Shiva builds, Shiva destroys - endlessly. Children build block towers, then knock them down. Progress does the same. Every innovation makes every previous innovation obsolete.
Hindu's worship Shiva. Children worship themselves. Modernity worships Progress.
I wonder if that makes Hindus smile.
Thomas Edison didn't worship anything, but he was enthusiastic about progress. Almost everything Edison invented is now obsolete. Edison expected nothing less. He was happy to see the children of his inventions grow into new innovations.
Commerce was secondary.
Edison invented an electric pen that made the work of scriveners no longer needed. Scriveners were crucial to the copying of documents, they were skilled at duplicating every jot and tittle of any kind of written document. In the days before copying-machines, they were the only game in town.
Edison's electric pen made duplication easy for anyone; no skill required. The commercial success of the pen didn't last long. It was soon made obsolete by the invention of the typewriter and carbon-paper.
Some part of Edison's electric pen was reborn in the workings of the present-day tattoo gun. Edison's pen tattooed mimeograph stencils. The tattoo gun tattoo's human skin.
Other than that, they're much the same instrument.
Edison would smile at that. He would be both amused and pleased that the essentials of his invention would have such a long shelf-life. I doubt he would be surprised. I think he expected invention to evolve into other inventions.
It's hard to predict were progress will progress next.
Then too, some progress seems debatably progressive. How much progress is there is there in tattooing, even when it's made easier? Were the down-sides of splitting the atom worth the explosions that followed? Was the laboratory creation of covid-19 worth the pandemic that came in its wake?
Progress always travels with unpleasant offspring. Cutting-edge technology cuts both ways. I suppose there's nothing to be done about the consequences. Nothing ventured, nothing gained - although, nothing ventured, nothing ruined, is also true.
Not that anyone has a choice in the matter.
Progress is unrelenting.
Shiva builds, Shiva destroys - endlessly.