Middle European inventors and scientists gave birth to the Industrial Age and the Information Age. It remains to be seen who will usher in the Innovation Age. The company or country that makes the leap will seize the lead of the emerging experience economy. Leadership teams in which key players understand themselves and comprehend the needs of the end-user will tip the scales.
Leonardo da Vinci laid the groundwork for the scientific method. Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz realized the nature of energy and invented the calculus we use today. Newton borrowed from his math to create his own brand of calculus and the famous laws of motion. Coincidentally, both men have cookies that bear their names. Leibniz (the man, not the cookie) was an original thinker, whose accomplishments unveiled the steam power that drove the Industrial Revolution.
The Enlightenment in Europe created the conditions to transform theory into useful devices. Gutenberg’s printing press brought knowledge to the masses. Galileo created a telescope and allowed church officials to gaze on the surface of the moon. Blinded by dogma, they couldn’t believe their eyes. Joseph-Marie Jacquard invented the programmable loom and the first binary “punch cards” that provided the impetus for the textile machines and the language of modern computing. His ingenious device paved the way for mass production that gave rise to the Industrial Revolution. Max Planck discovered quanta in 1900, opening the gates for quantum mechanics and the computer revolution that inspired Heisenberg, Pauli, and Bohr to explore the quantum mechanics that now opened the gates for the Information Age. Simultaneously, Wilhelm Wundt invented experimental psychology that forms the basis of modern management.
Then Europe dropped the ball. As industrial
processes and the information revolution spread across the globe, the continent lost its way. A new era of mechanical innovation migrated to America. The “Old World” succumbed to regulation and
enculturation choking out incentives that should attract and organize brain power.
Can the EU recover its lead as the Innovation Age dawns? A new generation of young Germans is pushing a clean, green hydrogen economy. While aeronautic and automotive companies imitate lithium batteries with incremental innovations, they are squandering billions on AI (artificial information). The birth of new thinking and renewable energy systems requires massive cultural reformation that flow from multiple dimensions of curiosity. The companies with whom I have partnered in Europe understand the concept. To date none have adopted the clarity and meaningful action required to leapfrog over their fields.
My associates in science and business are continuously reinventing new systems of fractal (branching) curiosities. We collaborate with companies worldwide to co-create applications in their fields. So far my American associates have shown the most interest.
My personal mission is leapfrogging the EU to the forefront of the Innovation Age. As America, Britain, China, and Korea foster trade wars and dodgy politics, I believe the security and sanity of the world depend on reawakening the spirit of discovery in its birthplace.