Nano-Febreeze Isn't Going to Cut It

When I was in fifth grade, we had to do this project about inventions. We were studying the age of invention and discussing the impact that innovations like the light bulb had on the world. We were then asked to survey our parents on what they thought the single most beneficial invention to mankind was. The next class we were going to compare survey results. My mom said that she thought the printing press was the most revolutionary invention ever.

I figured that other students would have similar results. I was WRONG. I will never forget, when the next day in class, someone raised their hand and reported that their mom believed Febreeze to be the most earth-shattering creation of all time.

Febreeze hasn't changed the world...yet. Maybe if doctors discover that drinking it cures cancer, it will, but the fact is, it hasn't helped the world in any really significant way. When you think about it, though, most modern inventions, although increasingly technological, haven't had impacts as great as older inventions, such as the telegram.

Watching commercials gives you an idea of what these new products are. Cell phones that double as cameras and MP3 players. MP3 Players that double as cameras and cell phones. iPods. Sleeker, (though still gasoline-powered) cars. Plasma TVs. All of these seem to be a big deal, as they improve on older models, but for the most part, thats all that they do. Alexander Graham Bell couldn't talk on the phone while taking pictures and listening to music, but he could talk to people from far away. Multi-function cell phones don't do anything new, they just do more than one old thing.

But why is that? Have we run out of useful things to invent? Is the only thing left an iPod micro-mini-nano-pico-really-quite-small? (Which I hear is under development; the idea is that you can listen to music while operating a Scanning Electron Microscope.) The answer, of course, is no. We have plenty of things to invent. We have things that we need to invent. But no one seems to be getting around to inventing them.