The Shoulders of Giants
Have you ever heard the thought that there's no such thing as an original story? There are lots of creative people in this world, but all of them draw inspiration from other creative works. This came up in the trial over the popular " Blurred Lines " song. Pharrell Williams, a defendant who lost his case in court, said that creativity was stifled by this verdict, and it became more dangerous for anyone to make anything that was inspired by anyone. Although I have not followed the case in any real detail beyond a very nice parody from Glove and Boots , it's easy to see how anyone who is creative for a living has to be very careful they don't accidentally make something too similar to someone else's work. Although our world is vast with many ideas, there really is still a finite amount of possibilities, and with so many creators, those possibilities are being explored very rapidly. I bring this up to ask the question: how valuable is it that we contin...