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Does it still exist, or are we just repeating the same concepts, visions, and artistic styles with varying degrees of success to create an illusion of something new?

Your thoughts are appreciated.

Ecclesiastes 1:9 - There is no new thing under the sun.

An original idea is just an old idea recycled or reconsidered. We don't create information and/or ideas out of thin air, we build on them.

"Original idea"? It's like a reasonable conversation in the O-T.

We like to pretend they can happen, but truthfully we all know better.

The only thing that you can say is new is the combination of ideas.

Everything has existed before, maybe not in specific combinations but it has existed.

I would say that original ideas are still possible, the problem with examining them is that as soon as you have it you can no longer say it is original. I mean Atomic theory was a new idea, as was the Higgs Boson. There have been lots of original ideas, and there will likely continue to be ad infinitum.

 Ratbarf wrote:
I would say that original ideas are still possible, the problem with examining them is that as soon as you have it you can no longer say it is original. I mean Atomic theory was a new idea, as was the Higgs Boson. There have been lots of original ideas, and there will likely continue to be ad infinitum.

Atomic theory as of when?

The Greeks came up with Atomic Theory. Of course they were wrong about the nature of Atoms, but they were correct in that matter is not continuous.

The thought that you could split it and create a massive freaking explosion. Actually pretty much all technological breakthroughs are either new, original ideas or luck.

Or are they simply ways of looking at things differently? Aka, a new combination of ideas?

 DemetriDominov wrote:
Or are they simply ways of looking at things differently? Aka, a new combination of ideas?

It's basically what Ahtman has already said on old idea being reconsidered or altered.

Breakthroughs, not advancements. For instance, I'm pretty sure the person who thought up compressed steam power was the first to do so. Almost everything to do with steam power afterwards would be an advancement or rehashing of ideas, but the idea to use steam would have been original.

 Ratbarf wrote:
Breakthroughs, not advancements. For instance, I'm pretty sure the person who thought up compressed steam power was the first to do so. Almost everything to do with steam power afterwards would be an advancement or rehashing of ideas, but the idea to use steam would have been original.

No because the person who came up with compressed steam power was probably influenced by his or her observations with boiling liquids, ideas don't just appear out of thin air everything ever thought of by human being is inspired by the world around him or her.

 Cheesecat wrote:

 Ratbarf wrote:
Breakthroughs, not advancements. For instance, I'm pretty sure the person who thought up compressed steam power was the first to do so. Almost everything to do with steam power afterwards would be an advancement or rehashing of ideas, but the idea to use steam would have been original.

No because the person who came up with compressed steam power was probably influenced by his or her observations with boiling liquids, ideas don't just appear out of thin air everything ever thought of by human being is inspired by the world around him or her.

That doesn't mean that the idea itself was not original. Under your assumption there can never be anything new, but we have existing proof of new things all around us. Someone had to have that first idea that led to other ideas. The invention of a medium is an original idea, even if what takes place on it can be related back to something prior. Like email and snail mail. The idea of mail was not new, but the medium used was.

The most obvious examples of original ideas would likely be in math or the various sciences.

 Ratbarf wrote:

 Cheesecat wrote:

 Ratbarf wrote:
Breakthroughs, not advancements. For instance, I'm pretty sure the person who thought up compressed steam power was the first to do so. Almost everything to do with steam power afterwards would be an advancement or rehashing of ideas, but the idea to use steam would have been original.

No because the person who came up with compressed steam power was probably influenced by his or her observations with boiling liquids, ideas don't just appear out of thin air everything ever thought of by human being is inspired by the world around him or her.

That doesn't mean that the idea itself was not original. Under your assumption there can never be anything new, but we have existing proof of new things all around us. Someone had to have that first idea that led to other ideas. The invention of a medium is an original idea, even if what takes place on it can be related back to something prior. Like email and snail mail. The idea of mail was not new, but the medium used was.

The most obvious examples of original ideas would likely be in math or the various sciences.

An original idea is an old idea that is altered in some way.

If it's an idea that has previously existed (even if slightly altered) then how can it be original? Or are we starting to subdivide into original and true original?

 Ratbarf wrote:
If it's an idea that has previously existed (even if slightly altered) then how can it be original? Or are we starting to subdivide into original and true original?

It becomes original when you change that idea into something else or you add something to it that wasn't there originally, like a a ball of clay becoming a clay vase it is still a piece of clay but it also a vase as well.

Accidentally 30 million.

 rubiksnoob wrote:
Accidentally 30 million.

As long as you apologize then everything will be OK.

DemetriDominov wrote:Does it still exist, or are we just repeating the same concepts, visions, and artistic styles with varying degrees of success to create an illusion of something new?

Your thoughts are appreciated.

Plato might argue that there are no original ideas; only rare ideas seldom plucked from the aether.

Depends on your point of perception and analysis as well.

For instance, movie Z is examined by 3 critics, critic 1 has not seen any other movies, so deems it 'an original and fresh idea' in his review. Critic 2 has seen movies X and Y, and likes movie Z, so determines it 'a classic and wonderful retelling of Generic Storyline ABC'. However, critic 3 has seen the movies X and Y, and doesn't like movie Z, so determines it a shameful low-budget clone of X and Y.

I know it's not exactly the best example, but the point stands that how 'original' an idea is depends on whom is observing, e.g. random guy in street might consider the iPhone an 'original' idea, but the samsung fanboy considers the iPhone a shameless Galaxy 2 rip-off.

Nuclear bombs were an original idea.

 KingCracker wrote:
Nuclear bombs were an original idea.

But then, you could say that bombs themselves are not an original idea (the desire to blow up things with large deadly explosions has existed for centuries' and the nuclear bomb is just 'improving' on the idea of a 'regular' bomb...

There are no new ideas. Just new ways to spin the same old ideas

 Leigen_Zero wrote:

 KingCracker wrote:
Nuclear bombs were an original idea.

But then, you could say that bombs themselves are not an original idea (the desire to blow up things with large deadly explosions has existed for centuries' and the nuclear bomb is just 'improving' on the idea of a 'regular' bomb...

But using that particular medium was an original idea. Similar to how air travel is merely an extension of travel, but the thought of traveling by air was original idea as it had to have an origin somewhere.

Bingo