I’d go back to the 1970s, the dawning of personal computer growth in it’s beginnings. I’d take every single idea and patent from today and collect them all in a multiple series of binders. I would spend weeks holed up in some apartment, jotting notes, re-directing credits to me.
I would be the founding father of hundreds of technological inventions, way before they were even thought up. Flash Drives? My idea. Compact Discs? My idea. SSDs? My idea.
Everything will be my idea and I’ll be biding my time, pitching ideas and profiting off of the patents that I sell and my ideas alone, with little to no work involved. By the turn of the 2000s, I’ll be unfathomably recognized and wealthy.
There’s already tons of folks that had “that idea” too early. Those technical innovations don’t just need some rando showing up and saying “hey, we should make a plastic disc that stores music MONEY PLEASE!”
The CD was created in collaboration between several companies, creating a technical standard, and working with the limitations of manufacturing and technology of the time. There’s exactly zero chance you would be able to get a jump on them.
I’d bet $3 that there’s tons of patents from people who had a similar enough idea years before it came out, but they never went anywhere. Sony would just see your patent and carefully design the disc to avoid violating it.
Yeah, it’d be much simpler to just buy some stock in the right companies, place some bets on the right events, and chill out on the beach before hitting the discos and cocktail bars.
The optical mouse was first mentioned in print in the 1980s.