Free Coffee And Beer : Is your idea really yours?

Long long ago, the human beings used to live their entire life satisfying his few basic needs. They ate what they got in the way, stayed where they could, wore anything which minimally covered their body and kept on roaming. We do not know whether they were happy or sad with this, but that is how they lived.

Along the way, as generations passed, they discovered / invented a wheel, which made their travel easier. They found out something called fire, which further eased their lives. Now, satisfying the basic needs became more easier for them. Did they keep these “ideas” of theirs to themselves? Or they did pass them to others?

As time flew, more of such discoveries were made, thanks to the previous ones. This cycle went on and on, the reason for which was that the previous “ideas” were not hidden. Actually, the then people did not know the so called idea of hiding ideas (maybe some of them did, but there you go…).

Had these things been hidden, would there have been progress of humankind? Of course there would have been huge progress of a few, the ones who hid them. But is that it?

Suppose there is a product or a thing, which is implemented using a hidden idea. Do we really know what it will do to us? Suppose it is made to look so good and beautiful, that no one bothers to question; can it harm us? I like to call such things “tools” of monarchy and dictatorship. They take away your freedom, they take away your democracy.

To clarify what I am trying to say above, you can take the case of the Volkswagen diesel emission violation, or microsoft helping NSA in their tasks.

In the millions of years of our history, the one principle which has been accepted by all is democracy (Again this is debatable for those who’ll disagree

). The “tools” try to take it away from us. They enforce us with their tools because we are busy to praise the beauty of the tool, and ignoring what the tool actually does.

Maybe that was a bit of exaggeration. But that’s how it is. The thoughts that you get, the ideas that come across in your mind, are they really from scratch? Maybe you could not have thought of them without the tasty food you ate. My dear mate, the food is there because the “idea” of cooking it, making it tastier was never patented!

The soothing coffee that made your day, the notorious jar of beer that made your nights, they exist because something called as “fermentation” was known!

Next time you come across an awesome IDEA, which you’ll file a patent for, start suing whoever uses it, and so on, try to first ask yourselves? Is this IDEA really mine?