I have been thinking about this since last night... when I was a child 50 years ago, I remember someone explaining to me that in the history on invention, so far we have only invented three things: the lever, the inclined plane, and the wheel. Every mechanical device is variations on these three machines.
At a different point in life, I was told in history, there have been roughly 100 different stories told. Every story we hear is a variation on that 100.