but of course I just wanted to talk of square wheels as a example of non-conventional thinking, and on the reasons why one may want (or may not want ) to reinvent the wheel.
Yeah, sure, I got what the meaning of the post was, very interesting topic too!
It got me thinking, and although I had in the past looked at it, the invention of the wheel is a great image of thinking out of the box, though I would rather you had used the allegory of 'sliced bread', as it's quicker to get a clear perspective on.
The invention of the wheel brings into account the History of Civilization and Physics. Physics, in a way, is simple. I say in a way.
The History of civilization, less so, but none the less interesting.
We have to imagine a world (around the Middle-East) pre-3000 years ago BC where people were happy to develop the science of pottery (though pottery was waay older. The Potter wheel is about that time). This would in turn help agriculture, commerce, as with pots they could keep water for the fields, grain, oil, wine. One side effect of pottery was also that water was kept cool. Imagine the effect of having cool water in an area of the planet which is always hot!
Anyway, after some millennia two centuries, *someone* had the idea of using the potter's wheel on its side.
The potter's wheel was made of three parts. A small circular base with a hole in its center, and a bigger wheel (the main bit) with also a hole in it, and a stick in the middle, stuck in the ground to guide the top wheel.
Now whether they decided when storing the potter's wheel after a season (of pottering), and they thought it astute to roll the components together (say they had two potter's wheels, they'd have had 2 sets of similar-sized wheels), or if anyway they had had in mind the idea of rollers (which they already used for lots of things - moving heavy stones for e.g.) might be a point of discussion.
But from then on they started making little models of the thing (2 wheels and an axle). And later they were using chariots.
This just confirms that humanity is good at thinking out of the box.
Or lazy. "Hmm, that's too heavy to carry! -Let's roll it around! -Yeah, that's an idea, let's roll it around!"
Or both.
I mean, when we started living in caves to get protection, that was laziness! "It's cold out there! - Let's go in a cave!".
That's civilization!
[Edited some dates]