideas?

It has been no more than 53 years since the internet was invented, and people are already saying that we have started to run out of ideas. We get new versions of iPhones every year or so, but not a revolution in the concept. The state of the iPhone; people compare it with the actual technological progress of mankind in the past 15 years.

Big ideas are difficult to find. “Original ideas” are difficult to sustain. In the age of the internet, originality is too vulnerable to the judgment of the crowd. The reason why there are fewer big ideas today is not that we are running out of ideas, but rather because the world is getting smaller and people like to be part of it.

You feel that you are standing near the peak of innovation. Your parents did the same in the 80s. Just like you, they felt that we may have reached the peak of innovation. They probably didn’t know that in 2022, cars would not require drivers. The farthest thing they could have predicted was a robot driving a car.

Myths

We know a lot of myths. The number of myths has grown over the years, with no end in sight to their creation. Even though there are a couple of highly educated people who look for the truth, the majority look for ideas that make them happy and solve their problems. Thinking is second nature. We have to be taught to think, which is why we see so many movies with robots or supermen.

Tech enthusiasts are always looking for new technology and gadgets to buy. But they are buying new versions of it, not a revolution.

Here are a few reasons we are running out of ideas:

Slow growth is better for businesses

Tech titans prefer slow growth. If EA delivers a whole futuristic product in FIFA 22, they will run out of ideas for FIFA 23, and so on. They would like to have the same setup for FIFA 23 as they had for FIFA 22. The same goes for every other company that sells products. If it runs out of ideas, it will not be able to sell any more products. They apparently don’t want to run out of ideas, and no ideas are being born at all.

The attention span of the consumer is short

If a company delivers an innovative product, they do not know if people will love it or hate it. With a new product comes a new concept, and with it new problems that need to be fixed as well. It is better for companies to play safe and follow the path where there are fewer chances of failure. This is what most companies have been doing over the past couple of decades.

A person’s ideas are never original

Patent laws are lax. In 2022, an idea raised by a common human being either remains unheard of or gets remodified by the big bulls. This has been happening for a long time, including with Thomas Edison. But particularly at present, the vulnerability of originality is the highest. So, people are keeping their secrets limited to themselves. Ideas are not stored in the brain after a person’s death. Millions of innovations have been buried already.

There is no room for genius

The titans of technology are not particularly inventive. The largest spend their money on hiring people who have no new ideas but are good at implementing and marketing ideas that others have already thought of. They want people to work for them because they do not want a new idea, but rather a version of an old one. They do everything in order to keep their employees busy and slow down innovation, which is actually happening right now with most companies.

New ideas are actually difficult to uncover

It is not that easy to discover a new idea. We need to change our perspective on everything and look for something that has not been invented yet. This is not as easy as it sounds, as we are used to following the same path. It is easier to sit in your seat and be content with the present.

Yes, we are running out of ideas. Humans will not stop loving gadgets, but we are running out of ideas for revolutionary gadgets. There are a great number of ideas, but what we really need is an original one. Again, if “we” get that original idea, the idea becomes ours, right? So, who would reveal it anyway?