New Technology 2012 Lecture 03 - Technology Innovation

The document discusses how innovation occurs through combining existing ideas and technologies in new ways, rather than through isolated flashes of genius. It notes that innovations build on previous generations of technology and are limited by the components that exist in the environment. Ideas emerge when the time is right due to various interconnected factors that make up the "adjacent possible." Collaboration, sharing ideas in cities and coffee houses, and serendipitous discoveries all contribute to the process by which innovations emerge over long periods of time rather than appearing fully formed.