One of the most perplexing stigmas in education is the one against copying. It is perplexing for me because copying is one of the fundamental impetus towards innovation (please note the difference between discover, invent and innovate) in the sense that you can never improve upon something that isn’t there. As an example, consider a scenario where you are asked to improve upon a time-machine (!!!). How are you supposed to improve upon something that does not exist? How about if you are asked to improve upon the other time-machine (A wrist-watch in common parlance)? Well copy the basic design, add some features using the innovations of nanotechnology, maybe a sim slot (I guess that’s already been done), a 3-D projector (not sure about this one though), an infinitely thin but long wire to climb over walls-the prospects are endless. Such a revolutionary product ( mainly for the oomph factor rather than the usability) would never be possible without actually copying the concepts from the basics (a wrist watch, a mobile phone and spiderman’s amazing ability to shoot nets). Imagine GOOGLE without the ability to copy the links from other web-sites or a facebook that cannot copy from your friend’s profiles. Believe it or not, copying runs our civilization and stifling this ability is to stifle evolution itself.
Consider the fact with a cool head-how many of the great minds actually created something from scratch rather than innovate upon something existing? Most of the great invention has a back story which owes its origin to some sort of influence., be it from another existing invention or just a pre-existing work of nature. The ability of Humans to evolve into this dominant force in this world is a direct effect of their ability to learn from the surroundings, to copy or replicate what is advantageous, and apply it to their daily lives. Consider the most complicated mathematical equations-it all goes down to the basic stick numeral notation of our very ancient ancestors, the sleekest cars-owes its origin to the humble wheel (of course with loads of innovations in design), space shuttles, hot water, pizzas-everything had an origin in some form which we hardly pay heed to today because we are so used to them.
My question is why is copying made out to be such a bad thing? Coming up with something entirely new requires either a stroke of genius or luck. And honestly, it would be impossible to expect every person on this planet to invent or discover. What can be expected is to innovate. Learn from your surroundings, copy what influenced you, apply it in your life and think about what else can be copied and merged to come up with something to make life easier.
Its true that all people won’t apply their intellectual acumen, they will rather wait for someone else to come up with something. But don’t you think our education is partially to blame for it? If you can’t do it, then don’t do it-isn’t that something that we have learnt? How about if our classes were like this-here you are, a group of young enthusiastic students, and here is a problem the solution to which is something we don’t know. Use what you want, discuss with whomever you want, copy from where ever you want (giving due credit of course), but innovate upon a solution that’s going to help us. The discoverers will discover, the inventors will invent and the innovators will innovate-but everyone will contribute, instead of just quitting on it. I wish there is a course one day on ethical copying, where you can learn how to copy, modify, learn from everyone, acknowledge their help and most importantly, not be discreet or ashamed about it. Won’t such a peer learning environment be more congenial for the development of a student rather than keeping the brilliance of innovations confined between the professor, the student and his/her assignment? Coming up with a solution from scratch is brilliant, but coming up with a solution within the constraints of time, space and knowledge needs to be acknowledged too.
Consider the fact with a cool head-how many of the great minds actually created something from scratch rather than innovate upon something existing? Most of the great invention has a back story which owes its origin to some sort of influence., be it from another existing invention or just a pre-existing work of nature. The ability of Humans to evolve into this dominant force in this world is a direct effect of their ability to learn from the surroundings, to copy or replicate what is advantageous, and apply it to their daily lives. Consider the most complicated mathematical equations-it all goes down to the basic stick numeral notation of our very ancient ancestors, the sleekest cars-owes its origin to the humble wheel (of course with loads of innovations in design), space shuttles, hot water, pizzas-everything had an origin in some form which we hardly pay heed to today because we are so used to them.
My question is why is copying made out to be such a bad thing? Coming up with something entirely new requires either a stroke of genius or luck. And honestly, it would be impossible to expect every person on this planet to invent or discover. What can be expected is to innovate. Learn from your surroundings, copy what influenced you, apply it in your life and think about what else can be copied and merged to come up with something to make life easier.
Its true that all people won’t apply their intellectual acumen, they will rather wait for someone else to come up with something. But don’t you think our education is partially to blame for it? If you can’t do it, then don’t do it-isn’t that something that we have learnt? How about if our classes were like this-here you are, a group of young enthusiastic students, and here is a problem the solution to which is something we don’t know. Use what you want, discuss with whomever you want, copy from where ever you want (giving due credit of course), but innovate upon a solution that’s going to help us. The discoverers will discover, the inventors will invent and the innovators will innovate-but everyone will contribute, instead of just quitting on it. I wish there is a course one day on ethical copying, where you can learn how to copy, modify, learn from everyone, acknowledge their help and most importantly, not be discreet or ashamed about it. Won’t such a peer learning environment be more congenial for the development of a student rather than keeping the brilliance of innovations confined between the professor, the student and his/her assignment? Coming up with a solution from scratch is brilliant, but coming up with a solution within the constraints of time, space and knowledge needs to be acknowledged too.