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Comment by kwhitefoot | Hacker News Reader

The comment about Archimedes and infinitesimals makes reminds me of something that has been bothering me for a long time: what brilliant ideas are there lurking in the world unknown to almost all of us that could change the course of history if only they were publicised?

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I have a similar thought experiment (or Sci-Fi plot?) for a long time.

If an advanced alien civilization came to Earth, and helped ancient human civilizations to built and operate a computer system, which can share, store and translate scientific discoveries all across the globe (while they are not allowed to help humans besides operating the system) throughout 5000 years of history - how could it change the human history?

The ancient humans would then also (eventually) develop patents because someone somewhere would have thought about it even back then - and with worldwide distribution - it would catch on. Effectively, what I'm saying is - when faced with a common greater good that is a game changer for humanity, humanity then has to collectively want the greater good. And humans can be selfish - ancient or not.

Another take: What brilliant ideas exist publicly today that have not yet been recognized as brilliant?

And how might you go about systematically identifying them?

And what might your incentives be for doing so?

“These days, the problem isn’t how to innovate; it’s how to get society to adopt the good ideas that already exist.”

— Douglas Engelbart

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