Mine is the computer. I continue to be amazed at what we can do with them.
One I didn’t see yet: Radio.
Less than 150 years old, and has vitally changed how we communicate, and has downstream effects on every other human activity.
Kind of magical having streams of information travelling all around us.
Yep, I was talking to my grandpa about what invention his parents thought was the most significant in their lifetime, and they had said the radio. They had lived through both world wars which had brought about many many inventions and that was the one they thought was most significant.
Up to that time news was incredibly slow and you couldn’t put what was going on on the other side of the country without a massive delay, let alone the world.
My dick.
I discovered it when I was twenty-one and it’s been my favourite thing since.
Late bloomer? I think most people figured it out around puberty
Did you have an innie before 21 or was it detachable and you finally found it?
You’re looking at it.
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Displays?
Font kerning?
Spray cheese
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
Didn’t see it in the thread, but aqueduct are pretty fire. They allowed empires to grow large and far away from a source of drinking water. Also improved sanitation allowing people to live longer and healthier.
Fire
Air conditioning
For people that really really need air conditioning, it’s an amazing thing
The vast majority of people who have it don’t need it. Especially in, ahem, that one country
It’s horrendously wasteful
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Bread.
I love bread.
But did you hear about SLICED bread!??
Yes and i hate it
Irrigation. But Iron Working and Celestial Navigation are good shouts too.
Copper. Because without copper, most of the named things wouldn’t be possible to create!
But was copper an invention
No, but Copper was a discovery.
The Tamagotchi - for obvious reasons.
The ability to shape steel. Sounds basic but blacksmiths make the tools for everything else.
The breeding of semi-dwarf, disease-resistant wheat, Sonora 63, Sonora 64, Lerma Rojo 64, Mayo 64 and Norlin 10.
BILLIONS of lives were saved in Mexico, India & Pakistan.
[ Norman Borlaug
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.
Written language. It lets us speak to people across time.
