[fastball]

Exactly. To illustrate your point:

The invention of "rope" is the invention of a manmade object that can create a strong and flexible connection between two objects.

Nylon rope is an innovation that progressed from grass rope. It should not be qualified as an "invention" in and of itself, as it is functionally the same as grass rope, it just does the job of rope better.

[haZard_OS]

This distinction seems arbitrary. Couldn't I just say that rope itself wasn't an invention but simply a better kind of vine for climbing?

[TheOtherHobbes]

No, because that’s exactly what rope isn’t.

The crucial step is understanding that you can link objects with a bendable but strong connection.

Then you can start innovating applications, such as multiple people working together to move a single heavy object.

Eventually you end up with previously unimaginable applications like horse bridles and ship rigging.

The point of invention isn’t a new tool, it’s a completely new class of tools with an open-ended set of applications that aren’t immediately obvious.

[yoz-y]

I'd go further. Nylon as a material was invented and then the current rope tech was improved by it. Innovation stemmed from the fact that we now have a stronger rope and can use it for stuff that was not possible before.

(largely inspired by: http://www.asymco.com/2014/04/16/innoveracy-misunderstanding...)

[logfromblammo]

If I recall correctly, the original impetus for nylon was replacing the natural isoprene rubber in tires, to remove the necessity of rubber plantations as a strategic military asset. This resulted in neoprene. Then DuPont decided to expand the project to explore uses for other novel polymers.

The inventor actually committed suicide, partly because he thought he was a one-hit wonder.

Neoprene was invented in 1930. Nylon 6-6 was invented in 1935. Carothers killed himself in 1937. Nylon was first used in toothbrush bristles in 1938, and rolled out to nylon stockings in 1939. Nylon production was then diverted into war materiel until 1945, which was when people started rioting over shortages of nylon stockings.

Who knows what might have happened to polymers technology if antidepressant medications had been commercially available and known to physicians in the two year window between 1935 and 1937? That seems like an odd dependency, but the inventor of a notable technology failed to invent other notable things because he had severe and suicidal depression. So it isn't just as simple as roads needing chariots and chariots needing roads, like the article mentions. Sometimes the prerequisites are strange and unpredictable--like the inventor had to visit a zoo featuring a particular animal species during their childhood, or they had to drive a car in a climate with cold winters.

The more things we have, and know about, and the more people move around and collaborate, the easier it is to satisfy those prerequisites.