> Nothing is invented, only discovered.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Invention

https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/inventio...

https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/invention

https://www.britannica.com/technology/invention-technology

my opinion alarm is jumping off the desk over here, sheesh

Maybe that's very clever or just dumb semantic nitpicking, but unless you say more no one will know which you think it is.

I like to think of it more like a scale. Some things are closer to being invented, other things are closer to being discovered.

I'd say we've discovered pi, and the fractional quantum Hall effect[1]. And I'd say we've invented low-density parity-check codes[2] and single-photon avalanche diodes[3].

[1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fractional_quantum_Hall_effect

[2]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Low-density_parity-check_code

[3]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Single-photon_avalanche_diode

That's a bit reductive. Without a human mind putting effort to wander the concept space, that concept would never be touched, and it would never be realized. The claim that all logical things that can exist already exist since they're an inescapable eventual logical conclusion seems a bit silly.

All that said, I do mostly agree.

I mean, one could say no one ever writes a book, they just discover it, since that sequence of characters (like all other sequences) was already implicit in reality.

I think this points up the problem with what you're claiming. There is sufficient creativity to get to the exact sequence of characters (or exact configuration of elements for the invention) to distinguish invention (a kind of creation) from mere discovery.

In mathematics, though, we say a mathematician discovers a proof, even if the proof is very creative. So maybe it's not as clear as all that.

Maybe the problem is the nature of constraints around the innovation? If it's sufficiently constrained there's little room for creativity, and the word discovery is more appropriate, even if it was hard to find.

Go back to the source (book, whatever) and read it again, it's unlikely that it said that nothing is invented and you missed the point. E.g. electromagnetism was discovered → electric engine was invented(mayb as a result of the discovery, maybe not). You can discover how a wheel works or invent a wheel without discovering the principle.