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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?
Just paying the bills...
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June 2nd, 2008 at 7:08 pm
I believe harnessing electricity (which brought forth the internet) is humans’ greatest invention
June 2nd, 2008 at 7:08 pm
condoms.
June 2nd, 2008 at 7:08 pm
Television
June 2nd, 2008 at 7:09 pm
Oh yea and God…NOT.
June 2nd, 2008 at 7:09 pm
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.
June 2nd, 2008 at 7:10 pm
umm – guys – how about giving reasons for your choice?
June 2nd, 2008 at 7:12 pm
life…God invented it.
June 2nd, 2008 at 7:12 pm
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.
June 2nd, 2008 at 7:12 pm
Well geez sliced bread. Duh!
Just Kidding. I will think on a more serious note and get back to you.
June 2nd, 2008 at 7:13 pm
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
June 2nd, 2008 at 7:14 pm
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.
June 2nd, 2008 at 7:15 pm
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?
June 2nd, 2008 at 7:16 pm
ok, the e-mail address keeps changing everytime.
I dont understand what is happening.
June 2nd, 2008 at 7:17 pm
The wheel…
June 2nd, 2008 at 7:24 pm
Athena: it is a malfunction – I am trying to resolve it as we speak.
June 2nd, 2008 at 7:27 pm
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.
June 2nd, 2008 at 7:28 pm
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.
June 2nd, 2008 at 7:28 pm
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
June 2nd, 2008 at 7:29 pm
Electricity, plain ‘n’ simple
June 2nd, 2008 at 7:30 pm
the wheel…
June 2nd, 2008 at 7:32 pm
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!)
June 2nd, 2008 at 7:32 pm
indoor plumbing because i dont like taking dumps in the woods:)
June 2nd, 2008 at 7:32 pm
air conditioning. it helped people settle in places one unheard of, and it’s saved lives.
June 2nd, 2008 at 7:33 pm
electricity is harvested it was not invented
June 2nd, 2008 at 7:34 pm
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
June 2nd, 2008 at 7:42 pm
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.
June 2nd, 2008 at 7:42 pm
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.
June 2nd, 2008 at 7:44 pm
surely the computer is important, without it there is no internet
June 2nd, 2008 at 7:45 pm
I think the written alphabet is the greatest invention. Civilization could not have advanced without it.
June 2nd, 2008 at 7:46 pm
The printing press. Naturally.
June 2nd, 2008 at 7:51 pm
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)
June 2nd, 2008 at 7:52 pm
Me
June 2nd, 2008 at 7:55 pm
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
>=)
June 2nd, 2008 at 7:56 pm
But islanderbst , electricty existed before human intervention. It’s well known that the God’s are pissed off at Hephaestus.
June 2nd, 2008 at 7:58 pm
Okay – I was meaning things that man invented – not that we harnessed or discovered – so that excludes electricity!
And remember – tell us WHY!
June 2nd, 2008 at 7:59 pm
Jesus
Just Kidding!!!!
June 2nd, 2008 at 8:00 pm
oh yeah thank you very much j
June 2nd, 2008 at 8:02 pm
Twinkies.
June 2nd, 2008 at 8:03 pm
agriculture. without which, there would be no need for civilization.
June 2nd, 2008 at 8:04 pm
Or those little things on the ends of shoelaces. Aglets! That’s what they’re called.
Their true purpose is sinister.
June 2nd, 2008 at 8:06 pm
Oh wait, babies. Yep. The people who invented babies sure were smart…
June 2nd, 2008 at 8:08 pm
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).
June 2nd, 2008 at 8:09 pm
heterosexual sex. whoever invented that is a god among women.
June 2nd, 2008 at 8:11 pm
balut. the poor guy must be so hungry to eat something like that.
June 2nd, 2008 at 8:12 pm
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.
June 2nd, 2008 at 8:14 pm
God, and the monotheistic religions that dominate the world today.
Masturbation? SIN!
Oral sex? SIN!
Premarital sex? 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
June 2nd, 2008 at 8:15 pm
Internet porn-
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 porn. 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.
June 2nd, 2008 at 8:17 pm
JANDAMAN! ACCUSE YOU OF THEFT OF MY SACRED IDEAS! FLIBBERTIGIBBET YOU BASTARD!
June 2nd, 2008 at 8:19 pm
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
June 2nd, 2008 at 8:19 pm
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.
June 2nd, 2008 at 8:21 pm
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.
June 2nd, 2008 at 8:23 pm
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.
June 2nd, 2008 at 8:25 pm
sex = babies. not bad J.O.N.
June 2nd, 2008 at 8:25 pm
antiseptics
for many reasons
all relatively obvious
June 2nd, 2008 at 8:28 pm
BEER….then the wheel to get to the beer
June 2nd, 2008 at 8:30 pm
Public health.
A thousand times over public health…with a nod to aseptic practices and germ theory.
(The reasons should be obvious.)
June 2nd, 2008 at 8:33 pm
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, homosexual 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?”
June 2nd, 2008 at 8:33 pm
my god. it just hit me. mankind’s greatest invention might as well be sex, drugs and alcohol. sex 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.
June 2nd, 2008 at 8:36 pm
I’d have to say Seinfeld. That show is the best.
June 2nd, 2008 at 8:38 pm
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.
June 2nd, 2008 at 8:38 pm
I’m glad we invented gravity! Just kidding, let me get back to you.
June 2nd, 2008 at 8:42 pm
S_R: Those are certainly some interesting choices.
June 2nd, 2008 at 8:55 pm
Jfrater: If you want a specific thing instead of a process (We invented agriculture) it would have to be the plough. It directly increased productivity which of course led to surpluses and trade etc.
June 2nd, 2008 at 9:02 pm
Hands down and away, VACCINES.
Luke, Benjamin Franklin said,”Beer is proof G-d loves us.”
Privately? How did early man learn to take flour (ground from a plant) add milk (from an animal) Sugar (from another plant) egg ( from some weird squarky animal) and make bread? It is beyond me.
June 2nd, 2008 at 9:04 pm
Work is done.
Cubs are winning.
All is right in the world.
How’s that for egocentric thinking.
June 2nd, 2008 at 9:16 pm
Written language. It allows up to learn, to communicate, to keep records, to be creative. Written language allows us to do all sorts of neat things.
June 2nd, 2008 at 9:19 pm
The invention I’m most proud of as a human being is the Hubbell Telescope. The one that has had the greatest impact on my life is written language of course, without it, the inernet would have nothing but porn.
June 2nd, 2008 at 9:26 pm
I keep hearing people say, “the most important invention is _____ because without it, we couldn’t have ___ and____ and ___” I don’t think too many people realize that sooo many of these inventions are interdependent- that they all relied on each other for their further development. It wasn’t like one day we were all hunter-gatherers, then suddenly POOF and there are vast fields of corn. I think the most important invention has to be something far more fundamental, but I bet we’ll find even that is dependant on another. And for the record, KannonKitsure, we don’t rely on written language for creativity.
June 2nd, 2008 at 9:33 pm
Cathode Ray Tube.
June 2nd, 2008 at 9:34 pm
Fire..
basis for survival which allowed further inventions.
June 2nd, 2008 at 9:43 pm
Unfortunately, I couldn’t find access to it, but a professor in college once told us that the Economist rated the top 10 inventions of the past millenia (1000 to 2000 A.D.)and #1 was the birth control pill (something along the lines of empowering women with the ability to stop the production of children)… Although I personally don’t think it’s the greatest, it’s probably the most interesting.
Any Economist readers that might have seen the article, or was the prof lying?
June 2nd, 2008 at 9:50 pm
*from The 2000 Year Old Man skit (Mel Brooks & Carl Reiner) *
Saran Wrap! You can wrap an olive in it! You can wrap TWO olives in it! You can look through it!
June 2nd, 2008 at 9:51 pm
Electricity and the wheel
June 2nd, 2008 at 9:57 pm
Computers, they have allowed us to accomplish so much in so little time. The internet gives us nearly all the knowledge of the world (and enough deviant porn to satisfy anyone other than my roommate). Nearly all our older forms of work have been changed by this made either easier or more effective. The rapid speed of calculations has made space travel and satellites possible.
Although give it a few decades and nanotechnology may possibly surpass this.
June 2nd, 2008 at 10:01 pm
Vera Lynn: “Privately? How did early man learn to take flour (ground from a plant) add milk (from an animal) Sugar (from another plant) egg ( from some weird squarky animal) and make bread? It is beyond me.”
Wasn’t early bread really just flour and water? I mean I don’t know exactly what it was made of but I’m pretty sure it didn’t have sugar or milk in it at least.
June 2nd, 2008 at 10:13 pm
I think written language is the most influential and important. Communication has always been crucial for a civilization, and I believe human success has come from the ability to communicate through symbolic language that solidifies our ideas into something that anyone can understand.
June 2nd, 2008 at 10:14 pm
Astronomy
June 2nd, 2008 at 10:15 pm
Vera Lynn: vaccines are a great invention.
You’re a cubs fan,you must be from chicago or somewhere near there.
congrats they are hot right now.
im an angel fan:) go halos
June 2nd, 2008 at 10:17 pm
Another amazing invention that tends to be overlooked, photography. Think of how much of your knowledge was learned through images you might have not seen otherwise. While it might not be on the scale of the printing press, it isn’t far behind and since a picture = 1k words, you can do the math. Who here doesn’t know what for example exotic animals they have never seen in person look like?
June 2nd, 2008 at 10:17 pm
written language. recording everything is what allows us to have a first hand account of human history, and to movie forward from it.
June 2nd, 2008 at 10:17 pm
move**
June 2nd, 2008 at 10:35 pm
1. Fire
2. Tools
3. Language
4. The Wheel
5. Penicillin
June 2nd, 2008 at 10:37 pm
Anything that has brought people of the world closer. These would include the ships, cars, planes, printing press, the telephone, the television and of course the grand daddy of all communication tools – The Internet.
I can’t imagine how people lived before any of the above were invented.
June 2nd, 2008 at 10:47 pm
Spoken language – the one thing that separates us from animals.
I once read that the greatest human *accomplishment* was the domestication of the dog – extra warmth at night, early warning from predators and extra capability for hunting.
June 2nd, 2008 at 10:47 pm
teleportation and the invisibility potion are high on my list.
June 2nd, 2008 at 10:49 pm
Moveable type. It brought about reading for the common man which led to numerous inventions afterward.
June 2nd, 2008 at 11:24 pm
I’m going to go with metal smithing. The wheel good idea but nothing more than slipping on a rock and behold a Duh moment. Sharp rocks you say? just another case of using what’s around. We could take this further back and say a pointed stick, but there again is another possible slip and fall moment.
Metal smithing had to be thought of for a moment. you don’t just find sharp pieces of copper laying around, you had to work it first. After you accidentally leave it in the fire pull it out and drop it you get the snow ball effect and think of what else you could do with it.
Without metals you wouldn’t have movable type, electricity, or even basic tools.
June 2nd, 2008 at 11:27 pm
please excuse, very tired.
June 2nd, 2008 at 11:29 pm
The knife. That’s where it all began.
June 2nd, 2008 at 11:40 pm
The ability to create FIRE!! there is no doubt that our ability to create and manipulate fire is the number one invention of all time.
June 2nd, 2008 at 11:43 pm
Sometimes I think beer is among the greatest inventions ever. But by the end of the day, my choice is clear: The Bed !
June 2nd, 2008 at 11:43 pm
as much as i love sex, we didnt invent it so that cant count. but Listverse does count as an invention so that is number two on my list next to fire
June 2nd, 2008 at 11:45 pm
you all got it wrong. the right answer is
DEATH FUCKING METAL
June 2nd, 2008 at 11:46 pm
Schiesl- there is doubt, my friend. As i said in my last post, #68, all these inventions are interdependent. If fire is so important, wouldn’t out ability to manufacture firemaking tools (probably with sharpened stones) be even more important? Or are they the same, since fire then enhanced these tools further? I think this is actually kind of a silly question to begin with. There really is no single invention that can be isolated as the number one cause of our thriving on this planet.
June 2nd, 2008 at 11:57 pm
Then the root of all the interdependent inventions must be the greatest invention. The invention that spawned inventions. And we shall call it the Invention Machine! And what is our invention machine?
June 3rd, 2008 at 12:03 am
I agree with the spoken language. Yep, its truly separates us from the beasts.
Next would be writing tools
from writing tools, we had spawned the everything else.
It allowed knowledge to be pass down, art to be created, allowed us to communicate, etc etc etc
June 3rd, 2008 at 12:04 am
1.Concept of Zero
2.Clock
June 3rd, 2008 at 12:06 am
I would have to say written language. Without written language, history that’s beyond a few tall tales wouldn’t exist. Written language essentially allows ideas to live on forever. It is one of the most fundamental things I can imagine. Without a proper way of communication to the FUTURE, things would be radically different. We wouldn’t have inventions, because it would take someone their whole lifetime to backwards engineer it, and then when they die, their work dies with them. It essentially would set everything back to square one when someone dies.
June 3rd, 2008 at 12:10 am
Hmmm… yes, I think spoken language is the invention machine. For with it, we can convey the ideas themselves that encapsulate each invention during its infancy. We use language to express our desire to have sex, use it to propagate religion and convince the masses to dull their senses using alcohol. That’s it you guys! It’s spoken language all along!
June 3rd, 2008 at 12:53 am
Vaccines. They saved countless lives and alleviated suffering on a massive scale.
June 3rd, 2008 at 12:54 am
Jandaman: Humans are the invention machine. =)
All of the inventions ever made have spawned from the fact that humans have a capacity to use logic and reason to solve problems.
June 3rd, 2008 at 12:55 am
Jandaman- the Invention Machine? Our brain! Unfortunately, we can’t take credit for it! Spoken or written language cannot be it, because it must have had a precursor. I’m willing to bet also that we had certain specific tools with specific uses before any sort of complex language was established. Indeed, animals and even plants have methods of communication, some verbal, others not. Many animals also use tools. Because the languages of animals are far more limited than our own does not exclude them from the inventors of the Earth.
June 3rd, 2008 at 12:56 am
…Spoken language, using simple tools, etc. things that other animals do, so shouldn’t be considered uniquely human. What IS uniquely human is our capacity for problem solving. (Pretend this is part of my previous comment.)
June 3rd, 2008 at 12:57 am
jasontimmer: jinx
June 3rd, 2008 at 1:06 am
Jen- jinx indeed. However I disagree on the problem solving bit. Go google “crow vending machine” for an amazing video of a lecture by a man who studied the astounding capacity of these animals to solve problems.
June 3rd, 2008 at 1:10 am
i would say, sanitation. don’t know if it was mentioned beforehand, but sanitation is one of the main reasons why we are still alive… Electricity, internet, computers, that’s all good, but sanitation is one first choice any time.
June 3rd, 2008 at 1:12 am
Penicilin.Classic answer:)
June 3rd, 2008 at 1:14 am
you know, rethinking the brain bit, maybe we actually can take credit for our own big brains. According to evolution, our large, powerful brains are the result of our own willful actions. So is that it? Is the brain man’s greatest invention, even though it was “invented” somewhat unconsciously?
June 3rd, 2008 at 1:20 am
jasontimmer: I would argue that training is not the same as organic problem solving. Animals do, in fact, have a great ability to problem solve, based on their instincts. With several exceptions, it is only the higher primates that can solve problems in a nonnatural (i.e. not ingrained into their genetics) responsive way without being coaxed to do it.
Now, if I could only solve the problem of putting-off-this-paper-by-commenting-at-three-in-the-morning, all would be rainbows and ponies.
Ljopa: That would fall under the auspices of public health.
June 3rd, 2008 at 1:25 am
Jen- you obviously didn’t watch the video. The crows solve rather complex problems with no prompting or prior observation of the behavior.
For instance, crows in Tokyo have been observed dropping nuts on the street near intersections, waiting for a car to crush the nut, then waiting at the crosswalk for the light to change so they can go collect their nut.
Watch the video.
June 3rd, 2008 at 1:39 am
Takeshi’s Castle, without it mankind would have never made it out of the trees.
You could also have the worst invention; I hate the mobile phone. We have only had it a little while but i know of only a few people who could live without it. It must be worse than any A-Class drug on the streets.
June 3rd, 2008 at 1:47 am
Nice one ‘TicoTuanis’ without Zero we would not have:
Physics
Chemistry
Computers
and much more.
June 3rd, 2008 at 2:30 am
Err..Vibrators? lol
June 3rd, 2008 at 2:31 am
Jasontimmer: I watched it. Now I’ve watched it twice. In the case of the peanut machine, the dude has constructed a system by which the crow is rewarded for certain behavior. That is how you train animals. In a sense, that is how humans solve problems, too. Man is hungry, so man uses a spear to kill a mammoth. The leap comes in when man begins to solve the intangible problems.
For instance: man is a hungry hunter-gatherer. Man eats some seeds. Man poops out some seeds. Man goes onto his next campsite. Man comes back a year later to see that his latrines have served as excellent soil in which the undigested seeds have grown. Man repeats process. Man invents agriculture.
It’s when the problem-solving is used multilaterally in ways that don’t directly pay out to an instinctive need that reason and logic come into play. I watched your damned crow video.
June 3rd, 2008 at 2:35 am
I would have to say the specialisation of tasks
back in the day when everyone had to grow their own food
no one got any leisure time so without the specialisation of tasks for individuals/communities/areas leisure time would barely exist, businesses wouldn’t exist and trhe economy just wouldn’t be the same and therefore alot of the things we have today wouldn’t exist
June 3rd, 2008 at 2:37 am
THE PILL! and deffinatly the internet. But id have to say mobile… I get text messages everyday. it conects you to family and friends.
June 3rd, 2008 at 2:52 am
Religion
June 3rd, 2008 at 3:07 am
the second wheel and the axel
June 3rd, 2008 at 3:16 am
1 and 0 is mandkind’s greatest invention.
The bipartisan property of every concept, invention and event related to man itself.
Knife (production) and wheel (distribution).
Stalk of grain and slab of meat(proponents of agriculture).
Spear(war/force) and laurel of peace(diplomacy/language).
Sperm and egg. (sexuality)
Yin and yang. (eastern religion)
Alpha and omega. (western religion)
Government and anarchy. (Politics)
Line and Point (Math/Architecture)
1 and 0 (Science/Electronics/Math)
True and false (Logic)
Good and Evil
June 3rd, 2008 at 3:24 am
I believe that our most important and greatest invention was that of a formal system of communication. It was probably one of man kinds most difficult inventions and without it we would still be living naked in caves trying to hunt wild animals with big sticks, that is, if we survived, we’re not exactly the strongest or fastest thing out there.
June 3rd, 2008 at 3:45 am
For me, it’s either penicillin or the sanitation system. No one likes being sick and stepping on their own shit.
June 3rd, 2008 at 3:57 am
A Rock Tied To A Stick.
Early man discovered the stick as a tool, and that you could hit things with a rock. The first major invention was when someone had the idea of tying a rock to a stick with a piece of vine, to make a more useful tool. It’s a machine made of multiple parts.
June 3rd, 2008 at 4:00 am
Before answering, I think we have to define what “greatest” means… From what Jamie wrote in the question and in his answer, I have to assume that he was asking “greatest” in terms of “what invention was most influential”.
Correct me if I’m wrong, j
That said, I want to say two things… Democracy and the Internet.
Democracy: We have to give it up to the men who created this form of government. They invented a system of governing where all members of a society have equal access to power and all members enjoy universally recognized freedoms and liberties. At least, that’s what it’s evolved in to.
Internet: Well, let’s put it this way; if not for the internet, we wouldn’t even be having this conversation.
I’d say that’s pretty influential!
June 3rd, 2008 at 4:01 am
P.S. And then there’s that support thingy that keeps pizza from touching, and getting stuck to the lid of the box.
June 3rd, 2008 at 4:08 am
My girlfriend! JK she reads this then comments on my comments.
I’d choose the clock and the understanding of time and space. Time is the one thing that cannot be harnessed, made, built, or altered.
June 3rd, 2008 at 4:17 am
Agriculture. I recently read Robinson Crusoe and even though it’s fiction it made me contemplate how much security it must have provided in the sustenance and expansion of our ancestors.
June 3rd, 2008 at 4:20 am
Oh yeah and Jandaman missed out on one.
Shaft and gash.
June 3rd, 2008 at 4:20 am
the greatest invention is newton’s classical physics. the wheel, the printing press, the internet, the electric light, the photograph, all of these would have been invented sooner or later. but’s newton’s physics was truly an event.
penicillin also had a great impact, but it was not really an invention. it was discovered, but accident.
language was not invented. it evolved. so was religion
June 3rd, 2008 at 4:21 am
Yes, I agree, agriculture.
June 3rd, 2008 at 4:28 am
The jug, cup or what ever else was the first water containing vessel. Without it we’d be a bunch of monkeys unable to leave the side of fresh water ponds.
June 3rd, 2008 at 4:31 am
45. Shlufi – Uh you kind of forgot about the polytheistic Ancient Greeks
June 3rd, 2008 at 4:34 am
the wheel… where would we be without it?
June 3rd, 2008 at 4:34 am
as much power as it uses= AIR CONDITIONING. i cannot imagine the world without it. Think of how malls and supermarkets and museums and things would be such a pain if we didnt have A/C. Living in Dallas, it is a neccessity…..
Second Choice- JET ENGINE
June 3rd, 2008 at 4:50 am
Exploitation…..
June 3rd, 2008 at 4:53 am
Uh sorry, air conditioning in those senses is severely overrated. Fans, do you know them? Refrigerators, heaters, and for some special purpose, sure.
Some people (by that, I mean me) are uncomfortable in air conditioned room.
June 3rd, 2008 at 4:55 am
sewerage system
The start of civilisation
June 3rd, 2008 at 5:00 am
I would debate language as an invention. I don’t believe we invented it, rather it is an adaptation for survival. It happened “to” us rather than us doing something to make it happen. (Other than living in groups, that is).
June 3rd, 2008 at 5:06 am
PLASTIC
June 3rd, 2008 at 5:08 am
Would you class time as a human invention to measure things that happen in space?
June 3rd, 2008 at 5:21 am
The steam engine, definitely. with it came coal power plants, fueling a nationwide electricity grid which powers the internet. As well as that, the networking aspects of cross country travel, which created the framework for later achievements as the inter-state highway, and as well as that allowed mail to travel a bit faster than the week or 2 it took to cross america previously. Add to that the ease of trade, since you could make steam powered ships, and yeah…. beginning of the industrial revolution.
June 3rd, 2008 at 5:21 am
anesthetics
June 3rd, 2008 at 5:21 am
Greatest invention(s) are waiting to happen: Cloning, Stem Cell related stuff, DNA re-engineering, and Time travel.
June 3rd, 2008 at 5:24 am
Jen- #114- thanks for watching my damned video. Sounds like you need some sleep after writing that paper. You seem to have missed my point. I was thinking more of the instances in which the crows used traffic to crack nuts and formed a piece of wire into a hook to retrieve food. This is not instinctive behavior. This is problem solving.
Are you saying agriculture doesn’t relate to an instinctive need? Its called hunger. Sure, there are steps in between that don’t relate to hunger. Just like as the crow waits for the streetlight, man waits for crops…
June 3rd, 2008 at 5:26 am
Mom424- It could be said that most (or even all) inventions are, in a sense, adaptations for survival.
June 3rd, 2008 at 5:30 am
ok one more post…Daniel, #123, are you so naive as to think that democracy, at least in the USA, gives equal access of power to all citizens? I mean seriously?
June 3rd, 2008 at 5:31 am
Language is certainly NOT an invention. It is basic to what we are, it evolved along with us, and is either the product of our advanced brains, or was one of the primary factors in evolving said brains–science isn’t sure yet. We don’t even know that other species don’t have “languages” of their own–there’s good reason to suspect that ceteceans (whales and dolphins) do, and some other species show evidence of it. So language may not even be exclusively ours.
No, the three greatest inventions were, in fact:
The lever. As an extension of human muscle power, it not only helped us to do many more physical tasks, and more demanding ones, with less expenditure of energy–but it also helped us *realize,* surely, the possibilities open to us and how we could materially change the world around us.
The wheel. For obvious reasons–in a sense another extension of ourselves.
The plow. Made agriculture far more efficient. Great improvement over the ol’ digging stick. Try it sometime. The plow, harnessed to a strong draft animal, vastly increased our farming capabilities, thus feeding more of us AND making, in the long run, civilization possible. When you have to struggle less for food, you can settle down and build cities and municipal services and Yankee Stadium and such.
The harnessing of electricity gets honorable mention. Made all of our modern conveniences possible.
June 3rd, 2008 at 5:33 am
GUNPOWDER
June 3rd, 2008 at 5:35 am
jasontimmer:
Stop peeing on Daniel’s barbecue, there, jasont. Democracy is a wonderful invention, however flawed our application of it may be. Can you think of a more preferable form of government, after all? Not me.
June 3rd, 2008 at 5:40 am
The handy-dandy back scratcher! life would be pure misery without it! lol
June 3rd, 2008 at 5:47 am
Randall- peeing on barbecue? That paints an interesting picture… well, I guess democracy is a good idea, but then so is communism. Too bad too much power to too few people corrupts both. As for an ideal gov’t, I can imagine myself living in a hut deep in a forested mountain all by myself. Yeah, that fits the bill.
June 3rd, 2008 at 5:49 am
The single best human invention is simply:
DEODORANT
Ever watch those movies where the setting is some Victorian Ballroom and everyone is dancing in their finest clothes? You have to know that their armpits are stinking up that room.
DEODORANT brought civility to civilization.
June 3rd, 2008 at 5:50 am
What a difficult question, I agree the internet is a great invention but the greatest, hm. I might agree with agriculture, cause when we invented that we settled (correct me if I’m wrong) and than we were able to invent everything that followed.
Printing press was defiantly a good one.
June 3rd, 2008 at 5:50 am
I would have to say the greatest invention is Money. Rules and ruins the world and enslaves through credit/debt.
June 3rd, 2008 at 5:51 am
The mathematical concept of zero.
June 3rd, 2008 at 5:54 am
My fat ass is living proof that the guy who invented the remote control is a goddamn genius. I have three of them on my couch right now (where a giant ass-print of my giant ass is) I don’t have to get off the couch to change the channel. Watching TV with me is like looking at a friggen strobe light.
I don’t think the dude who thought of putting cheese flavorings on the outside of chips or puffs gets enough credit either. I mean come on, without him we’d all be eating bland snack foods.
On the flip side, whoever thought of the DH and interleague play should be ass raped by a pack of mutant emperor penguins.
June 3rd, 2008 at 6:01 am
Ohoh! Clothes!
June 3rd, 2008 at 6:01 am
dildo
June 3rd, 2008 at 6:03 am
Jfrater: Those Chnlove.com ads are a fuckin good invention.
June 3rd, 2008 at 6:07 am
Remote control is really good..Thank Nikola Tesla for that and I love whoever came up with the mute button.
June 3rd, 2008 at 6:13 am
Escellent question. Internet is an excellent choice, but I’m gonna have to go with…
The toilet.
Where would civilization be without it?
Yeah, I don’t want to think about it either.
Oh and the following are DISCOVERIES, not inventions:
Fire
Penicillin (accidental discovery)
Physics
Zero
Mathematics (basic operations, at least)
June 3rd, 2008 at 6:20 am
Dulce de leche cheesecake.
Seriously, have any of you ever tried it? If you haven’t, walk over to your nearest Cheesecake Factory and order some. I honestly believe that stuff has the ability to bring about world peace. It’s hte perfect amount of sweetness, the perfect amount of creamyness, and it makes one enter a state of extasy as soon as its goodness enters into one’s mouth. There is absolotely nothing better than dulce de leche cheesecake. I can’t imagine life without it.
June 3rd, 2008 at 6:26 am
navigation well what i mean is more cartography making maps so we know were we have been
June 3rd, 2008 at 6:30 am
SOAP and antibiotics.
June 3rd, 2008 at 6:33 am
grrr….I hate when people think we invented argiculture, fire, electricity, language, problem solving…ect.
Anti-biotics are a good one, but alot of them were discoveries so..cant pick that one. Hmmm…
I see one lonely person mention the clock. That is a good one. Helps people organize and problem solve better, communitate better.
The light bulb is a wonderful one as well.
June 3rd, 2008 at 6:43 am
cassie- please, STFU
June 3rd, 2008 at 6:43 am
miriah: You misunderstand. While humans may not have invented fire or electricity, they invented ways to utilize them and make them useful in our day to day lives. That does qualify as an invention. Anti-biotics too, and even many of those we *did* invent, so that’s a perfectly acceptable answer. Language was invented, not discovered, though a more appropriate word would be “developed.” And humans did invent “agriculture,” that is, the tilling and manipulation of the land to cultivate the growth of food stocks. There is a whole technology associated with agriculture, and it didn’t just fall out of the sky, sweetheart.
So don’t hate.
As it happens, I think the greatest human invention was the harnessing of electricity. Without electricity, none of the fantastic leaps in technology over the last 100 years would have ever existed.
June 3rd, 2008 at 6:49 am
One word…BEER!!!
June 3rd, 2008 at 6:51 am
For me, the wheel. Without it, humans couldn’t travel larger distances in a shorter space of time, and it also meant the early founders could lug vast amounts of resources around.
In my lifetime, it’s the internet, without question. It’s certainly helped me learn alot of things I missed or were glossed over at school (we went to war with the US?) as well as finding items cheaper, and is also a good way to start a business or look for opportunities.
June 3rd, 2008 at 6:55 am
Air conditioning.
Think of it – it has dictated where people in the world can live regardless of how hot or humid the area is. Fans & open windows can only do so much.
2nd place: harnessing electricity.
June 3rd, 2008 at 6:58 am
I think that the movie camera is the greatest invention. Before movies, people had to entertain themselves in different, often very odd ways. The people who invented the movie camera, created a new medium of entertainment. And if you say TV, you still owe to the people that built the movie camera, because it was the inspiration of the movies that prompted people to bring them into the home.
June 3rd, 2008 at 6:59 am
For me personally, it would be the heart/lung machine. I have had 2 major open heart surgeries, and I would probably not be here if not for this machine.
In terms of impact of mankind, history, etc., I would say the printing press.
June 3rd, 2008 at 6:59 am
BTW, Jfrater, who is that in the picture?
June 3rd, 2008 at 7:10 am
The written word, no doubt. Writing enables records to be kept, of everything from laws to medical procedures to recipes, ensuring that knowledge would not get lost.
Without it, knowledge would not be spread so easily between borders, and several other great inventions on this list would never exist. In addition to what it did to develop and expand some of the great early human civilizations…
June 3rd, 2008 at 7:14 am
116880: tesla and mark twain
June 3rd, 2008 at 7:17 am
Writen words
Tranferance of thought to the ages
June 3rd, 2008 at 7:35 am
One should go back I think to the very first invention. Back somewhere in the stoneage where someone thought of the first tools to use. Needles to sow and keep warm, spears to kill and eat. Without any of those man would be extinct and none of the rest would matter.
June 3rd, 2008 at 7:36 am
WALLS! The invention of walls is quite possibly the most important invention of all. Why? Walls keep roofs over hour heads to protect us from the elements. Walls keep our fields safer from the critters that would eat our growing crops. Walls keep our livestock safer from predators and would-be thieves. Walls help keep our enemies at bay. Without walls, there may not have been much incentive to invent myriad other things which mankind has created to break walls, strengthen walls, build taller walls, blow up walls, beautify walls, etc. Think about it… that’s all I ask.
June 3rd, 2008 at 7:41 am
Randall; Great minds think alike!
June 3rd, 2008 at 7:42 am
As for the written word, whole peoples have survived ages without it. The Kiwis around here will concur that the Abo’s didn’t really need to write something down. They just passed the knowledge verbally from generation to generation.
@sdggrant #33
“Language. We would be a bunch of big, hairless chimps without it.”
We still are
June 3rd, 2008 at 7:50 am
Plastics.
The greatest human invention of the “modern” era. Developments in industry, medicine, agriculture, computers, aerospace and most of anything in our daily lives is made possible by this over-engineered product. Take a quick look around and count how many things you have within your reach that have plastic in them. Food for thought. Have a nice day!
June 3rd, 2008 at 7:53 am
Mom:
Of course they do. Because I’m in your head. Doing naughty things.
June 3rd, 2008 at 7:55 am
Air conditioners kick ass, get over it.
June 3rd, 2008 at 7:57 am
Kreachure:
You’re a bit off-base.
While we may debate about fire, Penicillin is most certainly an invention–in the sense that it is “manufactured” and applied for a purpose it otherwise would not serve.
the Zero is most certainly an invention. There is nothing inherent in mathematics that allows for the existence of a place-maker. Someone (some Babylonian with a funky beard, probably) had to think that one up. All by his self. Brilliant, too. So give credit.
June 3rd, 2008 at 8:00 am
Im sober again. So I guess I’m going back to kinky sex (since sex per se is not an invention so i’ll invent a position and call it the spread eagled 69 shocker), drugs and alcohol.
June 3rd, 2008 at 8:02 am
i’m going to agree w/ gromit. Cameras. It’s amazing how you can capture a moment in time.
June 3rd, 2008 at 8:04 am
miriah:
Sorry, but agriculture is definitely an *invention.* Agriculture is a system which does not otherwise exist in nature. You can go out in nature (or you *could* once upon a time) and find all sorts of yummy and useful plants growing wild. And you could collect all the berries and tubers and such that you could carry. But that ain’t AGRICULTURE. Agriculture is an invention by which human beings not only deliberately sowed these plants and controlled their growth, but also cross-bred them countlessly over generations in order to improve yield, nutrition, etc. Nature didn’t come up with that. We did.
Agriculture also isn’t just growing and nurturing plants. It’s harvesting them en masse, finding ways to store them, use them, etc. It was a DISCOVERY that we could do this. But we INVENTED the *ways* of managing it. We invented the *system* of agriculture.
Big human idea/invention, agriculture. Good for us. We should be proud. Chimps never would have thought that one up. Another reason why we’re better.
June 3rd, 2008 at 8:07 am
GForce: Time can be altered. It is affected by gravity. That has been proven. We are almost at the speed of light when the particle accelerator is fired up this summer in Geneva. They are talking about miniature black holes and all sorts of weird stuff.
June 3rd, 2008 at 8:08 am
Randall: I’m not so sure better is the best adjective. More intelligent yes, but our behavior certainly doesn’t seem much better. We have infanticide, tribal warfare, a defined social hierarchy. Not much better than the chimps. In fact maybe we could use a lesson from those other primates – the Bonobos.
June 3rd, 2008 at 8:21 am
Just thought of another one. Clothing. Ok the concept of wrapping animal hides around yourself to stay warm might have been a discovery, but actually manufacturing clothing was an invention. It was as important to survival as fire and has established itself as a cornerstone of fashion, culture, both individuality and uniformity. Without it there would be less safety (think suits of plate mail armor, kevlar vests, military camos) in dangerous situations, quicker spread of disease, no halloween costumes or toga parties, no sports on a wide scale (imagine rooting for the Boston Skins over the New York Skins and not getting confused). Plus women would have to spend more time on hair and makeup if they didn’t have fashion. Finally, if people had wanted to see other people without their clothing they would have invented the internet.
June 3rd, 2008 at 8:26 am
Leave it to Randall to make me feel like an idiot, but in a good way.
June 3rd, 2008 at 8:26 am
Mom:
Your point is well taken. I’ll gladly take the lesson from the bonobos… and I think you what I mean, honey.
Truly, they are wise apes with much to teach us about the value of just Doin’ It every chance you get, with whomever you can. I find this very advanced of them.
Yes, this calls for more research on our part, I agree. Much dirty, fun research. I invite you to join me on my quest for knowledge. Feel free to bring some of your hot friends along. We’ll share the Nobel.
June 3rd, 2008 at 8:44 am
I’m just really shocked that Randall has reached a point where can mercilessly berate someone before burying them under a landslide of knowledge and have them all smiles and butterflies. I guess you know how to dish out a tasty dish of intellectual ass-whoopin, Randall, because people seem to keep coming back for more.
And Mom, say what you want about human civilization, at least we don’t smear our crap on rocks and trees to mark our territory anymore. Or hurl poop at those we find repellant. (Of course, depending on how repellant I actually find someone, there is room for compromise here.)
June 3rd, 2008 at 9:03 am
Slick:
Merely proof that chicks love (and other men respect) the cocky guy with the attitude, my friend.
It’s gotten me far in life, and I have some sweet memories to look back on. Yay me.
June 3rd, 2008 at 9:11 am
Will Smith.
June 3rd, 2008 at 9:28 am
I’m torn between the toilet, cameras and Quorn.
June 3rd, 2008 at 9:32 am
1. fire
2. wheel
3. glass
3. printing press
4. microchip
5. heavier than air flight
June 3rd, 2008 at 9:40 am
agriculture: food becomes easier than hunting or foraging
June 3rd, 2008 at 9:45 am
How about democracy and scientific experiments?
June 3rd, 2008 at 9:49 am
The greatest invention in man kinds history has to be logic. It is the building block of science, technology, and mathematics. It is the language of computers and it is a way of thinking that revolutionized the world. With out things like logic technology in general would not exist, the ability to reason and create from reason are responsible for every piece of technology available to us. It is the greatest invention because without it we would all be mindless cavemen who relied on God for everything without finding ways to get it themselves. It is so simple yet so complex, I can’t imagine life without and niether can anybody else for it is the basis for the very kinds of lives we lead.
June 3rd, 2008 at 10:08 am
That there are WMDs in Iraq
June 3rd, 2008 at 10:18 am
easy one, the little thingy over that fast stuff that is shown on tv by the fat comic guy, you know
June 3rd, 2008 at 10:20 am
The Transistor.
Electricity is useful, there’s no doubt. But it’s a ‘dumb force’, in order to get it to do anything more than brute force via motors or light via filaments, you need a way to make it self-switching. Sure relays and vacuum tubes can do the job, but they’re large, bulky, require much higher voltage and they’re also prone to breakage because they’re still mechanical, especially relays.
No, the Transistor made possible the vast miniaturization of electronics into something useful outside the halls of academia. The transistor is why the computer I’m typing this on has several billion times of the power of the ENIAC or UNIAC, computers that took up rooms the size of houses. Transistors are the reason that international phone calls don’t cost 20 dollars a minute.
The marriage of different types of doped silicon, in all their permutations, gave us the LED brake light, the iPod, solid-state digital storage, the modern telephone system (their original purpose), the computer, the “intelligent” signal routing capability to make the internet possible, the TV remote control and virtually every other invention of the digital age. All from a tiny little film of silicon invented by Bell Labs decades ago.
June 3rd, 2008 at 10:32 am
human languages and dialects
June 3rd, 2008 at 10:34 am
Time? Time was invented. The hunters and gatherers depended on time for their harvests and hunting (knowing what time is best to hunt certain creatures, etc.)
June 3rd, 2008 at 11:01 am
I’m gonna say the wheel, although I’m not exactly sure if that’s the type of invention you mean. I don’t know why, I just think the wheel made a lot of things possible and a lot of things much easier.
June 3rd, 2008 at 11:13 am
/Licks Slickwilly.
I dont hate people…lol..just kinda frustrating. I know we *invented* things that helped harness those things..but they were not inventions.
And yes Randall…I guess I didnt make myself clear on those. I think saying the plow is a good invention…or etc.
Cocky…lol
June 3rd, 2008 at 11:13 am
THE SYBIAN!
June 3rd, 2008 at 11:19 am
soap. before that, we had no means of antiseptic. everything was just laden with germs. think about it the next time you go to the doctor.
June 3rd, 2008 at 11:23 am
Primative weaponry -
It is what separated us from the animal kingdom, providing us with a way to defend ourselves from extinction. I’m talking about bows and arrows and spears and stuff.
June 3rd, 2008 at 11:25 am
I can´t believe no one has named VIAGRA
June 3rd, 2008 at 11:28 am
Painless Dentistry.
Considering the number of fillings I have in my mouth, I would have been a toothless hag a long time ago without the dentist. The painless part makes it even better.
June 3rd, 2008 at 11:32 am
Without it this blog won’t even exist; language.
June 3rd, 2008 at 11:35 am
agriculture was not invented by humans; there are species of birds that dig and culture seeds before eating them, and I don’t think they’re alone. Moving on, the Jewish were nomadic and had a writing system; being nomadic does not mean any less of the culture.
Without the printing press there would be no industrial age to begin with, as well.
June 3rd, 2008 at 11:43 am
BooRadley, I have yet to have a painless dentist visit. Even if they give you the gas it hurts when you wake up:}
June 3rd, 2008 at 12:17 pm
Language. Language both spoken and written.
I’m not even close to the first on the List to choose language, but it is just the obvious choice. Everything we have accomplished as human beings has been because we are capable of speech, of thought (if you don’t have language of any sort…and, yes, I am including sign language as language…you are not capable of thought ).
Language not only made made us accomplished hunters, farmers, tradesmen, healers, adventurers, it also made us tellers of tales, poets, songsters.
We became both practical and artistic.
We became the only creature who can contemplate its own demise, but also, the only creature who can celebrate its own existence.
All this, and so much more, we owe to language.
June 3rd, 2008 at 12:19 pm
The printing press and/or movable type.
Without this access to the written word, education of the public could never have been possible. Later inventions were an indirect result of this possibility.
The internet is perhaps on the same par as the Press in its ability to make knowledge and communication so readily available, so it earns a distinguished second in my mind.
Third? Perhaps wireless communication. It’s pretty handy, too.
June 3rd, 2008 at 12:27 pm
Toilet paper.
June 3rd, 2008 at 12:32 pm
Definitely writing is the one.
For so long people have been searching what make us different from the rest animals. And I think that’s the answer.
Writing is the way to transmit true knowledgement beyond your own limitation in time, space and memory. Can be achieved for anyone and anyone can contribute to improve it.
Writing emergence is a state transition in the habilities of a society of beings. An we call this new state “civilization”
June 3rd, 2008 at 12:37 pm
Cheese curls
June 3rd, 2008 at 12:43 pm
I’m surprised controlled flight wasn’t mentioned until way down at #196,unless I missed it earlier. It’s what first came to my mind (well second, after the wheel) but I wanted to read all the posts first to see if it was worth a mention by me here at #200-something.
June 3rd, 2008 at 12:48 pm
internet, without it theres no LV! but really, it taught me many things.
June 3rd, 2008 at 12:49 pm
ah yes, language, very high up on my list. that and cheetos, who doesn’t love cheetos!
June 3rd, 2008 at 12:54 pm
Randall: Penicillin was discovered by accident because it grew on its own in a petri dish. You can’t invent something that nature produces um, naturally.
The development of penicillin as a medicine throughout the 20th century could be considered an invention, although even Egyptians used penicillin as a medicine.
As for zero, I’m no expert, but it took humans several centuries and many philosophical arguments to realize that nothingness needed to be represented with something (so I’m not gonna prolong that here). It’s not like they invented “nothingness”, they only made up a way to represent it with something called zero, but the quantity zero existed regardless of that. You can call it zip or zilch or nil or whatever, but it existed on itself before us humans started poking with numbers. We would’ve had to use something to represent it eventually, so it’s not like someone needed to invent it in order to be used.
BTW, the babylonians weren’t the first to use zero (and they couldn’t even use it as a single number anyways).
June 3rd, 2008 at 12:55 pm
segue; We discussed language, we did not invent it, we didn’t do something to acquire language, it was done to us. The written word yes but not language; we aren’t even the only species on the planet to develop that skill.
SlickWilly; The flinging poop thing – depends where you are, not on main street but it definitely happens in jail, and I’m not so sure the flaming bag of shit on the front porch doesn’t count.
June 3rd, 2008 at 2:26 pm
MOm424: Yes! you are right on.
the written word is the greatest invention of humans and it needs no explanation
the shitter is number 2:)
June 3rd, 2008 at 2:29 pm
Re “language”, and how it supposedly distinguishes us from beasts – well plenty of so-called beasts communicate amongst themselves just fine using their own forms of language. It’s presumptuous of us to think ours is the only language there is just because it’s the only one we understand.
June 3rd, 2008 at 2:29 pm
I have to agree with organized agriculture, without which we would not have: Beer, Wine or Alcohol. I’m getting the shakes just thinking about it.
…and of course improved nutrition led to a growth in mental capacity which gave humans the ability to conceive of all those other wonderful inventions mentioned previously like air conditioning and internet porn.
June 3rd, 2008 at 2:46 pm
According to my sister-in-law – the epidural for labour. Why? I think the reason is fairly obvious.
June 3rd, 2008 at 2:51 pm
No really, I’m still sticking to dulce de leche cheesecake.
June 3rd, 2008 at 2:58 pm
antiseptics like sanitation well at least according to donald darkamos
I mean, the whole sanitation thing.
Joseph Lister… 1895. Before antiseptics
there was no sanitation, especially in
medicine.
June 3rd, 2008 at 3:02 pm
Farming. Without the Neolithic Revolution, human civilization would have never risen. Don’t forget that for 190000 years we were hunting and gathering before we set up our first cities and villages, the result of farming.
June 3rd, 2008 at 3:12 pm
mama-kali, I said Language, not necessarily just written word. With out Language the kiwis would not of been able to speak to each other, right?
Just my observation, but 99% of the inventions listed above would be completely useless to anybody but the inventor if there was no language to explain and spread its use. Especially the internet, jfrater. It would be just a blank white screen with no language!
June 3rd, 2008 at 3:40 pm
Burritos have to be up there among the greatest inventions by man. Then maybe writing.
June 3rd, 2008 at 3:40 pm
Mom424 in post 52 made a great point, which I agree with. Independence from seasonal migrations allows free time. Time spent making further developments.
June 3rd, 2008 at 3:51 pm
So.
I’m dying to know.
How was language “done to us”?
Are we talking some 2001 monolith thingy here? What?
I really, truly, don’t understand how language can be “done to us”.
June 3rd, 2008 at 3:58 pm
Bacon.
June 3rd, 2008 at 4:03 pm
chocolate, you can argue with that mom424!
June 3rd, 2008 at 4:06 pm
Two words:
Sliced. Bread.
June 3rd, 2008 at 4:06 pm
Slickwilly can I barrow your brain today, I have an oral exam?
June 3rd, 2008 at 4:14 pm
music. i wouldnt be able to live without music
June 3rd, 2008 at 4:15 pm
****
Author: WarningDontReadThis
Comment:
Slickwilly can I barrow your brain today, I have an oral exam?
****
One of you must be dyslexic.
June 3rd, 2008 at 4:21 pm
goof_ball, you aren’t supposed to live without music.
June 3rd, 2008 at 4:26 pm
The flushing toilet must be very high up on the list. Without it modern living would be unbearable. Ever lived in an apartment building? Ever wondered how that would be possible without the flusher?
Not the most glamorous invention, but high density living (which has helped build the modern world economy) relies on it as much as harnessed electricity and gasoline.
June 3rd, 2008 at 4:36 pm
The whole technology around DNA. The ability to decode, replicate and change the building blocks of life will be the most significant ‘invention’ our species is likely to make.
June 3rd, 2008 at 4:45 pm
If zero(nothingness) was not invented, the concept of using it as a placeholder was. And for those of you who don’t know, the Indians invented this concepts back in 3000 BC….
June 3rd, 2008 at 5:01 pm
Indians from India
June 3rd, 2008 at 5:02 pm
Agriculture, because humanity couldn’t really make those other things without it and genetically engineered food which is saving millions today.
June 3rd, 2008 at 5:10 pm
The bendy straw, hands down.
June 3rd, 2008 at 5:15 pm
To borrow the words of Mr. Hawking:
“For millions of years, mankind lived just like the animals. Then something happened, which unleashed the power of our imagination. We learned to talk.”
British Telecom advertisement (1993)
Without the ability to share and discuss ideas, no other plans/inventions/concepts are possible.
June 3rd, 2008 at 5:33 pm
Just want to go back to what AZ said…. and how he managed to crowbar God into this… Assuming God created life then you are totally right…. howvever, this is a list about the greatest human invention. sorry but that just really annoyed me.
June 3rd, 2008 at 5:46 pm
Language, hands down. We would never have started teaching and improoving our lives.
June 3rd, 2008 at 5:51 pm
Oh segue, are you always this nice?
June 3rd, 2008 at 5:54 pm
I’d say the automobile which also started the assembly line. And the airplane.
June 3rd, 2008 at 5:58 pm
But you’re right, it is grammatically incorrect. That’s why I need a new brain
June 3rd, 2008 at 6:04 pm
****
#249. DJ – June 3rd, 2008 at 5:15 pm
Comment:
To borrow the words of Mr. Hawking:
“For millions of years, mankind lived just like the animals. Then something happened, which unleashed the power of our imagination. We learned to talk.”
British Telecom advertisement (1993)
Without the ability to share and discuss ideas, no other plans/inventions/concepts are possible.
****
#251. Sheldon Roy – June 3rd, 2008 at 5:46 pm
Language, hands down. We would never have started teaching and improving our lives.
****
I said language. I gave several reasons for language being the most important human invention, and what it has allowed us to achieve.
I was told:
“segue; We discussed language, we did not invent it, we didn’t do something to acquire language, it was done to us. The written word yes but not language; we aren’t even the only species on the planet to develop that skill.”
At no time did I say we were the only animals with language. It is quite obvious that many animals have some means of communication, and I don’t limit my assurance to primates…heck, I don’t even limit it to mammals.
I asked the person who made the statement:
” So.
I’m dying to know.
How was language “done to us”?
Are we talking some 2001 monolith thingy here? What?
I really, truly, don’t understand how language can be “done to us”.
She has, so far, chosen not to explain.
June 3rd, 2008 at 6:05 pm
The plow.
For the first time, after the plow, harvests were guaranteed. With grain surplus families could plan for the future. The extra grain needed storage – and so begins pottery and writing.
Plots of land become divided – math and geometry then can begin.
With surplus food and extra people – the arts and sciences can develop.
It is the invention that turned us from a hunter/gather society to agricultural based one.
June 3rd, 2008 at 6:25 pm
Oh, Warning! I’m not always anything.
If you had the misfortune to follow the thread between MPW and me, discussing my illness and the myriad drugs and their side-effects, you’d know quite well that I am the living Jykll/Hyde.
Not much fun in reality, I come here for fun.
June 3rd, 2008 at 6:26 pm
missles to blow up meteors. thats the closes threat to us in the future.
June 3rd, 2008 at 6:30 pm
segue, misfortune, i thought it was a learning experience
June 3rd, 2008 at 6:44 pm
MPW, does your mother know what a great son she has?
June 3rd, 2008 at 6:49 pm
MPW:
Just think of the old, old days: First a toothache, then the inevitable tooth extraction, then the bleeding and often infection… What’s a shot of Novacaine compared to that? I wonder how they pulled a tooth before tools were invented? They probably had to leave the very painful tooth to rot inside the mouth… No wonder “cavemen” died at such an early age!
June 3rd, 2008 at 6:57 pm
segue, i have no clue where my real mom is, jail or dead i really dont know but i have a stepmom who commends me often:)
BooRadley, that is true. and smokers too
June 3rd, 2008 at 7:19 pm
guns — and laser sights for guns
June 3rd, 2008 at 7:47 pm
249: Stephen Hawking “We learned to talk” Pink Floyd used that (with his permission) on Keep Talking from the Division Bell.
MPW I am from the Chicago area. Good call. Soooo looking forward to summer. Foot loose and fancy free!!!
June 3rd, 2008 at 7:51 pm
Frozen pizza. Period.
June 3rd, 2008 at 8:09 pm
bwmyers18: Are you kidding? Delivery!!!
June 3rd, 2008 at 8:20 pm
the wheel -mobilized societies
penicillin- so people could live longer and pharmaceutical companies can get rich off of ailments we never had because we died so young.
electricity-so we can stay up all night on our computers.
June 3rd, 2008 at 8:26 pm
#262. Author MPW – June 3rd, 2008 at 6:57 pm
Comment:
segue, i have no clue where my real mom is, jail or dead i really dont know but i have a stepmom who commends me often:)
****
MPW, your real Mom is the Mom who raised you, the one who took care of your boo-boo’s, who worried when you were sick, or was frantic when you were late coming home. Your real Mom made your breakfasts and lunches and suppers. She made your birthdays happy, and your holidays special. She made sure your teeth were brushed, and she tucked you in at night and reminded you that she loved you and was proud of you.
The woman who gave birth to you is not now, and never was, your mother. The most loving, the most motherly act she ever made, was to give you up for adoption. That is an act of love. But it is not motherhood.
June 3rd, 2008 at 8:30 pm
My bad, MPW, you said stepmom, not adopted mom.
My answer remain’s the same though.
June 3rd, 2008 at 8:33 pm
How can you say that language wasn’t invented? Mom424, you said “that language happend to us.” You are wrong if you think that. Language is not a human instinct, communication is on the other hand is. Language took many years for it to be defined; but, it is an invention and was also invented by many different people. Let me take two examples, in the beginning of human existence tribes came up with a ways to label things with sounds and when a baby is born they aren’t given the ability speak a certain language; but, do know basic communications skills.
June 3rd, 2008 at 8:35 pm
Stone tools.
June 3rd, 2008 at 8:37 pm
Segue; I didn’t choose not to answer you, I have another life not including listverse too! I didn’t check back until now.
We did not invent language, it is an adaptation. We did not actively seek it, we did nothing to ‘make’ it happen. Well of course other than successfully reproduce, live in groups, blah, blah, blah. Read comment #146 as well. It is not an invention , but a consequence of being human.
June 3rd, 2008 at 8:38 pm
Segue: My parents had 2 boys with EXTREME mental disabilities. They finally adopted. I am their shining world. People ask if I will ever try to find my “real” mother and father. I do not need to look. My real mom and dad raised me, loved me, put me through college, stood beside me for every mistake (and there were many) I made. There is no substitute for the one who held and loved you.
June 3rd, 2008 at 8:41 pm
I neglectd to mention that their babies died. They were too scared to try again and turned to adoption.
June 3rd, 2008 at 8:46 pm
theSKin; Did dolphins invent their language? How about whales? Because we don’t understand it, we tend to dismiss it as language. But it is; language is the ability to verbalize information and pass it along. Bingo, they qualify. They didn’t invent it either.
June 3rd, 2008 at 8:53 pm
The atomic bomb.
June 3rd, 2008 at 8:54 pm
No way I’m reading ALL of these posts. I’ll throw my lot in with organized language for number one. It’s the foundation for all human societies, from hunter-gatherers to nuclear superpowers. It’s hard to imagine agriculture (probably number 2 in importance) being invented without at least basic sign language. Without agriculture, you don’t get the population explosion that fuels cities, confederations, empires, and so on. Once you have language, you can move on to writing, which allows record keeping on which future generations can build.
I’d also throw the domestication of animals out there. Not sure it’s an invention, since it probably wasn’t intentional, and it’s more of an adaptation. Still, a crazy important factor in human development.
June 3rd, 2008 at 9:05 pm
robneiderman; Too bad you don’t want to read all the posts. Language is not an invention but an adaptation. The written word is an invention. Animal husbandry is an invention. We actively chose the animals we wished to reproduce, etc. etc. etc. I believe it came before agriculture. We brought the animals with us, much as the masai tribesmen today do.
June 3rd, 2008 at 9:08 pm
****
Author: VeraLynn
Comment:
Segue: My parents had 2 boys with EXTREME mental disabilities. They finally adopted. I am their shining world. People ask if I will ever try to find my “real” mother and father. I do not need to look. My real mom and dad raised me, loved me, put me through college, stood beside me for every mistake (and there were many) I made. There is no substitute for the one who held and loved you.
****
My point exactly!
June 3rd, 2008 at 9:16 pm
Fire started it all
June 3rd, 2008 at 9:22 pm
***
#275. Mom424 – June 3rd, 2008 at 8:46 pm
theSKin; Did dolphins invent their language? How about whales? Because we don’t understand it, we tend to dismiss it as language. But it is; language is the ability to verbalize information and pass it along. Bingo, they qualify. They didn’t invent it either.
****
Uh, maybe you dismiss it. Others don’t.
What about Stephen Hawking? Is he nothing but a blathering idiot when he says “For millions of years, mankind lived just like the animals. Then something happened, which unleashed the power of our imagination. We learned to talk.”?
I’ll tell you why I content that language, not just mankind’s, is an invention rather than an adaption (btw, you never explained the comment that language “happened to us”). In the very early times, tribes, groups, pods, whatever, had to devise a way of communicating vital information to each other. The same sound, or movement, or colorchange or whatever, had to be consistent or it was valueless.
You can easily see where this is going.
So, language IS an invention.
June 3rd, 2008 at 9:31 pm
segue i know what your saying but i cant comprehend what a loving mother is. its sad but true(great song by the way)
i knew who my biological was but i havent seen her since i was fifteen and that was almost five years ago. she was addicted to drugs and adultery and that fucked my dad’s head up and he is abnormal in the brain to begin with. she really only loved her two eldest children(first daughter and son)and the other 4 including me were neglected. my life was tough and still is but it is also a whole lot better. my brothers are homeless zand drug addicted and my sister abandoned her baby and husband. however my twin and i are both in college and fairly happy. i learned from my family’s mistakes and turned my life around with the help of my stepmom. i used to fight in school, get bad grades , i was a petty thief and a drug abuser at 13 and thanks to my stepmom ,my twin and myself i follow the rules and the law and am studying for a career in law enforcement. that felt good. anyway back to inventions:) i say words, toilet,vaccine and internet
June 3rd, 2008 at 9:32 pm
mom
June 3rd, 2008 at 9:35 pm
Vera Lynn,a true cubs fan must be from chicago
do you still hate steve bartman:)
i cant blame him
June 3rd, 2008 at 9:39 pm
Everyone keeps using the word adaptation, shouldn’t it be discovery? What you can’t invent, you discover.
Fire and electricity were both discoveries and hence should be eliminated as candidates.
June 3rd, 2008 at 10:12 pm
the integrated circuit, and my reason is because everything that is a result of it is totally freaking awesome
June 3rd, 2008 at 10:40 pm
I think two bestest invention humankind made was the digit 0 & 1 with out which we could not have developed to what we are today. what say?
June 3rd, 2008 at 11:34 pm
WAR – an unique way to solve conflicts
June 4th, 2008 at 12:03 am
Mom: You are misunderstanding the difference between language and communication. Let me guess you think that mankind was gifted with the knowledge of the English language. No, we were taught by our parents and/or mentors to use our voice box to make particular words, same with all the languages. If language came with being human, all people would be speaking the same language on Earth.
June 4th, 2008 at 12:43 am
Best invention- language.
Worst invention- religion.
June 4th, 2008 at 1:02 am
theSkin; No, I’m not mistaken, and no we wouldn’t necessarily be speaking the same language. Our brains are hardwired for language, it doesn’t matter which language. Languages did in fact (or so linguists believe) have a ( or maybe a few, its to late to google) common origin. Hard-wired, born with the capability; not something invented, something ingrained.
June 4th, 2008 at 2:43 am
wheel
June 4th, 2008 at 5:47 am
I’ll have to say Futurama, man is that show great!
June 4th, 2008 at 5:54 am
Shoes….do you know how cold a Canadian winter would be without footwear. My 7 yr. old said the ray gun he say on TV and then changed his answer to the TV…..
June 4th, 2008 at 5:56 am
Kreachure:
Are we going to argue about this? I know *very well* about Penicillin’s accidental discovery. Did you not READ my post? My point was, humanity then proceeded from there and made something of Penicillin that it hadn’t been before–we put it to a use that it previously did not serve. Hence, it DOES fall into the “invention” category. The invention is “antibiotics.”
At any rate, you then went on to say:
“The development of penicillin as a medicine throughout the 20th century could be considered an invention….”
WHICH WAS MY FREAKIN’ POINT. For chrissakes.
“…although even Egyptians used penicillin as a medicine.”
Excuse me? Uh, no, Kreachure. I don’t know where you got that, but unless I’ve missed some major archeological discovery (unlikely) then this is simply not true. The Egyptians admittedly were skilled medical practitioners (though they understood little about WHY things worked and had no useful theories of medicine–we can thank the Greeks for that, as usual) but to my knowledge they did not make use of penicillin (certainly not as we do) and weren’t even aware of it.
Now… on to Zero:
“As for zero, I’m no expert…”
Clearly.
“…but it took humans several centuries and many philosophical arguments to realize that nothingness needed to be represented with something”
So? Many inventions aren’t accepted immediately by everyone around. You’re talking a consensus of acceptance of the concept of zero. I’m talking about its INVENTION. Which was the product of SOMEONE’s mind, most likely a Babylonian, even if we don’t know his name.
“…It’s not like they invented “nothingness”, they only made up a way to represent it with something called zero, but the quantity zero existed regardless of that.”
WRONG. You’re confusing the abstraction of “nothingness” (and how can you say that exists, anyway, separate from an abstract idea?) with zero’s purpose as a placeholder–which is far more important and more practical. The idea of a placeholder as such WAS an invention. THAT is the real purpose of the zero, Kreachure. It’s semiotic purpose, signifying “nothing,” is really unimportant and purely abstract. The placeholder, concept, on the other hand, had no parallel in nature–it is entirely a human invention of NOTATION which highly expedited and improved mathematics practically speaking and in terms of a science.
“…You can call it zip or zilch or nil or whatever, but it existed on itself before us humans started poking with numbers.”
I don’t really understand how you can say “nothingness” existed on its own before humans abstractly realized the concept anyway—where do you glean this from? Nothingness, as a totally negative quality, does not really exist in nature.
But anyway, the real point is, as I say–the placeholder certainly is entirely grown from human thought.
“…We would’ve had to use something to represent it eventually, so it’s not like someone needed to invent it in order to be used.”
Again, as I say, *wrong.* I’ve already pointed out why.
“BTW, the babylonians weren’t the first to use zero (and they couldn’t even use it as a single number anyways).”
WRONG again. This is a well established fact, that we owe the zero to the Babylonians. So you tell us, who used it before the Babylonians, Kreachure? You don’t have many choices prior to them… you’re pretty much left with the Sumerians or the half-understood civilization of “Dilmun”… unless you want to say that our historically mute paleolithic ancestors were using it… to which my reply would be, “and you know this how?”
And again, the second half of your statement is irrelevant–again, zero’s importance to mathematics ISN’T as a single number, by itself.
June 4th, 2008 at 6:14 am
An argument could be set forth on what the difference between what is invented and what is harnessed. The control of electricity is one of mans greatest ‘achievements’ but not necessarily his greatest invention. There could also be the argument that 99 percent of inventions require the control of electricity anyhow.
I think one of man’s greatest invention is the semi-conductor. Before semi-conductors there were vacuum tubes and relays. All of our fine point computers and electronics need semiconductors. The logic switch with no moving parts is definitely one of mans greatest inventions.
June 4th, 2008 at 6:24 am
TheSKin and Segue; Good god, I’m going to resort to wikipedia to get my point across. We did not invent language. It is an adaptation for survival. It developed along with us during our long journey to becoming homo sapiens. We didn’t “do” anything to acquire it other than successfully reproduce.
The SKin; your point about us all speaking the same language, and I said we were hard-wired, it doesn’t matter which…here’s proof
“linguists agree that there are no existing primitive languages, and all modern human populations speak languages of comparable complexity. While existing languages differ in the size of and subjects covered in their lexicons, all possess the grammar and syntax needed, and can invent, translate, or borrow the vocabulary necessary to express the full range of their speakers’ concepts. All humans possess similar linguistic abilities, and no child is born with a biological predisposition favoring any one language or type of language.” Note BORN WITH and BIOLOGICAL
Also you stated that I am mistaken about animals having language – “the communication systems of a few animal species do share some attributes in common with modern human language. Dolphins, for example, are able to communicate like humans by calling each other by name.” Not the same, but still language. The some pretty cool research into primate language as well.
Segue; What I meant by done to us and not by us, is that we did not actively invent language. It is an adaptation, or a mutation that provided a reproductive advantage. More proof -
“The greatest step in language evolution would have been the progression from primitive, pidgin-like communication to a creole-like language with all the grammar and syntax of modern languages.[5] Many scholars believe that this step could only have been accomplished with some biological change to the brain, such as a mutation. It has been suggested that a gene such as FOXP2 may have undergone a mutation allowing humans to communicate”
I hope I’ve made myself more clear.
Here’s the link; http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Origin_of_language
June 4th, 2008 at 7:08 am
Glad to see some people put language, though that was a gift from God (OH NOEX!!! Did he say God?!?! lolwut?) I’d say poetry is the greatest human invention. And all you who read “invention” and immediately thought of some machine or piece of technology? Fail.
June 4th, 2008 at 7:25 am
Organized Religion.
Nothing has controlled more people than organized religion.
June 4th, 2008 at 7:56 am
TheSKin:
Your arguments are worthless, sorry. “If language came with being human, all people would be speaking the same language on Earth.” Excuse me?
Let’s dispense with this quickly. Your statement makes no sense. Languages evolve over time. Separation of groups causes languages to evolve in different directions, same as species evolve in different directions when they are isolated physically. But none of this has anything to do with the origin of language. You have attempted to draw a link where frankly none exists—either way. Even if you were trying to support Mom’s side of this, what you said STILL wouldn’t make any sense.
Language is NOT an invention of mankind’s… it is part of our adaptations, it is WHAT WE ARE. Our complex language is, yes, unique to us, but there is evidence that whales, for instance, may have a language of comparable complexity. Language, it is assumed, is necessary for abstract thought (though this is unproven). Ceteceans and some other animal groups may also possess a “language” of their own, however. It is neither our invention, nor are we sole possessors of it.
June 4th, 2008 at 8:09 am
fertilizer was pretty important.
June 4th, 2008 at 8:29 am
seque:
Sorry, but you’re wrong too.
Now, you got at Mom for saying this:
“…Did dolphins invent their language? How about whales? Because we don’t understand it, we tend to dismiss it as language. But it is; language is the ability to verbalize information and pass it along. Bingo, they qualify. They didn’t invent it either.”
and your response (if I can call it that) was:
“Uh, maybe you dismiss it. Others don’t.”
And? Do you have nothing else to say? You’ve made NO point here.
Mom’s point, however, is well taken. In general, we don’t at all understand the “language” of other animals, and so it is our TENDENCY, in essence, to ignore it… which is to say, to forget that other animals MAY possess language. Sure, many scientist acknowledge that animals might possess language, and so don’t dismiss it… but that’s simply the exception that proves Mom’s point–MOST of humanity isn’t privy to the knowledge that cetecean specialists, for instance, possess–namely, that whales have a complex system for communication which may very well qualify as language.
Language is quite possibly NOT solely ours–and therefore is not an “invention” of man’s, but rather an adaptation which we evolved–that came hand in hand with our large brains.
Now… this Stephen Hawking thing:
“What about Stephen Hawking? Is he nothing but a blathering idiot when he says “For millions of years, mankind lived just like the animals. Then something happened, which unleashed the power of our imagination. We learned to talk.”?”
No, seque, of course Hawking is not a blathering idiot… but neither is he a qualified specialist in this field. He is a genius physicist with a wide range of knowledge–but here he is simply expressing a generalized opinion–which, being Stephen Hawking, he is free to make. However–more to the point–you fail to recognize that this statement of his DOES NOT SUPPORT YOUR CONTENTION that language is an “invention” of mankind’s. Hawking does not *say* that. He says that we LEARNED to talk, and it thus unleashed our imagination.
This is a loose way of saying what Mom and I have BEEN saying, and what Noam Chomsky says–that language may have allowed us the ability to take the step to complex abstract thought. But Hawking doesn’t say this was our INVENTION—he merely says that we learned it. “Learned” can be a loose way of saying we evolved the adaptation of language–just as you can say that we “learned” to walk upright or “learned” to use tools. These things are not “inventions,” they are adaptations that were consequences, or served AS consequences that led to, or of, our large brains.
Get it?
“(btw, you never explained the comment that language “happened to us”).”
It’s been explained to you. Language is, depending on how you look at it, an evolutionary adaptation which either led TO our increased intelligence (in part) or was a consequence of that intelligence. We don’t yet know which, but either way, it was an adaptation, like the opposable thumb or the ability to walk upright. It “happened to us” in the sense that such adaptations were not “planned” and executed by us (as inventions ARE) but were simple evolutionary mechanisms and/or products.
“In the very early times, tribes, groups, pods, whatever, had to devise a way of communicating vital information to each other. The same sound, or movement, or colorchange or whatever, had to be consistent or it was valueless.
You can easily see where this is going.”
I can see it, but you’re wrong. You clearly know nothing of hominid evolution or what is known about our immediate ancestors. Particularly because you refer to “tribes.” By the time you get to tribal organization, seque, language has LONG since developed. A community group as complex as a tribe would not be *possible* without language. Language is far older.
Now yes, language may certainly be a consequence of social groups, which are far more primitive than “tribes” per se. But it’s more likely that social groups and language go hand in hand–wolves, for instance, as pack animals, are social in nature–and clearly they communicate with one another in relatively complex ways, as do bees and ants. We, with our far larger and more complex brains, were able to make use of abstract thought, however, communicated via language. Which of course placed us on a far higher level.
But this is not inherently different, in terms of the idea of language itself, from what those other social animals are capable of. The COMPLEXITY of human language/thought is the difference, but this is merely the product of, or is antecedent to, our high intelligence. Language itself, however, is an adaptation used by many species, and is not, therefore, an invention.
Even if language were totally unique to us, though, it would still be simply a unique adaptation–not an invention.
June 4th, 2008 at 8:31 am
Randall – get back to work.
June 4th, 2008 at 9:02 am
Randall; Thank you. Twice. Once for the support and secondly for not including me in the “most of humanity”. I like to think I’m special.
June 4th, 2008 at 9:04 am
Can’t we get back to the Bonobos?
June 4th, 2008 at 11:16 am
The greatest invention is either the pimp stick, or lunchables, which, by the way, can be enjoyed simultaneously if you know how to multitask.
June 4th, 2008 at 11:18 am
@ 49. asdf
1. Geek
2. Nerd
3. Loser
4. Square
5. Tool
6. Fink
7. Turd
9. Lame-o
10. asdf
June 4th, 2008 at 11:49 am
I would have to say Modern Medicine.. We are able to live longer/fuller lives with the bringing of modern medicine.. Things as common as Pneumonia would have killed many people Just 50 years ago.. With the development of Modern Medication its as small as a cold.. Cancer is no longer an instant death threat and People are living 20-30 Years longer than people that were born in the 20’s.. My point of view, anyone Agree?
June 4th, 2008 at 12:45 pm
mom424: bonobos? what the hell is that? lol
June 4th, 2008 at 12:48 pm
Simple, the number 396827.
June 4th, 2008 at 1:40 pm
Yes, I do believe that we were given the abilitiy to handle language; but, we still had to come up with the words. That’s what we invented. Randal we really didn’t evolve into language:
“All attempts to shed light on the evolution of human language have failed—due to the lack of knowledge regarding the origin of any language, and due to the lack of an animal that possesses any ‘transitional’ form of communication. This leaves evolutionists with a huge gulf to bridge between humans with their innate communication abilities, and the grunts, barks, or chatterings of animals.”
I had more to say; but, I’m not a very articulate person, because it doesn’t come natural to me. (lol get it) But seriously enough of the trivial stuff. Other significant inventions the process of welding or riveting and the scientific process, otherwise known as trial/error.
June 4th, 2008 at 1:46 pm
Mom:
I’d be more than happy to return to the bonobo research. At any rate, I offered you a post with our institute, but you failed to respond in the riposte department.
June 4th, 2008 at 1:57 pm
****
Author: Lewis
Comment:
Simple the number 396827
****
Lewis, don’t you know that the answer is ALWAYS 42? lol
June 4th, 2008 at 2:13 pm
TheSkin:
Sorry, but still wrong. You’re just not getting it, and I don’t know how many ways I can explain it in order for you to grasp the concept.
First of all, the quote you offer (and just whom are you quoting?) is irrelevant to this debate; that we lack material evidence and knowledge regarding the evolution of language does not automatically mean that therefore some inventive cave guy just “thought language up” one day in 100,000 BC or something (really, I can be far more scientific in my terms, but that gets boring). It simply means that we lack the evidence, and thus the detailed knowledge, about how language evolved. But it’s clear that it DID evolve, and to be frank, I don’t think you’ve really thought through the distinction you’re trying to draw between humans evolving the “capacity” for language (or as you say, “we were given the ability to handle language”) and the actual construction of words, phrases, and ultimately, “Huckleberry Finn.” What, really, is the difference? Simply because words have changed over time does not mean that anyone “invented” language itself… i.e., that there was some original language that all humans spoke because one individual in the far-flung past invented it. We know from the science of linguistics that in fact languages the world over HAVE evolved from earlier, inclusive forms–the most well-known example being the fact that most modern European languages can be traced back to a more-or-less singular Indo-European language. Obviously languages have come and gone, and many languages have died out over the millenia. But that they evolve from one form to another is very well-established. The mere fact that our knowledge only goes back so far into the dim recesses of history does not mean that, somewhere in the unknown darkness there was a sole human who “invented” the first language.
No. It’s clear also from the study of animals that language in humans could have clearly evolved from simple sounds that we were capable of making. Alphabets are, indeed, built on single sounds, and in essence all alphabets are reworkings of the same group of sounds that human being are capable of making with their mouths. It isn’t hard to imagine our simpler hominid ancestors using various grunts and other sounds which, in time, evolved into vowels and consanants, and in fact words. And from there, it was a leap (but one we had evolved uniquely for) to complex sentence structure/complex abstrac thought. It’s hard to see how ONE person, far back in time, could have “invented” this. We all have the capacity for it.
Yes, individuals CAN invent words; Shakespeare did, as did Samuel Johnson and numerous others in history. But these were built on previous forms and sound-relations, which isn’t really the same as inventing an entire “dictionary,” as it were, out of whole cloth. Language is, as I said, a practical adaptation like walking upright. No one had to invent it, nor could one person have done so–language is clearly an organic construct, not an artificial one. It’s impossible to see how a single person could have kept consistent rules for a verbal language alone–some people (such as JRR Tolkien) have “invented” languages–but these are based on previous forms (in Tolkien’s case, Icelandic for one) and also Tolkien had the advantage of writing (to keep track of his language rules and words) and great scholarship (he was a trained linguist). Certainly you don’t have writing before you have language, so I don’t see how someone could have possibly “made up” a consistent and workable language out of his or her own mind, without somehow being able to keep track of it.
No, clearly language is organic, and evolved with us.
June 4th, 2008 at 2:14 pm
Randall, Csimmons: Any society whose hierarchy is based on making the other members of said society blissfully happy is all right in my books. Although I do imagine the other animals in the jungle have a hard time taking those bonobos seriously. Seeing as they are all wandering around with glassy eyes and a big dopey grin.
theSKin; You still don’t get it. Nobody sat down and said, even to themselves,”geez, we need a word for that thing with 4 walls and a roof”. Language developed, it was not invented.
June 4th, 2008 at 2:19 pm
I’m going to start handing out citations for excessive use of the word Transitional. Get off it people.
June 4th, 2008 at 2:48 pm
heres an idea, stick to tangible inventions
oh yeah, transitional
June 4th, 2008 at 4:05 pm
****
#17. gromit – June 2nd, 2008 at 7:28 pm
a camera. not photoshop, not digital effects or any of that… just a camera. because a camera lets you capture life…
***
#79. Clantargh – June 2nd, 2008 at 10:17 pm
Another amazing invention that tends to be overlooked, photography.
****
Sorry, I got side-tracked by a useless conversation, so it took me too long to reply to both of you. One of my degrees is in Photography (to be honest the Major is in Art, but Photography is the discipline), so I heartily agree with photography’s importance in bringing both information and beauty to the world.
There are photographs I have seen but once, but which have seared themselves onto my brain with a clarity that I know will always be with me.
I have, I hope, taken a few such photos myself. If life is good, I will take a few more.
June 4th, 2008 at 4:18 pm
Bruce Banner…. hahaha
June 4th, 2008 at 4:20 pm
wrong thread…embarrassing
June 4th, 2008 at 4:34 pm
jfrater; It wasn’t a youtube link, it was a cos link with a you tube tag. It said youtube but it wasn’t. It isn’t appearing now anyway so no worries.
June 4th, 2008 at 5:09 pm
Randall: You do have some good points; but, it’s still not able to convince me other wise and i could put some counter-points but i wouldn’t be able to convince you. I don’t have the patient to sit and type it all out. Other inventions paper
June 4th, 2008 at 5:43 pm
Opposable thumbs much? Without them inventing things would be difficult so we can credit inventions to them.
June 4th, 2008 at 5:50 pm
****
Author: THE MAN
Comment:
Opposable thumbs much? Without them inventing things would be difficult so we can credit inventions to them.
****
We came equipped with opposable thumbs, and a darned good thing we did! So we can’t take credit for inventing them.
We certainly have made a whole lot of use of them, though!
June 4th, 2008 at 6:29 pm
The sword – it is an elagant weapon that truely shows the art in and of warfare
June 4th, 2008 at 6:32 pm
I’m going with written languages, followed by the number Zero.
Written languages allowed knowledge to be passed on from generation to generation, saved a lot of “re-inventing the wheel.” Sure, there are some societies that never got around to it by using oral tradition, but they tend to be unstable and die out when a better thing (writing) comes along. The Printing Press made written languages accessible to a much larger audience as it reduced the amount of labor necessary to produce written text, a gigantic improvement from the old method of using a scribe to copy text.
Besides operating as a simple ‘placeholder’ – zero is necessary for much of what we know as mathematics to work. Real and Complex Math both require zero, Calculus, Set Theory, Matrix Math, they all require zero in order to work. Virtually all of the sciences rely on the use of zero in one form or another.
June 4th, 2008 at 7:36 pm
Beer. Need I say more?
June 4th, 2008 at 7:39 pm
TV. It bought the world into our living rooms!
June 4th, 2008 at 7:58 pm
****
#327. Bill – June 4th, 2008 at 7:36 pm
Beer. Need I say more?
#328. Bill – June 4th, 2008 at 7:39 pm
TV. It bought the world into our living rooms!
****
lol!
Bill, you slay me! Beer and TV! Two of the major causes of the dumbing down of America; beer and tv.
lol.
June 4th, 2008 at 8:21 pm
Wow!! People are so convinced that they are right in these postings. Makes one realize how close we are to madness and chaos at all times. Maybe the best invention hasn’t arrived yet. Will humanity as a unit destroy itself in the next 3 generations? I think so. Yeah, I know people have been saying this since the beginning of time. But never have so many had the power to do real damage before. The hostility I see in all forms, in all places, embraced by the media (and I mean that as the plural of medium)is frightening.
June 5th, 2008 at 12:25 am
nuclear bomb …………controls everybody n needed great a mind
June 5th, 2008 at 12:55 am
the internet. well if it wasnt for the internet I wouldnt be able to get porn or respond to this blog.
June 5th, 2008 at 4:00 am
electricity (not actually an invention but more of a discovery)
June 5th, 2008 at 7:14 am
firearms.
June 5th, 2008 at 7:28 am
I think mankind’s greatest invention is also mankind’s greatest regret – its money. They invented money and has made our world a cruel place to live in. Money is the inspiration for all those suceeding inventions and discoveries. Inventions, discoveries were funded by money and was treated as a “money-making devices”. That’s it. I think money is mankind’s greatest invention.
June 5th, 2008 at 8:31 am
Religion and Numbers
June 5th, 2008 at 3:22 pm
PANTS. Where would we be w/o pants?
June 5th, 2008 at 4:10 pm
****
#337. ToothOfTheBull – June 5th, 2008 at 3:22 pm
Comment:
PANTS. Where would we be w/o pants?
****
Well, naked, of course.
June 5th, 2008 at 7:39 pm
Im going with two,the key and the kite
Without either there would not be a lot of the modern day inventions
June 5th, 2008 at 7:46 pm
Im going with four,Two of them technically arent inventions,but moreover,Binding subjects we all need to create further inventions
The kite
The key
(The next *Subjects*)
Thought
Evolution
June 5th, 2008 at 7:47 pm
(i didnt think my comment posted the first ime,sorry)
June 5th, 2008 at 9:09 pm
segue: LOL…One more invention to complete the triad that ‘dumbed down’ America…video games!
June 5th, 2008 at 10:04 pm
NickPalla: Unplug the key board and back away slowly.
June 6th, 2008 at 12:01 am
I don’t know if this would be considered an actual invention, but language would seem the best choice to me. After all, without a system to communicate our thougths, experiences and knowledge, we’d have to keep rediscovering the last generations inventions/mistakes.
June 6th, 2008 at 2:26 am
I believe that the greatest human invention is electricity…
Because without it… there will be no other human inventions…:-)
June 6th, 2008 at 2:32 am
nuclear…
June 6th, 2008 at 6:23 am
OOh No Glowbug! Now we’re going to have another Randall/Mom424(242?) freakin’ RANT again for freakin’ EVER!
Just post a “oh, I meant to say luggage” message” and we can all breathe a sigh of relief.
Thank you.
June 6th, 2008 at 1:47 pm
Segue; I never ranted, you jumped on me. Remember? And accused me of not replying to you. Remember? I don’t rant, I debate.
June 6th, 2008 at 1:52 pm
I gotta go with my choice, Segue. And I kinda like reading Mom424 and Randalls posts. They certainly seem to put a lot of thought into their opinions (even ones that may not be popular).
June 6th, 2008 at 2:04 pm
I have to admire you Glowbug.
Mom424 is nice enough, she’s just as hard-headed as I am…although I’d never resort to using Wiki as a resource, as it isn’t written by recognized experts…and, yeah, I like her posts.
Randall is another story entirely.
June 6th, 2008 at 2:11 pm
Enc-What about the ones BEFORE elctrcity’s dicovery?
Crimanon-why? cause im weird…
…
…
…
meanie
June 6th, 2008 at 3:31 pm
It’s fire of course. The greatest thing we learned to use is fire, provided us with safe food and security long time ago and helped early people manufacture tools and everything we use today, fire is the greatest invention of man and how to work it.
June 6th, 2008 at 3:53 pm
****
#352. jarek – June 6th, 2008 at 3:31 pm
It’s fire of course. The greatest thing we learned to use is fire, provided us with safe food and security long time ago and helped early people manufacture tools and everything we use today, fire is the greatest invention of man and how to work it.
****
Fire existed before we did, therefore, we can’t take credit for “inventing” it. We learned how to “make” fire…rub two sticks together, or strike flint above a pile of lightweight tinder…whatever…and then you’re on pretty solid ground after that, jarek, re: safe food, security, etc. Lots of inventions came from the harnessing of fire.
June 6th, 2008 at 8:52 pm
NickPalla: So am I, but you sounded like a willfully undereducated brat. One of the “School never did anything for me but hold me back” types. I get uppity about ignorant kids. I dearly hope you were joking.
Kite and Key, as amusing a theory that it was, was Never actually attempted by The Big F.
And you can’t Invent nature (i.e. Thought, Evolution)
You just set off my cute little kid alarm for a moment. It really wasn’t a Gold Star moment you had.
June 6th, 2008 at 9:02 pm
History
June 6th, 2008 at 9:40 pm
Heh,Trying to sound smart isnt working out for me,ill stick with basic communication.
And yes,technically it was a joke,i just used the kite and key to symbolize electricity’s dicovery
June 7th, 2008 at 4:47 am
segue; Randall portrays himself as a polemicist. Note I say, portrays himself – he’s really not such a prick. If you have a few days you should go back a few months and actually read his posts. First you will figure out pretty quick what the act is all about. (I’m assuming you are almost as perceptive as myself). Second you will see that the man is bang-on. He knows of which he speaks.
June 7th, 2008 at 5:43 am
the spirit level
June 7th, 2008 at 5:59 am
Mom424: I have been lurking far longer than I’ve been been posting (and lurking under a different name). Randall’s portrayal of himself, whether his information is correct or incorrect, is to be despised. I actually had written a poem (published), many years ago, about someone exactly like him, and it’s not a pretty picture.
One of my problems is that I am usually spot-on perceptive, even when people try to hide it. It usually takes longer in written form than in personal contact, but Randall is so in-your-face that it took barely three or four posts; at first I was giving him the benefit of the doubt, imagining him to be laying it on thick as a joke. I was quickly dissuaded.
IMHO a prick-is-a-prick-is-a-prick.
I have no idea whether or not you read the posts between MPW and me regarding my health, the symptoms, the treatment, and their side-effects, but if you have you’ll know that I simply have no energy to waste on such people as Randall.
BTW, I wasn’t kidding when I said I’d read the entire Encyclopedia Britannica, it was a summer project I set for myself one year. Every page cover to cover, every volume. The following summer’s project was Webster’s Unabridged. I was still in grammar school.
Does this make me smarter or better than anyone else? NO!!!!! More inquisitive, with a longer attention span, maybe, and a retentive memory, but smarter? Nah.
You, I like, even when we disagree. We can have fun disagreeing. We can have fun agreeing.
That about wraps up my feelings on the subject.
June 7th, 2008 at 8:07 am
çömlek(a special cup to cook special foods in Turkey)
June 7th, 2008 at 8:32 am
segue -
QOTD
“..a prick-is-a-prick-is-a-prick..”
June 7th, 2008 at 9:06 am
****
#361. Cyn – June 7th, 2008 at 8:32 am
segue -
QOTD
“..a prick-is-a-prick-is-a-prick..”
****
June 7th, 2008 at 9:09 am
I didn’t mean to send yet!
My addition was:
Can you argue with that?
Also, I once kept a public diary, open to anyone to add to, called Quote of the Day!
Went on for several years.
I may submit it for publication one day.
LOL
June 7th, 2008 at 9:12 am
The camera.
Man has managed to create a machine which can replicate the human eye.
Imagine all of the things which have been captured in a photograph.
All of the iconic images ever taken, that will not be lost in the mist of time.
The humble camera has changed the world.
Just try to think of a world where a photo had never been taken.
June 7th, 2008 at 9:15 am
segue; My parents still have the set of encyclopedias I read as a kid. They bought a junior set and of course I used the set my mom purchased in college. We also had a wonderful illustrated atlas that did a great job of using up rainy days. It showed the periodic table with pictorial examples, the constellations, precious and semi-precious stones, the origins of man. Plus all the regular atlas stuff; topographical, climate, population density, and road maps. A veritable cornucopia of knowledge.
It is ok to admit that you are smarter than average; obviously you are here and not on ebaums. Also the average north american is responsible for the popularity of Jerry Springer, Oprah, and Survivor. Good god Fantasy Island and Love Boat were on the airwaves for 10 years. What is not all right is using that knowledge like a cudgel. To beat and belittle folks into learning something. Sometimes it is justified, but not generally. Often folks just don’t know. Or they are young. Randall has been lectured by me on this very point. I have seen an improvement. Obviously you haven’t. We will have to agree to disagree.
Or maybe I’m just a big soft shit; I can generally find redeeming characteristics in almost everyone. And I usually am quite capable of figuring out the reasons why people are the way they are – it makes me very tolerant. Also probably the reason my kids walk all over me. I’m just a push-over.
June 7th, 2008 at 9:15 am
Abby-We wouldnt have Television
June 7th, 2008 at 9:24 am
venetion blinds without a doubt .my reason for this .well if venetion blinds had not been invented it would have been curtains for everyone
June 7th, 2008 at 9:51 am
segue -
oooh, i’m a quote hound from way back! got out of collecting here lately though. course i mean the known classical quotes or from celebs, writers, people in the news and the like. although i’ve seen quotes from regular folk that are certainly worthy of making note of.
June 7th, 2008 at 1:48 pm
Cyn: That’s what was so great about my QOTD public diary; the people I worked with, folks dropping by set, anyone and anyone and everyone contributed. Some of the contributions were sketches or polaroids, most were over-heard, knee-slapping misuses of language, some were heart-breaking insights into someones soul. What I liked, for myself, was that while it was my diary, I had given up control and secrecy, opening myself to the world, and allowing the world to open itself to all and sundry.
****
Mom424: I agree with everything you said…BUT, after the last 10-11 years, I have lost the energy and the will to find the time to be tolerant of people like Randall. When you are taking an opiate load as high as mine (over the years it’s gotten high enough that just a single dose would kill the average man, and I take that dose 3x a day), just to keep the pain at a reasonable level, taking up time for people like him just isn’t worth it.
Maybe he has improved. I don’t know. I have a tendency to tune him out after a sentence or two.
Life’s too short.
BTW, re: the encyclopedia reading; my favorite article, in the 5th grade anyway, was “The Blue Men of Morocco”. I can still see the slightly grainy b&w photos and could probably nearly recite the article. God! I loved that article.
You know, I never did see any of those tv shows you mentioned, nor any of the big long running series. I just had other things to do.
What is ebaums?
Am I missing something?
June 7th, 2008 at 2:52 pm
Segue: No you really aren’t missing anything. I am old, 46, and I was babysitter extraordinaire in my youth. (Handicapped kids, behavior problems, multiple families – I took classes, and taught the special ed kids at school too). All that was on TV Saturday nights was Fantasy Island (Herve Villaichaise – da plane, da plane – and Ricardo Montalbam) and Love Boat. (Cruise ship – totally gay show). Until Midnight then the old creepy movies came on. Yeah. Even when reading, ya need the TV on for background noise. How old are you?
ps; I know about the blue people too!
June 7th, 2008 at 3:08 pm
Mom424: 46 is still young. I turned 60 this past week, though everyone says I look 45…maybe because I’m thin and have thick red-blonde waist length hair. Oh, and no wrinkles. None.
The age reminder got me thinking, though, I became symptomatic at 48. So I’ve been a drug addict for almost 12 years.
June 7th, 2008 at 3:41 pm
segue -
“..I turned 60 this past week..”
*does happy happy joy joy dance* finally someone older than me! YIPPIE!
oh…and what else were you saying?
June 7th, 2008 at 4:14 pm
This may not be a popular view, but ebaums is basically a website that used to be known for ripping off games and flash animation from other sites, then slapping their watermark on it and taking credit for other peoples work. There’s actually a pretty funny flash music video about it on Newgrounds called “Ebaums World Dot Com” by Lemon Demon. I love his stuff – it’s hilarious.
June 7th, 2008 at 6:12 pm
segue; I look younger than my age too! Must be all that clean living. Not. Genetics, my grandmother had no wrinkles until her early seventies. I don’t drink to excess either; my mom does and shriveled up young.
Crappy about your disorder/syndrome – drugs are no fun whatsoever when you must take them. Unfortunately the fog of opiates comes with the pain relief. Where do you live? Can you get heroin? I understand that it does not have the dopey/sleepy side effect, at least not as bad. And addiction is not really an issue is it? Not when the alternatives are considered.
Is it genetic? I only skimmed your conversation with MPW. And I can’t remember where it is to go back and re-read it.
June 7th, 2008 at 9:27 pm
Mom424: My genetic disorder is called Schwannomatosis. The latest info gives it an incidence of 1 in 1,700,000. My tumors attacked my entire spinal cord, rather rare by itself, so every nerve root, nerve sheathe, and nerve bundle are encased in tumor (benign).
My opiate round robin is oxycontin, morphine, methadone. I stay on each for 6 months, then on to the next.
Of course I’m addicted, and of course it’s not an issue. There is no alternative.
They used to think the incidence was about the same as Neurofibromatosis type 2, at 1 in 40,000, but better testing proved otherwise.
Now, you know more than you ever wanted to know about a disease you’ll never run across again.
June 7th, 2008 at 9:32 pm
The microchip.
Its genius tiny object that can process data through the use of electricity.
June 7th, 2008 at 9:51 pm
Hi segue, haven’t chatted with you in awhile. How you been?
June 8th, 2008 at 12:50 am
MPW! HI!
Thanks for asking. Could be better, could be worse. On the whole, okay.
How are you doing?
You know, maybe it’s the mom in me but you, and by proxy your twin, come to mind often. I think about you, admire you for what you’ve managed to overcome, and worry anyway.
Basic mom stuff.
Mom 101.
Let me know, please.
June 8th, 2008 at 1:11 am
agriculture. without a doubt. humanity would not have been able to expand anywhere near its current levels without simple (well, what we connsider simple) agriculture.
June 8th, 2008 at 1:41 am
****
379. cicero – June 8th, 2008 at 1:11 am
agriculture. without a doubt. humanity would not have been able to expand anywhere near its current levels without simple (well, what we connsider simple) agriculture.
****
Agriculture certainly took it’s place in the civilizing/putting down roots of many nomadic tribes. Other tribes, disappointed by the harvest, would plant, reap the harvest, and move along to the next “best” site:
June 8th, 2008 at 7:38 am
The printing press enabled the masses to become critical thinkers and freed us to explore the limitless possibilities that only take one tiny thought to ignite.
June 8th, 2008 at 8:01 am
segue; Thus my point about heroin. Short-sighted folks make it illegal because of the threat of addiction. Of course now the only folks who can get it are the addicts. Those whose quality of life would be improved by it are left to suffer. You need to move to Europe. (By the way their incidence of heroin addiction is no different that ours – and those who require it can get it)
June 8th, 2008 at 8:40 am
True.
But my life, my family, is here.
I’ve made a choice to allow a certain level of constant pain, because my loved ones mean more to me than does my own more complete comfort. That does not make me a “martyr”, nor does it make me a “saint”, it makes me a mom, a grandmother, a friend.
It makes me, me.
Done.
June 8th, 2008 at 10:19 am
The penis extension pump
June 8th, 2008 at 12:56 pm
****
384. Rab – June 8th, 2008 at 10:19 am
Comment:
The penis extension pump
****
LOL
LOL
LOL
Guys just slay me. Really. I love them for it, too
;-p
June 8th, 2008 at 2:24 pm
MUSIC!!!! MUSIC!!! MUSIC!!!
is the gratest invention of humans!
MUSIC!!!! MUSIC!!! MUSIC!!!!
June 8th, 2008 at 3:08 pm
Segue: You mentioned in a comment around #350 about never citing wikipedia in an argument. I would say that this is probably a good idea if you are engaged in a formal debate, or in in a debate in an academic setting. However, for the purposes of online debating, wikipedia is an acceptable source for citing information. It is well-acknowledged that wikipedia contains factual errors and misleading information on some of its pages, but a study done last year by Nature.com shows that wiki favors comparably to the encyclopedia britannica on accuracy of information, and a more recent study shows that experts typically rank wikipedia articles as being more credible and factually correct than non-experts. Meaning, if you need a quick look at info on something, it is probably more credible to use wikipedia than any other online source (barring official academic websites). See the pages below:
http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20051214-5768.html
http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20061127-8296.html
June 8th, 2008 at 5:24 pm
****
#386. Zaksek – June 8th, 2008 at 2:24 pm
MUSIC!!!! MUSIC!!! MUSIC!!!!
****
Music is, indeed, a marvelous invention, and the almost constant background to my life…BUT!…we aren’t the only mammals to have music. We are the only ones to have pianos or flutes or guitars or steel drums, yes,but have you ever listened to the songs of the Humpbacked Whales, for example? Fantastically beautiful music. It’s not static, either. A young whale will devise a song, but over time, over years, will add to it, change it, reconstruct it, improve it, all the while retaining the flavor of the original.
Birds sing, too. Though, to be honest, I know too little about birdsong (Does it change? Do individual birds within a species have variants on a song?) to comment.
Overall, though, music is a human gift universally understood and appreciated. Music is magic, a balm for a troubled heart. Music is happy, it celebrates the best moments of our lives.
****
#387. SlickWilly – June 8th, 2008 at 3:08 pm
Segue: You mentioned…/…never citing wikipedia in an argument….
See the pages below:
http://arstechnica.com/news.ar…..-5768.html
http://arstechnica.com/news.ar…..-8296.html
****
SlickWilly, you have astounded me. Truly. It will take some time, I’m sure, for this new truth to actually become incorporated into my belief system, but you have presented me with facts which would appear irrefutable.
What are you going to do to me next, get me to start watching network tv?
June 9th, 2008 at 3:47 am
I think Andy one eye (#358) has got it! Without the spirit level everything would be crooked and cockeyed, People would be falling down stairs that weren’t built right. Stuff rolling off of shelves, crashing to the floor.
June 9th, 2008 at 6:28 am
Drogo:
I visited a friend once, for two weeks, whose house listed heavily to the north-east corner.
Drop anything capable of rolling, and all you had to do was go to the north-east corner of the room and, hey presto!, there it was!
The windows didn’t work properly, of course, nor did the doors, and watching water come out of the faucet was a bit like being in one of those “mystery zones”.
The house had been constructed on the level, but above a marsh!!! Time, and gravity, did the rest.
Quite an interesting little adventure.
June 9th, 2008 at 6:29 am
Segue: Hahaha…I wouldn’t go that far. Network TV? Ummm…ehh…mmm…no.
June 9th, 2008 at 7:52 am
Maps.
Where would we be without them?
June 9th, 2008 at 9:24 am
Ray, you’d be lost. I’m a woman, so I’d stop and ask directions.
June 9th, 2008 at 12:37 pm
internet and REALLY expensive cell phones. can’t do without either.
yup, i have a small life.
June 9th, 2008 at 12:53 pm
@ 307.
1. Yawn.
2. Yawn.
3. Yawn.
4. Yawn.
5. Yawn.
6. Yawn.
7. Yawn.
9. When the best part of your daddy’s DNA landed uselessly on that crosseyed Walmart greeter’s thigh, did Jesus cry a little for your unborn self?
10. Yawn.
June 9th, 2008 at 1:00 pm
i dont need no stinkin’ map
June 9th, 2008 at 5:42 pm
To the most basically point? I´d have to say the wheel
June 9th, 2008 at 5:45 pm
the central piece to the liFes Of paul brown, sid gillman, vince lombardi, Tom landry, bill walsh, and we canT leave out the notables such as jim Brown, joe montAna, deacon jones, Larry wiLson, sammy baugh, otto grahm and throw in the notable hof’s that retired, farve, strahan and if tiki gets in over bettis in 2012 then i will sue the person/comittee that puts together the ballots.
i know i forgot some, if there biased because of team reasons then i dont care, and im not specifing the best invention of all time because some anal lit teacher from some ivy college prof office will respond and i dont care
June 9th, 2008 at 5:54 pm
Rope. The Boat, one with oars and sails. The former allows all kinds of further advances (harnesses, hunting traps etc.) and the latter allows travel on a previously unimagined scale and scope.
June 9th, 2008 at 6:31 pm
I second twinkies. they are cream filled ingeniousness.
Others:
-Tampons(C’mon ladies, how could you NOT include this???)
-Condoms
-Diet Coke
-Contacts
-Lipstick
I could go on and on….
June 9th, 2008 at 7:35 pm
dchuskerls: you totally screwed up that joke.
June 9th, 2008 at 10:27 pm
what about paper?
without that we could not have the printing press or have an easy way of communicating and keeping records
June 10th, 2008 at 3:10 am
@ segue:
I visited the apartment of a friend where you would enter a 100+ year old building that I swear was leaning at an almost 45 degree angle, it looked like it could fall at any second. You then went up crooked stairs, exited the building, walked on a pathway on the roof of the next building, to get to her apartment. I think both buildings have been torn down.
June 10th, 2008 at 5:48 am
Drogo, tearing them down sounds like a good idea to me!
June 10th, 2008 at 4:30 pm
I believe that humanity’s greatest invention is the story. It might sound like a twee answer, but I believe that story-telling in all it’s forms and it’s earliest media is the basis for human culture, and culture is the biggest story of all. It’s the lie we tell ourselves to make us believe we are better than other apes
The story gave us early songs, it gave us education, it told other human why it wasn’t such a good idea to eat the funny runny toadstool. Unfortunately, or fortunately, however you look at it, it also gave us religion. Language was just a way of pointing out where all the bananas were. Stories were what happened when language stood on two legs.
No, wait a minute… Post-It Notes. Yeah.
June 10th, 2008 at 8:18 pm
I didn’t real all the comments above so I may be repeating somebody else, but I think that antibiotics should be high on the list.
June 11th, 2008 at 1:28 am
1. Fire , the use of flint to harness fire.
2. Art , the first use of abstract thought.
3. The Blade , helped hunting and day to day survival.
4. The Knot , making weapons , tools and clothes.
5. The Needle , bone needles to make early clothes.
necessity is the mother of invention.
June 11th, 2008 at 8:04 am
****
#407.Author: honkster
Comment:
necessity is the mother of invention.
****
necessity is the mother of strange bed-fellows
June 11th, 2008 at 9:48 am
The printing press. None of any of this would have been possible without it. It made knowledge accessible to just about everyone.
June 11th, 2008 at 8:35 pm
Math – it is the standard of logic, invented to compensate for man’s imperfection.
June 11th, 2008 at 9:42 pm
soap/antiseptic
June 12th, 2008 at 5:54 pm
ice cream
June 12th, 2008 at 7:20 pm
****
412. Author: pearlichelle
Comment:
ice cream
****
How can one argue with that?
June 13th, 2008 at 2:37 am
290. Francois Tremblay- I’d have to agree with religion being the worst invention after reading the lists “Bizarre biblical tales” and “Incestuous Relationships in the Bible.”
June 13th, 2008 at 4:53 am
Control of Fire, for without that, all other inventions would not be.
June 13th, 2008 at 11:20 am
would also have to go for electricity,
maybe Nuclear Fusion in the future
as that will provide nearly unlimited power
June 13th, 2008 at 11:24 am
Fire fire fire fire, because without it civilization would never be.
June 13th, 2008 at 3:05 pm
Tampons. Oh, dear gosh. Tampons.
June 14th, 2008 at 12:04 pm
The ALARM CLOCK, without it there is no coordination of the masses. NOW GET BACK TO WORK
June 16th, 2008 at 3:50 pm
Listverse.com. No explanation needed.
June 19th, 2008 at 12:56 am
I belive the best INVENTION , or should i say idea created was that of an existing GOD, the supreme power that controls everything (without it will be CHAOS), which gave birth to GOOD and EVIL, 2 antagonist ideas that would end in HEAVEN or HELL…you get my point? ::))
June 20th, 2008 at 8:20 am
dont know if has been said but the idea of currency is and also man didnt discover fire homo erectus did.
June 21st, 2008 at 1:35 pm
1. fire, Without the ability to create fire as needed, we would still be gathering herbs
2. wheel – easier to move that firewood, meat and herbs
June 21st, 2008 at 6:07 pm
man did not discover fire homo-erectus did not homo-sapiens okay so fire can not be a credited to humans!!!
June 22nd, 2008 at 6:51 am
Fire was *not* a discovery, having been in existence long before either homo-erectus or homo-sapiens, before the dinosaurs for that matter.
The only *discovery* re: fire was:
1 – how to make it
2 -how to use is
neither really qualifies as an invention, though how to *make it* comes close.
June 23rd, 2008 at 9:07 pm
Still Bacon! BACOOOON!!!! BAAAACON!!!
June 23rd, 2008 at 9:13 pm
Adding on to my previous post about bacon, I would also say that the sammich was one of the greatest inventions ever. For those of you who dont know what a sammich is, its a sandwich.
June 24th, 2008 at 8:49 pm
While guns may not be the greatest invention, I would say it has transformed human life more than any other invention.
June 25th, 2008 at 5:01 am
****
428. MoCo
While guns may not be the greatest invention, I would say it has transformed human life more than any other invention.
****
Guns have surely had a most devastating effect on human than anything that came before it, and the cross-bow before that…we humans are awfully good at dispatching each other,
June 25th, 2008 at 8:37 am
I think comunication is the best thing man kind made,without out there would be very few thing,No TV,no computer, and baisicly nothing,so thing about that
June 25th, 2008 at 9:40 am
internet, printing press, computer, philosophy.
June 25th, 2008 at 1:41 pm
hashish
June 26th, 2008 at 5:50 am
Indoor plumbing
No, just kidding. I’d say… Law. It’s not really an invention, but where would we be without it?
June 26th, 2008 at 9:40 am
dude music is the greatest invention. music is everywhere. clubs, partiez, even n ur car. its a conversation worth having on a date. most close friends have similar musical taste or atleast a passion for music.
June 26th, 2008 at 12:38 pm
****
#434. grindcore92 – June 26th, 2008
dude music
****
What is “dude music”?
June 27th, 2008 at 7:05 am
So many things mentioned that are not actually inventions but more extensions of things that already existed.
Fire is not an invention,nor is the wheel,computer,fire,glass,can go on and on.
I guess many things where just lying around waiting to be discovered,but seriously,how the hell could anyone seriously not notice the wheel or fire.
So with that said i will have to choose the COMPASS as my #1 invention,as i believe that is one of the true and very important inventions of the human race.
June 27th, 2008 at 11:26 am
****
436. Hopscotch
Fire is not an invention,nor is the wheel,computer,fire,glass…
****
I hate to break it to you, but the wheel, the computer, and glass are most certainly inventions of man.
*The wheel was invented somewhere around 8000 b.c. in Asia, though it wasn’t put into use as transportation until around 3000 b.c.
*The computer? I’m just going to assume that was a typo and let it go.
*Fire. Already covered. But in case you missed it; fire was not an invention of man – harnessing fire and using it to his own ends, thus moving the human race forward was an invention of man.
* Glass is absolutely an invention of man. Glass was invented during the Bronze age, about 3000 b.c. It was *much* later that plate glass was finally formed, and later still that “”safety” glass was invented. Though glass is called an inorganic solid, it is solid in only a very strange sense of the term.
If you left, say a glass, on a table and came back for it in about a million years, it would be a puddle…yeah, a puddle of glass.
June 27th, 2008 at 5:32 pm
Okay admitedley they might not be the greatest of all human inventions, however, what would the feeling be like to have a modern day EUREKA moment and think of something no one has thought of before. Then go out and patent it and watch it grow and multipy before your very eyes. Just think of the number that this list of ten adds up to. Mindboggling. Got any others?
1.the Rubik cube
2.the LEGO brick
3.the reflective road safety devive CATSEYES
3.the Paper clip
4.the traffic cone
5.the safety match
6.the drawing pin
7.sellotape
8.the clockwork radio
9.the post-it note
10.the biro pen
June 27th, 2008 at 7:29 pm
Since receiving a Morrocan tagine (for cooking) I could not live without it!!! The best invention EVER!!!
July 2nd, 2008 at 5:40 pm
Conceptual abstractions, which is not so much an invention as it is a creation of mankind. A numeral is one thing, but the abstraction is the numeral.
July 6th, 2008 at 12:00 am
Jamie Frater.
July 6th, 2008 at 12:45 am
Kiss ass!
July 31st, 2008 at 5:41 pm
false religion… you get people to enslave themselves, and be quite content being stepped on for the promise of something that can never be proved… evil laugh
August 1st, 2008 at 6:26 am
Wow great question. So many possibilities out there. I would have to say it should have be something that leaped across a technological chasm and still has relevance today. I am divided between the printing press and the steam turbine.
My final vote however would be the printing press as it has given voice to billions. It has allowed reason, logic and literature to spread and allowed the world to become and educated place
August 2nd, 2008 at 1:38 am
the transistor
August 3rd, 2008 at 9:00 am
Rock’n Roll
August 5th, 2008 at 3:06 pm
Healing Medicine
Spelled wrong but I am not a Doctor
August 5th, 2008 at 3:07 pm
I just play a Doctor on TV
August 5th, 2008 at 10:11 pm
American Express
August 6th, 2008 at 7:17 am
CCCCCCCounter Strike!!!!!!!!
Yea cmon, let go shoot ‘em!!!!!!!!!!!!!
ROCK ONNNNNNNNNN!!!!!!!!!
August 7th, 2008 at 7:06 pm
internet. the best invention yet.
August 7th, 2008 at 9:54 pm
tampons, birth control, aaand plumbing
August 8th, 2008 at 1:08 pm
****
#452. kat87
tampons, birth control, aaand plumbing
****
#1 not to be used with #3
August 9th, 2008 at 9:41 pm
Lanugage, easily….
without it we woudnt be able to think or do anything like we do now, it is by FAR the best human invention.
August 10th, 2008 at 12:28 am
****
#454. Mike
Lanugage, easily….
without it we woudnt be able to think or do anything like we do now, it is by FAR the best human invention.
****
So. Those people who are born deaf are unable to think?
It’s absolutely astonishing what one can learn on listserve!
August 10th, 2008 at 3:55 am
Im pretty sure deaf people can learn english you dumbass… lol
August 10th, 2008 at 8:49 am
****
#454. Mike
Lanugage, easily….
without it we woudnt be able to think or do anything like we do now, it is by FAR the best human invention.
****
So. Those people who are born deaf are unable to think?
It’s absolutely astonishing what one can learn on listserve!
****
456. Mike
Im pretty sure deaf people can learn english you dumbass… lol
****
1 – I’m not the one who suggested the need for language to think and
2 – I’m not the one who assumes English is the only language in which one can think.
August 10th, 2008 at 9:01 am
Mike: We didn’t invent language, we developed it on the great journey to becoming human. It is not an invention but an adaptation. Gads. We went over this about 200 comments ago.
August 10th, 2008 at 11:31 pm
I noticed that no one said the zodiac. No, i’m not in to astronomy but the zodiac Is one of the oldest man made concepts that had incredible influence on day to day life. It’s the basis for most if not all religion (sun = God, 12 signs = 12 deciples etc.) and an incredible affect on language and agriculture and thus culture in general.
The tracking of the sun and the stars brought crops, and thusly life and prosperity so people thought the sun godly and too the rest of the zodiac.
Nothing has been worshiped more than the Sun, but as that is not man made, the zodiac is effectively the cumulation of all that man had to do with the sun.
THE ZODIAC is my answer.
August 11th, 2008 at 6:17 am
I know it’s been said, but, Antiseptics. This paved the way for many advances is medicine to include Antibiotics and Vaccines. Without the invention of antiseptics it is highly likely the world would have been wiped out by disease a very long time ago.
August 11th, 2008 at 10:09 am
This should have been MODERN (as in 18th century on) human inventions.
people are digging as far as choosing the zodiac and healing medicine.
for me it’s definitely the airplane.
D
it basically was the origin of the “international village” idea. or at least it made it a helllll of a lot easier.
August 12th, 2008 at 6:08 am
i say…plumbing. severly overlooked, but it probably saved more lives than antibiotics and vaccines put together.
And I don’t really think language was ‘invented’ by humans. Its like saying we invented the ability to walk. Its an inherent part of a living organism, animals are also able to communicate, whether through actions or sound. Its just that evolution has favoured the human in terms of spoken language.
August 12th, 2008 at 10:37 am
The wheel, It started everything!
August 15th, 2008 at 8:55 pm
My first reaction was televion, because information can be disseminated all over the world as never before it’s inception. It’s most often viewed these days as a troublesome waste of time, but I personally was pretty much raised by a television and lots of things I know I learned from popular culture, not from school. So my vote goes to TV, my best friend.
August 15th, 2008 at 11:19 pm
Hey rushfan, you obviously have not seen network (1976). Go watch that movie and then tell me, tv is your friend.
my suggestion is the…
GUN
August 16th, 2008 at 12:47 pm
The H Bomb to nuke Mecca
August 16th, 2008 at 5:58 pm
i agree that the internet is the best creation because it connects the entire world together.
August 17th, 2008 at 12:54 am
socks i hate cold feet and i hate being in bed with some one that has cold feet.my second choice would be current housing i love that near all people have there own space i love mine
August 17th, 2008 at 4:07 am
The silicon chip, without which all of modern life style would not be possible!
August 17th, 2008 at 7:37 am
divorce
August 17th, 2008 at 9:05 am
ouch
August 17th, 2008 at 4:58 pm
The wash machine, by far!! just imagine, going back to the old ages (or to some remote community in many parts of the world, still) and wash every single of your cloth items, and doing this every single day, I wish I could meet the inventor of the wash machine, he/she or they made our modern life so better…
August 17th, 2008 at 5:59 pm
Davis 472: People who didn’t have the washing machine found a way around having to wash all their clothes every day, They washed far less frequently, often only once a week
August 17th, 2008 at 6:09 pm
Simple one with definitive answer. – Language.
Humans lived for more than a million years without language as no more than animals. From Language in 15,000 years we’ve reached the point of space exploration and about at the ’singularity’ where we are about to create artificial minds and a million other new things. Anyway mine as ten-
1. Language
2. Writing
3. Mathematics
4. Swords
5. Wheel
6. Printing Press
7. Sailing Ship
8. Physics
9. Computers
10. Medicine
Worst inventions – religion, monetarism, globalization, fascism, passivism.
August 18th, 2008 at 4:29 pm
Has anyone said antibiotics? In terms of whats best for the human race antibiotics is the greatest invention. Countless lives have been saved from the invention of antibiotics. They say that since our last great leap in our evolution not only did our minds expand but our voice boxes changed, they believe we may have been supposed to talk. Language is arguably not a human invention, but more of a natural inevitability. The need for our brains to comunicate is what perfected the use of launguage.
August 18th, 2008 at 4:35 pm
You also put down mathematics and physics. Again not human inventions, we did not create the laws of maths and physics.
August 18th, 2008 at 4:49 pm
Oops, I made a mistake and said antibiotics. I meant to say antiseptics.
August 18th, 2008 at 7:10 pm
Well, I think, the greatest invention of all time is the tool. Without it, all progress is doomed. That may sound stupid, but technically, the first person to pick up a stick, and use it to make something they could do with their hands easier, invented the tool. Whoever picked up a rock so they could bash something into place invented the tool.
So basically the best invention of all time wasn’t invented by humans, yet by nature, but I suppose it took humans to make it a tool….
I’m just going to go with the tool, as the greatest invention ever.
Maybe it’s too simplistic, maybe it doesn’t count, or maybe I’m misunderstanding the definition of tool….
But ‘The Tool’ is my answer.
August 18th, 2008 at 11:50 pm
When I first read your post I thought you were calling someone a tool. I was about ready to call you a tool. But it doesn’t count.
A) Because it’s debatable whether “tool use” is an invention.
2) Because it’s not synonymous with humans, many apes and even crows use tools frequently.
>) Because it’s not 1 thing or concept but an ‘occurrence’.
but your thinking
August 18th, 2008 at 11:54 pm
I go with Zodiac and astrology like Wolfie did (459). I can see the resounding effect the zodiac would have played in early societies to bring prosperity.
August 19th, 2008 at 12:54 am
Is language a natural part of humanity? – a very complicated question. – We can be pretty sure that humans were around for around a million years before we invented language – or whatever it was that made the difference. One of the problems is that a natural human brain is totally different to one exposed to culture from birth, as we learn each new layer of knowledge our intelligence expands exponentially. Until we reach some critical point humans are not really sentient at all, the question is were might that point be.
As a guess that point might be where we first do mental extrapolation, because it leads directly to a dozen small but critical inventions including writing, clothes and the wheel. Oops that makes it the greatest invention of all time, so the greatest Invention is extrapolation -Inventing!
August 19th, 2008 at 1:11 am
But its not a human invention. Plenty of animals have an extremely rudimentary form of language.
Dolphins, it has been reported, even give names to each other.
Crows even use the ‘in-group’ language to tell lies-mislead other crows in order to get the upperhand (indicating that food is elsewhere so to send the dominant male away while the lesser benifits)
Language is not an invention but a by-product of of developed social structures. ie. the more intricate and involved an organism’s life is in social interactions (sharing, organising, having another member of the group look after one’s young) the more intelligent one must be to manipulate the structure to benifit.
A result in the participation in the social structure is language.
August 19th, 2008 at 6:29 am
FIRE!
Or, if it was more that we harnassed an already existing resource, thereby not making it an invention then…
BREAD!!
August 20th, 2008 at 5:59 am
“Boats and sailing ships” are the best inventions.
Without them USA would not be discovered–and consequrntly inventions such as Electricity etc would not have happened so soon.
Communication solely depended on these.Gotenbergs Press would also have not happened.
Fire(using stone friction) and language are social developments.
August 20th, 2008 at 5:24 pm
“USA would not be discovered”
Good ol’ Columbus. he discovered something that thousands of people all ready knew about.
August 21st, 2008 at 2:03 am
I’d have to go right back to basics and say language. No advanced social organisation would have been possible without it.
By the same reasoning I would call written language #2, movable type printing #3, and arguably the internet #4.
Of course that does leave out other great contenders like fire…
August 21st, 2008 at 2:52 am
We’ve covered that and its not Human nor an Invention.
August 21st, 2008 at 9:25 am
The greatest human invention is the human it self.
August 21st, 2008 at 12:55 pm
Having now read all 488 comments before posting, I have to say I like the suggestion of story by spinks @405 for overall human invention. Stories pass culture, information, values and good old common sense in very memorable ways. They are critical to civilizations without a written language.
For my home, I’m going with indoor plumbing, though in the dog days of August I love my AC.
As a woman, tampons win hands down.
August 22nd, 2008 at 5:23 am
i would say: written language. we would be nowhere without it. nowhere.
August 22nd, 2008 at 5:25 am
@Mhhh!!: huh? the human is an invention? i did not know that… humans werent created by anything or anyone.
worst invention: nintendo wii.
August 22nd, 2008 at 1:11 pm
Maybe, agriculture. Archaeological discoveries have shown that around the same time, many groups of hunter-gatherers began agriculture due to major climate change.
When the little ice age set in, the people in Greenland (actually green at the time) were forced to turn from hunting big game to running farm.
At the same time, central Africa was drying out and becoming hotter and arid, creating the Sahara Desert. The retreat of the lush forests which supported multitudes of H-Gs, drove the peoples toward the Nile where they consolidated forming the Ancient Egyptian genepool.
Upon the simultaneous arrival of agriculture in 2 places, brought with it a new way of life and new concepts to humans such as territory, landownership, rivalry and theft, and a more scheduled lifestyle based on the moon and sun.
The Sun, due to early agriculture was looked at as the life giver and it is this single reason the sun has been worshiped more than anything else, ever.
Land ownership, and having a yearly routine brought about writing as a way of recording non-immediate yet important notes.
And for the New Zealanders on here, thats why the Maori, who never stopped being hunter-gatherers, never developed writing.
August 22nd, 2008 at 6:40 pm
I nominate Jamie’s ability to cull the spammers before they make it to the posts, as the greatest human invention.
August 22nd, 2008 at 6:44 pm
segue: I second that
August 22nd, 2008 at 7:24 pm
kesh9933
“Without them USA would not be discovered–and consequrntly inventions such as Electricity etc would not have happened so soon.”
The DISCOVERY (not invention, it was already there) of electricity was not solely dependent on someone finding North America. It is not as if Thomas Edison was sitting in a house on the eastern seaboard waiting for someone to tell about his discovery. Even if the U.S didn’t even exist we would have discovered electricity eventually. I just think that that statement is a little exaggerated. Is the U.S responsible for the best inventions ever, and how are they solely confined to there? Absolutely not. China were inventing things that would have halted the progress of development without them we wouldn’t be where we are now. The same goes for pretty much all European nations, especially during the industrial revolution. My vote for the best invention ever has to be the Combine Harvester. It has allowed the production of food to grow at a rate that keeps up with the enormous population growth that the world has experienced.
August 23rd, 2008 at 4:24 am
” Scubaritch – August 18th, 2008 at 4:35 pm
You also put down mathematics and physics. Again not human inventions, we did not create the laws of maths and physics.”
Ah but they are, yes we did, mathematics and physics did not evolve by themselves , both are the work of highly exceptional inventive thinkers. Both are purely human structures for thinking about and solving problems. If your argument was true then why didn’t we build the steam engine or V2 rocket before Newton?
In fact I can prove it easily – physics always has errors and so does maths. Newtons laws fail at high energy, Einsteins theory fails or wobbles at even higher energies(on non-locality). In maths you merely have to look at trigonometry or calculus and you find a world of bodges and patches. Trig in particular is full of sticking plasters over infinities and other holes – (try computing an angle from a cartesian without an ‘if’ equation).
August 23rd, 2008 at 8:19 am
496. Robert Lucien Howe…In fact I can prove it easily – physics always has errors and so does maths…In maths you merely have to look at trigonometry or calculus and you find a world of bodges and patches.
****
Ah! Finally! A good reason why I had trouble with all of the higher maths ( excepting those odd ones I could do instantaneously in my head)…bodges and patches and ‘if’ equations.
I love you Robert Lucien Howe.
August 24th, 2008 at 1:37 pm
The penis enlargement vaccum
August 24th, 2008 at 2:18 pm
Antiseptics are by far the greatest of human inventions. Without these, we wouldn’t be alive to invent all the other cool stuff.
August 25th, 2008 at 11:28 am
pretty obvious “way” cuz where there’s a will there is people who invented/found “way”
August 25th, 2008 at 11:48 am
the condom
August 26th, 2008 at 3:29 pm
Fire. It allowed us to harness everything else, didn’t it?
And I know some people would argue that it’s not an invention, but I believe it is.
August 26th, 2008 at 7:19 pm
the cumshot of course.
August 27th, 2008 at 12:28 pm
The toilet.
August 27th, 2008 at 1:57 pm
the power screwdriver
August 28th, 2008 at 12:41 pm
if “god” existed ( but he doesn’t) i’d say that his greatest invention was speech. Quote from the bible ” In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” But after reading this excerpt i realize that word came before god….so that means that the word is a self-created thing….it existed since the hypothetical “beginning of all times”….so it’s come to this :
1. Who invented the word ? ( I’m asking this question from a biblical point of view…from an agnostic point of view it’s obvious who invented the word : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=964uCtgsDoE .
2. Whit out word, would there be any : printing press, internet, books, listverse, written erotica, the unified theory of relativity, dirty sex, news papers, actors/actrisses , music ( bjork not included – bjork doesn’t use real words), stand-up comedians, sitcoms / television, olympic games, organized political campaigns?
3. Why the heck am i writing this long comment? Will i be eligible for some “nice shiny award” ? If the word didn’t exist, i probably wouldn’t have wasted my time with this comment, and i would have probably used it for some important activity such as procreating for the 17th time with my inbred sister
August 28th, 2008 at 12:43 pm
oh..and the LAW is the second best invention…and tied with the law is the bukake ritual from japan
September 2nd, 2008 at 2:11 pm
I’d agree with those saying language, but I don’t think that’s an invention. To me it seems more like an evolutionary phenomenon. So instead I say writing is the greatest invention. Not much of what humanity has achieved would have been possible without the ability to record ideas/knowledge to pass it to both contemporaries and future generations without distortion or loss. Thus we haven’t had to reinvent the wheel as much as might have been necessary without writing.
September 4th, 2008 at 3:35 pm
well..at least language is the greatest achievement, if not invention…but i do believe language is a creation of man = invention. and i know you were talking figuratively, but the wheel was passed down through generations until writing first popped up
) …so the wheel would’ve been fine, even without writing….
September 4th, 2008 at 4:57 pm
The telescope?
Told us who we are and where we are in relation to a universe almost incomprehensibly gigantic compared to Earth, and disproves many of the main tenets of various systems of superstition, belief and religion, that had held for over 2 millennia.
October 6th, 2008 at 10:42 pm
hmmmmm beds, i can live on them forever =D oh and cell phones, SIKE!!! texting is ruining childrens literature lol.
October 6th, 2008 at 10:45 pm
lol the penis enlargement vacumm and the condom ahaha. twinkies is NOT a good invention, it has a lot of persevences or whatever.
October 14th, 2008 at 12:00 am
The Freezer definitely, without it, how could we freeze my nice cold ice cream sammiches
October 24th, 2008 at 4:01 pm
the Pill
November 19th, 2008 at 8:32 pm
Condoms and penicillin. All the fun, none of the consequences.
November 19th, 2008 at 8:52 pm
until you get AIDS, Herpes, Warts, or some other growth on your testicles.
November 26th, 2008 at 8:30 pm
Refrigeration is good…..
Allows for high-rise buildings
Food safety and medication preservation
Allows for distribution of perishable goods and food
Allows us to live and visit otherwise hostile climates
Many lives saved
But then I live in the Blue State of Austin….(hot! hot!)
November 28th, 2008 at 1:34 pm
Music.
Aside from being one of the most beautiful art forms, it has also been one of the most influential, especially in the 20th century.
November 30th, 2008 at 12:58 pm
Modern medicine. Millions of people would be dead without the advent of penecillin or insulin.
December 1st, 2008 at 8:48 am
agriculture, it brought us many new and more efficient ways to produce hemp to make my clothes, hemp for my rolling papers, and ganja to give me wings (not real wings, but you get what i mean.)
oh and i think whoever invented fish shouldn’t have made them so stinky, otherwise fish would be the greatest invention.
December 4th, 2008 at 9:46 pm
its electricity
December 5th, 2008 at 1:55 am
Wow. Looking over the suggestions here, I am in awe of what human kind has accomplished.
Best ‘invention’ ever: Symbolic language. It’s really kind of a mind blower to think that such a thing could evolve over a couple billion years. Once you’ve got that the possibilities are endless.
December 16th, 2008 at 3:44 pm
I’m thinking electricity.
Hell in a fear possibly decades it will be the source of everyone’s life.
December 17th, 2008 at 6:44 am
523. Angry onliner: Hell in a fear possibly decades…
****
Why do I keep getting the feeling everyone is speaking a language I am unfamiliar with?
December 17th, 2008 at 10:06 am
524. segue -
its called ‘i-don’t-proof-my comment-i-just-want-to-see-my-words-in-print-olia’
one of them spanking new fangled ‘cyber’ lingo thingyabobs.
December 17th, 2008 at 4:34 pm
525. Cyn:…‘i-don’t-proof-my comment-i-just-want-to-see-my-words-in-print-olia’
****
lol! lol! lol!
Thank you. I was beginning to think the world was speaking a language I simply didn’t know.
I feel much better now.
December 23rd, 2008 at 5:07 pm
Tampons. That should arouse some laughter.
January 6th, 2009 at 2:47 am
I think it is writing.(Thank you Sumerians!)
January 7th, 2009 at 4:16 pm
Okay, well I guess I’ll honestly have to go with the internet also. Many of the things listed where brilliant and important inventions, without a doubt, but the internet is the summit of all our knowledge, accessible all over the world. It’s amazing to think that we have a literal window to anything you can think of easily accessible to us at all times. I’m not really phrasing this well but basically; Yes, the plow was great, the toilet terrific, medicine fantastic, but the computer-the internet, is like magic. How can something that can put someone across the world in your room, while never leaving theirs not be magic?..erm, like magic that is. That’s only a tiny portion of what it can do.
Arthur C. Clarke “Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.”
January 7th, 2009 at 9:00 pm
refrigeration, it has contributed immensely to ending famines (though not all of them) as well as preserving vital things like medicines.
And glass, similar to refrigeration, it has solved a number of storage and sterilization problems that other materials like metal and wood could not solve and improved lives by allowing people to see better, see the stars, and see microbes.
January 17th, 2009 at 5:07 pm
Painting!
cave paintings provided a (possibly) a map for other people to find food and a historical recording for us. Its images translated text for the illiterate which was how Christianity was first mass commercialized, and provides a means of creative expression and therapy.
January 17th, 2009 at 5:11 pm
The greatest invention by man?
I would say it was joint top between two things
Fire and electricity
Why? Because fire gave us warmth, safety and a weapon
Electricity gave us the ability to have the lives we live today. In comfort and ease.
January 18th, 2009 at 8:01 am
language. without language nothing we are using these days would not even be made. language includes numbers which even thousands of years ago have been useful in trade and so in.
January 22nd, 2009 at 7:07 am
Well i like girls aloud and cheryl cole
January 27th, 2009 at 2:58 am
I rate clothing as the number one man-made adaptational tool; fire and electricity pale as mere discoveries.
January 27th, 2009 at 3:55 am
Net’s Gay. Look to the Future. You can have virtual Imaging, blabla
*comment held in moderation for use of ‘gay’*
January 27th, 2009 at 4:02 am
Internet is for PQRN
January 27th, 2009 at 12:15 pm
The accordion.
January 31st, 2009 at 4:07 pm
Perhaps the wheel. All sorts of transportation revolve around it and it hasn’t been any change. It’s still a circle that keeps us moving. That and the concept of writing.
February 13th, 2009 at 6:47 pm
The boat is the greatest invention. We got along fine without the wheel for centuries while we still depended on boats. The boat is the anthropological equivalent of that speck of dust that the entire universe exploded out of- without the boat, we wouldn’t have any of the amazing stuff that we take for granted today.
The ancient Phonicians, the first people to have a written language, would never have traveled around the Mediterranean spreading their alphabet everywhere they went (spoiler: they were seafaring traders.)
Egyptians used barges to tote limestone blocks from their quarries down the Nile to Giza, where they could assemble them into pyramids. They would have never finished one by rolling those blocks on logs- that would be impractical.
Sailing became the only effective means of trade between Europe and Asia during the Middle Ages until today. Traveling by caravan would take years to conduct trade, making spices exorbitantly expensive, and thus the common peasant couldn’t mask the taste of rancid meat. Today, flying goods is impractical, so most of your foreign made goods are shipped inexpensively by boat. Do you think you’d have your laptop if it couldn’t be shipped.
In fact, if it wasn’t for boats, all of you non-European, non-Asian, and non-African people would still be living in Europe, Asia, or Africa. Australia and any island would be uninhabited because nobody could reach them. Do you think anyone would swim to New Zealand? Me neither.
The Americas would never have been “discovered” by Colombus, Vespucci, Zheng He, Lief Erickson, or whoever they’re saying discovered it now. There would be no “civilized” people living in the Americas- just tribes of happy, unslaughtered natives.
February 15th, 2009 at 4:35 am
Pen (Means any instrument of Writing)
& Wheel
February 18th, 2009 at 10:29 pm
SOAP
February 21st, 2009 at 4:57 pm
large items – harnsing (sp) of electricty, the written word, wheel
small items – hammer and screwdrivers
February 26th, 2009 at 1:26 pm
Okay, it may not be the greatest human invention, but it’s causing great hilarity around our house…the tom-tom! We just acquired one and went through all of the available voices for the “navigator”. Much to our delight, John Cleese was one of the voices available.
We now drive about to the sound, and wit, of good old Cleese. Drives are not just a pleasure, they are downright hilarious!
February 26th, 2009 at 1:58 pm
The drums. the first form of music. without the drums who knows where music would be?
March 7th, 2009 at 5:37 pm
hair straightners, the person who invented them should be made a saint. now i can tame my unruly locks
April 1st, 2009 at 3:43 am
The Transistor – oh, the Clapper is a close second!
May 6th, 2009 at 7:55 pm
Language, more specifically reading and writing. I think it’s self explanatory.
May 6th, 2009 at 8:16 pm
548. 45_rpm : Hmm.. Evolution or invention do you think? Sure the paper and pens we use are inventions, and speech – the initial form of language – was an adaptation. But what about the reading and writing? That’s interesting…
May 6th, 2009 at 8:31 pm
okay… perhaps the greatest human invention is civilization itself. It’s what makes us who we are today, and paved the way for pretty much all invention… apart from those that predate it such as language and agriculture.
May 21st, 2009 at 5:19 pm
fire…the cavemen started it all
May 24th, 2009 at 3:45 am
The needle (Sowing) if we didn’t have this wonderful skill then we wouldn’t have had clothes or warmth to survive in winter during the early years of our evolution.
May 27th, 2009 at 11:07 am
552. mishy
unfortunately, the early years of our evolution didn’t require a needle to make clothes, nor was there any winter in the tropics.
June 10th, 2009 at 11:32 pm
the invention about electricity
July 24th, 2009 at 5:49 pm
Communism. In an uncorrupted world – it would be a perfect society.
August 7th, 2009 at 10:51 am
language of course.
October 20th, 2009 at 9:58 pm
the pocket
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