What Is The Single GREATEST Invention of ALL TIME?

originally posted by: soulpowertothendegree

originally posted by: Skid Mark
a reply to: soulpowertothendegree

I'd have to say musical instruments and recording equipment. Life would be so dull without it.
Toilet paper would be another. It makes life easier. Soap would be another.

Musical instruments, good one, but even they need other inventions to be made. Already shot down toilet paper. Soap needs other elements, like a mold and a vat and fragrance (sometimes), many different types of soap.

Incorrect. To make soap all you need is potash and lard. And fire, and a couple of large skulls to do the mixing in. Potash... or simply ash. Walk into a burned forest, get some ash. walk over to your latest mammoth kill and create the lard. Apply fire and some water...so on and so forth. Soap is as basic an invention as there is.

ETA: How to make soap from ashes

originally posted by: butcherguy
a reply to: soulpowertothendegree

Fire.
It kept the ancestors of many inventors from freezing to death and from being eaten by wild animals.

Wasn't fire a discovery (my apologies if this has already been asked -- still on page 1 of the thread)?

a reply to: thesaneone

So far the suggestions have been awesome and all I have done is try to point out reasons. It is called critical thinking. I realize this exercise is futile and so far my suspicions have been validated. The GREATEST invention of all time, in my opinion is.....nah, to easy.

I just wanted people to think about it and come up with ideas, so focus on the question....try again, maybe you will answer the riddle someday...I told you and everyone else, if the answer was provided I would say so.

So far, nobody has provided it, in my opinion.

originally posted by: olaru12

originally posted by: soulpowertothendegree
a reply to: bananashooter

I prefer cotton. I take strips of cotton rags and reuse them, they go in a closed container and into the hot water with hydrogen peroxide and baking soda, washed, dried and reused.

You call that environmentally friendly? Putting baking soda, hydrogen peroxide, soap, and **** back in to the environment and water table, plus the use of fossile fuels to wash and dry.... When a simple wipe and flush make more sense.

Sorry amigo....I'm calling BS.

Lol. You can call it what you will. Baking soda and hydrogen peroxide are natural and do not pollute the water table. Nowhere did I say soap. What exactly do you think fertilizer is though? Oil and gas pollute the water table, did you drive a car today? Toilet paper was your choice.

a reply to: soulpowertothendegree

What a cop out.

a reply to: bigfatfurrytexan

Not to make a mountain out a potash molehill, but modern day soap is not made that way, and sure somewhere in the mountains of Brazil I bet they use some form of this process to make a soap, but is it really the Greatest invention of all time?

a reply to: Aldakoopa

It is a riddle and so far it has gone over very well, nobody has figured it out yet. I agree with you the carburetor is very fascinating, the engine would be really loud without the muffler though. The question is so simple and the answer to the riddle is so simple, keep thinking...

a reply to: bananashooter

The cop out is that people think they can just throw any old invention out there and in their opinion have it be the greatest. Without any debate, there is one invention nobody has said that supersedes all of them...try to figure it out...don't give up yet, somewhere out there, somebody else has the answer...

a reply to: soulpowertothendegree

im going to quote the article for context, to help answer your question:

Now, soap making in the woods can be an almost automatic thing. Anyone who's done much camping knows that — if you throw some white ashes from a hardwood fire into your frying pan after dinner — the lye in the ash will combine with the fat from the cooking to make a crude soap. This works fine for rough-washing tin plates and hunting knives, but there are times when even the most ornery outdoorsman needs bar soap.

This is as if I had written it myself, honestly.

Now just think: you are in the wilderness. There is no such thing as "civilization". And certainly no such thing as "medical science". Are you really going to tell me soap would not be crucial to your survival, and your general happiness? Or is filth generally considered the trait of modern man? Is that how you stay healthy? And how you attract a mate?

Yes, modern folks prefer soap that isn't made with lye. Thank modern science for that. But you have put a hurdle on your little query that precludes mention of anything beyond the most basic of sciences. Your complaint about soap is that it requires industry to produce. I point out that it doesn't. And now assert that it is part and parcel to not dying from disease. Enough so that when I am camping, i have been known to use ash (and a bit of sand) to keep my cooking and eating utensils clean. Its a lot better than food poisoning out in the middle of nowhere.

The wheel

Wheel... Whew

a reply to: Hidinout

I guess we both were awake in history class

a reply to: soulpowertothendegree

Okay, riddle solved...it is the ATOM. Without it nothing exist...no invention can happen without it. As to who the inventor of the ATOM is that is another mystery for another day.

An atom is the smallest constituent unit of ordinary matter that has the properties of a chemical element.[1] Every solid, liquid, gas, and plasma is made up of neutral or ionized atoms. Atoms are very small; typical sizes are around 100 pm (a ten-billionth of a meter, in the short scale).[2] However, atoms do not have well defined boundaries, and there are different ways to define their size which give different but close values.

Language,,,,,
Without that the rest would not have happened.

a reply to: soulpowertothendegree

Um. Oooookey.

Not a really a invention, but whatever you say soulpower, you seem to be declaring yourself as the leading authority of all logical thought and knowledge and everyone else is wrong, so I am not going to argue with you.

Buh-bye, have a nice day.

a reply to: soulpowertothendegree

The snooze button on alarm clocks.

originally posted by: soulpowertothendegree
a reply to: Aldakoopa

It is a riddle and so far it has gone over very well, nobody has figured it out yet. I agree with you the carburetor is very fascinating, the engine would be really loud without the muffler though. The question is so simple and the answer to the riddle is so simple, keep thinking...

I didn't realize we were trying to solve a riddle... ?

The concept of time?

The stone axe?

I think it's funny you are asking everyone what their opinion of the greatest invention in the world is and then you systematically shoot them down.

Just because toilet paper, beer, printing press, etc. needed earlier inventions before they came doesn't mean the earlier inventions were more important.

At this point you are really just asking what the first invention is. I agree with the rock missile.

originally posted by: soulpowertothendegree
a reply to: soulpowertothendegree

Okay, riddle solved...it is the ATOM. Without it nothing exist...no invention can happen without it. As to who the inventor of the ATOM is that is another mystery for another day.

An atom is the smallest constituent unit of ordinary matter that has the properties of a chemical element.[1] Every solid, liquid, gas, and plasma is made up of neutral or ionized atoms. Atoms are very small; typical sizes are around 100 pm (a ten-billionth of a meter, in the short scale).[2] However, atoms do not have well defined boundaries, and there are different ways to define their size which give different but close values.

Nah, I still go with ink/ colours. Without cultivation of imagination there wouldn't be an atom after all and we would probably still use pointed sticks to fight over stupid theories. And everything else of course...

Your rules, sorry.