I can think of a total of 2 interesting and novel mechanical inventions in modern times, both only relevant outside of cities, and one I believe is based on som

I can think of a total of 2 interesting and novel mechanical inventions in modern times, both only relevant outside of cities, and one I believe is based on some traditional practices(The firewood splitter from New Zealand, and the water storage artificial glacier towers). Doing anything new is very hard without advanced tech. You still need fundamentals, but those are really hard to market, because from the outside it just looks like "All relevant modern engineering is done with computers and that's the most important part", the non-computer parts kind of blend into the background. Maybe someone should do a book celebrating the few low tech cool things people are doing. There's probably still undiscovered possibilities with mechanical stuff!