Diversity became common in the America lexicon in the early 1990's; and today we just can't stop talking about how great it is. However, research has shown that social diversity in a group can cause discomfort, rougher interactions, a lack of trust, greater perceived interpersonal conflict, lower communication, less cohesion, more concern about disrespect, and other problems. But then we are told that this same diversity is said to bring innovation and creativity to the workplace. But, after noting our scientific advancements over the last 70 years, I noticed that the more diverse we became, the less innovative and creative we became, and the more homogeneous we were--the more creative. I challenge the assumption that diversity in education and in the work place manufactures innovation by exploring the pioneering inventions that were made before the social experiment called diversity became an inescapable, major part of our lives. I am not talking about new inventions and technology that, say, allow someone to see the contents of their refrigerator from their phones. I am talking about pioneering work like deciphering the structure of DNA in 1953, of a vaccine for polio, in 1955, satellite communications in 1957, etc. These were the ground-breaking works which led to longer life spans, and the high tech lives we live today. In the 40's: the color TV, nutronic reactor, electronic digital computer, turboprop engine, synthetic rubber, the aqua lung, the kidney dialysis machine, cortisone, cell phones, and holography. 1950's: The remote control, jet airliner, microwave oven, polio vaccines, tetracycline, black box, solar cell, optic fiber, video tape recorder, transistor radio, teflon, hovercraft, Fortran computer language, laser, and integrated circuit, radical fibers that led to fabrics like velcro, and fiber optics, superglue, satellite communications. 1960s: The halogen lamp, first computer game, video disk, acrylic paint, Basic computer language, soft contact lenses, CD's, electronic fuel injection, hand held calculator, computer mouse, first computer with integrated circuit, RAM, arpanetfirst internet, artificial heart. 1970's: The floppy disk, LCD, microprocessor, VCR, word processing, gene splicing, ethernet, laser printers, cell phone and the Cray supercomputer. 1980's: The superconductor, Window, and Apple,, Java, Hep B vaccine, scanning tunneling microscope, HGH. 1990's: Gas powered fuel cells, and HIV medications. WWW, HTTP, HTML. And this list doesn't even consider the heady years of the early 20th century when we got refrigeration, vacuum cleaners, toasters, radio receivers and transmitters, and most importantly of all AC/DC power and a plethora of other amazing inventions. It is obvious that since the 1990's, the decade that diversity became part of the American lexicon, nothing of too great importance has been discovered, only the tweeking of old ideas, and inventions. In my opinion, this puts the nail in the coffin of the Great Experiment in Diversity. We need more ground-breaking science, not repeats and tweekings of old ideas. Is this even possible in a diverse society where mistrust, lack of communication and respect, less cohesion and discomfort vibrate in a room full of diverse people?
1990 The World Wide Web and Internet protocol (HTTP) and WWW language (HTML) created by Tim Berners-Lee. 1991 The digital answering machine invented. 1992 The smart pill invented. 1993 The pentium processor invented. 1994 HIV protease inhibitor invented. 1995 The Java computer language invented. DVD (Digital Versatile Disc or Digital Video Disc) invented. 1996 Web TV invented. 1997 The gas-powered fuel cell invented. 1998 Viagra invented. 1999 Scientists measure the fastest wind speed ever recorded on earth, 509 km/h(318 mph). Tekno Bubbles patented. Modern Inventions of 2000 The mystery of Ginger. Environmentally friendly transformer fluid from vegetable oils invented by T.V. Oommen. FluidSense infusion pump invented (automatic and standardized intravenous applicator). Modern Inventions of 2001 AbioCor artificial heart invented by Abiomed - the Abiocor represents groundbreaking medical miniaturization technology. Nuvaring birth control invented by Organon. Artificial liver invented by Dr. Kenneth Matsumura and Alin Foundation. Fuel cell bike invented by Aprilia. Self-cleaning windows invented by PPG Industries. On October 23, 2001 Apple Computers publicly announced their portable music digital player the iPod, created under project codename Dulcimer. Modern Inventions of 2002 Braille Glove invented by Ryan Patterson. Phone tooth invented by James Auger and Jimmy Loizeau. Nano-tex - nanotechnology wearable fabrics invented by Nano-tex LLC. Birth control patch invented by Ortho McNeil Pharmaceutical. Foveon Camera Chip invented by Richard Merrill. Date Rape Drug Spotter invented by Francisco Guerra. Solar Tower invented by Jorg Schlaich. Virtual keyboard invented by Canesta and VKB. ICOPOD invented by Sanford Ponder. Modern Inventions of 2003 Optical Camouflage System invented by Susumu Tachi, Masahiko Inami, and Naoki Kawakami Toyota's Hybrid Car Ice Bike invented by Dan Hanebrink New Toy Robots Max the robotic cat invented by Omron, LUCKY, THE ROVING ROBO-RAPTOR invented by Walt Disney Imagineering, and Sony builds Aibo a companion called Orio. New Fabrics, Salmon Skin Leather invented by Claudia Escobar and Skini, and Luminex a glowing fabric invented by Luminex. Java Log a log for your fireplace made from used coffee grinds and invented by Rod Sprules Infrared Fever Screening System used in public buildings to scan for people with a high temperature from a fever or sars invented by Singapore Technologies Electronics and the Singapore Defense Science and Technology Agency The No-Contact Jacket invented by Adam Whiton and Yolita Nugent, protects the wearer by electric shocking any attackers. Modern Inventions of 2004 Adidas 1 are the thinking shoes with a built in microprocessor that decides how soft or firm support the wearer needs. Chosen by Popular Science magazine as the best recreation invention of 2004. Translucent Concrete developed by Hungarian architect Aron Losonczi and called LitraCon and is based on a matrix of parallel optical glass fibers embedded into the concrete that can transmit light and color from the outside. However, this is not the only translucent concrete out there. Inventor Bill Price has been developing another variety. Ka-on or Flower Sound are plants that play music invented by the Japanese based Let's Corporation. Flowers bouquets will act as loudspeakers when placed in a special vase that has electronics hidden in the base. Intel Express Chipsets - Grantsdale and Alderwood are the code names of Intel's newest chips that will provide superior and inexpensive built-in sound and video capacities for the PC including the ability to do high definition video editing without additional computer cards. SonoPrep invented by bioengineer Robert Langer, is a device that will deliver medication by sound waves rather than injection. According to the Sontra Medical Corporation, SonoPrep's manufacturer: The small, battery-powered device applies low-frequency ultrasonic energy to the skin for 15 seconds. The ultrasound temporarily rearranges lipids in the skin, opening channels that let fluids be delivered or extracted. After about 24 hours, the skin returns to normal.
When the term “diversity” came in to common use isn’t the same as when actual diversity began to exist in various fields and places. Just as one example, how many of those 1950s inventions had major input from Europeans Jews who had fled to the US during the WW2? That diversity can cause difficulties with social interactions but also bring benefits to innovation and creativity aren’t incompatible. It should be obvious, especially to anyone who has worked in this kind of area (or anything like it really), that a diversity of experience, knowledge and backgrounds can be massively beneficial to a team. It should be equally obvious to anyone who has interacted with other human beings that all sorts of social differences can cause conflicts. The latter is going to be true of any group of people though (I doubt your workplace is 100% Trump, Clinton or Sanders for example). Your lists of innovations are massively selective and clearly biased towards your particular areas of knowledge. There will be massive lists of items from every era that you’re unaware of or have deliberately ignored, not to mention the massive range of lower-level innovation that will never be acknowledged. You also presume innovation would naturally be constant and not become more difficult as we progress. Even if you could establish a reduction over time, you’re not made any causal connection between it and the level of diversity (as you perceive it or as actually existed).
I disagree. I do interact casually with other ethnicities, and I can almost feel the tension between those who are of different backgrounds. In theory, you would think that diversity in the workforce would be a bonus as it would bring in different perspectives, but with the difference in cultures, along with the inherent underlying tension, and distrust between the different groups, diversity seems to be a distraction. In fact, I have witnessed a person of one ethnicity sabotaging the work of a coworker of another ethnicity. I suspect it was race, and even gender based; and out of jealousy. As far as being selective with the inventions I listed, I got the them off a website (which I should have given a link to; but it is not like we aren't familiar with these innovations.). I was not being selective, the people who made up the list were being "selective". IMO, It seems the evolution of technology and science should be a natural thing. The more you know, the more questions are answered, and the more progress you make. But that doesn't seem to be the case anymore. We seem to be stuck. It is like antibiotics. The world is at risk for several pandemics from drug-resistant organisms. We are using the 'last resort' drugs now, and we have no alternatives coming down the pike. We are stuck. I thought I did an OK job of making the point about the decline in innovation as it relates to the new the religion of multiculturalism. It is interesting. I didn't mention any races or ethnicities but you found it necessary to mention all the contributions the Jews made. Would you have preferred I go through the list and assign each innovation an ethnicity. Isn't that the opposite of what you say about diversity. It is also shows that you are a wee bit of a Jewish supremacist. Whatever you do, do not mention the many, many contributions people of European ancestry have made. You can just say we stole all our innovations from Jews and everyone else.
You seem to be assuming diversity can only be on ethnic or cultural grounds (which are two different things in themselves). I’ve seen plenty of tension and division in work places and the underlying grounds have been class, age, gender, education, politics, religion or simple clashes of individual characters. Cultural, racial and ethnic difference can be factors too but there is nothing special about them. Regardless, it is a highly selective list and of zero use in assessing the true innovation of any given era. Once we’ve discovered something though, it’s been discovered. There are a whole load of fundamental principles or ideas which have been covered so anything from that point on will be limited to improvements and developments based off them by definition. Those follow-on developments don’t get the same public attention as the big break throughs but that doesn’t make them any less innovative. There’ll have been loads of great work done in the field of antibiotics since their initial discovery and still is, the results are just less apparent. You’ve claimed but not proven a decline in innovation and you’ve claimed but not proven an increase in diversity. Your shift from “diversity” to “multiculturalism” also demonstrates your failure to accurately define your terms. Beyond all of this, you’ve not established any connection (rather than just a perceived correlation) between these two things. That was just a random well known example of “diversity” in scientific fields to demonstrate that it didn’t magically come in to existence in the 1990s. How you make the leap to accusing me of being “a Jewish supremacist” just because I pointed out that some Jewish Europeans working in the US in after WW2 remains a mystery to me. I could certainly have also mentioned all the individuals of the different European cultures who have worked together on all sorts of different innovations over the years.
You could never prove the relationship between a decline in innovation and increase in diversity. All you can do is point out the correlation between the two. You even admit that gender, socio-economic status, etc can lead to tension in the work place. I suggest that the tension is worse when it involves different ethnicities. I didn't realize we had to prove our opinions to be scientifically accurate on this forum. Multiculturalism is an amalgamation of different ethnicities and cultures. Diversity is pretty much the same thing.
Funny how when the imperialistic British invaded the Indian subcontinent they "justified" their presence there by saying that diversity would "civilize" the natives and bring progress into the area.
OP fails to prove his point about diversity because he ignores all of the creativity that has occurred following his arbitrarily chosen endpoint.
Some years ago, I reviewed the research relating the "diversity" of a company's workforce to the bottom line of the company. The research fell into 2 forms. By far, the largest form was subjective and consisted of surveys of employees. Employees were asked questions such as "Was your diversity course useful? In what way?", and "Does diversity help your project?" Obviously these survey results show diversity is a positive - but then that is a predetermined outcome. Employees, particularly at companies which have mandatory diversity training, and in which these surveys are not anonymous, know how to answer the questions. The other form were quantitative statistical studies which tried to correlate diversity with profit, increased sales, and other measures of success. These studies found 2 results from diversity: 1 - diversity helped international companies dealing with foreign nations. This is a no-brain result. Obviously, if you speak their language and understand their customs, then you will do better. 2 - there was a slight negative correlation between older employees in the service industry and success in the company. For example, the 70 year old man taking your order in McDonalds does not help speed up the process. Bottom line: diversity is BS. Its PC crap.
While an impressive list, compared to the first early years of 20th century these inventions aren't much; most being 'tweeks' of inventions made decades before. Very few of them can be called "ground breaking". The inventions listed below can be called ground breaking, and were not invented by scientists who were taking diversity training. Technology, science, and inventions have progressed at an accelerated rate during the hundred years of the 20th century, more so than any other century. We began the 20th century with the infancy of airplanes, automobiles, and radio, when those inventions dazzled us with their novelty and wonder. We end the 20th century with spaceships, computers, cell phones, and the wireless Internet all being technologies we can take for granted. Inventions of early 20th Century: 1900-1909: escalator radio receiver neon light first airplane ductile tungsten for light bulbs tractor, vacuum diode first sonar electronic amplifier color photography helicopter cellophane Model-T Geiger counter. 1910-1919: automobile electronic ignition motorized movie camera zippe pyrex radio tuner superheterodyne radio circuit still used in all TV's and radio short-wave radio arc welder toaster. The list goes on through the 1930's. 1920-1929: Robot, insulin, 3-D movies, traffic signals, cathode ray tubes, frozen food, loudspeaker, mechanical TV, liquid fuel for rockets, iron lung, penicillin. 1930-1939: Scotch tape, neoprene, differential analyzer or analog computer, jet engine electron microscope, several advances in photography, radio telescope, FM radio, first magnetic recording, nylon, radar, voice recognition machine, photocopier, Teflon ballpoint pens, turboprop engine. http://inventors.about.com/od/timelines/a/twentieth.htm You mention a lot of computer technology, but there wouldn't even be a computer if it wasn't for the scientists of the earlier decades of the 20th Century.
Comparing apples to oranges and coming up with fruit salad results? The time frame comparison is utterly ludicrous! If you compared the great inventions of the 19th century to the first 15 years of the 20th century you have a similar disparity. Steam engines, electricity, electromagnet, cement, typewriter, propeller, revolver, wrench, calculator, telegraph, photography, antiseptics, gyroscope, tin can, telephone, internal combustion engine, etc, etc. Without the 19th century many of those subsequent inventions of the 20th century would not have been possible. Somehow the OP imagines that the 21st century should have eclipsed the 20th century in just 15 years. How absurd!
I was going to go back to the 1800's. I know Tesla's AC power was latter 1800's. Apples and oranges are good in fruit salad.
The point is that most inventions rely upon what came before so it is disingenuous to disparage the last 15 years simply because it has been largely a time of extrapolation of what came before. If that was not the case then we would still be using bulletin boards on black screen monitors to use the internet.
