fantastic ideas you had but then found someone else had thought of it ages ago

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― stevem (blueski), Saturday, 22 February 2003 13:33 (twenty-three years ago)

I had an idea a while back for a short story about people who can live through time in a non-linear way - they can skip to different points in their life whenever they please. Just as I was preparing to write it, I learnt that somebody had already had that idea and had made a film of it. I was very annoyed.

― Chriddof (Chriddof), Saturday, 22 February 2003 13:44 (twenty-three years ago)

Sliced bread. I thought it was the best thing for, ooh ages.

― Martin Skidmore (Martin Skidmore), Saturday, 22 February 2003 13:50 (twenty-three years ago)

A device (handheld preferably) you can use to jump-start your own car when/if your battery dies. Something very similar has been patented (although, to my knowledge, not yet produced).

― Ryan McKay (Ryan McKay), Saturday, 22 February 2003 14:22 (twenty-three years ago)

Recharging batteries in shoes. Using piezo(?) crystals to generate a charge as you walk around.
I saw that Trevor Bayliss had patented it about two weeks after I thought it up.

― Simeon (Simeon), Saturday, 22 February 2003 15:21 (twenty-three years ago)

Extrapolated the theory of an expanding and collapsing universe after being taught the theory of relativity in grade school... and was devastated to find out that it was indeed a branch of theoretical astrophysics.

I still don't know if any sci fi writers came up with the idea of the Luminal Boom before me.

― kate, Saturday, 22 February 2003 16:15 (twenty-three years ago)

The Screw-Drive Elevator.

― Millar (Millar), Saturday, 22 February 2003 16:23 (twenty-three years ago)

Aged seven, how colours work, i.e. how some light is reflected and some absorbed. I was gutted when I found out that people already knew this.

― Ed (dali), Saturday, 22 February 2003 17:11 (twenty-three years ago)

Japanese noise music.
I had a dream a while ago where I was in the future and there was a style of musicwhich was intense screaming in Japanese.
Then a few months later i found out it really did exist.

― A Nairn (moretap), Saturday, 22 February 2003 17:15 (twenty-three years ago)

"had an idea a while back for a short story about people who can live through time in a non-linear way"

Slaughterhouse 5?

― A Nairn (moretap), Saturday, 22 February 2003 17:17 (twenty-three years ago)

The Electric Storm

― Cozen (Cozen), Saturday, 22 February 2003 17:24 (twenty-three years ago)

You shd write that story, except INCLUDE the publication of Slaughterhouse-5 as part of it - yr protagonist is planning to do an autobiography of his weird life and when it gets published in 1982, nobody believes him and the press dumps on it bcz it is seen as an unimaginative rip-off of Vonnegut - which our hero hasn't READ YET OR EVEN HEARD OF bcz he hasn't gone through that part yet!

I'm fucking brilliant

― Millar (Millar), Saturday, 22 February 2003 17:38 (twenty-three years ago)

Yay, turning potential problems in writing fiction to your own benefit is such a cool (and ironic) thing to do.

― A Nairn (moretap), Saturday, 22 February 2003 17:41 (twenty-three years ago)

Writing a poem about scrambled porn.

― bnw (bnw), Saturday, 22 February 2003 17:51 (twenty-three years ago)

Re-usable ice cubes; they don't water down your drink!

― David Beckhouse (David Beckhouse), Saturday, 22 February 2003 18:01 (twenty-three years ago)

hey that IS a good idea...the frozen water is contained in thin plastic casing or something i presume?

― stevem (blueski), Saturday, 22 February 2003 18:29 (twenty-three years ago)

detachable handles for pans and things is as far i got

― zemko (bob), Saturday, 22 February 2003 18:37 (twenty-three years ago)

better yet super concentrated alcoholic ice cubes

― zemko (bob), Saturday, 22 February 2003 18:38 (twenty-three years ago)

I thought of alcoholic spring water, caffeinated spring water and alcoholic energy drinks around about the same time they appeared on shelves/in bars. Really rather pissed off abt those I might add.

― Millar (Millar), Saturday, 22 February 2003 18:40 (twenty-three years ago)

i had an idea to do a mock version of MTV Cribs in which me and a mate film me showing viewers around my crappy super-average small suburban house...but MTV started doing essentially just that with Ricky Gervais and Zane Lowe before i had the idea anyway

― stevem (blueski), Saturday, 22 February 2003 18:49 (twenty-three years ago)

a novel about a futuristic amusement park where dinosaurs are brought back to life through advanced cloning techniques

― jess (dubplatestyle), Saturday, 22 February 2003 18:59 (twenty-three years ago)

Combination shoe horn and hemorrhoid removal kit.

― Finestra, Saturday, 22 February 2003 19:04 (twenty-three years ago)

This is reminding me of Ethan Hawke's theory in the film "Waking Life" about how heaps of people think up inventions all at the same time seperately, because we have collective unconcious. I really like that idea.

Im sure I've come up with something that turned out to appear later but I can't think of anything right now.

― Trayce (trayce), Sunday, 23 February 2003 06:24 (twenty-three years ago)

"You Give Love a Bad Name"

― James Blount (James Blount), Sunday, 23 February 2003 07:50 (twenty-three years ago)

I had this idea for a perpetual motion machine, but... no. You guys wouldn't be interested.

― Mark C (Mark C), Sunday, 23 February 2003 11:03 (twenty-three years ago)

I've explained before how to make one, Mark. It is based on the fact, made clear by footy commentators everywhere, that the ball picks up pace off wet turf. Free energy!

― Martin Skidmore (Martin Skidmore), Sunday, 23 February 2003 12:06 (twenty-three years ago)

ETHAN HAWKE thought up the fantastic idea of the collective subconscious? Won't *he* be surprised and disappointed to learn that Carl Jung thought it up already 100 years ago...

― kate, Sunday, 23 February 2003 12:09 (twenty-three years ago)

re-usable ice cubes are creepy

― Chupa-Cabras (vicc13), Sunday, 23 February 2003 12:16 (twenty-three years ago)

time is all at the same place kate

― mark s (mark s), Sunday, 23 February 2003 12:43 (twenty-three years ago)

Time... time is IMAGINARY!!! And you know what, King? Time is gonna KILL you!

― kate, Sunday, 23 February 2003 12:45 (twenty-three years ago)

of course i've thought up numerous fantastic for ILX threads only to find they'd already been done...

― stevem (blueski), Sunday, 23 February 2003 13:59 (twenty-three years ago)

I thought of a thread called "fantastic ideas you had but then found someone else had thought of it ages ago" seconds after it appeared.

― Martin Skidmore (Martin Skidmore), Sunday, 23 February 2003 14:55 (twenty-three years ago)

I think there should be "Road Rage Robots". You get mad at somebody, you push a button, and it sends your sentinel out. They send their sentinel out, and the robots duke it out. Kind of like Battlebots...

― Joe (Joe), Sunday, 23 February 2003 15:41 (twenty-three years ago)

I thought of Mark S.

― Cozen (Cozen), Sunday, 23 February 2003 15:54 (twenty-three years ago)

Rock and roll. Also, a wild fantasy land where small creatures set out on impossible quests to save the world from evil. Alas, The Great Muppet Caper had already been filmed.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Sunday, 23 February 2003 16:07 (twenty-three years ago)

No one's thought of it yet:

Hypothetical Scenario #43: Seafood Section D.J.

― Joe (Joe), Sunday, 23 February 2003 16:20 (twenty-three years ago)

i did the same with gabba. Except I figured it would be played in clubs with a bouncy castle floor and the drumming is live on the biggest bassdrum in the universe.

― dog latin (dog latin), Sunday, 23 February 2003 18:28 (twenty-three years ago)

today i feel like a bad idea everyone is trying not to have

― mark s (mark s), Sunday, 23 February 2003 18:33 (twenty-three years ago)

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