After a brief hiatus, we have our latest “your view”. So far many of the topics have been on especially controversial subjects, so today we get one which is less controversial but likely to have the most varied answers.
What is the greatest human invention?
My answer: The Internet. This is partly for selfish reasons – the internet has taught me more than anyone or anything else – for that reason it is the most important invention that has an effect on my life. What is the greatest invention in your opinion and why?
I agree with Athena (#1): Electricity. (battery, generator, transformer)
This has lead to basically everything we have today. Think about the change to lifestyle that happened when a family could read/play/entertain/shop by steady, dependable light rather than candles and torches, and then bringing things like radios and fridges to the home.
And sorry, its not the Internet. People learned quite well before the internet. (Einstein and Newton did pretty well without it) Maybe once it evolves into something more than just PerezHilton and lolcats, then I'll reconsider (Listverse is a great start though!)
Banjamin and Faraday also done pretty well before electricity too. So its not Electricity. It was creating fire the mankind’s greatest invention. Without fire, mankind would have gone extinct by the predators.
Monotheism – Despite the fact that I'm atheist, without this intellectual invention Western Society, all their inventions, their ideas of justice and liberty, would never have come to be. Despite the violence and inhumanity that came as a result of the old testament, it continues to be the most influential and fundamental piece of human literature ever written, and without it we would not have our ethics that compose what we consider humanity.
I’m pretty sure ethics existed well before monotheism.
Or atleast before the Old Testament.
God, and the monotheistic religions that dominate the world today.
*****? SIN!
Oral *****? SIN!
Premarital *****? SIN!
Questioning authority? SIN!
Religion has killed millions, and continues to psychologically damage people to this day. Everything that makes us human becomes sin, and therefore we all need to pay our minds and money to the gatekeepers as to avoid hell.
I dont think this is what you meant by "great," but when it comes down to it, what is greater than god?
that, and I think pillows are a great invention
Everything that makes us human including ***** is a sin… Where are you getting this from? *****, for instance, is a gift from God… it’s just no longer considered sacred and portrayed so perversely because of society’s influence. I don’t hate non-believers, but I don’t like it when people like you make up these “Christian rules” and try to make me look like I live in misery when in fact I’m more alive than I’ve ever been, thanks to Jesus!. Believe me, since I received Christ, I’m more alive now then before when I used to live in sin, drowning my sin in more sin. We are His invention, not the other way around. God is greater than any of His gifts, they just proclaim His love for us and His wisdom as well as His his wonderful design for humanity. And while there is so much sin and evil in this world (for now at least), remember His light shines brighter even in the darkest places. I was dead in my sin too, but God made me alive, and He wants to do the same for all of us. God bless you, man!
You can’t be blessed by someone who doesn’t exist.
It is kind of hard to pin down. Yes the printing press was hugely important; it made knowledge widely available, previously it had been a tool of the ruling class.
The steam engine provided power for the industrial revolution and the empowerment of western society.
Electricity furthered industrial development and allowed for 24 hours a day of productivity.
None of these accomplishments would have been possible if we were still following the herds. The single most important human development is agriculture. Agriculture allows for towns, cities, and surpluses. Surplus allows for trade. Trade leads to written language (who owes who? who owes what?), math, government, and every accomplishment of human society.
Every milestone since pales in comparison to the effect agriculture had on the development of humanity.
No agriculture without language.
I believe harnessing electricity (which brought forth the internet) is humans’ greatest invention
condoms.
Television
Oh yea and God…NOT.
Anything that has to do with space and space exploration. It baffles the mind to think where the hell we are, in the midst of dark infinity.
umm – guys – how about giving reasons for your choice?
life…God invented it.
The Printing Press.
Without the printing press we would have no internet or computers to begin with and the public would not have access to common education. As the public wouldn’t have much education, democracy would not exist and the Renaissance would not have happened.
We’d have little advancement from the dark ages to put it simply, without the printing press.
Well geez sliced bread. Duh!
Just Kidding. I will think on a more serious note and get back to you.
the gutenberg press is certainly the most influential, it made it so that the general public could become literate. i would even hazard to say that it is the greatest human invention due to the social revolution it caused
The steam engine. The ability to produce large amounts of kinetic energy is the beginning of the industrial age. And pollution. Until the steam engine was made, people could only go as far and as fast as horses or sails could take them.
how was I able to do this with athena’s name? When I loaded this page, Athena’s name and e-mail address were already loaded into corresponding boxes. Is this possibly a site malfunction?
ok, the e-mail address keeps changing everytime.
I dont understand what is happening.
The wheel…
Athena: it is a malfunction – I am trying to resolve it as we speak.
Printing press…hands down.
I believe it was made by Johan Gutenberg? In any case, if not for the printing press knowledge could not be share with the world.. very important… imho.
a camera. not photoshop, not digital effects or any of that… just a camera. because a camera lets you capture life, phenomenon’s, and beauty, for all to see. and in my opinion, the only thing more powerful than a photo, is the scene itself.
the harnessing of metals like bronze because it allowed for man to move away from a farming only lifestyle to cities where they could master other vocations that led to our modern society
Electricity, plain ‘n’ simple
the wheel…
indoor plumbing because i dont like taking dumps in the woods:)
air conditioning. it helped people settle in places one unheard of, and it’s saved lives.
electricity is harvested it was not invented
right MPW.
Electricity is what makes our hearts beat. It would be damn hard to invent something to make our hearts beat if they weren’t….y’know….beating
Language and written formal language, is hands down the greatest invention man has created. Many people may overlook this; but, none of the inventions stated would have been possible. It takes knowledge of many other fields to invent something and the only way to learn it is by reading or hearing about those fields. We would still be stuck in tribal clans.
Sorry to get out of the view so soon here:
As for those who speak of Mr. G’s famous press:
I know where I can get three Gutenberg (not Steve’s) Bibles, that are on current public view, and if each and every listverser sends me…mmm… fifty bucks, I will burn my fingerprints off with an un-named acid and make sure that three(3) lucky investors (by lotto luck) get their very own.
surely the computer is important, without it there is no internet
I think the written alphabet is the greatest invention. Civilization could not have advanced without it.
The printing press. Naturally.
The wheel. Without it, we would not have advanced very far as a species. We go places because of it, and it makes transportation much easier. The best is always the first: The wheel
(Politely waiting for applause)
Me
Language. We would be a bunch of big, hairless chimps without it.
Phillies…the wheel would be pointless and only benefit the creator unless he knew how to communicate with others.
Hence——–Language > wheel
>=)
But islanderbst , electricty existed before human intervention. It’s well known that the God’s are *****ed off at Hephaestus.
Okay – I was meaning things that man invented – not that we harnessed or discovered – so that excludes electricity!
And remember – tell us WHY!
Jesus
Just Kidding!!!!
oh yeah thank you very much j
Twinkies.
agriculture. without which, there would be no need for civilization.
Or those little things on the ends of shoelaces. Aglets! That’s what they’re called.
Their true purpose is sinister.
Oh wait, babies. Yep. The people who invented babies sure were smart…
Fire….even though humans did not invent fire (as neither they did with electricity), the ability to create fire has assisted humans expansion and development for thousands of years (from tool making to migration away from the equator).
hetero*****ual *****. whoever invented that is a god among women.
balut. the poor guy must be so hungry to eat something like that.
Internet *****-
As long as freedoms persist, I shall continually fullfill my obligated longevity into the sewers and trash dumps of the outer extremes, pound per pound. There is no end to internet *****. It is beter than sunshine or puppies. Thank you humans! Social difficulties are blurred within the matrix of my libido. It has improved and expanded my uderstanding of the illusionatory aspects of reality that I shall never control fully or materialize into actualized dreams.
JANDAMAN! ACCUSE YOU OF THEFT OF MY SACRED IDEAS! FLIBBERTIGIBBET YOU BASTARD!
1. written language
2. mathematics
3. formal logic
4. social organization
5. the scientific method
6. any and all artistic endeavor
7. agnoticsm
8. music
9. negotiation
10. the kama sutra
how about logic? we may not have intentionally “invented” it, but it is ours, and without it we could not have any of our other inventions.
yeah… religion is a prime motivator for just about anything. i guess this could be mankinds greatest invention. a tool to manipulate the masses and invent agriculture, language and transportation. even atheism is just a derivative of religion.
***** = babies. not bad J.O.N.
antiseptics
for many reasons
all relatively obvious
BEER….then the wheel to get to the beer
Public health.
A thousand times over public health…with a nod to aseptic practices and germ theory.
(The reasons should be obvious.)
The atomic and hydrogen bombs… Star Wars weaponry (both known and unknown). Explosives, The SR-71, B2B, and F-22, the modern aircraft carrier, modern warfare weaponry, the upcoming F-35, ICBMs with MIRVs, spy satellites, HAARP (for wether control), Echelon/Carnivore, crack, meth, pcp, acid (LSD, purple microdot, peyote, windoow pane, etc.), alcohol, handguns, rifles, machine guns, terrorism, Islam, the PATRIOT ACT, liberals, abortinons, homo*****ual couples having the same rights as normal man-woman marriages. The rich getting richer and the poor getting poorer, Bohemian Garden, Skull and Bones club, Masons, reviving the secret religions of Babylon–the occult, implant chips, The Catholic Church, etc., etc. OH! And Spongebob SqurePants!!!
Can anyone say “New World Order?”
my god. it just hit me. mankind’s greatest invention might as well be *****, drugs and alcohol. ***** to produce the masses and populate the earth. drugs to pave way for religion by inducing visions and heavenly messages and alcohol to suppress our motivation in subverting our superiors which paved the way to civilization. that’s it you dudes! wow. i think i have had too much booze.
I’d have to say Seinfeld. That show is the best.
I am goign to have to agree with all those that have said Language is the most important invention humanity has come up with. While not an ‘invention’ in the way a computer is, language and the written form have been incredible not only during any particular moment in history whereby people are using language to communicate and basically make the world go around, but also historically. I am an avid comparative philologist, and find it fascinating how much one can learn about a people, their culture, history, values, etc…by the evolution (or devolution) of a particular language or word or group of words. It is very interesting to find out how large an impact various factors have on language and it is very obvious that humanity would not have been able to do much without the ability to communicate, categorize, organize, and keep track of their ideas, accomplishments, thoughts, etc. Language gets my vote.