Innovation Paradigm Replaced

Theory Chapter 2 Stepping Stones

Stepping Stones

Stepping stones are placed every time a pattern proves useful and is shared. These stones together are called progress and they are the determinants of the past and future success of the human race.

Stepping Stones are proven ideas that :-
- Can include any Law, Theory, Concept, Product or Service.

- Are recorded and communicated in a useful form.

The fewer the stepping stones, the greater the innovative leap between the abstract and the practical, plus the greater the cost and risk involved. For instance, in times of war military innovation accelerates many fold because great leaps can be made without regard to cost. In war failure is not an option.

The more stepping stone paths followed the better the outcome. Having existing stepping stones in place means that following paths is quick and easy. And as Edison maintained, in the final analysis innovation is a numbers game, the more you try the more you get.

With stepping stones order and position is everything. You need to understand where each stone leads and in which order they are placed. If you want more concrete ideas you move towards the practical end and if you need conceptuality and wider applicability you move to the theoretical end. The law of conservation of momentum will explain many phenomena and in turn countless concepts so you need to get your ducks in a row.

Stepping stones have certain features that have kept progress painfully slow for millennia but show signs of exponential acceleration from here on in. Over the centuries there were few stepping stones but nothing to indicate an intellectual deficiency, so the dearth of technology would indicate communication has been the greater difficulty. Over the last few years the person to person communication explosion has driven this problem into the mists of time. Webs, mobiles, blogs, forums, books, and other media have multiplied the number of good ideas encountered and shared by an individuals on a daily basis.

Luckily, it seems, we are at the productive end of many years of an Innovation Continuum. For hundreds of years people have improved life with all manner of inventions and devices. Where we are now there is a (relative) abundance, produced by countless innovations. We are at the event horizon of a thought timeline that results in milk bottles on the doorstep, mobile phones ringing in your pocket, intelligent agents on your desktop and electronic books on the Ipod.

At the start of this continuum are the laws of the universe and these laws go on to set the rules for everything that follows. Our task is simple, to make stepping-stones from the universal laws, all the way to the product we are improving at the sharp end.

To produce these stepping stones we have an embarrassment of riches. With over two thousand years of recorded history we have technologies that make magic look mundane.

So, rather than start from abstract scientific laws it’s much better to focus on a concrete example from one of the millions of innovations we already use. This product focus gives a tangible beginning to what has until now, been a mysterious process. Allowing us to describe a straightforward set of steps leading from present reality to future products , compounds our advantage.

posted by Waldo Hitcher @ 4:29 AM