Imagination and Creativity: Inventions

2303 Words5 Pages

If one was to think of the crowning achievement of mankind to date, what would it be? Would it be communication from pole to pole? Would it be being able to save millions of bits of data in a device no larger than a pin? Would it be traveling to space and back? All of these things are great; however, they are not the best thing that humans have achieved. The true paramount achievement of mankind is the use of imagination. This statement might be doubted by some. However, at the core of all achievements, mentioned or not, is imagination. In the eyes of many, nothing is greater, or more important than imagination. Imagination has brought humanity knowledge, saved lives, and above all, has changed the world. The importance of creativity and imagination can be seen through how they influence societies, what stories have been passed down from generation to generation, and what influences story-telling today.
The imaginations of many people have set the course for the world over the last few hundred years, mainly through inventions. In the American West, an invention was created that has had just such an effect. Levi Strauss made a “soft cotton [fabric] called denim” which was designed for the rough labors of ‘gold mining [and] cattle herding” (Lambert). Since then, these ‘Levi’s’ have become popular throughout the world, and some “450 million pairs of jeans are sold in the [United] States” each year (Lambert). This amazing product, that has influenced the world for many years, came to be because one person imagined something. That one person questioned what was possible, and worked to change what could be.
The discovery of radio is another way that imagination has influenced society. Heinrich Hertz discovered that there were invisible...

... middle of paper ...

...ter. Web. 9 October 2013.
McNamara, Robert. “A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens: Why and How Charles Dickens
Wrote the Classic Story of Ebeneezer Scrooge.” About.com About.com 2013. Web. 11 November 2013
San Souci, Robert D. “The Brothers Grimm.” Faces 16.7 (March 2000): 36. Student Research
Center. Web. 14 October 2013.
Sanderson, Brandon. “Ideas are cheap.” YouTube. YouTube, 28 March 2012. Web. 18 November
2013
Sanderson, Brandon. “Intro to Prose.” YouTube. YouTube, 28 March 2012. Web. 19 November
2013
Sanderson, Brandon. “First person viewpoints.” YouTube. YouTube, 28 March 2012. Web. 19
November 2013
Sanderson, Brandon. “Making Stories Meaningful.” YouTube. YouTube.11 June 2012. Web. 18
November 2013
Taylor, Kathleen. Personal Interview. 12 July 2012.
“The Printing Press.” Calliope 21.8 (May 2011): 6-7. Student Research Center. Web. 14
October 2013.

Open Document