Necessity is the Mother of Invention

There are five primary necessities that pertain to human survival. They are: Sustenance, clothing, shelter, transportation, and healthcare. Humans must have food and water, protection for the body from the elements, a domicile that is sheltered from the elements, means to move about and gather materials necessary for self preservation, and remedies for healing from illness and injury.

Humans living in communities or cooperative living require two second tier necessities which are means of communication and means of exchange. One additional necessity of varying significance is defense. Education is a third tier requirement to pass knowledge and skills to the younger generations. These nine primaries, second tier, and third tier necessities are the basis of industries that support the evolution of civilization and technological development.

As necessity is the mother of invention, creativity and invention are ongoing human activities related to improvements in the level of comfort and convenience for civilized habitation. Creativity abounds and not just in the world of humans but in all of the lower species as well. There is something natural in all life forms that cause them to seek more optimal means of survival and comfort. This spirit of creativity brings us to a tenth category of necessity, invention. In modern industrial societies we have specialized careers relating to these ten necessities. Most enter the fields best suited to their personal talents.

Creativity is defined at dictionary.com as: 2. the ability to transcend traditional ideas, rules, patterns, relationships, or the like, and to create meaningful new ideas, forms, methods, and interpretations. Creativity can occur in several ways. Creativity can happen in an ah-ha-moment wherein insight occurs in the thought process, wherein the discoverer sees a new relationship in an object of previous study. The ah-ha-moment allows the creative one to redefines the object of study and to consider new possibilities for exploitation. Creativity can occur accidentally wherein totally unexpected results are observed from the results that were anticipated. Such accidental discoveries can lead the creative one into new directions of study suggesting new possibilities for exploitation. A third way for creativity to occur is a result of conscious mental process applying acquired knowledge in search of a solution in an object of study.

Creativity is not limited to the fields of invention by any means and as a matter of fact creative people in all fields are prone to greater achievements due to their openness to embrace new ideas and to discover new ways to do things. Nevertheless, society tends to categorize artists and designers as creative ones because creativity is a dominant thought process in their careers.

Much study has been does on how creativity occurs in the brain wherein the right brain lobe is understood to make free thought associations whereas the left brain lobe is understood to associate thoughts based upon reality established relationships. People are typically thought to be right-brain dominant or left-brain dominant which relate strongly to their talents and aptitudes. A painter is likely to be a strong right-brainer whereas a banker is likely to a strong left-brainer, but these are only stereotypical characterizations.

In the field of product design and invention a rare breeds of individuals achieve high levels of success because they have strong bi-lateralized brain functions. Functions that use the brain more fully wherein they freely associate in the right lobe while cross lateralizing to the logical left lobe to organize new ideas, concepts, designs, and engineering paradigms in logical and useable ways. Leonardo di Vinci was a classic example of a bi-lateral brain thinker as evidence by his achievements is both and engineering. We think of him as the quintessential Renaissance man. He was one of the most gifted talents in the art of invention, design, engineering, and science. These are the fields of endeavor that contribute most to advancement in the structures of civilization.