Modern Innovation: Do We Even Want It?

To be honest, I was planning on writing about Scotland.  I did write about Scotland, actually.  But then something struck me particularly, so I scrapped it and started over with a question I've asked myself in many specific aspects, but never in broader terms.

Do people want innovation?  Sure, they say they do, because they've been told innovation is always good, but do they know it when they see it?  And when they do see it and recognize it, does it inspire more progress?

The answer, to this writer, is both depressing and unsurprising.

People talk about wanting innovation all the time.  In fact, I just wrote about how greatly frustrating it is that Apple no longer innovates now that they stand to make real profit and don't need to take creative risk to earn money.  In the gaming community, near everyone complains about how games are becoming increasingly bland, one first person shooter after another, yearly sequels with no real plot stuffing shelves.  In TV and film, finding something original, profound and unique is approaching impossibility--especially in the case of film, it's becoming apparent that what really sells is spinoffs, adaptations, sequels and reboots.  Almost every part of popular culture is now focused on recovering what used to be, with the majority of people seeking a "retro" feel to what they have, condemning the new in favor of the old because of an apparent lack of innovation.  But people aren't seeking innovation, something new and uncertain.  People are looking for new ways to experience old things.  True innovation isn't dead, it's simply ignored in favor of easy money and quick, surefire paths to basic happiness.

The fact is, these cheap tricks we associate with a lack of innovation work, not only on occasion, but consistently.  Apple still has people lining up at their door to buy their newest product for too much money with too little progress.  First person shooters like the much-hated Call of Duty series continue to sell, despite being renowned throughout the gaming community for being shameless remakes of themselves with no basis in almost anything real.  The best-selling movies ever are completely unoriginal, titles like Marvel's The Avengers, Harry Potter and The Dark Knight topping the list.  Modern television is stuffed with reruns and marathons of age-old shows, because people will watch them.  Music from past decades is almost unanimously more popular than modern releases.  People turn to the past because it worked, and because they know it'll work again.  So innovation doesn't happen.  That is, it doesn't happen in the mainstream.

Whether or not it's popular, true innovation does happen.  It happens frequently, in fact.  Think Apple is the closest thing to innovation we have, and that's why it really sells?  Check out Jibo, a home-helping robot that pushes the boundaries of how interactive AI can be.  Is CoD and the first person shooter wave all there is for video games?  Minecraft, a game about blocky, low-graphics digging was received so well that its creators quit due to its success as an innovative pioneer of a game.  Think original storylines in movies are a thing of the past?  Try Boyhood, Now You See Me, even Real Steel to find a plot that's bigger than itself.  Innovation exists, and I challenge all of us to find it.  Seek out that forward-moving system, and give it a try.  Because you often may find that true inspiration exists in the places you might scoff at at first glance.