What has led to today? We have computers, air planes, cars, plentiful sources, etc. We have gone to space, have satellites in space, landed on the moon. What has gotten us this far? What is it? Knowledge? Wisdom? Where did it come from? I want to hear what some people think about this subject.

when considering how little i, personally, contribute to the progress, i find it difficult to believe that it has all been built one man-hour at a time.

i find it difficult to believe that there are human minds out there that actually understand and can use machine code in order to program computers on their most basic level.

i drive the interstate freeways for a living and i often wonder about the time, effort, and logistics involved with creating them.

i would like to answer your question, but i have none. the whole lot of it seems like Pure F*****g Magic to me.

Writing has got us this far.

Before we wrote things down, stories and knowledge were passed down word to mouth.

Once we began writing things down though we began to accumulate knowledge, libraries were built and what was learned by one generation was easily accessed by the next.

Writing down the things we have learned has got us this far, I look forward to seeing where it will take us.

Originally posted by Trams

mrwupy, thats very true, and writing has played a major role. But I think, that if it wasn't for imagination, we could never have gotten this far. Imagination is the grandfather of invention. Everyone has imagination. Even 3 year old boys/girls have it. And sometimes, its the children that bring up the brightest ideas.

You can imagine all you want, you can be as curious as you want, but if the imagination and the curiosity are not written down then the time spent with them may as well have been spent picking your nose.

We got here thru the accumulation of knowledge, and we accumulated that knowledge by writing it down and passing it on.

The accumulation of knowledge is what got us to this point, and the only way knowledge can be accumulated is thru the written word.

This is just my opinion though.

MrWupy: I am sorry, but I do disagree. There was a time when information was passed down traditionally through lore and/or music. However, on the other hand, information wasn't distributed amongst the masses until the written word, and not for some time after, as the masses didn't learn to read for quite some time, that priviledge was reserved for the wealthier citizens. Also, consider imagery. Cave drawings and such. Not written, but information passed nonetheless.

Besides, without curiosity, we wouldn't have had anything to write, right? Besides predating the written language, curiosity is the cause of learning, though it can also be the result.

Sorry, but my vote still goes to curiosity.

(Edit for clarification)

[edit on 16-5-2008 by Annoyed]