An Algorithm For Innovation; The Ingenesist Project
A useful definition allows people to identify, replicate, or measure the subject being defined. Yet the best definition we have for Innovation is basically, “You know it when you see it”.
How can we sustain our world if we cannot even define the sole instrument of change?
Have you ever had an epiphany? That ah-ha moment that comes from deep within… …when suddenly your knowledge about something grows exponentially within a very short period of time? Let’s call that “innovation”, where one large innovation is comprised of many smaller innovations.
In order to measure innovation, all you need to do is measure the rate of change of knowledge with respect to time. You don’t need Calculus to recognize this as an algorithm for innovation … but it helps.
If that idea doesn’t change the world, nothing will.
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Analysis
Innovation is a great mystery that does not need to be. Everyone innovates – it is necessary for survival. Yet the magic and mystique of the innovator is a cultural phenomenon that forms the foundation of tech social status. Innovation is denominated in money – if you are not flush with cash, then you are not an innovator. Only VC can be innovators due to their ability to navigate financial markets. It almost seems that the more difficult it is to identify something, greater scarcity can be assigned to it. With greater scarcity come greater value. Again, when we become vested in our own misery, progress grinds to a halt.
This is all quite counter productive.
The problems of the future will require innovation, creation, new ideas, and vast execution at an astonishing scale. In order to achieve true economic sustainability, we need to a metric to denominate true value, not propped up scarcity value.
It is relatively easy to create and measure where high rates of change are occurring in a community or society. It is then relatively easy to observe what innovations take place as a result. This isn’t exactly a unicorn farm, but you probably can’t have a unicorn without these conditions in the first place. It is then only a matter of memorializing these conditions in a tangible form.
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