The article highlights that every innovation, from the simplest concepts like the wheel to complex ideas like the equal sign, profoundly changed society when first introduced. Innovations often follow a fractal pattern, whereby each new idea generates more discoveries. Historical examples, such as the introduction of corridors by the Romans and the equal sign by Robert Recorde, exemplify how even obvious concepts required innovative thought. The notion that some breakthroughs emerge suddenly while others evolve gradually reflects the multifaceted nature of human creativity and invention.
Before someone came up with the idea of a corridor, people lived in houses where rooms opened from other rooms like you see in museums today. It's easy to say duh now, but when the first Roman patrician built corridors in a villa...it was just as forward looking in their time as sustainable architecture is in ours.
You'd think that something as basic and ubiquitous as the equal sign, one of the world's most recognized symbols and one of the most frequently used concepts in mathematics, is as old as time itself. But you'd be surprised to learn that it was introduced as late as 1557.
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