posted on Jan, 10 2009 @ 10:20 PM
I regularly "invent" things, (in the conceptual realm only) and write them down, or draw a little picture, or something of that sort, and promise
myself that someday I will actually build one.
I am regularly pissed off with myself, when a couple years later my "invention" suddenly appears on the market.
(Or someone else spouts off a philosophy I have "invented" and written down but never published.)
I suspect that in both cases, the idea for the "invention" is in the collective consciousness, and what has really happened is that more than one
individual has downloaded that idea. You actually see it quite often in science and in philosophies religious and otherwise. (simultaneous or darn
close to it creation of things or ideas in multiple sources at nearly the same time who have no physical access to one anothers ideas)
Edit to add;
The most recent physical occurrence of this was a few years back. I was raking leaves and had a garbage bag inside of a garbage can, and everytime I
would dump in the leaves, the bag would collapse into the can and I would have to pull it back up and over the edge of the can again.
Analyzing the problem, I thought how great it would be if there were someway to put the bag on the outside, and the support for the bag on the inside
of the bag so that the leaves would not pull the bag down. So, I conceptualized a slim sheet of plastic that could be rolled up, inserted into the
inside of the bag, and then released so that it would expand the bag from the inside out, allowing leaves to fill the bag, and then when done, the
plastic sheet could be pulled out of the bag leaving the leaves inside. (It would also prevent sticks from poking through the bag while compacting.
About two years later, while in the home improvement store, lo and behold, there was "my" invention just waiting to be bought. Not a world shaking
event, to be sure, but one of those concrete things that make you go hmmm.
[edit on 10-1-2009 by Illusionsaregrander]