The Greatest Invention Ever!

The stick. Used to fuel the fire, used to hold your food over the fire, used as an axle to the wheel,and a weapon against your enemies. all hail the mighty stick.

reply to post by tyranny22


the greatest invention is languages, and the truisms within them.
communications is what i think the greatest invention was.

secondly, a tie between: opposable thumbs and science fiction

third greatest invention .... ATS maybe?

I would like to throw in my 2 cents.

Hygiene

Without this, life would suck for everyone.

The bicycle. Self propelled transport requiring nothing more than a pair of legs. I know the bicycle requires wheels, but on that logic the wheel requires tools, and manufacturing those tools requires language etc etc. So for one invention apart from it's components, I'd say the bicycle.

Sendran.

I would recommend the condom. I think they're great and ought to be used on every conceivable occassion.

reply to post by Catesby


Shouldn't that be "inconceivable"?!!

Sendran.

Actually I changed my mind. The best invention ever is the Integral Fast Reactor.

I think you have to make a distinction between a discovery and an invention.

A discovery is just understanding (and explaining) something that is naturally occurring, like electricity, mathematics, chemistry, language,etc.

Real inventions are items which do not occur naturally.

My vote for really ancient invention, obviously, is the wheel.
Ancient invention = oil wick. It allowed us maintain a fire without timber, wood, plant matter.
Modern invention = transistor. Without it, you wouldn't have any modern electronics.

reply to post by WickettheRabbit


You're exactly right about inventions vs discoveries. That's why I tried to specify that the invention must be man made. I almost want to discard the wheel from the discussion because if you slice 5 inches off a fallen tree you have a crude wheel. It's in between a discovery and an invention, in my book.

Both of your choices are are great inventions. The transistor. It makes modern technology possible. Certainly we'd be still be reading the daily newspaper for information if it had not been invented.

The oil wick is a good choice too. I guess I went with the modern lighter because of it's ease to use. Fire making utensils existed hundreds of thousands of year. It's really not THAT complicated to make fire, even with a bow and a stick. It may be time consuming, but the lamest of persons can master such an act. But, fire making took a whole new direction when the lighter was invented. Something that man labored over nearly every day for thousands and thousands of years was readily available with just the flick of a finger.

Toilet Paper!!!

Without a doubt the best invention ever.

MOTF!

yes, the toilet too.

i don't know what i'd do without john.

I,ll go with a very simple answer...the greatest invention, is something often taken for granted..
GLASSES....then, as you all know, the contact lens.

Originally posted by semperfortis
reply to post by Romantic_Rebel

 

Without the wheel, we would most likely have remained in small family groups. Limiting our exposure to other cultures. This would have made us more paranoid and probably led to many more wars.

There is not doubt that without the wheel, our progression would have been severely retarded.

Pre-Columbian America did all right without the wheel, either for transporting goods or in tandem with draft animals.Though the wheel was known to them , it would seem its use was limited to `toys` or a least miniature figurines with wheels for feet.


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It would seem that many peoples suggestions for worlds greatest invention , are actually amalgamations of other great inventions .i.e accumulative technologies .

Some interesting thoughts on this subject .....

Matt Ridley : When ideas have sex

We've gone beyond the capacity of the human mind to an extraordinary degree. And by the way, that's one of the reasons that I'm not interested in the debate about I.Q., about whether some groups have higher I.Q.s that other groups. It's completely irrelevant. What's relevant to a society is how well people are communicating their ideas, and how well they're cooperating, not how clever their individuals are.
So we've created something called the collective brain. We're just the nodes in the network. We're the neurons in this brain. It's the interchange of ideas, the meeting and mating of ideas between them, that is causing technological progress, incrementally, bit by bit.

TED Talks Interactive Transcript
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Greatest Invention ........ if you could call it that .

Agriculture

Ancient - the drum.

Modern - the guitar.

the best invention to date I think its the internet

it doesnt matter if internet needed the wheel and other things before, whats the greatest ever? the internet is an exceptional concept ... its just amazing what the thing have become and will become

it doesnt make sense to say, well, the wheel, because without it we would be nothing, or whatever ... lets be realistic, if we start doing that, we will never end ...

Well i have couple i would like ass as my favourites..

Chocolate - 300-1000 AD

Latex Condom - 1930 hehe well kinda helpfull in so many ways!!

I would say the greatest ever of al time is DNA!! - some may consider it a discovery not an invention but i would beg to differ.

reply to post by Faiol


I can't argue that the internet isn't a great invention. It's probably going to go down as the greatest information tool in the history of mankind. It's hard to top that.

However, without the modern computer it doesn't exist. Without harnessed electricity, the modern computer doesn't exist. When I think of the greatest invention ever, to me it has to be something essential. The internet is maybe the greatest convenience ever. But, I could live without it.

Society could probably live without soap as well. Probably not nearly as long as they could live if they'd had something to disinfect botulism and Salmonella.

We've had some great inventions posted thus far. It's hard to argue which would be the greatest, because that's a matter of opinion and subject to the value to that person. The internet truly has to be at the top of the list. But, I've still yet to hear a convincing enough post to sway my original lighter.

Thanks for the thoughts everyone!

pullys, what would this world be with out them. you would not have your buildings we have today with out pullys and gears. GREAT invention!

I will go with electricity. Almost everything need it

Originally posted by 547000
Mathematics. Without it we wouldn't be where we are today.

Tom Lehrer irrefutably proves this argument to the be the correct answer to the OP ,