History creeps up on me!

Heh, the believe that it's quite impossible to invent anything new is quite true. That's why I've been vehemently opposed to the whole principle of patents. It's totally impossible to invent anything totally novel and new. All ideas are somehow intertwined and is based on prior ideas and knowledge.

In the case of my research, I tend to take ideas that I have never seen or heard of. This is because, it makes it easier for research when no one else in the world is doing it. Firstly, there are fewer papers to read and I can pretty much do whatever that I want as there isn't anyone else to fight with.

I did it with my first PhD topic. I worked on a processor designed based on principles that were popular prior to the 1950s. However, I did it with a modern twist and it was interesting work for a while. There is truly a wealth of old knowledge that didn't quite make it into the modern world, not because they were technically unsound but because they were expensive. With modern fabrication techniques, some of these things are cheap today but people are just too lazy to use them (or they don't know about these things).

Then, for my second topic, I decided to work on something interesting. I searched the journal archives back 20+ years to see if there was anything remotely similar. Nothing. So, I felt safe to proceed with the topic. However, we learn new things everyday. Last week, I encountered several similar projects that date back before the 70s. So, I'm now reading some really old papers (before my birth!) to see if what they did was feasible and if it was any similar to what I'm doing for my second project. If there are any good ideas, I'll probably borrow them. If there are any weaknesses, I'll try to work around them. However, on first impression, it's not quite similar as the problem that I'm trying to solve has evolved quite a bit in the last 3 decades.

I just love history. I wonder if there is a career path for a technology archeologist. Someone who digs up old history for good ideas that have been discarded and to put a modern twist to them for use in the present and future. It should be quite an interesting career to have. I'm sure that there is a wealth of past knowledge that is totally untapped in all areas. However, I am against the whole principle of patents! I'm a strong advocate of intellectual property though, don't confuse that with patents.

* pd image from wikipedia. ada lovelace, generally considered the mother of modern computer programming. *