Is America Really Running Out of Original Ideas?

To me, the most natural fit here for both art and science is the "innovation-as-mining" hypothesis. In that hypothesis:The basic dynamic is that innovation in a given area is mostly a function of how many people are trying to innovate, but "ideas get harder to find" over time.

Conjuring up new technologies, products, or marketing slogans to increase profits distinguishes the entrepreneurial mastermind from the mere corporate flunky. We accept that this is a good approach for solving economic issues and scientific problems. Yet at the same time, dreaming of different ways of organizing our lives is dangerous and discourag

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Hypothesis 3: The "innovation as mining" hypothesisThe "innovation as mining" hypothesis says that ideas naturally get harder to find over time, in both science and art. So we should expect that it takes more and more effort over time to maintain the same rate of innovation.