The Wright Brothers did not 'invent' the concept of flight, they took the work of glider pioneers and coupled it with existing engines. There is a huge amount of invention in the Space Shuttle but it is largely incremental improvements to what has gone before. In the sixties I grew up enthralled with the space programme. On that monumental day, glued to the television, I remember being so proud of our ingenuity and inventiveness. Many people thought that surely this was the pinnacle of our technological achievements - we could go no further.
Technology is the application of scientific discovery.
Today we see new discoveries occurring at an ever increasing rate. For example it has been said that in the last ten years there have been more advances in the field of medicine than in the whole of preceding human history. Not only is the rate of discovery and understanding accelerating but our access to this information is improving all the time. More importantly, it is possible to cross-reference data in strange new ways. We are developing tools which help us to think laterally - the stamp of the genius inventor.