Java and Javascript were invented in industry (Python came from academia). I don't see how you can deny the GPU computing and mapreduce were invented by indust

Java and Javascript were invented in industry (Python came from academia). I don't see how you can deny the GPU computing and mapreduce were invented by industry, since GPU computing evolved out of the game industry, and mapreduce was invented by Google. That leaves "commodity clusters" or "mobile computing". Are these things to vague to be classified as inventions, as you imply? I think they are not. The founders of Google came up with the idea of using a large cluster of relatively unreliable servers, which was optimized to deal with machine failure. Other people then followed suit. Similarly there were several big steps (e.g. the iPhone) in putting a much larger amount of computational power into mobile devices than had previously been done. In fact, your idea that innovation must come in discrete inventions, is a limitation that is typical of academia. In academia, you are asked to show how your work is qualitatively novel and interesting. In industry, objective improvements are adopted no matter how mundane or incremental the change is.