Mine is the computer. I continue to be amazed at what we can do with them.
Soap
I’m always blown away by how discoveries like antibiotics changed our lives. And writing too. Mind blowing that we can record, discern, and communicate so much information from marks on a surface
Cordage/string. Way more useful than fire and arguably predates it.
Printing Press
Anesthetics. Yeah, vaccines are cool, but given the choice of a world without vaccines and a world without anesthetic I’m ditching vaccines every time.
Removed by mod
Antibiotics. Turned so many lethal wounds into minor cuts.
Glasses. The ability to see so much better than I otherwise could leaves me astonished every time I put them on.
I wouldn’t have survived childhood without glasses in a pre-modern era.
Same. I would be a ditch digger or something if I had survived.
Lenses also gave us telescopes and microscopes. Pretty amazing discovery.
Technically I would say the harnessing and utilization of fire. It arguably changed our evolution requiring less energy to digest food.
Upvoted (and came to say the same)!
The interesting thing about fire is that it is way back in human history, like, AFAIU, before our hominid species even evolved. So it’s likely intertwined with very biological being.
Another similar invention is likely language. Once the evolutionary pieces were there to get language to the ability of syntax, whoever were the people that riffed on communicating with sounds to the point of making up words and making sentences etc, they invented some ridiculously awesome shit. Like there was probably the first sharing between people of a pun, joke, or first abstraction or conceptual musing. The first argument where one person was more convincing. The first person who was naturally good at speaking and impressed others with it.
Probably the steam engine as far as actual innovation and all but my answer is air conditioning
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.
Either fire or the wheel. Not sure which I would place higher. But both really are the two greatest inventions/discoveries. Without either you basically don’t have future discoveries or inventions.
fire makes sense given many evolutionary biologists think cooked food influenced the ability of early hominids to evolve complex reasoning and symbolic logic, simply because proteins partially digested by fire make more nutrients available for brain growth
this theory is beginning to be contested, however: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4842772/
I believe argiculture and trade were massive parts of history
At first I thought you were talking g about dating lmao
Hmm I definitely agree that computers, and especially smartphones, are pretty damn amazing inventions.
But I agree with another poster when it comes to the greatest invention. When we invented the printing press, it allowed our species to develop much quicker because we were able to share information/education much better.
Bread.
I love bread.
But did you hear about SLICED bread!??
Yes and i hate it
