We have already done a “your view” on the best human invention and as I was recently browsing the forums, I saw a post by The Doppleganger suggesting a your view on the opposite subject – what is the worst human invention. So – here it is! Be sure to give your reasons in the comments.
What is the Best TV Show Ever?
My answer: Television. Looking through the recent channel listings for cable, there is very little of merit to be seen there. Aside from the news (which is always biased one way or another) and documentaries – which also often have a bias, the television seems to have contributed nothing to society. In fact, I think you could safely say that television, having become a nanny for so many children, and an escape for so many adults, has helped to dumb down our society and reduce our ability to use our imaginations. I should confess that while I almost never watch TV, I do occasionally watch “made for TV” programs which I have downloaded (to avoid ads).
the gun… It KIlLz!!1!1!1
The outdoor treadmill. (look it up)
condoms
“New” Coke
the bananna protective case
ho ho … television contributed a lot to society! it’s incredible. I agree that in most developed countries it also contributed to decrease people’s mental skills, but just lately.
Television helped making people closer and lazier. Which is what humans are doing for ages, so it contributed in that way. If you miss the old golden age of true values, wait a bit more to come back in the past
The automobile. reponsible for numerous deaths and will someday destroy the planet.
The problem is not the automobile..
The problem is the drivers…
I do not think there is a single worst invention in human history. My reasoning is that for everything invented (that I can think of) there are other inventions that would not have been discovered where it not for that original invention. I’m struggling to think of a single invention that has not had at least one positive externality associated with its discovery.
Of course if this is true it raises questions about how much negativity is acceptable in order to cause a positive result.
Also, it would mean that the very first human invention (communication???) would be both the greatest AND worst invention ever. In this case, it would single-handedly have resulted in every subsequent positive and every subsequent negative invention ever discovered.
The automobile .It has made us fat and lazy. It made the suburbs possible. It pollutes.
It should be the gun powder. Yeah, fireworks are nice, but the things invented or associated with that…like guns, cannons, nukes. It will eventually lead to our utmost destruction.
Nukes are not gunpowder,they are primarily consist of…..
Sorry,can't explain..It's a closely guarded secret…..
It’s not closely guarded, it just takes seone with half a brain to grasp it… which leads to my worst invention choice. The bow and arrow. I like swords and spears and the like for warfare, because it takes a lot of courage and training to be able to use them. But you could honestly just be given a bow and told ‘fire’. This spawned the crossbow which spawned the musket when gunpowder rolled around. No, the bow was what started off long-range warfare, which also includes carpet bombs and crossfire, which kill thousands of innocents all the time.
That is retarded. Humans would never have advanced without those things, because they would never have survived the Ice Age.
Get it? No weapons = no humans.
My vote goes to whatever torture device you can think of.
The one and only ShamWow!
the leaf blower
electric bicycles.
I mean like wtf?
Turning a lovely form of exercise into… goodness knows what ;__;
nukes truly brought us into a hobbesian society
JFrater
Is this your list. I read the comments on why you believe television fits the worst human invention, however, from reading previous comments, I believe your life has been both positively and negatively influenced by watching television. This is not a bad thing. Television had a large influence on individuals growing up between 1954 and now(maybe even a few years earlier).
From reading many of your lists(and others on this site and beyond), television has had a major effect on almost all people we deal with.
I probably watched too much television as a child, but it was my only(and best – this is debatable since I also loved reading) escape at the time. It is still an escape now for everyone who watches. We all need some kind of escape, and this medium has proven to be accessible. Would reading be better? Probably. I still read 1-2 books a month, but the accessity of DVR(I skip through all commercials) has made this a major for5m of escape.
Where did that 5 come from in the last line?
shadow: In a way I think the “escape” element of TV is one of its bad elements – people rely on it to escape a life that doesn’t please them. Surely it is better to fix the problems in life than hide from them in front of a glowing screen?
Probably the gun/bombs. Weapons in general. But, they might possibly have saved a few lives as well, but mostly they just are responsible for killing (I am aware people kill people, not guns, etc but still, guns are bad)
If guns/gunpowder were not invented,human can still find other ways to kill.
Oh, one more thing I thought of while hitting submit… the bible. Probably tops out guns… yeah, I have my reasons. I really feel it’s not a bad thing entirely in its self, but it’s caused an extreme amount of bad thing to happen by the people who take it too darn seriously. a few hundred (thousand?) years later and it still brings misery to people.
MONEY!!!!!
Wrong. Without TV there would have been no ‘Monty Python’ or ‘Fawlty Towers’. No ‘Only Fools And Horses’. No ‘Last Of The Summer Wine’. No ‘Simpsons’. No ‘Futurama’. No ‘Dad’s Army’. No ‘Fall and Rise of Reginald Perrins’. No ‘Rising Damp’. No ‘One Foot In The Grave’. Most of us would never have experienced the wonders of natural history as presented by the likes of David Attenborough. The chances of seeing a wide range of wonderful films, above all once past general release, would have been reduced beyond count (unless you’re going to cheat and say videos as DVD have nothing to do with TV). Great sporting events and occasions live would be very rare and expensive outings, if even within geographical reach for most. Gor Strewth. Worran addict I am. And how it’s enriched my life … As they say, there’s a little button called the ‘Off’ switch. Surely one of Man’s best inventions?
The real answer has to be the collapsible deckchair.
Precision,
“I’m struggling to think of a single invention that has not had at least one positive externality associated with its discovery.”
If you’d lived in an earlier age, try one of those devices that was designed to kill with maximum suffering by slow torture whilst keeping the victim alive for as long as possible. You might, I suppose, make out a long-shot case for their having led to more humane execution and ultimately to the abandonment of the death sentence in many countries. Hmmmmmmm.
Though I agree totally that television is not always a positive thing, I think it also has many positives as well. How else would people have been able to have seen lunar landings, actually view our political candidates as real people instead of just a voice in the air? Sure, there is a lot of trash out there, but there is also a lot of good things that have influenced generations. But just like the above, I read constantly and love a good book probably most of all, but sometimes we just need an escape from the reality of the world and television can be that. I have to agree that guns would be at the top of my list. What is the usefulness in an instrument meant only for harming or killing? It is bad enough that some people have violent behavior and then add a gun to the situation and that makes a volatile situation even more volatile.
The worst human invention of all time:
Religion… more precisely, organized religion. (think all of the Abrahamic religions, etc.)
17. jfrater
“Surely it is better to fix the problems in life than hide from them in front of a glowing screen.”
I agree. Most of everyone’s time is devoted to making enough to live and supporting one’s obligations. Hopefully, as little time as necessary is spent on this requirement. The rest of the time available can be used to do the things that are enjoyed. Do I think that sitting in front of a glowing screen is the most productive thing I could be doing? No. Is it convenient? Yes. Do Irelax and enjoy most of what I watch? Yes. Would I do something else that may be more productive to me and all other humanity, were I not watching the “boob tube”. I would like to think so, but probably not.
Gotta catch the latest CSI now.
Is it just that I haven’t read the comments careful enough, or has nobody mentioned about nuclear bombs?
I agree that guns are bad, but they can help you in a situation where you can be killed. But nuclear bombs can destroy the world several times. Look at what North Korea is doing…
Anon – I think you’re on to something there re: torture devices. I confess that I did not think overly long or hard on the subject and was quite prepared to be proven wrong when I posted my comment. I suppose I had anticipated most of the responses to this question to be along the lines of weapons or religions, and was thinking of these while writing.
Regarding torture though – could it be said that these may have advanced our understanding of human biology by pushing boundaries that would otherwise be unethical? Unit 731 from WWII springs to mind.
Cigarettes.
Guns/bombs.
Money/Capitalism.
Cars.
Pride.
Lies/Propaganda.
Emperialism.
The “numa numa” song.
… to name a few.
fire.
well, the use of it for light, heat and cooking (later forging metals…etc etc etc) that allowed us to truly venture out of the cave and into the world.
and look at what havoc we’ve created since.
*sigh*
there are days i do believe it’d been better if we’d never evolved past that cave…..
Fire is not an invention.
It is a discovery,foo'.
Precision,
As I was implying by my Hmmmmmm, it’s perfectly possible to find an obverse side to absolutely every coin. *Good* and *bad* if you want to be simplistic: probably positive or negative is better, and even then depending on the viewpoinht. A profound cynic might say nuclear weapons offer the beleaguered planet a chance to be rid of a very great number of us very speedily. Or looking at the same example from the opposite angle, the actual very limited use of atomic weapons could be said to have warned how terrible they indeed are, and have been responsible for their not having been used again since (or hopefully ever more). Getting more reasonable still, nuclear theory has led to what might be the most viable alternative to carbon dioxide pollution producing energy sources.
The step. That piece of exercise equipment that is a single step. IE a block. It costs a pretty penny, is something most everyone either has in their house (that being a step) or- if they just NEED to have it in front of their TV- something they can recreate with some paint cans and a 2×4.
Rap Music!
Nuclear Weapons
Nukes have prevented wars between big powers.
Are we allowed more than one?
The mobile phone. People wake me up on buses and trains with the bloody things. They go off during concerts, church services and the like. People get invited to our home for socialising and to enjoy a meal Anita spends hours preparing and disappear to the end of the room or out into the hall glued onto the wretched thing for half the night. Sometimes I go back to UK and find it difficult to contact my own daughters for all the texting and chatting that’s going on. Anita’s mum’s previously friendly little community has just been torn apart by one of those aerials mushrooming up in the middle of it overnight (a great subject for a film!).
TV? Huh, It can’t hold a candle to that evil device!
xXTurkinatorXx, (31.)
“Rap Music!”
Thanks for the reminder. That’ll do for my *bonus*! Mercifully, right now we don’t have any neighbours bashing it out at high vol. so it penetrates through the walls of our house. But for how long?
Abortion
That’s simple. War.
fast food and all weapons since guns were invented.
both of those are responsible for a lot of lives lost.
The electric Pizza cutter…
Seriously, it exists…It’s one of those round pizza cutters, but with a little battery operated motor…cuz apparently, Pizza is so hard to cut through that you need extra propulsion….
cell phones. period.
Religion and Country music
managers.
necessity is the mother of invention..
taking this quote into consideration, then their are no inventions that has no use..
but then again, some are just plain stupid.
cigarettes – what’s the use? you’ll die ten years early if you’re a chain smoker..
nuclear weapons – we all know we don’t want it to be use..
http://www.concurringopinions.com/archives/images/japanese_invention.jpg
cmon what is that?
Banana rack is kind of stupid too
probably cigarettes. Or any other man-made killers, but tobacco smoking is probably the worst.
The Automobile. Automobile. Automobile.
If it had never been created then there wouldn’t be 10 million (I threw that number out off the top of my head) of the smog-inducing, driver-angering, people-fattening eyesores out there on the roads.
They have polluted the the planet more than anything else in history… in many different ways. Not only by the endless streams of carbon dioxide/monoxide soot that streams out of the tails of each one… but also by indirectly contributing to oil spills and litter.
There’s the death factor… both with drivers and pedestrians… there’s the fact that many towns and cities worldwide were built to accommodate for it, thus making it harder for people to walk to get anywhere (and therefore leading to unhealthy people)
… and my personal favorite… that with the automobile comes the subsequent demand and greed for oil and gas has developed an industry so powerful that wars are fought over it, and is so rich that it is practically above and beyond any government existing in the world today.
Essentially, Automobiles and its friend oil rule the world.
I disagree with those that say the gun is the worst. There have been many times that guns have saved lives, not only in providing food but defending against invaders.
I would have to say the television is the worst. What slight benefit it has given in terms of education (usually biased) or any other life-saving news that was passed on, is vastly outweighed by the harm it has done.
People might be quick to point out all the people that have been killed with guns but I don’t think they realize how beneficial a tool it has been.
The Segway
Not necessarily the worst invention, but probably the most pointless. I mean seriously, what the hell?
If I am able to expand this to discoveries. I would say oil. It is killing the earth. Cars are fine without the oil and gas. Guns kill people, no big deal. If they didn’t there would be more diseases due to a high population. The oil thing may end us as a species. The only other thing that could end us totally is the nuke.
There are far too many ways to look at this Mr frater. :/
Your statement that TV is the worst human invention is based on the idea of how it has affected human health (that is to say, it inspires people to not go outside and exercise).
In that same thought I could easily say that the myriad of technology availible to us through hospitals are the worst, because they are contributing to the overpopulation and continuation of the worst in the human gene pool.
The TV has previously contributed alot to the conveyance of infomation (specifically, news, world events)to the large masses. I think it may have contributed to the internet in how it is presented to us.
Those that say that the gun is the worst invention say so becuase of the human collateral damage.
What about the animals that needlessly get killed? What of the people who have been saved because the police have access to these weapons?
Wow, we got up to 19 comments before someone mentioned religion! I didn’t think it would take that long; I’m proud of you guys!
The worst invention is definitely the telephone. Especially around dinner. Or any other time of the day. JUST LEAVE ME ALONE, SHEESH
Pink flamingos in the garden
i will say….power..
everything bad is about it, nazis, white supremacy, 9/11, my religion vs your religion, …power..the need to feel realized only because you need to make a point , ah abba..power.
POWERTHIRST! Check it out on youtube. Hilarious. XD
LMAO!! hahaha, Kenya, ……Kenya!! jajajaj
God
Democracy
Texas
Capitalism
Texas
Religion.
Religion is like communism in that, in theory they both sound like good ideas, but human nature turns them into abominations.
Television is no different from any other entertainment medium. Whether it’s a book, cinema, live theater, radio, live music… whatever… entertainment is only as good or bad as its content. Nearly every one of your complaints about television could easily be applied to books: Bias in non-fiction, escapism, a tool to keep kids occupied so parents don’t have to worry about them, sedentary entertainment. Pretty much the only exception is the complaint about imagination.
———-
If I had to choose one thing I’d probably say Government. I’m not an anarchist, mind you, but that’s more of a practical issue (it won’t work) than moral one.
There has never, in history, been a government that has not dedicated itself to accumulating more control over its subjects’ lives, nor has there ever been one which has relinquished power without at least the threat of violent revolution. Heck, it wasn’t until 1801 when there had even been a peaceful transfer of power between rival factions of the [i]same[/i] government (John Adams to Thomas Jefferson.)
Government corrupts everything it touches. It is government which turned “Love your neighbor as yourself” into “Kill the infidel.” It is government which turned “Let’s help the poor” into “Give us 2/3′s of your money.”
But, perhaps the worst aspect of government is the paradox that the most harmful creation in human history somehow manages to be among the most indispensable.
God.
Man
I’m gonna have to say Nuclear Bombs, the one invention that could wipe out all life on earth in a matter of hours. Cigarettes are pretty terrible too, you get nothing good out of them AT ALL.