Invention Affirmed

December 10th, 2007 Posted in Neuz, Invention

Distinguish between the latest copy, the new, and the never previously realized, the neuz. Invention is the making up or finding of the neuz.

Do not limit the universal human capacity for invention to tinkerers in cellars and garages or lab scientists or explorers in foreign lands or engineers wrestling the issues of practice under the English channel or other outlandish sites. The neuz can turn up in any and all social places. That is the point and the expectation: continuing invention as a process constantly pushing social change. The mystery and rarity of change in a fixed and unmoving organized world is flooded by a constant wash from the endemic well of the neuz. Social change is a constant ordinary process that is part of the human condition. Making up and finding is a human talent like our talents for physical (athletic) and conceptual (intellectual) activity. It probably is not uniformly distributed among us, but we all participate in it and can appreciate (if not admire) its expressions.

Calling attention to the range of manifestations of human inventiveness.

1) Religion. A constant development and presentation of new cults that take the form of the charismatic leader offering his or her new way.

2) Medicine. New insights, treatment modalities, understandings contributed by biologists, chemists, practitioners.

3) Law. Constant generation of new legislation, governmental agencies, new taxes closely followed by the discovery of loop-holes and opportunities for new profit and adventure.

4) Design. An annual cycle of changing modalities of dress, home furnishings, life styles.

5) Art. Painting, sculpture, writing, dance, music, theater, cinema. Each practitioner dedicated to finding his or her own way within the tradition. Finding of new forms of expression and entertainment.

6) Crime. A search for new modus operandi among practitioners along with the responses and anticipations of the police.

7) Family life. Each household is a uniquer expression of a universal experience. Inventiveness here is both astonishing and necessary.

The process of invention is variable. Some discoveries are wildly popular and become basic elements in developing civilization. Others have more modest effects. Some disappear and are only retained in academic memory. Some not even that.

We will present some ideas on the sociology of invention over the next several posts.

Auld Lang Syne.