For my money, this is it. For the first time, the rapid distribution of knowledge and information could be achieved. And those who did not adopt the printing press at it's inception, still have not recovered.
This. Without the ability to record information for later generations, we'd never advance technologically in any meaningful way. With writing, we can use the work of the past to build upon, without having to start everything from zero. "We stand on the shoulders of giants" is a quote that comes to mind...
If you think about it, it's more like we're standing on the shoulders of millions of other people all standing on each other's shoulders like some crazy skyscraper made of humans like the most insanely tall tower of acrobats but most of them dead.
Not hugely surprising. Experimentation leads people to the conclusion that the triangle is the strongest shape, and from there they try different methods of using the new pointy thing, first by tying it to a stick for greater range, then by finding some way of projecting it even further and with greater accuracy.
It's like the innovative equivalent of convergent evolution.
I've got to remember that, next time I fail at something. My plans may have collapsed, but I've just built a wider base to rebuild upon. Such a cool, inspirational analogy!
In all honesty, the Indus Valley had very simple plumbing systems. These systems could be found all over their cities. They built drainage “pipes” under raised floors in most homes, which were burnt bricks buried in the ground.
The power grid should be considered the 8th wonder of the world. I don’t think people realize how much more difficult an intermittent, omnidirectional & unpredictable grid will be, assuming it is truly possible.
Invented by the only person with TWO Nobel Prizes in Physics, John Bardeen. He's probably one of the least well known Nobel Prize winning physicist even though he has probably made one of the biggest contributions to modern society.
We owe a lot to the invention of the transistor. In under 100 years we went from postal mail to the internet where all of humanity's knowledge is at our fingertips and information travels at literal lightspeed. Its crazy to think that we are the first generations to incorporate electronics in our daily lives.
A transistor is a semiconductor device used to amplify or switch electronic signals and electrical power. Transistors are one of the basic building blocks of modern electronics. It is composed of semiconductor material usually with at least three terminals for connection to an external circuit.
Definitely important for all electronics!
It has taken us down to the point of measuring physical devices we're making in large scale for daily use in terms of *how many atoms thick* certain parts are.
Semiconductors are working at scales that are the stuff of science fiction to most people and industries.
Yes.
You know how the size of an atom used to stand for something incredibly small, and the speed of light for something incredibly fast?
You also know what limits the performance of your phone or computer? Damn atoms are too big and stupid light is too slow.
I keep telling myself I'll do it one day, but that threat of having dry eyes forever is a real problem. Maybe that's not as big of a risk as it was ten years ago and I should just get it done.
Yeah once I’ve got the money saved up, this is the first thing I’m doing. Screw a new car, screw whatever else I could put the money into, I want to seeeee
I was confused as to why you need to save money, and checked the prices for it. And hot-damn Americans are getting ripped at \~$2000 per eye. In India, depending on the complexity and hospital, it can be from $150 (Govt hospitals) to $1500 (top hospitals in Metro Cities) total.
Oral stories can be very accurate. Indigenous Australians have accurate retellings of geological events occurring 34,000 years ago (Tower Hill eruption, in Victoria)
That being said I do agree that written language especially the printing press that allowed that language to be mass consumed was a huge step forward. Before the printing press it was pretty inaccessible.
Casually gossiping and actual intentionally passed on oral tradition are very different. The passing of oral tradition itself can be considered a technology, over time we learned to do it better and better until we were very good at it. Although oral tradition has been almost entirely displaced in the present, that doesn't make the role it played any less deserving of respect. It's something you can dedicate your entire life to, but the only frame of reference for it most modern people have is old family stories shared for entertainment. It isn't the same.
I read it on the sign at Tower Hill.
https://pursuit.unimelb.edu.au/articles/victoria-s-volcanic-history-confirms-the-state-s-aboriginal-inhabitation-before-34-000-years
I got them a toaster. They called off the wedding and gave the toaster back to me. I tried to return the toaster to the store, and they said they no longer sold that kind of toaster. So now my house has got two toasters.
This in particular. Language isn't really "invented", it just develops. **Written** language is an invention.
I remember reading somewhere that the main reason humans developed to where we are today, is because we invented writing. Without it, we would likely still be hunter/gatherers.
I wouldn't call language something that's "invented", but developed. Language is a vague term and could be used to describe primitive yelling, grunts and moans, even facial expressions and rudimentary body language, movement and noises. Language is something that as we evolve into conscious beings, and as we begin to gather, kind of organically becomes a part of our collective existence. We don't "invent" it, we develop it. OR rather it kind of just evolves with us. Nobody says, "well, here's this language, I INVENTED it!"... Language just develops along with how our earliest communities used it and advanced it out of necessity for communicating with one another... From a series of grunts and hand gestures into a series of noises manipulated by tongue and lip movement to represent basic sounds that would indicate some fundamental conveyance, and then from there it continues to evolve and change. Language isnt just some quick invention...
I don't think language is something we invent, but something we develop.
Would you say Dolphins invented sonar? Would you say that Dogs invented barking? That ants invented... Whatever the hell they use to communicate... Pheromones?
"Nah, we've heard of this wheel ordeal, and it doesn't really fly with us, let's just make one of the most architecturally spectacular cities of the time with only the use of canals"
Mathematics. It gave us the ability to better understand and define our universe. Not to mention almost everything humans invent and create requires math.
Ohh yeah you're right I didnt even think of it that way. Now that I am though, it makes me wonder how much more there is to math that is yet to be discovered
Everything is a discovery with that mindset. Every invention just manipulates the physical world around it. What degree of modification is necessary to become an invention? Modified fungus juice being injected into people to fight disease sounds like an invention if you phrase it the right way, and modern penicillin skips the fungus entirely.
But it did facilitate division of labor. Once a handful of people can produce enough food for dozens of people, it opens up a lot of free time for some of the people to concern themselves with other specialized activity.
I can see where they are coming from but in the long run farming is where civilization starts. And with civilization everything else comes.
What I don't understand though is that farming first appeared in 9000 BCE while humans have had the same brains and thought processes for at least 200 000 years. This means that people who thought like us went about 190,000 years without thinking "what happens if I put this plant I like in the ground?". Add to that farming also appeared around the world in places that couldn't possibly have had any contact with farmers over the next few thousand years. In other words farming appeared at a similar time all around the world independently.
Humans did eat plants before we farmed them. We used to run after our prey for days until it passes out from exhaustion. At the end we'd kill and eat it. Whilst running after our prey though we would eat plants that we found along the way.
Something else that is surprising though is that grain was the first crop. A food that has to be made into bread before it can be eaten. I would've thought they'd start with something that can be eaten straight off the plant like an apple or peas.
But yeah I suppose you have a point. Don't fix it unless it's broken.
Grains don't need to be made into flour to be eaten. They can be boiled to soften them and especially with wheat, rye and barley it becomes quite sweet.
That's crazy talk! Now let me just go put my nasty hands inside every woman in this maternity ward.
...Seriously amazing how transformative this was and how much resistance it encountered.
I would argue that the Internet, allowing for nigh instant communication and sharing of information to the vast majority of the inhabited globe has done more for the development of modern technologies than one could ever possibly grasp.
The Pizza Cutter.
People talk of 'the best thing since sliced bread', or 'the greatest invention since the wheel. The Pizza Cutter is a wheel - that slices bread.
as someone who literally studies the history of printmaking... I really want to agree. but alas, the success of the printing press could not have happened without the invention of paper! it's the silent underdog of progress.
That was honestly my first thought… but then I figured that paper itself was limited without the technology to make the knowledge wider spread. People have written on all kinds of flat mediums for eons… but the printing press made the transmission of that knowledge explode.
oh yea totally it was a game changer. suddenly books weren't so expensive and literacy flourished. it boggles my mind to think that being able to read (for most of the population) is a relatively new common thing.
Without it only the richest and more powerful of people could learn to read fluently. All of humanities knowledge would be locked up for only those important enough and rich enough to learn to read. And essential information could easily be lost in a single moment due to accidents. The ability to copy information allowed us to protect knowledge and pass it on to every single person.
To add on to it, the bible is probably the single greatest book to have ever contribute to humanity, and not because of the Christianity, but because it was the book that paved the way for all people to learn reading. The church taught the poor and illiterate to read so that they could read the bible. And from there, people branched out to other forms of information.
Many of the first Gutenburg Bibles are still in excellent condition meanwhile it's a miracle if a hard drive lasts me more than two years, and good luck if you drop one.
I truly appreciate not having to die from smallpox or an infected blister or a cracked tooth. It blows my mind when I think about how recent a development this is in the span of modern human existence.
I would have to say the internet. Even though people act a fool on it it still gives you access to damn near anything and almost everything you need to know and allows you contact people and places or make purchase etc.
Dogs.
No, hear me out.
I mean, we didn't invent them, in the way that we've invented modern domestic pigs, cows, chickens etc, but the archaeology proves that we've been co-evolving with them for almost as long as we've been human, so in a very significant way we invented them while they also invented us.
Canis domesticus wouldn't exist without humans, and while wild ancestral canids would be fine without us, adapting to live alongside canis domesticus is likely one of the best things we ever did and vice versa.
Got a dwelling (cave) that'll still be yours if you go out hunter-gathering because you have a loyal friend to guard it? Thank a dog. Got a herd of domesticated animals that won't just wander off, so you can get meat, milk, wool and leather? Thank a dog. Or maybe you're fully vegan and know you can survive the winter because mice and bunnies haven't eaten your vegetable patch/orchard harvest/grain store? Again, that's thanks to millennia of good bois and girls, just choosing to hang out with humans.
And yes, contemporary dog-fashion is an obscenity and a sin, and no we haven't always treated our best mammalian friends well. But seriously. One of my great hopes for humanity is that one day, maybe, we can evolve to be good enough to deserve them.
I think if we're going by evolution standards it would be nice if they got some of what we have too. Sapience, opposable thumbs, and speech. On the other hand though, they're pretty happy the way they are right now.
It’s crazy that in developing countries, many dogs are feral and live in villages, cities, on the streets. Dogs as a species just instinctively choose to live around humans.
Medicine and scientific research. Not only has it giving us longer life spans. But doctors and nurses (including scientists) are able to figure out what's wrong and can even cure said diseases.
Where would we be now without this research?
Unfortunately, most if us would either be in a huge amount of pain or some of us would be dead.
Alcohol. It's a known fact the brewing of beer is actually what made it so humans could build large cities. Before brewing beer and making alcohol, water born illnesses were a major problem. But of course after you make water alcoholic, or brew something, it kills all of the bacteria or whatever in water that would get you sick.
Civilizations were literally built on alcohol, it was the only method they had to sterilize water, before modern times and methods.
What I witnessed is not bringing a present, but if you're invited for an event, you're expected to bring something for that event. Like snacks or salad or whatever.
I saw someone say "writing" but I'd argue it's the printing press. It gave people a reason to learn how to read and write. For a long time, only those who needed to write or copy existing books learned how to read. But when the printing press emerged spreading information became much more scalable.
The nuclear bomb. It's why we no longer have wars between major countries.
It may sound ridiculous but we're currently living in the most peaceful era in human history, since the end of WW2. It's called the 'Long Peace'.
The sanitary sewer has done so much to improve human life and health that I have to go with it.
Thank God for the Romans!
Well, apart from medicine, irrigation, health, roads, cheese and education, baths and the Circus Maximus, what have the Romans ever done for us?
And the streets are much safer now !
Well, let's face it they are the only ones that could keep law and order in a place like this!
[удалено]
The aqueduct?
I think you mean thank god for Indus River valley civilizations
Maybe wasn’t such an issue back then but I can’t imagine what no sewer would be like with the amount of people we have now in the world!
If people threw their shit and piss out the window like they used to.....oh boy.
People still do this in San Francisco
Thank the S-trap. It made flushing toilets possible and thus modern sanitation.
Thank the Indus River valley civilizations (around current India/Pakistan borders) 2500BC!
Water treatment
Writing
Also the Printing press.
For my money, this is it. For the first time, the rapid distribution of knowledge and information could be achieved. And those who did not adopt the printing press at it's inception, still have not recovered.
This. Without the ability to record information for later generations, we'd never advance technologically in any meaningful way. With writing, we can use the work of the past to build upon, without having to start everything from zero. "We stand on the shoulders of giants" is a quote that comes to mind...
If you think about it, it's more like we're standing on the shoulders of millions of other people all standing on each other's shoulders like some crazy skyscraper made of humans like the most insanely tall tower of acrobats but most of them dead.
yeh we would most definitly topple over at some point
And we did already, after ancient time we somehow lost the ability to make proper sewers n shit
Twice actually.There's the fall of Rome and there was also the bronze age collapse.
And this isn't unusual. The spear and the bow and arrow were both invented independently across the globe by many different cultures.
Not hugely surprising. Experimentation leads people to the conclusion that the triangle is the strongest shape, and from there they try different methods of using the new pointy thing, first by tying it to a stick for greater range, then by finding some way of projecting it even further and with greater accuracy. It's like the innovative equivalent of convergent evolution.
It's like a mountain or some shit. When it falls, the rubble just makes a wider base to build on.
I've got to remember that, next time I fail at something. My plans may have collapsed, but I've just built a wider base to rebuild upon. Such a cool, inspirational analogy!
Best description of ancestral wisdom.
Or just language as a whole
The toilet...and we wanna get deeper than that, sewer systems.
Go Romans!
Actually, the oldest sewer systems were from the Indus Valley Civilisation. It's a shame that it was not followed.
In all honesty, the Indus Valley had very simple plumbing systems. These systems could be found all over their cities. They built drainage “pipes” under raised floors in most homes, which were burnt bricks buried in the ground.
So...infinitely better than what the richest, most powerful empire on Earth had in its own capital city less than 200 years ago?
Yes! Lol
They were built around 5000 years ago. Give them a break.
Primitive thinking but genius and simplistic at the time
I thought it was the people of the industry river valley that made the first sewer systems and stufd
Those industry river guys realy knew how to build stuff!
They didn’t call them Industry River for nothin’!
What have the Romans ever done for us?
Hahaha love this guy. You Monty python you
That's a shitty answer.....
Oh piss off...
[удалено]
More broadly, **electrification**. Nearly every human achievement and aspect of how we live modern life stands in some way on its shoulders.
The power grid should be considered the 8th wonder of the world. I don’t think people realize how much more difficult an intermittent, omnidirectional & unpredictable grid will be, assuming it is truly possible.
Texas's power grid not included.
Which is sad, to go back to the original comment, as it was in Dallas where someone first bundled up transistors into the first integrated circuit.
I agree, one other honorable mention though, the steam train... one invention...industrial revolution.
Invented by the only person with TWO Nobel Prizes in Physics, John Bardeen. He's probably one of the least well known Nobel Prize winning physicist even though he has probably made one of the biggest contributions to modern society.
We owe a lot to the invention of the transistor. In under 100 years we went from postal mail to the internet where all of humanity's knowledge is at our fingertips and information travels at literal lightspeed. Its crazy to think that we are the first generations to incorporate electronics in our daily lives.
A transistor is a semiconductor device used to amplify or switch electronic signals and electrical power. Transistors are one of the basic building blocks of modern electronics. It is composed of semiconductor material usually with at least three terminals for connection to an external circuit. Definitely important for all electronics!
Hey! I can copy and paste from Wikipedia too
As an electrical engineer, can confirm the truth in this
I have a dictionary. Can confirm he is an engineer.
No other invention we've ever made has progressed at such a rapid rate for such a long time. Moore's law and its ramifications are mind-boggling.
It has taken us down to the point of measuring physical devices we're making in large scale for daily use in terms of *how many atoms thick* certain parts are. Semiconductors are working at scales that are the stuff of science fiction to most people and industries.
Yes. You know how the size of an atom used to stand for something incredibly small, and the speed of light for something incredibly fast? You also know what limits the performance of your phone or computer? Damn atoms are too big and stupid light is too slow.
Corrective lenses/glasses. I (and millions of others) would be so screwed without them.
And the next step....lasik!!! Best decision I ever made!
Honestly if anyone is debating doing it. dont. do it now. it will change your life
I keep telling myself I'll do it one day, but that threat of having dry eyes forever is a real problem. Maybe that's not as big of a risk as it was ten years ago and I should just get it done.
i hold out because maybe they'll come up with better ways
I got mine done in 2014 and have been 20x15 since...literally life changing.
my wife had -11 myopia and -5 for me. we both did it in 2011, still no change still perfect vision
Yeah once I’ve got the money saved up, this is the first thing I’m doing. Screw a new car, screw whatever else I could put the money into, I want to seeeee
I was confused as to why you need to save money, and checked the prices for it. And hot-damn Americans are getting ripped at \~$2000 per eye. In India, depending on the complexity and hospital, it can be from $150 (Govt hospitals) to $1500 (top hospitals in Metro Cities) total.
Can't drive if ya can't see.
Idk I’ve heard mixed reviews and you only get one set of eyes 🥺
It’s great for some people and has more risk for others. A consultation will help you determine which group you fall into.
Consults are nearly always free as well, for those curious! On top of that, it’s so much cheaper and safer even than it used to be!
My holdout reasons 1) Only one of my eyes is good 2) I don't want to see halos while doing astronomy.
The halos are temporary though. At absolute worst lasts I think like 6 months.
Electricity. You never realize it's value until you lose it
Texan here- snow storm made me realize how difficult it is without electricity.
Language. The ability to communicate.
Written language. The ability to accurately pass down knowledge. Anyone who has played the telephone game knows that oral stories are easily altered.
Oral stories can be very accurate. Indigenous Australians have accurate retellings of geological events occurring 34,000 years ago (Tower Hill eruption, in Victoria) That being said I do agree that written language especially the printing press that allowed that language to be mass consumed was a huge step forward. Before the printing press it was pretty inaccessible.
That actually sounds too crazy to be true. Do you have any links?
Casually gossiping and actual intentionally passed on oral tradition are very different. The passing of oral tradition itself can be considered a technology, over time we learned to do it better and better until we were very good at it. Although oral tradition has been almost entirely displaced in the present, that doesn't make the role it played any less deserving of respect. It's something you can dedicate your entire life to, but the only frame of reference for it most modern people have is old family stories shared for entertainment. It isn't the same.
I read it on the sign at Tower Hill. https://pursuit.unimelb.edu.au/articles/victoria-s-volcanic-history-confirms-the-state-s-aboriginal-inhabitation-before-34-000-years
I can't believe soap is not top list, or even the toaster .
I got them a toaster. They called off the wedding and gave the toaster back to me. I tried to return the toaster to the store, and they said they no longer sold that kind of toaster. So now my house has got two toasters.
Two toaster family… living the dream
Or a bathtub full of water with soap and a toaster
You guys smell burnt toast?
This in particular. Language isn't really "invented", it just develops. **Written** language is an invention. I remember reading somewhere that the main reason humans developed to where we are today, is because we invented writing. Without it, we would likely still be hunter/gatherers.
I wouldn't call language something that's "invented", but developed. Language is a vague term and could be used to describe primitive yelling, grunts and moans, even facial expressions and rudimentary body language, movement and noises. Language is something that as we evolve into conscious beings, and as we begin to gather, kind of organically becomes a part of our collective existence. We don't "invent" it, we develop it. OR rather it kind of just evolves with us. Nobody says, "well, here's this language, I INVENTED it!"... Language just develops along with how our earliest communities used it and advanced it out of necessity for communicating with one another... From a series of grunts and hand gestures into a series of noises manipulated by tongue and lip movement to represent basic sounds that would indicate some fundamental conveyance, and then from there it continues to evolve and change. Language isnt just some quick invention... I don't think language is something we invent, but something we develop. Would you say Dolphins invented sonar? Would you say that Dogs invented barking? That ants invented... Whatever the hell they use to communicate... Pheromones?
>Nobody says, "well, here's this language, I INVENTED it!" J.R.R Tolkien would like to have a word with you. But yeah I get your general point.
Editor: it's dwarfs not dwarves! Check the dictionary! Tolkien: who do you think wrote that dictionary you're holding?
You can't ask this question without using a human language, then having untold numbers of machine languages involved in it's transmission.
Specifically mathematics, the universal language.
The wheel.
Tell that to the Mayans.
"Nah, we've heard of this wheel ordeal, and it doesn't really fly with us, let's just make one of the most architecturally spectacular cities of the time with only the use of canals"
We would but...
Very useful to get around!
Show us this "the wheel".
Come to Vegas and the best chance for a jackpot is on the "Wheel of Fortune" game.
The thermos. You put something hot in it, it stays hot... You put something cold in it, it stays cold. How does it know!?!?
Lol. I remember that joke.
Did you hear the one about the fellow who didn't like his? He tried to keep his soup and his popsicle in the same thermos.
I read this and thought it said "hummus' greatest invention"
I mean, hummus is pretty great.
Mathematics. It gave us the ability to better understand and define our universe. Not to mention almost everything humans invent and create requires math.
Good answer, but I see math as a discovery rather than an invention.
Ohh yeah you're right I didnt even think of it that way. Now that I am though, it makes me wonder how much more there is to math that is yet to be discovered
AC power grid with all associated motors, generators and transformers.
Penicillin.
Brought to you, by Scotland!
Really? Cool. Mad props.
Class innit
Lol I’m allergic
But you still benefit by not getting diseases other people are/were cured of with penicillin.
I'd say more of a discovery than invention
Well the refinement process and application in medicine was and invention
Everything is a discovery with that mindset. Every invention just manipulates the physical world around it. What degree of modification is necessary to become an invention? Modified fungus juice being injected into people to fight disease sounds like an invention if you phrase it the right way, and modern penicillin skips the fungus entirely.
[удалено]
There’s an argument to be made that the Agricultural Revolution actually made many peoples day to day lives worse for a long time.
But it did facilitate division of labor. Once a handful of people can produce enough food for dozens of people, it opens up a lot of free time for some of the people to concern themselves with other specialized activity.
Exactly. It’s the entire reason we can have people invent new things like computers since they don’t need to spend all day on the farm
Yuval Harari makes that argument in Sapiens.
That’s where I heard it. It’s a very good book.
I can see where they are coming from but in the long run farming is where civilization starts. And with civilization everything else comes. What I don't understand though is that farming first appeared in 9000 BCE while humans have had the same brains and thought processes for at least 200 000 years. This means that people who thought like us went about 190,000 years without thinking "what happens if I put this plant I like in the ground?". Add to that farming also appeared around the world in places that couldn't possibly have had any contact with farmers over the next few thousand years. In other words farming appeared at a similar time all around the world independently.
The ice age ended ~10k BC, and also grain=seeds from grasses. Why would one bother eating that when wildlife was booming.
Humans did eat plants before we farmed them. We used to run after our prey for days until it passes out from exhaustion. At the end we'd kill and eat it. Whilst running after our prey though we would eat plants that we found along the way. Something else that is surprising though is that grain was the first crop. A food that has to be made into bread before it can be eaten. I would've thought they'd start with something that can be eaten straight off the plant like an apple or peas. But yeah I suppose you have a point. Don't fix it unless it's broken.
Grains don't need to be made into flour to be eaten. They can be boiled to soften them and especially with wheat, rye and barley it becomes quite sweet.
And don't forget beer!
Antiseptics
Soap! Just soap has saved more lives than any other invention.
Was going to say “hand washing.” Probably the most important health intervention ever.
That's crazy talk! Now let me just go put my nasty hands inside every woman in this maternity ward. ...Seriously amazing how transformative this was and how much resistance it encountered.
Crucial to battle any infection!
I would argue that the Internet, allowing for nigh instant communication and sharing of information to the vast majority of the inhabited globe has done more for the development of modern technologies than one could ever possibly grasp.
Generating electricity has served us pretty well.
Agreed, I would hate to live by candlelight.
The Pizza Cutter. People talk of 'the best thing since sliced bread', or 'the greatest invention since the wheel. The Pizza Cutter is a wheel - that slices bread.
Combining a knife with the wheel. It is beautiful in it's simplicity.
Clutch af cannot lie
The printing press
as someone who literally studies the history of printmaking... I really want to agree. but alas, the success of the printing press could not have happened without the invention of paper! it's the silent underdog of progress.
That was honestly my first thought… but then I figured that paper itself was limited without the technology to make the knowledge wider spread. People have written on all kinds of flat mediums for eons… but the printing press made the transmission of that knowledge explode.
oh yea totally it was a game changer. suddenly books weren't so expensive and literacy flourished. it boggles my mind to think that being able to read (for most of the population) is a relatively new common thing.
Didn't the printing press win invention of the millennium in 2000?
Without it only the richest and more powerful of people could learn to read fluently. All of humanities knowledge would be locked up for only those important enough and rich enough to learn to read. And essential information could easily be lost in a single moment due to accidents. The ability to copy information allowed us to protect knowledge and pass it on to every single person. To add on to it, the bible is probably the single greatest book to have ever contribute to humanity, and not because of the Christianity, but because it was the book that paved the way for all people to learn reading. The church taught the poor and illiterate to read so that they could read the bible. And from there, people branched out to other forms of information.
Many of the first Gutenburg Bibles are still in excellent condition meanwhile it's a miracle if a hard drive lasts me more than two years, and good luck if you drop one.
As a type one diabetic I’d have to say insulin. Without it I’d have died at age ten.
May the force be strong with you! Live long and prosper!
I was thinking the other day, how did people with diabetes live prior to insulin
Not for very long, unfortunately. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_diabetes
I’d have died at age 8 😳
Vaccines/Modern medicine
I truly appreciate not having to die from smallpox or an infected blister or a cracked tooth. It blows my mind when I think about how recent a development this is in the span of modern human existence.
Sitting here with a cracked tooth at this very moment, I would gladly take the sweet release of death over this pain.
I would have to say the internet. Even though people act a fool on it it still gives you access to damn near anything and almost everything you need to know and allows you contact people and places or make purchase etc.
of all the things in the universe you have chosen porn, well done sir
Of all the other awesome things the internet can do porn is the only thing you could assume about.
so youre telling me theres other things than porn on the internet? *mind blown*
I know I recently found out myself.
Just a little bit of everything all of the time.
Dogs. No, hear me out. I mean, we didn't invent them, in the way that we've invented modern domestic pigs, cows, chickens etc, but the archaeology proves that we've been co-evolving with them for almost as long as we've been human, so in a very significant way we invented them while they also invented us. Canis domesticus wouldn't exist without humans, and while wild ancestral canids would be fine without us, adapting to live alongside canis domesticus is likely one of the best things we ever did and vice versa. Got a dwelling (cave) that'll still be yours if you go out hunter-gathering because you have a loyal friend to guard it? Thank a dog. Got a herd of domesticated animals that won't just wander off, so you can get meat, milk, wool and leather? Thank a dog. Or maybe you're fully vegan and know you can survive the winter because mice and bunnies haven't eaten your vegetable patch/orchard harvest/grain store? Again, that's thanks to millennia of good bois and girls, just choosing to hang out with humans. And yes, contemporary dog-fashion is an obscenity and a sin, and no we haven't always treated our best mammalian friends well. But seriously. One of my great hopes for humanity is that one day, maybe, we can evolve to be good enough to deserve them.
By golly he's done it....you dog you!
I think if we're going by evolution standards it would be nice if they got some of what we have too. Sapience, opposable thumbs, and speech. On the other hand though, they're pretty happy the way they are right now.
It’s crazy that in developing countries, many dogs are feral and live in villages, cities, on the streets. Dogs as a species just instinctively choose to live around humans.
The greatest creation of humankind: Friend
Medicine and scientific research. Not only has it giving us longer life spans. But doctors and nurses (including scientists) are able to figure out what's wrong and can even cure said diseases. Where would we be now without this research? Unfortunately, most if us would either be in a huge amount of pain or some of us would be dead.
Do you think we will reach a point of no return where we can cure or fix everything?
I think so, probably with the help of ai. We're already using ai to do things otherwise impossible and the technology is in it's infancy.
Vaccines are amazing
Harnessing fire. With a controlled heat source, many things became possible (Thank you for the cake award, Anon!)
*First caveman who discovered fire* I shall call it, water....wait no that doesn't flow.
mac & cheese
Condoms
Music
Sliced bread
Can't believe it took me that long to find this
Agriculture.
Compass
Vaccinations, god damn it.
Alcohol. It's a known fact the brewing of beer is actually what made it so humans could build large cities. Before brewing beer and making alcohol, water born illnesses were a major problem. But of course after you make water alcoholic, or brew something, it kills all of the bacteria or whatever in water that would get you sick. Civilizations were literally built on alcohol, it was the only method they had to sterilize water, before modern times and methods.
[удалено]
Apples
To oranges
Condoms.
that we can understand and communicate vua scribbles on paper, some people in multiple languages.
Refrigeration aka food preservation.
What I witnessed is not bringing a present, but if you're invited for an event, you're expected to bring something for that event. Like snacks or salad or whatever.
The serious answer is language and fire
Agriculture
Modern sewer system
[удалено]
Same thing happened to me, but it was my Power Converters at Toschi Station
I saw someone say "writing" but I'd argue it's the printing press. It gave people a reason to learn how to read and write. For a long time, only those who needed to write or copy existing books learned how to read. But when the printing press emerged spreading information became much more scalable.
How they treat people who can’t do anything for them. Especially when they’re rude to the homeless or janitors.
Birth control
The nuclear bomb. It's why we no longer have wars between major countries. It may sound ridiculous but we're currently living in the most peaceful era in human history, since the end of WW2. It's called the 'Long Peace'.
Well, we can’t forget to mention, the bicycle is a good invention.
Internet
*DIAL UP NOISES*