At the end of Monday’s discussion, the whole class discussed the answers for some of the questions on the board. Out of these questions, I faintly remember one that asked if the American Indian traditions created the idea of hypertext. Since I did not read the article to its full extent, I am rather intrigued to ask a bigger question at arose from the previous one: is anything uniquely created?
I am not asking if today’s innovations are unique, rather I want to investigate if every single idea that we can come up with uses previous knowledge. I cannot speak much in regards of the reading, so I will instead use an example I brought up in class: did the spider create the idea of the world wide web? Thanks to the collective effort from the class to answer this question, we came to a conclusion that it is not the spider itself that created the idea; instead, it is the interpretation of such an idea to solve a problem that defines whether an idea creates another one. In other words, the world wide web does not look anything like a spider web, but they are similar in the sense that the connections between the web are similar the solution to connect all computers. Therefore, spiders did not create the world wide web. Rather, if it wasn’t for how spider webs are connected, the idea of the internet would not have been possible.
In a way, no idea is unique; instead, it is a combination of previous knowledge that allow for further innovation to flourish. 
This makes me think of biomimetic design or biomimicry which are man-made processes and/or substances that imitate nature (https://pages.stolaf.edu/bio-architecture/what-is-biomimicry/). I think it’s a very interesting concept to think about, and it make’s me wonder whether there is such a thing as a completely original form. I don’t have enough knowledge about all the things that are out there but I’m betting that we can find an analogous counterpart in nature to most man-made things, so I share the same sentiment with you in thinking that no idea is completely unique.
I think biomimicry is an art in its own way. We’re discovering forms and processes developed through millions of years of evolution and reimagining what they can become in our new technological age. There are enough stories of inventors walking through nature or something like that and witnessing some sort of process and having a eureka moment in term of design. It’s really exciting to think about all the possible untapped potential in terms of design inspiration that may be present in nature. There’s already a lot of scientists working on these things which is really cool.
Some things are obvious, like planes and birds and others not so much, like the box fish and the bionic car (https://www.sciencefocus.com/future-technology/biomimetic-design-10-examples-of-nature-inspiring-technology/)