Let There Be Light: Collective Innovation from Fire to Light Bulbs

We glorify the lone wolf, the single scientist working alone. Yet true scientific breakthroughs have come from innovators and scientists who were part of a larger team – and especially those who recognized the need to build larger systems and networks for their innovations to succeed.

Let’s take a simple example – artificial light. In its simplest form, our ancestors started with fire.

Open pit wood fires gave our ancestors the edge against larger, stronger predators for many reasons. These fires frightened away animals who viewed early humans as a potential midnight snack. They also enabled early humans to cook meat, vegetables and grains, and so to gain more nutrition and calories with reduced biological work. In other words, we developed pretty lazy stomachs, compared to other mammals. Later on, fire helped early farmers clear land for agriculture.

Still, open pit fires have many disadvantages. For one, they aren’t very portable – plus they could be very dangerous if the fire burnt out of control. And wood smoke isn’t great for human lungs. So humans created smaller, more controllable and more portable forms of artificial light – like candles. A single candle doesn’t give off much light – about 1-2% of a 60 watt light bulb, depending on the type of bulb. Candles also smoke and drip – materials for smokeless candles weren’t widely available until the 19th century.

Today of course we have electricity and light bulbs – light that’s available day and night, at the flick of a switch. We take for granted that we can light up the darkness without smoke or the risk of out of control burning. We revere Thomas Edison and respect Nikola Tesla for their contributions to this vital technology, as individual scientists. But we usually give more credit to Edison for the invention of the light bulb. Yet many others were working on similar technologies at the time.

The difference? Edison focused on developing systems. First, as his biographer Leonard DeGraaf noted in “Edison and the Rise of Innovation” (link 1 below), one of Edison’s enduring inventions is a new system to innovate faster and more efficiently. Edison divided up a problem to solve into many smaller parts, making it easier for individual workers in his company to solve each one.

Second, Edison focused on the supporting systems required for his inventions to work. For example, he not only built the world’s first electrical power plant, but he also created a complete system to distribute electricity (link 2). Without these larger systems, that required the cooperation of many companies, workers and also governments, Edison’s inventions wouldn’t have been practical.

Third, as an article comparing Edison and Tesla makes clear, Edison was focused on practical, market-making inventions. Edison wanted to bring products to market quickly, if they were less technologically advanced. For example, Edison championed DC (direct current) for electricity transmission as it was much simpler and faster to implement. Tesla focused on AC (alternating current) – much more efficient but also much harder to install and use (link 3).

Fourth, when Edison ran into problems of patent infringement – his rival, English scientist Joseph Swan, had a strong patent claim to the lightbulb – he chose to cooperate with Swan, forming a joint venture (link 4).

So Edison was far from the lone genius scientist, and sought or at least accepted the need for cooperation to promote his innovations – and to get them successfully to market.

The transformative tale of artificial light, from fire to the light bulb, exposes a reality underpinned by collaboration, system-building, and practical innovation. While Edison's name shines brightly in this tale, his success owes as much to the shared brilliance of teams and strategic partnerships as to his own innovative spirit. His story reveals a template for advancement - one that fragments complex problems into manageable portions, builds supportive systems to distribute new inventions, and embraces cooperation even in the face of competition. We should applaud the network of shared expertise and cooperative spirit that gave us everyday light and power. We need to remember, the light bulb did not simply emerge from a single mind – even one as brilliant as Edison’s - ?but was a product of a vibrant network of innovators and a testament to the power of collective genius.

?Next week, I'll look at what generative AI needs to succeed - and how we can learn from the story of light bulbs and electricity, to build better AI.

What do you think will enable AI to succeed? Comment below - and?schedule a meeting with me ?to give me your perspective on the future of innovation.

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References:

Link 1 – Edison and the Rise of Innovation: https://www.nps.gov/edis/edison-and-the-rise-of-innovation.htm

Link 2 – https://www.electricityforum.com/thomas-edison-electricity

Link 3 - https://www.livescience.com/46739-tesla-vs-edison-comparison.html

Link 4 - https://www.livescience.com/43424-who-invented-the-light-bulb.html

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Photo by Mira Kemppainen on Unsplash