Interesting list, and some familiar names (W. Brian Arthur in particular is strongly recommended), along with some notable omissions (Schumpeter's already been mentioned).
I'd suggest a few additions:
- John H. Holland has outlined, though I'm not sure he's actually written a book on, the process of innovation and novel creation, which he describes generally as a mostly recombinative process. New inventions are almost always produced as an edit of one or more earlier ones. Sometimes via deletion, often through combination, sometimes through duplication. This applies to both human invention and genetic processes. (Holland is best known as the father of genetic algorithms.) I'm aware of his work through the Santa Fe Institute, where his ideas have been carried on by others (Arthur is another SFI affiliate).
- Kevin Kelley, What Technology Wants. I'm not a fan, but it's an influential book. Steven Johnson has a number of similarly-pitched titles, Where Good Ideas Come From: The Natural History of Information and How We Got to Now especially.
- Joseph Tainter, The Collapse of Complex Societies puts innovation and complexity in their larger societal context and cycle.
- Histories of industrial R&D labs are insightful. Two of which I'm aware, David A. Hounshell, Corporate Strategy: Du Pont R&D, 1902--1980, and Jon Gertner, The Idea Factory: Bell Labs and the Great Age of American Innovation.
I'd suggest a few additions:
- John H. Holland has outlined, though I'm not sure he's actually written a book on, the process of innovation and novel creation, which he describes generally as a mostly recombinative process. New inventions are almost always produced as an edit of one or more earlier ones. Sometimes via deletion, often through combination, sometimes through duplication. This applies to both human invention and genetic processes. (Holland is best known as the father of genetic algorithms.) I'm aware of his work through the Santa Fe Institute, where his ideas have been carried on by others (Arthur is another SFI affiliate).
- Kevin Kelley, What Technology Wants. I'm not a fan, but it's an influential book. Steven Johnson has a number of similarly-pitched titles, Where Good Ideas Come From: The Natural History of Information and How We Got to Now especially.
- Joseph Tainter, The Collapse of Complex Societies puts innovation and complexity in their larger societal context and cycle.
- Histories of industrial R&D labs are insightful. Two of which I'm aware, David A. Hounshell, Corporate Strategy: Du Pont R&D, 1902--1980, and Jon Gertner, The Idea Factory: Bell Labs and the Great Age of American Innovation.