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My mind races but fails to invent something new; all I can
think of is what others have done before. I believe that
the world of invention is rapidly coming to the end where
everything will have been invented at which time newness
will actually be a repeat of something old.
What is proposed
here is an award to be presented to the
last inventor. The award may be a cash prize or statute
inscribed with the name, date and description of the
world’s last invention. The award will symbolize and
recognize that peope have the unique ability to conceive of
something different from nature, of things that have
never existed or have been done before. The award will
be presented during a world-wide, televised and on-line
ceremony to the last inventor. Invited to attend the
ceremony will be all the world’s greatest inventors who
will come to praise by speeches and presentations, the
importance of the last invention. The ceremony will have
music and dancing to entertain the audience until the end
of the program when the award is finally presented to the
genius who conceives of then reduces to practice the
ultimate invention.
Who will be that genius and when will it happen?
el dueno
TLO - The Last One
http://en.wikipedia...Last_One_(software)
Wiki Article about TLO [Dub, Oct 27 2010]
The Quiet Earth
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0089869/
An interesting film about the last invention. [DrBob, Oct 28 2010]
Did the patent office ever close, or did the head of the US Patent Office ever resign because there was "nothing left to invent"?
http://msgboard.sno...;f=101;t=000020;p=0
[hippo, Oct 28 2010]
The Nature of Technology by W. Brian Arthur
http://books.google...m=7&ved=0CC8Q6AEwBg
Repetitive and a bit pomo but some pretty sound basic principles and analyses. [pocmloc, Oct 28 2010]
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Annotation:
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Perhaps, but mankind's capacity for laziness seems infinite. |
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If someone invented a button that could solve all of peoples problems, six weeks later they would start working on an easier way to press that ridiculously designed awful button. |
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I believe with the right invention, we could cut the
interim time down to 3 or 4 weeks. |
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I took that last invention, added skids so it could be used on ice, made the top out of wicker (using locally available materials), added a side set of cutting teeth, and the whole thing is now orange. At half the cost, twice the height and half the girth it is useful for all sorts of things the original last invention was not. |
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{Somewhat reminds me of TLO - The Last One - a piece of software claiming to be the last piece of software you'll ever need - It produced other software}
I disagree with the main tenet of this idea. I think there're loads of new ideas out there waiting to be found... The key is either some new technology (e.g. some recent discovery) - or the imagination to consider a re-use of some current technology that no-one's thought of, yet.
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That said, every patent payment should feed into a fund to encourage others - The interest payments should fund a World-Wide Science scholarship.
So, [+]. |
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/newness will actually be a repeat of something old. / |
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the most common newnesses are repeats of something old. only very rarely is there a true brand new. |
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Creating artificial intelligence (with intelligence greater than a human) will be the last 'necessary' invention because it will be able to do all the inventing for us. Singularitarians believe this should occur circa 2045. |
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You have to laugh, or you'll go mad, eh ? |
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I don't get it. The "last invention" will go behind your back
and invent something, whether you like it or not. So the
reward would have to be returned. Sorry. End of Story. |
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//Creating artificial intelligence (with intelligence greater than a human) will be the last 'necessary' invention because it will be able to do all the inventing for us. Singularitarians believe this should occur circa 2045.// |
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Fascinating.
Do you really think that an artificial mind will be able to dream, to want, to be able to experience nessecity.
<shrugs> I can see an AI able to find all of the things overlooked by science and invention, make a bunch of repeats of something old with maybe a few new twists thrown in but I think that it will be missing both the mum and dad of true invention. |
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Scary thought if I'm wrong. |
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//The "last invention" will go behind your back and invent something//
Ooh, not necessarily, blissy. Especially if the last invention is a really interesting new weapon of some kind that wipes us all out. Of course, that wouldn't really be the "cause for celebration and recognition" that el dueno was looking for (unless you are a plant of course - see the 'Decline of Civilisation Index' posted previously) and making the award might prove problematic. |
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//Do you really think that an artificial mind will be able to dream, to want, to be able to experience nessecity.// |
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I believe human *level* artificial intelligence is possible. However AI will think differently from us, so we *may* have something to offer each other. For example, we could be the dreamers and they could be the engineers. |
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Or they could dream in a way that makes us look like hollow automatons. |
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Seems like they said something similar to this effect around 1900. |
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After the singularity we'll have to reinvent grindstones and the wheel again. |
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Emergence. Things don't come about as isolated, Platonic Things, context is everything, and as soon as you've invented a thing that makes another thing easier, it opens new doors to new problems, new opportunities and new avenues for invention. |
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Things emerge within their context, and indoing so, change that context, enabling new things to emerge. There will be no Last Invention, just a continuing wave of continual change, at the leading edges of which, new stuff will be created, and at the trailing edge, old stuff will become obsolete. |
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I would / could never believe that man's infinite capacity for making and breaking things can actually come to an end, unless mankind itself comes to an end. (nor would I want to celebrate!) |
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"Everything that can be invented has been
invented." -- Charles H. Duell, U.S. Commissioner
of Patents, in 1899. |
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Sorry, people who think this have no idea how
inventions are invented. Anything that exists
today can be combined with anything else and
make a new invention. Most of what is created is
junk, but the possible permutations are endless.
When a new worthwhile thing is created, you can
then possibly combine it with anything else in
creation to create something new. |
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So let's say you create an AI that is smarter than
humans. Well that is interesting and has been
done in limited ways, but how does it think? Is
that the "right" way? Look at people, most of
whom think. Some are smart in some way and
stupid in others. Which is the "right" way to
think? |
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The last invention will be made by the last
thought. |
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// Which is the "right" way to think? // |
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Any more stupid questions you need answering ? |
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I think we should just award it to 21Quest by default. Or perhaps it will be Vernon, who had started writing up the patent years ago and is only now getting to the last page. |
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