Said another way (from my previous post), we are so enamored with the technological advances and knowledge explosion provided by science that we seem to have given science "done deal" credit for having already solved the puzzle that is the universe. Our faith is absolute and "religious" (maybe blindly religious) in the potential of science to answer all the questions
-----

If memory serves; someone in Congress or the Senats seriously suggested or introduced a bill to close the patent office. in the early 20th century (1903 if memory serves).

Since then; there has been the following inventions. The Airplane. the television, Color Television, Beta Max video tape machines, VHS video tape machines, the computer, memory, Disk drives 8 inches, 5.25, and 3.5 inch disks, hard drives, Zip drives, the Internet Xmodem checksum, Xmodem CRC, Ymodem, Zmodem, and numerous transfer protocols, CD player, etc.