Who burned out the Lightbulb?

You know, the one that goes off when you have a good idea? - at least in the cartoons.
Where are the huge discoveries these days? The ground-breaking-never-before-seen ideas that changed the course of history?
Like...the lightbulb.

Okay, okay...so some of you are saying "..ahem!, what about the IPhone?" - An awesome piece of equipment, mind you, and I am glad I bought one- genius...but a touch screen? (bank machines) a phone? Games? GPS? the Internet? def. a nice seamless experience of intergrating all of the features - But who thought of GPS to begin with?

Communication and information is wide open through the web now, where it's almost as if we can see the answers to the test, and cheat without the challenge of the test or the homework.
Originality and personality have somehow become homogenized and monetized to the point where globally, everything is becoming...well...sorta the same.

For example, my first trip to Europe was back in 1990 when I was 23. It was exciting taking the Europass and backpacking for 2 months. Going from country to country was amazing...the contrast taking the train from Germany..where everyone systematically reserving their train seat- to Italy, where people were blasting their radios, and screaming at one another had its charm.

Visually for me, there were definate distinctions between the old buildings, fashion, food, storefronts that made it so charming and adventurous.
Having travelled extensively during my years with Nokia, everything I remembered about Europe was gone.
Old signage, Old world and interesting cultural spots and characters have been populated with Starbucks and Techno-disco store fronts. This was the same from city to city, where the only distinction seemed to be the languages.

I have especially felt this "sameness" during the past 2 decades. Ideas, fashion, music, culture seemed to be small incremental iterations from decades past. - Who would've thought the 80s would become "hip" with younger kids?

Now believe me folks, I stand before you only as an observer, and am guilty of a certain amount of recipe-driven sameness myself.

As a Designer, I was taught in school that the best answers come from the problem. What is the "real" problem that we are trying to solve? Why do people create that which is in their comfort zone? (solutions seen a million times) and why as a society we reward the easy, predictable answers?

Can we be honest enough to solve problems genuinely when we are seeking answers in the process-how can we keep ourselves in check?
It seems like a combination of asking the right questions, distilling down problems to their core, thinking about things from different angles (paradigm shift) and being able to let go and let your own personality and thought process drive you to your unique solutions.

Confidence in "being wrong is right. Being right...is wrong" - Whats the worst that can happen?