What's it called when an inventor's invention backfires on them?

Wild Bill@midwest.social to Ask Lemmy@lemmy.world – 61 points –

Is there a name for this specific concept? Where somebody invents something (to do them good) but then that thing turns around and backfires on them?

47

There's the phrase "Hoist by their own petard" but not sure if that's specific enough to inventions, probably not.

I really hope there’s a single word for it out there… more convenient yanno.

There's probably a long and complex German word for it :-)

There's probably a German word for the concept that there is a German word for everything.

Indeed - for OP's purposes, I came up with this (but I don't speak German, so it may make no sense at all): Erfindungselbstfehlzündung

Google seems to like it well enough!

Or better, Erfindungdererfinderselbstfehlzündung:

The first one works, the second doesn't. You cannot simply put any words together.

Well, not with that attitude... ;-)

Nah, fair enough - as I said, I can't speak German, so was just mucking about trying to get something that might be plausible. Thanks for clarifying.

The first one kinda works, but I think it'd be more clear, when used without "selbst"/self, as this would be read to reference the invention instead of the inventor.

On the other hand, that then feels like "yeah, it didn't work. The invention misfired and is crap". Maybe "Erfindungserschafferzerstörer"? (Invention's creator destructor) but that sounds off, too.

There's not really a word that I can come up with that really conveys this meaning. There's a german saying "wer Andern eine Grube gräbt, fällt selbst hinein" (he, who digs a hole for others, will fall into it by itself). Then there's the humorous "Rohrkrepierer" (along the lines of "died in the barrel") which basically means something like "dead on arrival" / that went wrong and didn't work. So it'd be probably something that references one of those, which would make it work culturally?

Hey!

German is not the only language to use compound words!

Swedish is another good example of a language with compound words.

The best compound word I can come up with is "Uppfinnarmissöde"

Uppfinnar - Inventor

missöde - misadventure or mishap

So "uppfinnarmissöde" would translate to either "inventor mishap" or "inventor misadventure", I prefer the latter as it kinda rhymes when you say it.

Not sure about a name, but:

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_inventors_killed_by_their_own_invention

Weird seeing Stockton Rush on there when most of the other inventors are pre-20th century.

I like how Thomas Andrews and Stockton Rush are right next to each other on that list. Kinda poetic.

Shame there aren't pictures. A lot of these sound pretty cool.

Also not sure about a name, but in Greek mythology, there's Daedalus. He built a massive maze, which was then used against him to imprison him & his son. Daedalus crafted wings out of feathers & beeswax to escape the island of Crete, but his son Icarus flew too close to the sun. Melting the wax, destroying the wings, and drowning in the sea.

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Let's call it "Keuriged". The Keurig guy had so much regret on his polluting invention. Not sure if there is an actual term for this though.

I think Segwayed is better because James Heseldon, inventor of the Segway, died after riding a Segway off a cliff.

Edit: apologies! Apparently he didn't invent the Segway, just owned the company

Segwayed has got to be the new word of there isn't one already!

Not to be confused with segued, which is 'to move easily and without interruption from one piece of music, part of a story, subject, or situation to another'.

Didn't own the company just the sole British distribution rights

edit to add: He lived on the south coast, used and enjoyed the product, and was moving out of the way for a pedestrian on a narrow path and went backwards over the cliff edge. A tragedy that doesn't belong in this thread.

[joke]

Pulling a Doofenshmirtz?

A name for this?

Isn't it ironic, dontcha think?

Which is, ironically enough, NOT like rain on your wedding day, or a free ride when you've already paid.

It would only be ironic if it were a lifesaving device, for instance, if the creator of the defibrillator went into cardiac arrest by an accidental misfiring of the defibrillator on him.

Irony requires a reasonable expectation of an opposite outcome.

A solar eclipse happening on a cloudy day is not ironic, it's merely unfortunate. A song about things claiming to be ironic actually containing nothing that will qualify as ironic is ironic.

A "Thomas Midgley Jr."

Alfred Nobel might be considered a runner up, but I feel he recovered his reputation. That and I don't think anyone but himself really was upset with the path his invention took.

I know you wanted a word, but I nominate "Midgley" to be the new word for that. "To midgley something" is to attempt to create something of value that instead only makes things worse. It's an improvement in the negative direction.

Irony can be used in many situations. I want a German word that specifically refers to this situation. Something like Erfinderhybris; I just slammed Inventor and Hubris together.

The Frankenstein Effect I believe, though that can also be used to describe a human extinction event caused by an invention of some kind.

Hmm...

I guess "outvention" works well, because... "out" is the opposite of "in", which is in "invention".