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The Greatest "Invention" of All Time

MitchyDMitchyD
edited December 2007 in Everything Else
What do you think it is? Sky's the limit.

I'm going with language. It's an incredible feat to have accomplished, and its immense diversity has taken us so far. Without it, many inventions would have been impossible to create.
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Comments

  • SailSail
    Fire. Whether this is actually an invention is debatable, but the harnessing of fire is definitely the most important human achievement.
  • VigaViga
    edited December 2007
    Fire. Whether this is actually an invention is debatable, but the harnessing of fire is definitely the most important human achievement.
    Agreed. You stole my answer.

    I think electricity. It might be in the same vein as fire though. If we never had electricity we wouldn't advance to where we are now at all.
    Post edited by Viga on
  • StarfoxStarfox
    Joe knew the guy who invented fire. He was telling me about it, he said the guy was kind of a jerk. Wouldn't share it with anybody for like a million years.

    As for greatest invention though, probably the segway. Yeah, definitely segway.
  • MagL33ToMagL33To
    The Internet...
  • AprecheApreche
    plumbing
  • RymRym
    Literacy.
  • thaneofcawdorthaneofcawdor
    Borlaug's dwarf wheat strains.

    /thread
  • KieyKiey
    Printing Press
  • HMTKSteveHMTKSteve
    Sex, without that none of us would be here.
  • NeitoNeito
    Language, so that we can talk to each other, and weapons, so we can kill each other when we say things the other doesn't like.
  • JasonJason
    Pointed stick for hunting/killing.
  • spiritfiendspiritfiend
    edited December 2007
    Written language. Without the ability to store information beyond the memory of individuals, any type of advance becomes difficult.
    Post edited by spiritfiend on
  • ......
    FEET! Beats those stinky paws animals have.
  • OmnutiaOmnutia
    edited December 2007
    My favorite is paper. Though I think the greatest invention was either Physics (as in the very original creation of them) or the opposable thumb from which all other major inventions have come.
    FEET! Beats those stinky paws animals have.
    If you could scratch your ass while typing you wouldn't miss feet that much.
    Post edited by Omnutia on
  • ......
    If you could scratch your ass while typing you wouldn't miss feet that much.
    o.o...

    *changes vote to opposable thumb* Sticking with evolution's inventions is best. For with those opposable thumbs, along with our other fingers, we invent! Then... what about the brain? *starts thinking, gears are put to work and an orchestra of scratching rust emits from his ears*
  • spiritfiendspiritfiend
    I'm not sure I would consider natural phenomena like body parts or sex as *inventions*.
  • ......
    I'm not sure I would consider natural phenomena like body parts or sex as *inventions*.
    Silence heretic! Without evolution experimenting and inventing new ways to do thing x to survive we wouldn't have opposable thumbs.
  • AprecheApreche
    I'm not sure I would consider natural phenomena like body parts or sex as *inventions*.
    Silence heretic! Without evolution experimenting and inventing new ways to do thing x to survive we wouldn't have opposable thumbs.
    I agree that only things created by human ingenuity really count. The thumbs and brains made us, we didn't make them. If you want to say evolution, then say that Darwin's Theory of Evolution is a great invention.
  • ......
    edited December 2007
    I agree that only things created by human ingenuity really count. The thumbs and brains made us, we didn't make them. If you want to say evolution, then say that Darwin's Theory of Evolution is a great invention.
    But that's just a realization. Darwin didn't invent evolution, he just realized and philosophized how it worked. It existed long before Darwin did. But I see where you two are coming from. Though the same goes for language. It naturally evolved from "EEK" and "OOK!" to "FUCK" and "YOU!". It's just a highly sophisticated form of natural communication.

    Anyways, real human inventions. Printing Press and electricity are good, but if we say that Darwin's theory is just a realization, same goes for electricity. It has existed always, we just managed to control some forms of it. Stuff like the printing press are imo true human inventions. I mean, the idea was there, how to make copying books faster? And then the machine had to be designed, made, tested and man hoped it worked. A hammer in that regard is an invention, but making scratches in stones to record things is just a realization. By these terms I will go for the root of a lot of inventions, the invention that made it possible to create a ton of other inventions. I just don't know which that is.
    Post edited by ... on
  • RailithRailith
    Agriculture.
  • HungryJoeHungryJoe
    This thing.
  • AprecheApreche
    Rope
  • HungryJoeHungryJoe
    edited December 2007
    Pizza.

    Wait, that might count as a discovery of a universal truth and beauty more than an invention.
    Post edited by HungryJoe on
  • AprecheApreche
    Steel
  • AndrewAndrew
    The concept of zero.
  • HungryJoeHungryJoe
    Do we invent mathematics or do we discover it?
  • Li_AkahiLi_Akahi
    edited December 2007
    I'm going to have to go with the internet or computers.
    Post edited by Li_Akahi on
  • AprecheApreche
    The container (box, bowl, cup, bag, etc.).
  • AprecheApreche
    The torch. It did the same thing for fire that the Walkman did for music.
  • HungryJoeHungryJoe
    Joe knew the guy who invented fire. He was telling me about it, he said the guy was kind of a jerk.
    Someone would say, "Hey Trevor (yeah, his name was Trevor), I can't get my fire to light." He would answer, "Hummf. You're not doing it right. You're too stupid for fire."
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