REinventing the wheel

The human race is over. Gone are all the wonderful ideas, inventions and innovative know-how that used to dominate the rapid growth of the most dominant species on planet Earth. There will be no more pyramids built, no bright ideas like electricity and there will certainly never be a time-travel device. The human race is soooo over but when did we peak?

Was it when we invented the wheel or discovered fire?

Was it when we discovered that we could kill other creatures with rocks, arrows and long bows?

Was it when we learned to travel across oceans, fly through the sky or simply move faster across land by riding horses, driving cars and sitting on trains?

Was it when we invented aqueducts or created the flush toilet?

Was it when we discovered electricity?

Was it when we invented antibiotics?

Was it when we invented the radio, television or computer?

Was it when we landed on the moon?

Was it when we, no, Al Gore, created the internet?

Whenever it was, the key is that it was, as in it has already happened, thus is not yet to happen down the road. It’s time we pat ourselves on the back, enjoy life as we know it and wait for advanced races to swoop in and, as every alien invasion movie we invented has shown, wipe us out. We’ve nothing new to offer so anytime will do for the inevitable takeover. Or perhaps other species will simply wait on this peaked civilization to finish itself, and the planet, off as it fades from existence. That would be easier…

Spinning in place?

We are over because we are lazy. Innovation goes out the window when motivation does. Oh, it is no wonder us humans are tired since we live in a fast-paced world where new technologies dominate, information is updated continuously and time is currency. Trying to stay current is hard enough work let alone trying to find the time/energy/enthusiasm to think up the cotton gin, light bulb, printing press or model T of today.

Technological mud

The easiest current way to create a new wheel is to reinvent it. The wheel, or wheels, of 2012 are websites and Apps. Want to be innovative? Sure you do, so don’t waste your time creating something brand new; just go online, take your five favorite websites or Apps and combine them into one and BAM! – you are now an innovator!

Seriously, let someone else create a semi-original site and you can swoop in, add a drop down menu here, a pin there and you, sir or madam, are not only a modern-day innovator but you are also rich – Congrats!!!

ConglomorApps

Any website or App that serves to combine various other sites and apps into one big lump is what I call a ConglomorApp. These sites count as creation, perhaps even innovation, but I call it lazy, generic, unoriginal and just boring.

For example, when Mark Zuckerberg created Facebook, the site WAS ground-breaking since it practically invented  social media as we know it. Twitter, though different, took it another direction while also functional and, more importantly different. Fast-forward to 2012 and we have Imo which lumps Facebook, Twitter and any other social media site you use into one – astounding?

Another example, this time it’s If This Then That which claims it will “put the internet to work for you!” It will do this by combining all the different apps and sites that you use daily into one. Is this actual innovation or is it just reinventing the wheel yet again?

…lazy, generic, unoriginal and just boring.

Like the previous examples, there are many other sites and apps that simply just compile different sites into one and call themselves original. Check out more at TIME‘s ‘50 Best Websites and iPhone Apps of 2012.’

Are these sites any better than the ones that literally copy existing sites while only adding a “generic” twist and declare themeselves something new? A few examples include: Clipboard imitating Pinterest, the new Myspace mimicking Facebook or Viddy which is essentially a Instagram + YouTube clone. Don’t even get me started with sites like Lamebook that is literally just Facebook and pieces posts together. Just a bit unexciting and definitely not original.

Innovate > Create

Humans, like you and I, need to be a lot more creative with our innovation since the two are not one and the same. The act of creating something is not inherently creative especially if what you create is not truly original or new. Instead of the lazy, quick dollar, we need to think outside the monitor, literally, so we can move forward as a civilization. We just explored Mars (!); let’s build on that to prove that we haven’t peaked.

Let’s be the innovators that our ancestors were so we can move forward instead of being stuck in technological mud.

Let’s not continue to follow the path of others but instead create a new one.

Let’s…