It never did exist; new inventions tend to (1) come from people who invent them for the purpose of using them themselves, and (2) be invented by several people

It never did exist; new inventions tend to (1) come from people who invent them for the purpose of using them themselves, and (2) be invented by several people at around the same time. OTOH, the existence of patents gives people a reason to keep their ongoing research secret, and so maybe moves us closer to the world they were designed for. Patents exist for the purpose of alleviating problems which mostly only exist in a world that has patents.