Greatest invention ever made?

[Aoami]

Hmm this is a hard one...i would go for Antibiotics atm, but my mind may change.

 

[Bullitt]

I'd say computers in general, it's streamlined our lives (and made them more stressful no doubt). But its made us think in whole new ways and offered us potential we're yet to reach and boundaries we can always push forward. This is in regards to a whole range of areas form entertainment through to treatment or research on medical illnesses/conditions.

 

[GDW]

And while Adam slept, God invent0red the women

 

[Tom]

Um, no cars without the Industrial revolution! The Industrial Revolution is the single most important thing to happen to humanity since the start of the neolithic era! While the industrial revolution was not necessarily a nice thing at the time it happened for people involved on a personal level (and continues to affect people's lives), the positives FAR outweigh the negatives; we live longer, eat better, have nice toys to play with, cars to drive, and don't die at 30 and have to go to bed when it gets dark. We wear nice clothes that cost a fraction of our incomes, we can eat food from anywhere in the world, and be anywhere in the world in 24 hours. And without the printing press, the industrial revolution wouldn't have happened. I rest my case.

Lets not forget, the industrial revolution wasn't some great social engineering project, it was a way for landowners and businessmen to make more money. Many of them were philanthropists, but only to the extent that their increased wealth allowed them to be.

Ok then, what about language? No industrial revolution without language! No printing press without language.

I rest my case.

Such comparisons aren't possible. We don't live longer because of the industrial revolution, we live longer because of improved living conditions, which the industrial revolution only brought about indirectly. We don't necessarily eat better because of it either. People's diets remained pretty much constant throughout the 18th and 19th centuries, eating local produce farmed by traditional methods. Only the traction engine and the internal combustion engine changed that. Diet has only changed for the better because the i.c.e. allows foods to be transported quickly and cheaply.

As for the car, I still say that its benefits far outweigh any negative impact that it producse. Pollution caused by cars is tiny compared to industrial output. Deaths by cars? 3500 directly in this country each year. Compare that to the number of deaths caused by heart disease, and it becomes irrelevant.

 

[Insane]

And while Adam slept, God invent0red the women

WINNAR \o/

 

[DaGaffer]

Lets not forget, the industrial revolution wasn't some great social engineering project, it was a way for landowners and businessmen to make more money. Many of them were philanthropists, but only to the extent that their increased wealth allowed them to be.

Ok then, what about language? No industrial revolution without language! No printing press without language.

I rest my case.

Such comparisons aren't possible. We don't live longer because of the industrial revolution, we live longer because of improved living conditions, which the industrial revolution only brought about indirectly. We don't necessarily eat better because of it either. People's diets remained pretty much constant throughout the 18th and 19th centuries, eating local produce farmed by traditional methods. Only the traction engine and the internal combustion engine changed that. Diet has only changed for the better because the i.c.e. allows foods to be transported quickly and cheaply.

As for the car, I still say that its benefits far outweigh any negative impact that it producse. Pollution caused by cars is tiny compared to industrial output. Deaths by cars? 3500 directly in this country each year. Compare that to the number of deaths caused by heart disease, and it becomes irrelevant.

Aagh! Aagh! ALL the things you talk about are byproducts of the industrial revolution. The printing press is an invention, language isn't, and this thread's about greatest inventions.

If you're talking about 'the greatest invention ever made', then the key three words are 'greatest', 'invention' and 'made'. Any byproduct of the industrial revolution (which pretty much means anything made after 1750 to date) owes its existence to the industrial revolution and the enlightenment (the two things are kind of intertwined). Scientific thought, (or 'Natural Philosophy' as it was originally known) only really came about in structured form once information could be widely and reliably disseminated, which only started to happen systematically after the reformation and (one of the causes of the reformation) the invention of the printing press. That's why you got the great flowering of intellectual thought from the likes of Newton, Hooke, Descartes, The Royal Society etc. out of which flowed the industrial revolution. All other inventions, from ballistic missiles to bubblegum, stand on the shoulders of that one invention, the printing press.

 

[Will]

Every invention relies on the inventions which went before it. I don't think this is really a question where you can have one winner, and everyone else is incorrect.

My favourite invention...a tough question. I'm not sure I can give a definate answer to that one. I'm a big fan of the interweb though.

 

[Tom]

Look, you can't base your argument on something because it helped bring about a massive social change. If that were the case, then I could completely ignore the printing press, and vote for the invention of the kiln! Without the kiln, no pottery! No pottery, no food storage! What about smelting iron? Or bronze? Metals without which the printing press wouldn't have been possible.

And who is to say that language isn't an invention? Its not something that just 'happened'. We're not born with the ability to speak, its something that must be learnt, and without a common language, all we can do is huddle in groups and hit each other with sticks.

The printing press had zero effect on the masses, as they couldn't read. The industrial revolution was driven by profit, at the expense of the masses. The car, while originally out of reach of the masses, has brought personal freedom to just about anybody who can afford one (which today, is most people in this country).

 

[Insane]

oh wait, wait! I GOT IT!!!

the bikini!

you ask for proof?

https://forums.freddyshouse.com/showthread.php?t=1371

everything else is insignificant

 

[sibanac]

oh wait, wait! I GOT IT!!!

the bikini!

you ask for proof?

https://forums.freddyshouse.com/showthread.php?t=1371

everything else is insignificant

From the same thread I could argue that the Bikini is a very bad invention, since without it... we'dd see more boobs !

 

[babs]

Thing is with language, how did the guy who invented it let everyone know?

 

[old.Tohtori]

I proovored us smart!

I made this thread because a co-worker said that the stupid internet "kiddies" would probably say internet or some stupid game.

Haha! In his face!



Oh...facehugger by the way, extremely good invention.

 

[Driwen]

Thing is with language, how did the guy who invented it let everyone know?

language isn't imo an invention, every animal in some way "speaks" to his other species. So if it can be seen as one, it was invented before humans existed.

Im going for the transistor, but thats prolly cause of my study (electro engineering) and without it my study wouldnt be as fun (bleh at radio tubes) .

Or maybe the boat as an opposite to the weel (without the boat you cant travel to other continents (well now you can through the sky, but most of the time you couldnt )).

 

[DaGaffer]

Look, you can't base your argument on something because it helped bring about a massive social change.

Why the hell not? I would say that's the only basis for the argument, otherwise its a debate on the 'invention I like most'

If that were the case, then I could completely ignore the printing press, and vote for the invention of the kiln! Without the kiln, no pottery! No pottery, no food storage! What about smelting iron? Or bronze? Metals without which the printing press wouldn't have been possible.

Except that there were alternatives to pottery. Ditto Iron and Bronze. This is the point; you could obviously make a case for writing or numbers to be as important as the press, but, like pottery and metallurgy, civilisations actually rose up without them (look at the Incas, no writing at all). The only other 'invention' to have the exponential effect that the press had is probably agriculture, but its difficult to describe as an invention as it seems to have been discovered in various places independently and often by accident.

And who is to say that language isn't an invention? Its not something that just 'happened'. We're not born with the ability to speak, its something that must be learnt, and without a common language, all we can do is huddle in groups and hit each other with sticks.

It just isn't. No-one sat down one day and said 'I'm going to learn how to talk today'. Language is a result of evolution.

The printing press had zero effect on the masses, as they couldn't read. The industrial revolution was driven by profit, at the expense of the masses. The car, while originally out of reach of the masses, has brought personal freedom to just about anybody who can afford one (which today, is most people in this country).

This is the most ridiculous statement of all. The printing press had a massive effect on the masses; before Gutenburg and Caxton, the bible had been the perogative of priests and a few nobles, largely because of the sheer cost of production. Printed bibles were part of the reason for the religous schizms that caused the 30 years war, the reformation and all the stuff that came out of that, like limitations on divine right. The printing press was the catalyst for all that, and it changed everyone's life, for good or ill.

 

[babs]

language isn't imo an invention, every animal in some way "speaks" to his other species. So if it can be seen as one, it was invented before humans existed

Yeah I know </lou and andy>

Someone else brought it up was all

 

[TdC]

I'd say that the greatist invention ever is script. As in written pictorals/language. The first bloke (I'm sure this happened fairly parallel, but what the hey) who started out picking up a stick and making a slash on it with a sharp stone to mark something down should be severely respected.

 

[Frizz]

Clothing.

(So we don't have to put up with wrinkles and cellulite!)

 

[Stimpy]

porn, vaseline and lamination

 

[Cyradix]

I proovored us smart!

I made this thread because a co-worker said that the stupid internet "kiddies" would probably say internet or some stupid game.

Haha! In his face!



Oh...facehugger by the way, extremely good invention.

So we are just lab rats for the evil mastermind Seel?

 

[Tom]

I disagree entirely with your paragraph about the affect of the printing press upon the masses. I think we'll just have to agree to disagree Gaffer.

 

[Tom]

Have some fluff.

 

[Aoami]

I disagree entirely with your paragraph about the affect of the printing press upon the masses. I think we'll just have to agree to disagree Gaffer.

If the Printing Press wasn't invented we'd all still be Catholic.

 

[Munkey]

I'd say music, i just cant live without the stuff.

 

[JBP|]

best invention ever has to be the "off button"

comes in very very handy when eastenders or coronation street come on
(or any other soap opera for that matter)

 

[Cyfr]

shit invention

 

[dysfunction]

I quite like the telephone.

Oh and electricity and the light bulb

 

[Cyfr]

The common tissue

 

[Brynn]

The common tissue

as opposed to the UNcommon one??

I quite like the telephone.

Oh and electricity and the light bulb

i hate the tephlamaphone - would prefer to speak to people face to face.

Best invention for me would have to be oOooOoooo a penknife (so many useful things one one tool, Scissors, Knife, Corkscrew, Bottleopener, toothpick)

 

[Milkshake]

Cookers....i.e the use of Gas or Electricity to heat food.

If I'm hungry, I don't think I cba to find wood, start a fire, let it slowly cook etc.

 

[k9awya]

television