Working Up

by Dwayne Phillips

Someone will take the next great solution and turn it into the next great problem.

I am pretty sure that today someone will arrive with the next great solution. That will solve some great problem that has plagued us far longer than plaguing should have plagued us.

Then, some time after now, someone will find the next great problem in today’s next great solution. It is only a matter of time and some amount of plaguing. These next great solutions are never perfect.

These giant windmills that generate renewable electricity are great. Oh, after a few years, some of those incredible giant blades have problems. We replace the blades, restore operations, and then try to figure out what to do with the old blades. The next great invention of those blades means they are made from wonder materials that are a composite compositions of composable synthetic materials that won’t degrade in the ground for a few thousand long times into the unforeseen future. Hmmm. Now we have the next great problem. How do we decompose uncomposable composite materials?

Those electric cars are great. The next great solution to air pollution works. Then in a few years, the batteries won’t recharge and we have to do something with them, right? We have the next great problem. What do we do with all those chemicals?

Enough energy and environmental problems. We recently learned that some folks have implants in their eyes that allow them to see. That was the next great solution. Now we have the next great problem. That company went out of business. No one can maintain those implants. Those folks will be blind again and stuck with things in their eyes. What are we to do?

If someone merely had the foresight to understand the next great solution so that it wouldn’t bring the next great problem, we wouldn’t need the next great solution. I guess the next great solution we really need is a training program that provides the foresight to ensure the next great problem doesn’t arrive. Still, there is probably a next great problem lurking in that next great solution training program. I just haven’t thought of it, yet.