In innovation, whether something is new is what matters the least.

The "novelty" is the central nucleus in the current concept of innovation: new and different products, which are protected by patents and thus become an intellectual property, legally protected.

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But, this is the least relevant of the principles of innovation for the common good, as it is more motivated by private economic criteria (patentability of products and processes) than by a criterion of utility for the majority.

Furthermore, the concept of "novelty" is usually applied only from the perspective of a society or group, not of humanity as a whole.

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Be it invention, innovation or discovery, what is something really new? Many "inventions", which are for a country or culture, already existed previously in that same country at other times, or in another distant place. Metal water pipes were common in Europe during Roman times, and were only used again in the 19th century. The printing of moving characters, gunpowder or the compass were already known in China hundreds of years before being "re-invented" in European countries.

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Nor should we forget that the concept of "discovery" often carries an ethnocentric arrogance. Can we say that Hiram Bingham "discovered" Machu Picchu, when he was taken there by a local guide? Guide that, by the way, does not appear in the history books. Likewise, it would seem strange to us to read that the first Americans that Columbus brought to Spain were the "discoverers" of Europe. But actually they were ... from the point of view of the Americas.

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All of this downplays the idea of ​​innovation as the creation of something “new”. Therefore, we suggest a change of approach, in which creativity and utility prevail with a view to the common good.

The economy of resources is a basic principle of innovation. It is increasingly essential at this time when these are beginning to be scarce.

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Efficiency implies achieving the desired objectives using the least amount of resources. As these are usually scarce, efficiency and economy are strongly related. Unfortunately, the economy of resources does not seem to be a general principle in current economic activities.

For example, today, most of the computer programs we use, such as MS Office, easily offer hundreds of more options than we need on a day-to-day basis. At first that does not seem a negative thing, but in practice it has a significant cost: we need computers with more powerful processors, and enough RAM, to perform functions very similar to those we did with Office 97 on computers hundreds of times less powerful. It is the equivalent of hunting flies with cannon shots: a waste of resources that essentially violates our proposal for true innovation.

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And there are even more worrying examples: that a plastic bottle consumes, for its production, 80 liters of water, or that bitcoin transactions in the world consume more electricity than a whole country like Argentina.

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When many elements, such as clean water, clean air, oil, etc., become scarce, it becomes more and more urgent to do more with less. However, there are common practices, such as planned obsolescence, or the use of unnecessary and non-recyclable packaging - to give just two examples - that contradict this principle in an almost tragicomic way. To those who want to wake up from their placid ignorance, we recommend seeing some images of the many landfills where the technological waste that we send to poorer countries is stored, just to not have it near our homes.

Rediscovering natural beauty and order offers an infinite source of inspiration for innovation.

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There are two opposite ways of conceiving of scientific and technical advance. One, it considers that the ideas and achievements are separate elements, like stones that are accumulated until creating the pile of aggregates that we call science or technology; the other sees the world as a harmonious whole, of which the human being still knows only a tiny part. Thus, each discovery is, in reality, a "removing the veil" that covered the part now discovered.

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Harmony and order are intimately linked. The Greek word kosmos, which we commonly use as a synonym for "universe," meant both "harmony" and "beauty" and "order." The ancient Greeks thus recognized that the entire universe is beautiful and harmonious, and that in it we find infinite ecosystems that reflect the order and beauty of nature.

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Integrated order and beauty are powerful engines for true innovation. The principle of harmony is inspiring and creative, it provides lines of investigation and makes the already known a door to enter the still unknown. In the same way, the search for order, which is expressed in beauty, is a stimulus to innovation, more powerful than the simple will to solve everyday problems.

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Perhaps it is not a mere coincidence that some of the main spaces and models of innovation, such as the MIT Media Lab or cradle-to-cradle design, are closely related to architecture. Architecture, "frozen music", as some poet called it, is one of the most harmonizing and systemic practical disciplines, as conceived by the Roman Vitruvius in his famous Treatise on the principles of architecture.

If we act considering the impact of our actions on the seventh generation, 150 or 200 years from now, our actions and decisions will be significantly more responsible and beneficial.

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This is, perhaps, the most forgotten of the principles. It is inspired by the beginning of the seventh generation, common to many Native American groups; A principle by which, when making important decisions, the impact that these would have on the seventh of future generations was valued.

On the other hand, our culture only acts considering the short term and, as a consequence, the mines that poison the adjacent territories for centuries are something endemic to our recent “progress”. Also deforestation that unbalances habitats and turns sources of wealth and life into deserts, thus hitting almost all countries.

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To illustrate the importance of this principle we have a historical example. Concerned about the German investigations related to the military exploitation of nuclear energy, Einstein wrote a letter to the President of the United States, Roosevelt. This resulted in the birth of the Manhattan project, the result of which was the nuclear bomb. When two of these bombs were dropped on the civilian populations of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, physicists like Oppenheimer, who had participated in their development, were horrified. These scientists came together in the postwar period to try to stop the next breakthrough, the hydrogen bomb, but it was too late. The Soviet Union got hold of nuclear technology through espionage, and the H-bomb was developed.

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It is an illusion to think that the development of technology, under its many aspects, must be amoral, that is, proceed without ethical considerations. There are discoveries and technologies that can be highly destructive to the common human good, and as long as the tribal sense prevails over the consciousness of Humanity One, it may be better that some discoveries and advances do not come to pass.

In a world in perpetual change, new solutions to concrete problems will always be needed.

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This is the principle that is, perhaps, most closely linked to the concept of innovation. The world is not static, everything we know is in perpetual evolution. For this reason, what may be useful and relevant at a given moment ceases to be so at a later point in the evolutionary cycle.

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We propose the urgent evolution of our economic model, and the industrial activities that derive from it, towards a “new” model; a model that returns to an ecological-systemic vision of the world and of the relationships between Human Being and Nature.

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The Sustainable Development Model, proposed by the United Nations in its “2030 Agenda”, represents a step in the right direction, with a vision that solidly integrates the economic, social and environmental aspects.

To innovate, human beings can - and must - integrate their analytical and imaginative faculties.

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Innovation benefits from synergistic solutions to common problems. Synergy means that the whole is greater than the sum of the parts. We propose to extend the concept of synergy beyond teamwork, where this is a clearly desirable goal.

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Our synergy proposal is applied to the two great areas of the human psyche, the symbolic-intuitive and the analytical-rational.

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These areas are synthesized in the functions that are attributed to the two hemispheres of the brain: the left, specialized in the analysis and logic of the parts, and the right, which uses synthesis, imagination and overview.Thus, by concentrating on technical, pragmatic and concrete details, one does not lose sight of a larger panorama, which can be the door to inspiration in moments when there are no exits; what in English-speaking countries is known as “thinking outside the established framework” (to think out of the box).

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The systemic and global vision is also an excellent antidote to the manifest selfishness of patentable innovations. Discoveries, inventions, and innovations are generally humble, human-scale applications of natural laws. For an engineer, it would be a success to reproduce the mechanical characteristics of a simple spider web or the flight of a beetle.

The results of any innovation process must be useful to the common good and respect nature.

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Innovation is expressed through varied ideas and creations, which will only be useful if the natural balance is respected and true human needs are considered.

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The donut economic model, created by Oxford economist Kate Rawoth, is a fine example. It argues that we must satisfy the fundamental needs of ALL human beings, which the economist considers well reflected in the development goals of the United Nations. At the same time, a series of natural limits must be respected.

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As many have already indicated, if we do not respect these natural limits, we run the risk of undermining our own future. Our current economic model can sadly be described as "bread for today and hunger for tomorrow."