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I think it's reasonable to assume though that this universe of things which are possible to invent is finite. Certainly we see that in some places. For example, cutlery. We hit the bounding box on inventing new useful cutlery a long time ago. Forks, knives, spoons, chopsticks. Then there wasn't much more to invent once we did all that. Or things like Moore's law slowing down.

For most areas of innovation, we don't seem to be near the limits. Certainly it is a sphere where today we are seeing more opportunities than completed explorations, but that may cease to be true in 50 or 150 or 1500 years.




But, we find new, better steels with some regularity. the challenge in all of this is cost/benefit. Cutlery could get a lot better, but there is no desire to improve it at current costs. Moving that invention boundary takes time and effort.




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