Designed by Chance: How Accidents Become Innovations

AI-generated image via Imagen 3 by Google

Usually, we are not aware of what went into the designs of objects: everyday things like the clothes we wear, structures like the floors and roads we walk on, or even impressive systems like Wi-Fi. We might assume that many of the things we use are meticulously designed and engineered. In many ways, they can, but it is one-sided, flattening the ways we look at design and, in a way, our understanding of the world. And the “magical” process tucked inside some of these objects is not all deliberate planning. Some started as fortunate accidents and discoveries.

Ancient civilizations experimented with everything as they tried to thrive, even things that may look like something to be discarded. This included food like cheese, which curdled from the milk stored in animal stomachs, and drinks like wine that came from overfermented grapes that they stored. Instead of throwing them out, people tried them and found out they are safe. Since their discovery, there have now been several methods invented to produce them.

Sometimes they were made by people who were trying to do something entirely unrelated but decided to continue with it anyway. Gunpowder was invented accidentally while alchemists were trying to make an elixir of immortality. They never were able to make such an elixir, but as a result, they discovered gunpowder’s explosive properties. With time, this discovery led to fireworks, bombs, and firearms, defining periods of both celebration and tragedy.

Even in modern times, accidents have still led to the rise of important inventions. Sir Alexander Fleming famously left a Petri dish with bacteria for two weeks by accident. When he returned, he discovered a mold stopping the growth of some of the bacteria, which he later studied and called penicillin. It took over a decade before it would be made available for widespread medical use, but what looked to be a careless act at first had eventually given birth to the antibiotics industry.

This is not to say we should just leave things to chance, nor that accidental discoveries are the only fascinating origin stories when it comes to the things we use. Far beyond idleness, these inventions were done by people already making efforts to observe something, just that they were taken in a different direction. The accidents came because there was something to make an accident in, the observations came because there was an accident to observe, and innovation came because something had been observed.

Furthermore, they do show us that we can still take advantage of situations even when things do not go our way. With an open mind, curiosity, and creativity, they can lead to something impactful. An accident may be a failure on one part, but it can be an opportunity for something just as big.

Many things in the world are unpredictable, including invention and innovation, but this only means we need to be more observant. By staying curious and attentive, we can recognize not only the problems around us but also unexpected solutions—sometimes to challenges entirely different from the ones we originally set out to solve.

Sources:

• https://wineinsiders.com/blogs/wine-101-wine-basics/how-was-wine-discovered

• https://webhelper.brown.edu/joukowsky/courses/13things/7687.html

• https://www.britannica.com/biography/Alexander-Fleming

• https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC4520913/

• https://techhistorylab.com/who-invented-wi-fi-surprising-story/

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Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed in this student article are those of the author/s and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the Ateneo de Manila University

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