1Hi, it's Doug.
2When you think of new inventions, what kinds of things do you think of?
3Virtual reality headsets that let you explore anywhere in the world?
4Cars that can drive on water?
5Pet robots that can pick up your toys?
6Well, someone named Finley has a question about inventions.
7Let's give her a call now.
8Hi Doug!
9Hi Finley!
10I have a question for you.
11Why is it so hard to make new inventions?
12That's a great question.
13It's so fun for me, as a grown-up,
14to look back on the things that seemed futuristic to me as a kid.
15I'd watch shows like Star Trek and see things like cool futuristic doors
16that automatically opened whenever you got close to them.
17Hey, we've got that today!
18Or computers that respond to voice commands:
19"Tell me the location."
20When I was growing up, you couldn't talk to a computer.
21But look, we've got this now too.
22Okay, Google. Beam me up.
23Okay, energize.
24Other things I saw in movies and shows are things that haven't been invented,
25at least not yet.
26Things like flying cars.
27What kinds of inventions do you think we might have once you've grown up?
28You can probably come up with lots of ideas.
29Who knows what we'll have?
30Some amazing things are already being worked on.
31A robotic arm that does your dishes.
32Cars that drive themselves.
33Jetpacks that allow you to fly from one place to another.
34Still, we don't have any of these things yet.
35And there's lots of things that no one has even come close to inventing yet.
36But why not?
37Why is it so hard to make new inventions?
38To figure that out, it's helpful to look at inventions and inventors of the past.
39Inventors like Katarina Paulus, the inventor of the modern parachute.
40Or Josephine Cochrane, the inventor of the dishwasher.
41Or all of the scientists and engineers at NASA
42who worked together to invent the Saturn V rocket
43a rocket powerful enough to send people all the way to the moon.
44First, any of these inventors have to come up with the idea.
45While that might seem easy,
46keep in mind that some of the greatest ideas are sometimes things that no one even thought was possible.
47Imagine what it was like to be Katarina Paulus.
48You're going to jump out of a plane or a hot air balloon?
49And land on the ground with your feet?
50"Yes, we can do it," she thought.
51But it's one thing to come up with an idea.
52It's another thing to actually build something that works.
53How do inventors do that?
54If you've not thought much about this before,
55it can be tempting to think,
56"Well, people who invent things are just geniuses."
57They wake up one morning with a brilliant idea in their head and...
58then they build the thing, and presto, it works!
59Now we have a new invention.
60Nothing could be further from the truth.
61The story of almost every invention is filled with what looks like...
62trying and failing again and again and again.
63The scientists and engineers who invented rockets
64weren't trying to get these rockets to blow up.
65But they knew that building a huge rocket wasn't something that had ever been done before.
66And rocket fuel?
67It's really explosive.
68Figuring out how to control the amount of rocket fuel getting burned?
69That's something that NASA could only learn by trying.
70Each time one of these tests failed,
71they carefully figured out why and made improvements to their design.
72By being willing to try again and again,
73and each time carefully observing and learning from their mistakes,
74eventually, they figured it out.
75And we've got rockets that have taken people all the way to the moon.
76The history of inventions is full of stories just like this.
77People coming up with new ideas for things and building something,
78trying, and failing.
79But each time, learning from their mistakes
80so that they can get it right.
81Not every idea makes it to the finish line.
82The idea of rocket-powered ice skating might be a good example.
83Or this automatic ketchup dispenser.
84But one thing is for sure.
85If we're going to have new inventions in the future,
86it'll only be possible if there are inventors who dare to dream big
87and aren't afraid of trying again and again and again,
88each time learning from their mistakes.
89In fact, many of these inventions of the future
90will be made by one of you watching this.
91Thanks, Finley, for asking your question!