The Curious Case of Parallel Inventions
Amusing stories of people converging on ideas at the same time
Hello there,
Before we begin today’s intriguing piece from the world of technology, check out this recent podcast I did where we spoke about The Minimalist’s vision, books, history and much more.
Have you heard of Charles Darwin?
Of course, you have. He’s THE man who came up with the theory of evolution, right?
Right. Now, have you heard of Alfred Wallace?
Well, you likely have if you’re the nerdy type who loves sitting in the library with his specs on and front teeth out. But most people haven’t.
Despite the fact that he came up with the very same theory of evolution that Darwin did. In fact, he wrote about it before Darwin, and even sent him a letter outlining his ideas.
This made Darwin work harder and rush towards publishing his own work- The Origin of Species- that ended up sealing *his* name in the history books, and not that of poor Mr. Wallace.
Surprisingly, both gentlemen came up with their theories after reading the same book- a grim essay on rising populations and the question of how they could possibly be fed by Thomas Malthus. Some say that even Malthus was quite close to discovering the theory, and somebody else would have if Darwin and Wallace somehow didn’t.
But this isn’t just an astonishing coincidence.
What seems like a purely chance encounter is a rather constant affair when you study the trajectory of technical invention and scientific discovery. And it’s not just limited to nerdy scientists spitting out theories in their cobweb-laden laboratories.
Consider the telephone. Again, we’ve all heard that Alexander Bell discovered it. But barely any of us know that another gentleman by the name of Elisha Gray applied to patent the telephone on the exact same day as Bell- 14th February, 1876! Clearly, those guys didn’t have much going for themselves on V-Day.
This unbelievable coincidence led to a lot of heartburn and accusations between the two parties, reminiscent of the 9 PM debate on Times Now. Unfortunately for Gray, his patent attorney advised him to drop his claim because he thought that the telephone technology wasn’t “worth serious attention”, thereby executing one of the greatest facepalm moments in the history of technology. Thanks to his crappy advice, school kids don’t hear about Gray.
The simultaneity of discovery is a constant in the story of technological advancement. Dig deep enough into the archives and you will find multiple discoverers of each novel idea.
There are 6 people who invented the thermometer, 5 different geeks who invented the electric telegraph, 4 different geniuses who discovered sunspots, and 3 different smarties who discovered decimal fractions. You get the vibe.
These are just a few examples to impress upon you the idea of parallel invention. The subtler point here is that even if any of these particular inventors had not discovered the theory of evolution or the telephone, some other person would sooner or later have done that. That’s the direction in which technology moves.
There is something going on here that feels fascinating and yet incorrect. How could we be sure about the inevitable forward movement of technology? Well, one clue is offered by the fact that the number of such simultaneous inventions over time has just been accelerating, which also speeds up the process of co-discovery. Think about the teams of scientists racing against each other to develop a vaccine, or the 15 parallel startups working on crossing the same technological frontier.
The reason this happens is because of the inverted pyramid of invention. Here’s a rough sketch to explain this:
This is similar to the marketing/sales funnels that we keep staring at all day long. The implication here is that the exact form factor of the final invention may be very different for people who get towards the bottom of the funnel, but the conceptual essence is the same. That lends an air of inevitability to all technologies that can be possibly developed- and make them independent of who ends up “inventing” them.
The curious story of parallel discovery isn’t just limited to the world of scientific ideas and technology. Even the fields of art and creativity- which, most believe, produces work that is truly original, have also seen similar instances of people arriving at uncannily similar ideas at the same time.
Consider one of the most famous book series of all time, JK Rowling’s Harry Potter. You’d be thrown off your chair to know that 13 years before she published the first book, an American author had published a series of children’s books about Larry Potter, an orphaned boy wizard who wore glasses and was surrounded by muggles. In 1990, even Neil Gaiman wrote a book about a dark-haired English boy who finds out on his 12th birthday that he’s a wizard and is given an owl by a magical visitor!
It’s not just one case. There are many movies, TV shows, and other creative productions that were similar and arrived at independently by multiple parties. I’ve personally experienced this- coming up with a one-liner that I see repeated a few days later on Twitter by some other dude who’s as jobless as me, if not more.
There’s certainly a mysterious quirk to the development of ideas and inventions. The explanation here seems to be that most technologies sit atop a bunch of other foundational ideas, technologies, and discoveries. When these foundational ideas are all unlocked, the stage is set for enterprising thinkers to fuse them together and take the leap toward the next big thing in the stack.
Video streaming can’t emerge without high-speed internet. Computers can’t emerge without semiconductors and electricity. These technologies themselves rely on industries, which itself got built off of agriculture.
New tech sits on the shoulders of a number of previous tech breakthroughs. The moment a web of technological inventions is in place, a layer is built on top of which people immediately begin conceptualizing newer technologies which push the frontier farther up.
As the world becomes flatter and ever more connected with information being accessible widely and instantly, more people will join at the top of the pyramid, and it seems that such tales of convergence will become even more common.
So when you look at parallel inventions and people losing their shit over plagiarism lawsuits, maybe it isn’t really a case of copying and stealing.
Maybe it’s just the way technology and the human civilisation works.
Thanks for tuning in, folks. Today’s piece was inspired by What Technology Wants by Kevin Kelly. If you enjoy learning about things you had no clue about, consider subscribing to this newsletter:
Great article! Stuart Kauffman explains this phenomenon through "adjacent possible". An invention only instantiates when it "around the corner".
Interestingly there might be some outliers to this line of thought - relativity theory by Einstein, world wide web by Tim berners lee, bitcoin by Satoshi etc.