Scaffolding of Creativity

The Wright Brothers created an amazing invention.

But it was ugly. Two ungainly wings. Wood and canvas. Brown and tan. Struts and cables. Plus, it was terribly uncomfortable to ride in.

Contrast their plane with a modern F-22. A work of art in addition to a modern scientific achievement.

And you might correctly say, “Yeah, but the science around everything in airplanes has come so far since the Wright Brothers.” And you’d be right. The F-22 is the culmination of thousands of scientific and engineering achievements since 1903.

But I’m wondering, “Could someone have drawn a sketch of an F-22 in 1902 before the Wright Flyer made it’s appearance? Could they have even conceived of it?”

I think the answer is no.

Nobody, no matter how creative, could have drawn a picture of an F-22 and said, “Someday we’re going to fly through the air in one of these things.”

Creativity, along with science and engineering, stacks on the scaffolding of what comes before. One idea begats the next. And so on.

We don’t yet know where we’ll take AI or where AI will take us.

But its gonna be a fun ride.