Word: inventors
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...come up with unexpected though still appropriate solutions. These and related methods are also used in computer programs that "automatically" create art, music and poetry. The results of emulating nature in this way can be surprisingly effective, often solving difficult engineering and other design problems. However, as a human inventor who routinely uses these techniques, I can report that I continue to feel that I am still in charge of the process; they feel like just another set of yet more powerful tools...
...NEXT QUESTION Which, of course, brings up the issue of how we mere human inventors are going to keep up. As an inventor, I have more than a passing interest in this question. My view, however, is that these developments do not represent an alien invasion of intelligent machines. They are emerging from within our human/machine civilization, and the intelligence we are creating is both derivative of and an extension to our human intelligence. We are already placing today's generation of intelligent machines in our bodies and brains, particularly for those with disabilities (e.g., cochlear implants for the deaf...
...enthusiastic ISC salesman told him the idea was brilliant--just what every inventor wants to hear--and pressured him to sign up before someone else came up with the same concept. Mahaffey quickly ponied up $625, borrowed from family and friends, for the patent search. "They told me everything out there was based on radio transmissions," he recalls. "I had an original idea, and I had to hurry to protect it. My father had invented the pop-top soda can but couldn't afford to follow through. He still regrets it. I didn't want that to happen...
...treatment of Mahaffey wasn't illegal. However, experts say it is among the nicer things that happen to naive inventors who rely on any one of the dozen or so major players in the industry. Richard Apley, director of the Independent Inventor Programs for the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, says flatly that the majority of companies now advertising these inventor services, which generate about $200 million a year, are scams. "They offer a service of sorts but don't really do what they say they will do," says Apley. Nearly every one of their patent searches comes back with...
...Patent No. 4,591,071 for the "squirt gun," as it is listed in official government records, more than 200 million Super Soakers have been sold. Revenue estimates for the gun range as high as $400 million. "Lonnie is the American success story," says Dick Apley, director of independent inventor programs for the U.S. Patent Office...