[HeyLaughingBoy]

It's a pretty big planet. At any given time, probably thousands of engineers are simultaneously thinking of building the same "next new thing."

[AYBABTME]

There's a named phenomenon for this... I can't put my finger on it. Something about discoveries/inventions all independently piling up at the same time whenever all conditions are right in history.

[callmemclovin]

Maybe you're thinking of the concept of multiple discovery: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Multiple_discovery