Roman Concrete
News (1) that scientists suspect the lime clasts in Roman concrete made it substantially more durable compared to the contemporary building material, is a constant reminder that invention came and disappeared all through human history. Contemporary humans take great pride in their knowledge and technology, but most of what they believe to be inventions have been done before and then erased from history and human memory. The most interesting man, who is an expert at shoving tax-payer subsidies into his pockets, and then lose it promptly, claim he is the most inventive. Little does he know that if he ever invented anything, monkey brain chip and autonomous driving included, these are not really inventions, they are fantasies of an idiot.
An invention is a unique or novel device, method, composition, idea or process (2). Most engineers and scientists never invent anything. They make micro improvements to already existing technologies. The engineers in the Search company believe, “it is all over.” And technologists are funny people — they prematurely declare victory against unknown enemies. Artificial Intelligence, the darling of twenty years olds world over, has been in existence since the advent of computers. The great advancements in Mathematics, some of these folks believe have happened last hundred years, are really bottling old wine in a new bottle. Famous people can spend all day backward and then forward chaining, none of these are going to get them anywhere, except getting money from those who have too much of it to invest.
There are no inventions in the current world. As 8 billion suffocate to death, if the contemporary human were inventive, she would have figured out something by now. Good luck with that.
(1) Why Roman concrete outlasts its modern counterpart — CNN Style