From: Nathan Myhrvold Bloomberg Column To: Subject: Nathan Myhrvold: Invention Is the Mother of Economic Growth Date: Wed, 21 Dec 2011 18:51:26 +0000 The following Bloomberg View column by Nathan Myhrvold appeared online December 19, 2011. To unsubscribe from this distribution list, please reply with "unsubscribe" in the subject line. Invention Is the Mother of Economic Growth: Nathan Myhrvold By Nathan Myhrvold - Dec 19, 2011 One reason "dismal science" aptly describes economics is that it so often winds up in a zero-sum trade-off of diminishing returns. That gets depressing when the global economy is in a sorry state, as it is now. Most economists gloomily advise us to just tough it out. No magical solution can save us. I submit that the situation is not as bleak as it seems. Yes, Virginia, there is a magical engine for economic growth. It is invention -- the process by which the human mind creates new ideas with practical consequences. Invention is magical because the magnitude of the output can exceed by almost infinite measure the magnitude of the inputs. A single great idea can generate enormous transformations, economic and otherwise. Unlike almost all other forms of human economic activity, inventing is not limited by a law of diminishing returns. It comes with no dismal trade-offs. Invention and its weaker cousin, innovation, are ultimately the source of all wealth and luxuries. In the age of Kindles and smartphones, we are surrounded by obviously invented products. But "traditional" society, too, was built by the accumulation of past inventions. Earth now supports 7 billion humans only because our ancestors invented agriculture -- and subsequent inventors continually improved it century after century. We live far longer and better lives than our great-grandparents did because clever doctors invented medicines, therapies and public- health measures. The invention of steel and concrete built our world, and the invention of democracy go