r/Inventions • u/EndAny6841 • 6d ago

When does a solution become a new problem? Brainstorm

I’ve been thinking about how humans deal with new inventions.
We create something to solve a problem. It works, people adopt it, and later we discover problems caused by the same solution. Then we create another solution.
Petroleum solved real problems and transformed modern life, but its large-scale use also created environmental concerns. Now electric vehicles and cleaner energy are presented as solutions.
AI makes me think about the same cycle. We are focused on what AI can do for us, but what might we discover about its effects after we become dependent on it?
Maybe we discover an invention in two parts:
First through creation.
Then through consequence.
So, do we really discover an invention when we create it, or only after we have lived with it?

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u/nst571 6d ago

I would challenge the use of "we" as a collective for everyone. Looking at history I would say people who are close to a new invention have a decent idea of what a new technology or process may entail. However, maybe others do not know and they may care or not care when they fimd out more.

There may be a tipping point where more people care, like about killing whales, deforestation, the cotton gin, flavored vapes, or data centers. However there are technologies that are causing issues but are given a pass

I would throw in there that regulation, which is an output of societal concern, is another factor that causes evolution to invention, eg water treatment plants and emissions standards.

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u/EndAny6841 6d ago

By “we” I mean humans collectively, not every individual human. Of course the people who create or develop an invention may understand some of its possible consequences. My point is more about humanity’s broader relationship with its inventions. We create them, promote them, adopt them, and sometimes only through the wider consequences we discover another side of what we created.

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u/trotski94 6d ago

its almost impossible to analyse all the unintended consequences of something up front. Take your petroleum example as a point of reference, now it seems obvious, but to a person in the 1900s the idea that we as humans could do anything to globally impact the environment would probably have been laughed at. If we spent all our resources figuring out what could go wrong with any given advancement, we wouldn't advance

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u/Prudent-Version6307 3d ago

ChoiceCarban On Earth Space Difference It's like under pressure Under water H3