Innovation Through Serendipity, Error, and Exaptation

 CS875 Unit 4-2 Discussion

For centuries, humans have been making discovering and developing ideas that have helped to improve the quality of life and to make it more easier for mankind. Some of these innovations and discoveries are not even planned as humans are limited in their cognitive ability and it is very hard for a person to wake up and instantly make a discovery. As such, some of the discoveries happens through errors that lead to innovative ideas or solutions to real-life problems. Therefore, this post will discuss some of the ways through which humans make discoveries and generate ideas for solving complex problems. Specifically, the paper will discuss the process of serendipity, error, and exaptation.

According to De Rond (2014), serendipity can be defined as a ‘happy accident’ or chance that occurs and results to a beneficial solution. Primarily, the chance occurs on its own without the intervention or knowledge of the inventor. In this regard, a chance can be defined as ”...event happening in the absence of any obvious design (randomly or accidentally), one that is irrelevant to any present need, or one of which the cause is unknown” (De Rond, 2014, p.345). Therefore, an invention by serendipity occurs as a result of two or more events that can be put into strategic use. The discovery of penicillin is a typical example of an idea or invention that occurred through serendipity. Penicillin is an antibiotic drug that was discovered by Sir Alexander Fleming in 1928. Naturally, the discovery was made after Fleming accidentally left staphylococcus culture plate for two weeks and later found a mold that prevented its growth (Donnelly, n.d.).

In addition to serendipity, some inventions also occur through errors. In this regard, a discovery occurring through error can be thought of an unexpected idea or invention that occurs as a result of a mistake. For instance, a person can be experimenting on the lab, accidentally spills a liquid and fortunately observes an unexpected valuable result. The Slinky is a typical example of an innovation that occurred through an error. The Slinky was discovered by Richard James in 1943 when one of the springs he was trying to develop accidentally fell and he noticed it continued to move (Editors of Publications International, Ltd., n.d.).

Exaptation is the third way through which innovations occur. An innovation that occurs through exaptation simply refers to an idea that have been generated by improving an existing functionality to derive a more useful outcome. According to Andriani and Cattani (2016), Exaptation is a “...discontinuous evolutionary process resulting from a functional shift of an existing trait or artifact” (p.115). The invention of the fibre optic technology is a typical example of a discovery through exaptation.



Reference List

Andriani, P., & Cattani, G. (2016). Exaptation as source of creativity, innovation, and diversity: Introduction to the special section. Industrial and Corporate Change, 25(1), 115-131.

De Rond, M. (2014). The structure of serendipity. Culture and Organization, 20(5), 342-358.

Donnelly, T. (n.d.). 9 Brilliant Inventions Made by Mistake. Retrieved January 24, 2022, from https://incafrica.com/tim-donnelly/brilliant-failures/9-inventions-made-by-mistake.html

Editors of Publications International, Ltd. (n.d.). 9 Things Invented or Discovered by Accident. Retrieved January 24, 2022, from https://science.howstuffworks.com/innovation/scientific-experiments/9-things-invented-or-discovered-by-accident.htm

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