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Inventions are, on many occasions, projects that remain in the drawer or the meeting room because no one bets on them. Because no one understands that they are truly interesting inventions..

The paradigmatic example of this was the invention of suitcases with built-in wheels which, despite having many decades behind it, did not become a popular invention until the 1990s.

Northwest Airlines

In the 1990s, a Northwest Airlines pilot, Robert Plath, invented the successful Rollaboard model, which incorporated wheels and also a rigid, folding handle. It was an epidemic. Suddenly, everyone replaced their old suitcases with these new ones.

However, the invention was not new: it had simply appeared at the right time. In 1972, for example, Bernard Sadow had already launched a suitcase with wheels, although it did not include a handle, but instead had it hanging from a leather strap that, in practice, made the suitcase tend to move sideways.

But a century earlier, in 1887, there already seems to be a patent for a similar suitcase. And in a newspaper article from 1951, John Allay May explains his attempts to make and sell a suitcase with wheels since 1932, as transcribed Robert J. Shiller in his book Economic narratives:

And they laughed. I was getting very serious. But they laughed, all of them. When I explained to any organization a future application of the wheel theory, they expressed themselves as if it produced a soporific boredom (why not make the most of the wheel? Why haven't we equipped people with wheels? (... ) I estimate that I have presented this concept to 1,500 people and 125 organizations. My wife got tired of listening to me in 1937. The only man who took me seriously was an inventor who lived for a time in my neighborhood. The problem is that no one cared. took seriously.

In Xataka Science

Kleiber's Law or that more innovative people live in cities than in the countryside

No one really knows why the wheeled suitcase finally fell apart. Maybe it was something in the design. Or the rigid handle. But Shiller suspects the secret is glamour.:

In previous attempts, rolling suitcases were seen as a somewhat ridiculous contraption. Its 1991 press ads linked the Rollaboard narrative to airlines, which in 1990 were considered more glamorous than now. (…) The epidemic of wheeled suitcases was fueled when pilot crews and cabin crew widely adopted the Rollaboard model. Passengers saw distinguished-looking aviation professionals walking through airports with their innovative suitcases.

After all, ideas are more part of an ecosystem than a brain: if the ecosystem is not there, the idea not only takes longer to flourish, but to take root and begin to be in common use, which ultimately intervenes not in the propagation of the idea, but in its mere conception. For this reason, precisely, More innovative people live in cities than in the countryside.

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The news

The suitcase with wheels or how inventions only flourish when there is context

was originally published in

Xataka Science

by
Sergio Parra

.

The growth cycle of a exponential technology (Artificial Intelligence, the Internet of Things, the cloud, advanced robotics, autonomous vehicles...) can be divided into six phases and all six begin with the letter "D".

Understanding them can help us see what phase each of the exponential technologies is in and the radical changes they are about to bring about throughout this century.

The six D's

1. Digitization: takes place when technology moves from using atoms to using bits, from matter to long strings of zeros and ones. This allows speeding up thanks to the Moore's Law (power and/or speed doubles every year, and/or cost is halved) and Rose's Law (in the case of quantum computing).
2. Disappointment: in the first steps of exponential growth, the jumps are short and, given the publicity that has been given to the new technology, people begin to become disappointed and think that it was not that big of a deal or that it will never be like what happens in the movies. Science fiction. For example, we had already accepted that we would not have flying cars flying over cities, but that's going to change soon.
3. Disruption: the real impact on society takes place, suddenly and profoundly modifying products, markets, services and economic sectors. A good example of this has been the mobile phone, which has transformed the world so much that even is lifting Africa out of poverty.
4. Demonetization: Money disappears from the equation, which is why many Google services are free. The marginal cost is also reduced to almost zero, like what happened to photography when it went digital.
5. Dematerialization: products disappear from the market; For example, Wikipedia has dematerialized encyclopedias, the smartphone has dematerialized GPS devices, iTunes the record store, Netflix the video store...
6. Democratization: occurs when all social strata can access the service or product. The richest person in the world can buy the most powerful smartphone on the market, but so can middle and even lower class people. The massive open online courses or MOOCs have democratized education.

In Xataka Science

Books that inspire us: 'The future goes faster than you think' by Peter H. Diamandis and Steven Kotler

An easy-to-use interface also marks a turning point in a technology (for example, when we go from complex computers to Windows, and later to iOS and Android. All of which will eventually make us live a science fiction life in very few years. A striking example of this is the so-called affective technology either affective computing, which will allow our technology to tune in to our mood (first of all) but also influence it to make us feel better.

An example of what will happen when you get home after a difficult day at work and let yourself be guided by affective technology can be seen in the following video, taken from The future goes faster than you think of Peter H. Diamandis and Steven Kotler:

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The news

These are the 6 phases that an exponential technology goes through and that predict a fascinating 21st century

was originally published in

Xataka Science

by
Sergio Parra

.

We have already become accustomed to accepting that, daily, the victims of COVID-19 number in the hundreds. What in other areas would only be a scandal if there were a dozen victims, or even one or two victims, here we are not so moved, or at least not proportionally.

This happens. basically, for two psychological effects: “singularity effect” and “psychic numbing.”

Singularity and numbness

The great atrocities they do not generate proportional reactions to motivate action, but individual stories reach deeper levels of our emotions and push us to act with greater urgency and investment of means.

Therefore, people donate a lot more money to help an identifiable victim (for example, a child or family) than an unidentifiable victim, especially if we talk about a very large number of victims.

In Xataka Science

We only understand groups of 150 people (I)

The authors of this recent study, from August 2020, confirmed this bias by carrying out text analysis of the New York Times and other sources that publish the loss of life, analyzing the affect and emotion of the text (sentimental analysis) in the readers. Concluding, in sum, that: the more they die, the less we care.

In other words: our ability to feel sympathy for people in need seems limited, and this form of compassion fatigue can lead to apathy and inaction, consistent with what is repeatedly seen in response to many large-scale human and environmental catastrophes. scale.

Or as the Nobel Prize in Medicine summarized Albert Szent-Gyorgi:

It moves me deeply to see a man suffering and I would risk my life for him. Then he spoke impersonally about the possible pulverization of our great cities, with one hundred million dead. I am incapable of multiplying the suffering of one man by a hundred million.

This tendency to conceptualize humanity as a few individuals is because we do not have enough mental capacity to process so many people. Our brain was forged in a past world where we were part of tribes of just 100 or 150 individuals. Spending mental energy on more individuals was a waste.

For that reason, too, we tend to think of the authors of inventions or literary works as unique geniuses and not as much as factor ecosystems (which also involve hundreds or thousands of other brains). Or that the debauchery of cities like Amsterdam is due to policies created by human beings and not interconnected coincidences, like the discovery of something tiny in the guts of herrings and that Amsterdam was built on a quagmire:

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The news

We are more moved by the loss of an individual life than by the loss of thousands of lives.

was originally published in

Xataka Science

by
Sergio Parra

.

So many things have happened, but above all they are going to happen, typical of a science fiction novel that one wonders if science fiction is starting to get boring compared to reality.
We are not just witnessing the crests of a hypertechnological tsunami that will change the world in a few years in ways incomprehensible to us: It is a hyperacceleration to which a convergence is added.

That's what it's about, among other things, The future is moving faster than you think: How technological convergence is transforming businesses, the economy and our lives, of Peter H. Diamandis and Steven Kotler.

Hyperacceleration and convergence

This new book by the optimistic duo Diamandis and Kotler constitutes a kind of third installment that began with Abundance and with BOLD. It is not essential to have read them to start with this one, but a little context is always good.

In Xataka Science

At least 25 companies are already dedicating themselves to developing flying cars

Like the previous works, we are looking at an approximation of the different solutions with which technology can expand the limits of what is possible and, thus, transform the world. Here, however, the authors apply these ideas and examine what happens when the path of an accelerating technology converges with the direction that other technology is taking that is also accelerating.

For example, what happens when artificial intelligence and, for example, augmented reality converge? These convergences have surprisingly profound effects on commerce, advertising, entertainment and education, among others.

The future is moving faster than you think: How technological convergence is transforming businesses, the economy, and our lives (No collection)

Today on Amazon for €20.85

However, these ideas are unintuitive because our brain evolved in a local, linear environment. Local in the sense that most of the things we interacted with were less than a day's walk away. Linear in the sense that the pace of change was exceptionally slow.

This new book by Diamandis and Kotler, therefore, tries to operate as a kind of telescope, microscope and even stethoscope to try to scrutinize what is happening in the world of technology, and what will probably be cooked. Something that, without a doubt, seems to be revolutionary and good for everyone. For this reason, the book has also been a source of inspiration for some entries such as At least 25 companies are already dedicating themselves to developing flying cars.

What will happen when artificial intelligence, robotics, digital biology and sensors join 3D printing, blockchain and multi-gigabit global connection speeds? How will these convergences transform today's traditional industries? How will it affect the way we educate our children, govern our nations, and care for our planet?

–
The news

Books that inspire us: 'The future goes faster than you think' by Peter H. Diamandis and Steven Kotler

was originally published in

Xataka Science

by
Sergio Parra

.