Mine is the computer. I continue to be amazed at what we can do with them.
HANDS DOWN CAPSLOCK
THAT’S THE WAY SHE
WHOOP WHOOP
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The ability to shape steel. Sounds basic but blacksmiths make the tools for everything else.
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The wheel and the derivatives of the circular shape in general; they powered all human innovations from abstract mathematics to real life applications and everything in between.
Copper. Because without copper, most of the named things wouldn’t be possible to create!
But was copper an invention
Soap
I have a list of things that transcend invention and are actually some of humans greatest achievements:
- The bicycle
- The piano
- The internet
- Saturn V
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This one is massive. That along with the haber process which allowed for the creation of synthetic fertilizers, is said to be responsible for population growth, and reduction of hunger.
Fire. The rest followed.
Interesting, my first thought was similar but different.
Clothing.
Now I have to go poke around the Internet trying to understand the history of both, which came first, and speculate about which made a bigger impact on our species.
edit:
Yep, it was fire. By like a lot. Both have pretty big ranges, but fire seems to be in the hundreds of thousands of years ago range, and clothing seems to be in the dozens of thousands of years.
I wonder which one came first, clothing or hairless skin?
The time machine.
Screw the running water and antibiotics. I don’t need no machinery or amenities, give me cheese!
Computers are cool though
It’s pretty damn hard to pick just one thing, so my best-of list
There’s really basic foundational things like the wheel, cutting tools, fire (if we want to count it as an invention,) string/rope/cordage, writing, clothing, cooking, agriculture, metalworking, etc. the sort of things that are absolutely basic building blocks of civilization.
Moving a few milenia up, and in no particular order,
the Haber Process to synthesize ammonia, which allowed for the creation of synthetic fertilizers. If you’ve eaten any commercially grown food in the last century, you probably owe it to the Haber Process.
Antibiotics are another big one, as are vaccines.
Vaucason’s lathe arguably laid the foundation for a whole lot of fabrication techniques that led to the industrial revolution
Refrigeration
Steam engines and later internal combustion engines
Clocks
Compasses
Printing press
The telephone
Airplanes
Computers and the internet
Cameras
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Also it’s the one my parents talk about. They used to go out everyday and pluck food from the ground. Every day.
Fridge changed that overnight. Suddenly people had time to do other things (mostly chat with their friends in cafés)
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Agricolture.
It’s what brought us working together in the first place, shifting our habits from nomadic to sedentary and started the concept of civilization.When scarcity should have died, but shitters divided the people for power and wealth.
I was gonna say the plow. Agriculture means your tribe get to spend less time hunting and gathering, but the plow means your tribe get a chance to become an empire
In this case I’m taking the word “greatest” more as “biggest/most impactful” and not necessarily “most good” but also I’m no anarcho-primitivist, idk…
In this case I’m taking the word “greatest” more as “biggest/most impactful” and not necessarily “most good”
Yeah that’s what I meant, I agree with the topic of “it might be what started workers exploitation”, but what I’m talking about is “it’s an invention/discovery that was so powerful to shift the natural behaviour of a species”. We’re not even talking about antropology now, it’s an etological impact and there haven’t been many others in our history
I’m not sure about the greatest invention but the second greatest is sliced bread!
