I'm starting to think that the name 'Bridge of Invention' might be a bit more literal than I expected.
Maybe this was foreshadowed. That ekans from earlier had a camera, something I've never seen before in a PMD comic.
Now we have a gun. I have seen a gun before in a PMD comic, but it was exactly once and never used.
Will there be more inventions? Vehicles, communication devices? Will we get more advanced than our present-day technology level? @The Nonexistent Tazz suggested that the difference between Atok and Paci involves humans. I'm not totally convinced, I feel like there may be a bit more to it than that, but he's probably on the right track? And I also think that even if he's wrong there may be a difference in technology as well.