NASA invented wheels that never get punctured::Would you use this type of tire?

  • sugartits@lemmy.world
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    9 months ago

    That’s not inventing, that’s improving.

    The word is clearly being misused for clickbait purposes.

    • KyuubiNoKitsune@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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      9 months ago

      They… Invented these tyres… Right? Just because stone wheels were a thing doesn’t mean that someone didn’t invent wooden wheels.

      Invent

      Verb: create or design (something that has not existed before); be the originator of.

      “he invented an improved form of the steam engine”

      • sugartits@lemmy.world
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        9 months ago

        “he invented an improved form of the steam engine”

        Literally the exact point I’m making.

        In that statement, he didn’t invent the steam engine. He invented an improved form of it. But not the steam engine itself.

        • Patch@feddit.uk
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          9 months ago

          At some point we’re just getting bogged down in semantics. Someone invented the internal combustion engine, and the earliest versions ran on gaseous fuels. Somebody else “invented” versions that than on liquid fuels. Engines that ran on petrol (gas) and diesel were “invented” by separate people. Engines based on turbine, reciprocating pistons, and rotary mechanisms were all “invented” by separate people.

          The degree to which you consider any of those independent “inventions” versus simply modifying and improving existing inventions is essentially arbitrary.

            • Scubus@sh.itjust.works
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              9 months ago

              Correct. Tvs are improvements on still images, which themselves are an improvement on pictographs, which are an improvement on transmission of ideas via language.

              To be clear, we very much invented all of that.