Editing Innovation (section)

=== Rate of innovation ===
In 2005 [[Jonathan Huebner]], a [[physicist]] working at the [[Pentagon Building|Pentagon]]'s [[Naval Air Weapons Station China Lake|Naval Air Warfare Center]], argued on the basis of both U.S. [[patent]]s and world technological breakthroughs, per capita, that the rate of human technological innovation peaked in 1873 and has been slowing ever since.<ref name=Huebner>{{Cite journal | last1 = Huebner | first1 = J. | title = A possible declining trend for worldwide innovation | doi = 10.1016/j.techfore.2005.01.003 | journal = [[Technological Forecasting and Social Change]] | volume = 72 | issue = 8 | pages = 980–986 | year = 2005 | url = https://zenodo.org/record/1259385 }}</ref><ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.usnews.com/usnews/culture/articles/050707/7inventor.htm|title=Science: Wanna be an inventor? Don't bother|last=Hayden|first=Thomas|date=7 July 2005|work=U.S. News & World Report|access-date=10 June 2013|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131101195406/http://www.usnews.com/usnews/culture/articles/050707/7inventor.htm|archive-date=1 November 2013}}</ref> In his article, he asked "Will the level of technology reach a maximum and then decline as in the Dark Ages?"<ref name=Huebner/> In later comments to ''[[New Scientist]]'' magazine, Huebner clarified that while he believed that we will reach a rate of innovation in 2024 equivalent to that of the [[Dark Ages (historiography)|Dark Ages]], he was not predicting the reoccurrence of the Dark Ages themselves.<ref>{{cite news|last=Adler|first=Robert|title=Entering a dark age of innovation|url=https://www.newscientist.com/article/dn7616-entering-a-dark-age-of-innovation.html|access-date=30 May 2013|newspaper=New Scientist|date=2 July 2005}}</ref>

John Smart criticized the claim and asserted that [[technological singularity]] researcher [[Ray Kurzweil]] and others showed a "clear trend of acceleration, not deceleration" when it came to innovations.<ref>{{Cite journal | last1 = Smart | first1 = J. | title = Discussion of Huebner article | doi = 10.1016/j.techfore.2005.07.001 | journal = [[Technological Forecasting and Social Change]] | volume = 72 | issue = 8 | pages = 988–995 | year = 2005 }}</ref> The foundation replied to Huebner the journal his article was published in, citing [[Second Life]] and [[eHarmony]] as proof of accelerating innovation; to which Huebner replied.<ref>{{cite journal|last1=Huebner|first1=Jonathan|title=Response by the Authors|journal=[[Technological Forecasting and Social Change]]|volume=72|issue=8|pages=995–1000|doi=10.1016/j.techfore.2005.05.008|year=2005}}</ref>
However, Huebner's findings were confirmed in 2010 with [[U.S. Patent Office]] data.<ref>{{Cite journal | last1 = Strumsky | first1 = D. | last2 = Lobo | first2 = J. | last3 = Tainter | first3 = J. A. | doi = 10.1002/sres.1057 | title = Complexity and the productivity of innovation | journal = Systems Research and Behavioral Science | volume = 27 | issue = 5 | page = 496 | year = 2010 | doi-access = free }}</ref> and in a 2012 paper.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Gordon |first1=Robert J. |title=Is U.S. Economic Growth Over? Faltering Innovation Confronts the Six Headwinds |journal=NBER Working Paper No. 18315 |year=2012 |doi=10.3386/w18315 |doi-access=free }}</ref>