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?
For me, it’s either penicillin or the sanitation system. No one likes being sick and stepping on their own *****.
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.
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!
P.S. And then there’s that support thingy that keeps pizza from touching, and getting stuck to the lid of the box.
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.
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.
Oh yeah and Jandaman missed out on one.
Shaft and gash.
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
Yes, I agree, agriculture.
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.
45. Shlufi – Uh you kind of forgot about the polytheistic Ancient Greeks
the wheel… where would we be without it?
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
Exploitation…..
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.
sewerage system
The start of civilisation
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).
PLASTIC
Would you class time as a human invention to measure things that happen in space?
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.
anesthetics
Greatest invention(s) are waiting to happen: Cloning, Stem Cell related stuff, DNA re-engineering, and Time travel.
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…
Mom424- It could be said that most (or even all) inventions are, in a sense, adaptations for survival.
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?
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.
GUNPOWDER
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.
The handy-dandy back scratcher! life would be pure misery without it! lol
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.
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.
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.
I would have to say the greatest invention is Money. Rules and ruins the world and enslaves through credit/debt.
The mathematical concept of zero.
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.
Ohoh! Clothes!
dildo
Jfrater: Those Chnlove.com ads are a *****in good invention.
Remote control is really good..Thank Nikola Tesla for that and I love whoever came up with the mute button.
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)
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.
navigation well what i mean is more cartography making maps so we know were we have been
SOAP and antibiotics.
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.
cassie- please, STFU
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.
One word…BEER!!!
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.
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.
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.
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.
BTW, Jfrater, who is that in the picture?
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…
116880: tesla and mark twain
Writen words
Tranferance of thought to the ages
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.
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.
Randall; Great minds think alike!
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
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!