At any given time, with all the knowledge we have, new knowledge can emerge. We call this the adjacent possible. It explains why new inventions are invented when they are, and why they are not possible before. Adjacent possible is a very useful term to understand the progress of technology. Technology evolves by using prevailing technologies to improve upon. Thus technology is combinatorial and built in layers. With each layer new ideas can be built upon the previous layers. Thus Gall´s Law says that any complex system that works is built of simpler systems that work. We will look at the adjacent possible and some ideas that came when all the enabling technologies are available. We also look at an idea that was not possible to build at the time, Charles Babbage engines.