What is the greatest invention ever?

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adawgj said:
As a bookworm and sci fi fan The Space Shuttle
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I have to disagree with you there. The space shuttle was a hilarious waste of time and effort. It didn’t accomplish the goal it was built for (a reusable spacecraft in the sense that an airplane is reusable. With the shuttle, you pretty much had to inspect and or replace each component before you could put it back up.) and it took a revolutionary rather than evolutionary approach to space travel which pretty much shutdown American space flight from 75 to 81. I’ll be honest at least the space program got back some sense of mission between 81 and the challenger disaster, but it was and is a joke compared to what the program was before it abandoned functional vehicles in favor of chasing butterflies. To make matters worse we have just made the same mistake all over again. History doesn’t repeat, but it sure does rhyme.
 
anixx said:
Yeah, the Protestant faith. We were all fine, until that came into existence. Not to mention a great deal of other anti-catholic ideas.

My favorite invention is the automobile. I really like to drive. :cool:
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I think you are still fine…😉
Beryllos said:
The Thermos.

It keeps hot things hot. 👍

It keeps cold things cold. 👍

:confused:

How does it know? 🤷
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:rotfl:

For me, the fluffernutter sandwich. 😃
 
GEddie said:
But it was given up :mad::mad::mad:

The internal combustion engine. It allows generation of electric power AND freedom of movement.

ICXC NIKA
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Yes I know :mad:

It seems that manned space missions are no longer cool or gain a lot of media attention anymore.
 
George_Stegmeir said:
It is generally believed by both historians, anthropologists and scientists in general, that the greatest of all mankind’s inventions is the wheel. Without it, no other machines could exist.
Language cannot be considered an invention, but is a part of the evolutionary process of mankind. It ranks right after mankind’s discovery of G*d.
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What man does with his mind is to create things that did not exist before. While language was natural to man, rather than invented, I do believe it fair to say that man used his mind to invent methods of communicationg vastly superior to grunts and yells. Just as he invented the wheel to move things along faster and easier than he had been moving them with his arms and legs alone. Just as he invented paint to produce colorful images on a canvass that would not have existed without his creative urge to be an artist, which man also is by his own nature.
 
George_Stegmeir said:
It is generally believed by both historians, anthropologists and scientists in general, that the greatest of all mankind’s inventions is the wheel. Without it, no other machines could exist.
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There are no machines without wheels? :confused:
 
Charlemagne_III said:
O.K. history buffs, what is your choice for the greatest invention ever by an unknown person or group?

Justify your choice.

Thank you! 🙂
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I pick the first, " easy " method of making fire. " Fire making, fire lighting or fire craft is the process of starting a fire artificially. Fire was an essential tool in early human cultural development.[1]

The control of fire by early humans is said to date back to either Homo erectus or very early Homo sapiens: that is, 400-200 thousand years ago, based on archaeological evidence of hearths.[2] Smouldering plants and trees, or any source of hot coals from natural fires, may have been the first resources exploited by humans to control fire. Friction is the most commonly used primitive method for making fire. Ancient techniques for starting friction fires include the hand drill, the bow drill, the fire plow and the pump drill. The flint and steel method, where hot sparks are struck from a piece of steel or iron onto suitable tinder and fanned into flames, was also used by primitive cultures. These methods have been known since the Paleolithic age, and are still in common use by some indigenous peoples. "

Linus2nd
 
Charlemagne_III said:
I am wondering what could have been more important, and more primitive, than the invention of language. Perhaps signs first, then the spoken word, and finally the alphabet. The discovery of how to make fire may have preceded language (which means it was not really an invention but a discovery), but the invention of language must have precipitated huge advances in communicating the different ways fire could be used. Likewise the early tools and weapons possibly were invented when one of the first persons ever said to someone else, “How can I build a shelter?” or “How can I better kill my neighbor?” Language likewise might have preceded settled laws and religion, even though the impulse to law and religion may have preceded language.

There would be no math, science, literature or technology without first the advent of language.

Without language as we know it, life today would be as Hobbes said it could be … “nasty, brutish, and short.”

But even with language, it could still be (and still is in some barely literate societies) … nasty, brutish, and short."
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I don’t know that language is an invention per se; from the design of our brain and breathing system, it seems to be built into our human bodies. Tradeoffs in our anatomy such as the descended larynx and the 90[sup]O[/sup] angle-bend in our throat, directly facilitate it.

Sure, it has to be learnt, but so does walking.

ICXC NIKA
 
The practical application of electricity. Without it we’d be living in a pre-industrial age.
 
Indoor plumbing/sewage systems. Clean water and removal of waste has to be in the top 5 for extending and improving human life. A number of illnesses are nearly unheard of here due to indoor plumbing.
 
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