>a "telescope" is not a new creation

It was a new concept, combining lenses to look at things far away as if they are close to. The literal atoms/molecules weren't new, but the form they were arranged in was. The purpose of the arrangement was new too.

> Aren't they just a tool to access an abstract concept of counting ?

Humans and animals have intuitive notions of space and motion since they can obviously move. But, symbolizing such intuitions into forms and communicating that via language is the creative act. Birds can fly, but can they symbolize that intuitive intelligence to create a theory of flight and then use that to build a plane ?

that’s why we say that with such discoveries we receive a new way – of looking, of doing, of thinking… these new paths preexist in the abstract, but they can be taken only when they’ve been opened. and that is as good as anything “new” gets. (and such discoveries are often also inventions, for to open them, a ruse is needed to be applied in a specific way for the way to open).

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