Top ten greatest invention of mankind.

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15 Oct 2011, 8:39 am

I've made a top-ten list of mankind's greatest inventions and discoveries in my opinion (they're not in any particular order).

1-Agriculture
2-Fire
3-Wheel
4-Scientific method
5-Printing Press
6-Gunpowder
7-Human rights
8-Penicilin
9-Democracy
10-Nuclear Fission

If you have any other then add comments.

Rocker_C
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15 Oct 2011, 8:56 am

I would say nuclear fusion is going to become one of this centuries greatest achievements. They've already started to make fusion plant projects.

Next. I would say the bicycle was a great invention, without that, those German engineers wouldn't have had a clue on how to build the car. And without the native tribe who gave the idea of the fire piston, diesel himself wouldn't have invented the diesel engine.

I agree with the rest pretty much, but penicillin wouldn't be on my greatest list. Native Americans found plants etc as medicines to cure bacterial infections long before white man did. (I'm a white man. lol)

Maybe music is powerful too? and Prayer.

Chris

ruveyn
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15 Oct 2011, 9:32 am

sErgEantaEgis wrote:

Items 4, 7, 9 are abstract concepts or doctrines, not particular inventions. I would rank them among the great -ideas- of Mankind but not among the inventions of Mankind.

ruveyn

sErgEantaEgis
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15 Oct 2011, 9:36 am

ruveyn wrote:

sErgEantaEgis wrote:

Items 4, 7, 9 are abstract concepts or doctrines, not particular inventions. I would rank them among the great -ideas- of Mankind but not among the inventions of Mankind.

ruveyn

I still put them as discoveries and inventions though.

To7m
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15 Oct 2011, 10:56 am

That's evident in the top post... what about computers?

ruveyn
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15 Oct 2011, 11:09 am

To7m wrote:

That's evident in the top post... what about computers?

The basic invention is electromagnetism or electromagnets. One can construct computers from electro magnets. That would put the Morse telegraph and computers on the same footing.

The electromagnet permits the near instantaneous transmission of data AND its recording. So it is a short leap from the Morse telegraph to the ticker tape and similar such devices. Once one has a ticker tape ( or punched card) one has the makings of a computer.

In a sense, the electromechanical punched card reader/writers were the first electrical computers. Circa 1890.

ruveyn

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15 Oct 2011, 12:09 pm

What about the motor car and the internet? The motor car completely transformed transport and how got from one place to another and the internet transformed communication.

MDM
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15 Oct 2011, 1:04 pm

I have a hard time saying humans invented fire.

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15 Oct 2011, 1:59 pm

MDM wrote:

I have a hard time saying humans invented fire.

Controlled fire on demand is an invention.

ruveyn

IDontGetIt
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15 Oct 2011, 2:02 pm

MDM wrote:

I have a hard time saying humans invented fire.

We did figure out how to start it at will though, which was a pretty big deal at the time.

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15 Oct 2011, 2:25 pm

ruveyn wrote:

MDM wrote:

I have a hard time saying humans invented fire.

Controlled fire on demand is an invention.

ruveyn

Although it was a pre-Homo Sapiens invention, maybe that's what he was alluding to. I personally would still say that controlled fire was a human invention (since humans are technically an entire genus of primates rather than just a single species). However, it was invented by an earlier variety of humans rather than modern humans.

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15 Oct 2011, 2:37 pm

ruveyn wrote:

sErgEantaEgis wrote:

Items 4, 7, 9 are abstract concepts or doctrines, not particular inventions. I would rank them among the great -ideas- of Mankind but not among the inventions of Mankind.

ruveyn

I agree with Ruveyn that ideas should be taken out and replaced with physical things. For the 3 ideas removed I would add in:

the spear

the lever

the bowl

Why these and not computers? Because I think it's important to acknowledge the primary inventions which made secondary inventions possible. For instance I would put the clay writing tablet in place of the printing press because it made it possible for humans to save writing which would be even more transformative than the ability to make many copies of the saved writing.

Edited to add:

clothes

how could I forget clothes? I would take out nuclear fission and put in clothes. They let people inhabit cold climates and have an enduring effect on human interaction (try not wearing them on a hot day and see what happens).

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15 Oct 2011, 3:27 pm

ruveyn wrote:

In a sense, the electromechanical punched card reader/writers were the first electrical computers. Circa 1890.

No, they were more like the input/output devices only. In and of themselves, they computed nothing.
Some of Babbage's Difference Engines were built from 1855 onwards; one was even sold to the British Government. He had prototypes working in the 1820's.
He was working on the Analytical Engine until his death in 1871, and that device used punched cards based on those of Jacquard.

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MDM
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15 Oct 2011, 3:37 pm

I consider creating fire an ability, not an invention. If you are talking about a specific tool for creating fire then I would consider that an invention.

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15 Oct 2011, 3:40 pm

ruveyn wrote:

To7m wrote:

That's evident in the top post... what about computers?

The basic invention is electromagnetism or electromagnets. One can construct computers from electro magnets. That would put the Morse telegraph and computers on the same footing.

Computers can be constructed entirely mechanically, and the way they're normally constructed is from transistors on integrated circuits. Electromagnets are not fundamental to computers at all.

Some of the earliest computers were made from relays, which are electromagnetic switches, but that was before the invention of transistors and there was the alternative of vacuum tubes also.

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ruveyn
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15 Oct 2011, 3:59 pm

MDM wrote:

I consider creating fire an ability, not an invention. If you are talking about a specific tool for creating fire then I would consider that an invention.

Yes. Fire itself is a natural occurrence.

ruveyn

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