"By an odd coincidence, at least two other people were independently inspired at about the same time"
I wasn't aware that there had been other cubes ( at least 1 using the same mechanism) invented independently, but this is a very common phenomenon. For example, calculus was independently invented by (at least) Newton and Leibniz.
What's behind this phenomenon ? How is that different people, without communicated and in times gone by without any obvious common influences, imagine and invent the same concepts within the same timeframe ?
As a kid I enjoyed the Rubik snake which I could contort into interesting patterns. My brother who was a few years older had a few other cubes, such as some with many more angled faces etc.
As for cooperative invention, it would seem that humans are not as unique as we think we are. In exactly the same way we have doppelgangers that look like we do, we also have people that overlap with us in behaviour, personality and ideas. Side by side invention is just one facet of that.
From what I know, it's a combination of prerequisites (can you manufacture this? can you conceive of it?) and pressures (what problems are most people facing?).
There's also maybe some selection bias; most (all?) of us hadn't heard of the other two cubes, because they failed to catch on for various reasons; if a cube had been invented sooner, would we have ever heard of it?
I wasn't aware that there had been other cubes ( at least 1 using the same mechanism) invented independently, but this is a very common phenomenon. For example, calculus was independently invented by (at least) Newton and Leibniz.
What's behind this phenomenon ? How is that different people, without communicated and in times gone by without any obvious common influences, imagine and invent the same concepts within the same timeframe ?