Invention that had the biggest impact on history?

The SPrinkLer

Banned deucer.
I'm not sure if a thread like this has been made, but I though I'd post. I was in social studies today, and the daily warmup's question was the thread of the title.

My answer was the lightbulb, because it was the first invention to harness electricity. It would lead to many other electricity-using devices, so that's why I think it had the biggest impact.

Share your thoughts?
 
Im gonna go with the ability to harness fire on this one, because I have read in a book somewhere that cooked meats actually made humans more intelligent
 
This is pretty much an impossible question to answer due to the cumulative nature of knowledge. The most obvious "foundational" answer would be prehistoric stone tools, without which nothing else would be possible. It also becomes even more confusing when you attempt to disambiguate the question itself. What constitutes an invention? Do evolutionary adaptations count? Would language be considered an invention? It certainly strikes me as the most important trait that human beings possess, as it literally defines us and delineates the scope of our existence.
 
Sure, language counts. Pana asked me that on IRC. Anything that has been thought of and made counts as an invention, so languages count. I'm not sure about evolutionary adaptions, though. Fire is a great invention, and it had a huge impact. Fire enables survival with warmth. Without it, many people would have been very cold in the 1800s in their log cabins, as well as other times earlier.
 
Luduan has it all right.

On a more modern note, I say the AC electrical current was the best invention. Edison couldn't deal with Tesla's awesomeness and turned down the opportunity to use the AC current because of his ego. Now instead of random power fluctuations we have steady power across the globe. And because of that, the modern era was born.

I have to say Nikola Tesla may have been the greatest inventor of all time. Tesla coils, wireless electricity (never use a power cord again!), radio, the AC current, and so much more was done by this eccentric genius. I remember a story about a NASA scientist doing "revolutionary" work in some power cells but then discovered that Tesla had done the same thing but better 60 years before. But Tesla was just way too weird.
 
eastamazonantidote said:
Luduan has it all right.

On a more modern note, I say the AC electrical current was the best invention. Edison couldn't deal with Tesla's awesomeness and turned down the opportunity to use the AC current because of his ego. Now instead of random power fluctuations we have steady power across the globe. And because of that, the modern era was born.

I have to say Nikola Tesla may have been the greatest inventor of all time. Tesla coils, wireless electricity (never use a power cord again!), radio, the AC current, and so much more was done by this eccentric genius. I remember a story about a NASA scientist doing "revolutionary" work in some power cells but then discovered that Tesla had done the same thing but better 60 years before. But Tesla was just way too weird.
Click to expand...

Didn't he make some sort of death ray?

Anyways, personally I'd have to say the invention of nuclear power and the nuclear bomb has influenced the world since its birth. A whole war brought to halt in two strikes (although the longevity of the war without the bombs can be debated). Furthermore, created more than 50 years of tension and the fear of thermonuclear war and the destruction of mankind. Now we're facing a huge energy crisis which I think nuclear energy should be utilized to its full potential.
 
after thinking for all of 10 minutes ill have to go with sex. Sexual reproduction has allowed much greater genetic variation in species. It allows a species to adapt more quickly (in 1-2 generations) to a changing eviornment.

If you want HUMAN inventions then well... indoor plumbing, it's flooding in one part of the empire and theres drought in the other? no problem pipe the water from the flooded area to the dry area and solve two problems at once!
It also means that various groups can have a reliable water supply rather than whaterver the sky brings down.
 
^Definitely agree with the sex. Nature's ingenious way to make sure we reproduce as well as evolve.

As for human invention, I'd say agriculture. Talk about lifestyle revolution, but it brought forth the workweek and consistent toil. Hunter-gatherer lifestyles have so much more freedom.
 
The main ones for ancient civilisation would be: Agriculture/farming, language (especially writing), the wheel, and the lever.

In the modern world, it would be the diode/semiconductors, the motor/generator, medecine, and telecommunications/the internet.

Also, the light bulb was not the first device to use electricity; that would be the Leyden Jar, which was a type of electricity storage, or circuits, or the solenoid motor. All of these predated the light bulb by nearly 100 years, but Edison gets a lot of undeserved press in the USA because he was such a famous guy there in early american science.
 
Means of transport, cars planes ships etc., have had quite an impact, bringing us to new places and making the world a lot smaller. Since we can now get nearly anywhere from anywhere pretty quickly, it has brought a lot of cultures to each other. Nowadays we do have fancy methods of comunication, but before this all messages needed to be physically taken somewhere to be passed on.

A fairly negative life changing invention would be weapons, bombs, guns and the sort. It all makes war so much easier.
 
I don't think any one invention can be named as most important. However, something does spring to mind:

Cooking

This is more important than actually controlling fire IMHO. You can cook on a naturally started fire - and people did. (Early means of firelighting are actually rather difficult after all). Cooking allows us to get more nutrition from our food, meaning we need less food, or can eat things we otherwise couldn't. As was previously mentioned, eating cooked meats may well have contributed to human evolution of intelligence.
 
As far as technological inventions go, I'm going to have to go with the printing press here. The dispersion of knowledge is probably the most important thing I can think of. Before that, a select few could read and write due to how expensive and scarce literary work was.
 
The hand-held weapon, in any manifestation (rock, stick/spear, bow and arrow, blade, gun).
One could collectively call them "tools of violence."
Biggest impact on human history, with more being made everyday. :pirate:

Alternatively: currency.
 
What about the first working engine....? The printing press might have changed the nature of intelligence in the world, and everything electricity related might have improved life (as did indoor plumbing) and what we could invent, but engines changed the type of industry for the whole world forever!
 
Except for the fact that the "first working engine" was made by Heron of Alexandria in whatever BC. And the Greeks did absolutely nothing with it.

Which suggests another possibility, an invention that had a huge impact. This time it's an abstract concept.

Science

It's so simple it seems obvious. The idea that the way to learn about the world is by looking and doing. It seems so blatant, yet the ancient Greeks for example didn't have that attitude - they thought the way to understand the world was by thought alone. The Greeks never made use of the steam engine because mucking about with machines was not the done thing in their society.

I also agree with weapons and money both being very important.
 
The printing press. It's easily the single greatest contribution to our development as a society. Without it, more than half of the innovators that shaped our technological leaps would have never even come up with their ideas.
 
Invention ≠ Discovery

in⋅vent

  /ɪnˈvɛnt/ Show Spelled Pronunciation [in-vent] Show IPA –verb (used with object) 1. to originate or create as a product of one's own ingenuity, experimentation, or contrivance:



dis⋅cov⋅er

  /dɪˈskʌv
thinsp.png
ər/ Show Spelled Pronunciation [di-skuhv-er] Show IPA –verb (used with object) 1. to see, get knowledge of, learn of, find, or find out; gain sight or knowledge of (something previously unseen or unknown)

You can't invent sex or science. You can discover them however.


And I agree that this question is flawed and stupid. Who honestly cares what the greatest inventions of all time were. They are all useful.
 
cannot believe anyone has said this yet.

The internet. Honestly, look how rapidly the world has advanced in the last 25 years, let alone the last 10. Knowledge is being transferred at an unbelievable rate and the internet is why. Businesses are most efficient, average citizens (in developed countries at least) can interact through a cheap and easy way. Not too mention without it there would be no smogon
 
obviously the internet was not the best invention since things like 4chan exist.
 
The answer, is, quite easily, agriculture. Ask any historian, but the idea of agriculture made civilization possible. Take away any invention and civilization is possible. Take away agriculture and there cannot be civilization.
 
Matty, the question asks what had the biggest impact, not the best inventions. They could be loosely tied together, if you agree the thing that had the biggest impact (arguable) is your favorite (opinion). It's not a pointless questions. Also, I understand your point. An invention isn't something like sex, since you can't invent it (unless they come up with some sex bot...).
 
While I would normally say "Fire good," its already been stated, so I'm gonna go with something not many people would think of.

The Phoenician Alphabet. Hello modern language.

Now, realizing that the Phoenician Alphabet only affects the Western Hemisphere and Europe, due to non-Phoenecian characters, my second choice would also be a little abstract.

Irrigation Canals.
 
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