Mine is the computer. I continue to be amazed at what we can do with them.
ndondo ( @ndondo@lemmy.dbzer0.com ) English36•2 months agoPlumbing. I could live without almost every modern comfort but a flushable toilet
Drusas ( @Drusas@kbin.run ) 7•2 months agoI was going to say toilets/indoor plumbing. Necessary for survival? Maybe not. Best convenience ever invented? Probably.
Rivalarrival ( @Rivalarrival@lemmy.today ) English5•2 months agoI would rank plumbing pretty high to be sure, but without the steam engine to drive the water pumps, plumbing is limited to aqueducts, gravity sewers, and intermittent, low-volume supply from animal or wind-driven pumps.
Even today, the overwhelming majority of our energy passes through a steam phase at some point. Steam power is by far the most important discovery/invention of the modern world.
Track_Shovel ( @Track_Shovel@slrpnk.net ) English3•2 months agoI was going to say HVAC. It’s cold as all fuck here in the winter, and hotter than donkey balls baking in the sun during summer.
DirigibleProtein ( @DirigibleProtein@aussie.zone ) 32•2 months agoWriting. Being able to record facts, thoughts, and stories that can be (mostly) read thousands of miles away and thousands of years later changed civilisation.
tetris11 ( @tetris11@lemmy.ml ) 3•2 months agoIt is crazy that. For time immemorial we used to transmit information from our mouths or using hand signals, and receive that information through eyes and ears, all in realtime.
(side thought: how awesome would it be if we had a single organ for both? e.g. communication solely through blinking)
Then suddenly we have this system where someone can code meaning onto a sheet, and we can receive entire contexts from a glance alone, purely at our leisure. Nuts.
SwingingTheLamp ( @SwingingTheLamp@midwest.social ) English2•2 months agoConsider: Writing is also the closest thing to magic that we have in the real world. You make a particular pattern of markings on a piece of paper using an arcane body of knowledge, and then a wizard in a black robe with a special hammer makes an illegible squiggle on the paper in just the right spot, and it makes new things happen.
Dessalines ( @dessalines@lemmy.ml ) 16•2 months agoOne I didn’t see yet: Radio.
Less than 150 years old, and has vitally changed how we communicate, and has downstream effects on every other human activity.
Kind of magical having streams of information travelling all around us.
ephemeral_gibbon ( @ephemeral_gibbon@aussie.zone ) 5•2 months agoYep, I was talking to my grandpa about what invention his parents thought was the most significant in their lifetime, and they had said the radio. They had lived through both world wars which had brought about many many inventions and that was the one they thought was most significant.
Up to that time news was incredibly slow and you couldn’t put what was going on on the other side of the country without a massive delay, let alone the world.
Elise ( @xilliah@beehaw.org ) 15•2 months agoHANDS DOWN CAPSLOCK
otacon239 ( @otacon239@feddit.de ) 3•2 months agoTHAT’S THE WAY SHE
WHOOP WHOOP
Daryl76679 ( @Daryl76679@lemmy.ml ) 14•2 months agoGlasses. The ability to see so much better than I otherwise could leaves me astonished every time I put them on.
Drusas ( @Drusas@kbin.run ) 3•2 months agoI wouldn’t have survived childhood without glasses in a pre-modern era.
Jimmybander ( @card797@champserver.net ) 2•2 months agoSame. I would be a ditch digger or something if I had survived.
milicent_bystandr ( @milicent_bystandr@lemm.ee ) 12•2 months agoThis was the topic of discussion between an historian, a mathematician and a mystic.
The historian said, “writing. The ability to put words on paper to be communicated to people who never even met the ‘speaker’, is the single greatest achievement of mankind.”
The mathematician said, “no, numbers. The ability to express and develop truly abstract concepts, which in turn leads to Incredible real applications. Numbers are the single greatest invention of mankind.”
The mystic said, “the Thermos flask.”
“The Thermos flask?”
“The Thermos flask. It keeps hot drinks hot in the winter, and cold drinks cold in the summer. But think - that little flask - how does it know?”
Hugh_Jeggs ( @Hugh_Jeggs@lemm.ee ) 7•2 months agoI was having lunch at work and this Geordie I work with pointed at my flask and said “What’s that mate?”
I said “It’s a thermos. It keeps hot things hot and cold things cold”
Next day he comes in and he’s got a brand new thermos. I asked him what he had in it.
He said “Two choc ices, a sausage roll and a cup of tea”
wagesj45 ( @wagesj45@kbin.run ) 12•2 months ago muntedcrocodile ( @muntedcrocodile@lemm.ee ) English11•2 months agoI would argue fire. Its arguably the gate technology and higher brain power.
Nate Cox ( @natecox@programming.dev ) English2•2 months agoDefinitely fire, without it none of the other inventions happen afterwards; though I guess we didn’t really invent it as much as we learned to harness it.
muntedcrocodile ( @muntedcrocodile@lemm.ee ) English1•2 months agoI suppose u could argue the same for any technology tho.
SwingingTheLamp ( @SwingingTheLamp@midwest.social ) English9•2 months agoThe atomic theory of matter, because It is so foundational to the technology of the modern world. It allowed the development of modern chemistry, and with it pharmaceuticals, chemical engineering (e.g. the Haber-Bosch process), electronics/semiconductors, genomics, medical science, and more. It’s been an enormous force-multiplier to improve technologies we already had by providing prospective insight into how they work, so we can do better than iterative trial and error. Virtually everything that we touch or use in a day, from coffee to clothing to computers, was enabled or improved through knowledge of the system of atomic elements.
pH3ra ( @pH3ra@lemmy.ml ) 9•2 months agoAgricolture.
It’s what brought us working together in the first place, shifting our habits from nomadic to sedentary and started the concept of civilization. spicy pancake ( @janus2@lemmy.zip ) English2•2 months agoI was gonna say the plow. Agriculture means your tribe get to spend less time hunting and gathering, but the plow means your tribe get a chance to become an empire
In this case I’m taking the word “greatest” more as “biggest/most impactful” and not necessarily “most good” but also I’m no anarcho-primitivist, idk…
pH3ra ( @pH3ra@lemmy.ml ) 3•2 months agoIn this case I’m taking the word “greatest” more as “biggest/most impactful” and not necessarily “most good”
Yeah that’s what I meant, I agree with the topic of “it might be what started workers exploitation”, but what I’m talking about is “it’s an invention/discovery that was so powerful to shift the natural behaviour of a species”. We’re not even talking about antropology now, it’s an etological impact and there haven’t been many others in our history
ShayKStage ( @ShayKStage@programming.dev ) 8•2 months agoLanguage. The ability to communicate advanced concepts is what has enabled us invent/discover a lot of things, including the computer.
Dotcom ( @Dotcom@lemmy.ml ) 8•2 months agoProbably the steam engine as far as actual innovation and all but my answer is air conditioning
RandomVideos ( @RandomVideos@programming.dev ) 8•2 months agoBread.
I love bread.
lazynooblet ( @lazynooblet@lazysoci.al ) English5•2 months agoBut did you hear about SLICED bread!??
RandomVideos ( @RandomVideos@programming.dev ) 3•2 months agoYes and i hate it
Extras ( @Extrasvhx9he@lemmy.today ) 7•2 months agoSoap easily. God the lives it saved and continues to save easily makes it the best invention imo
boyi ( @boyi@lemmy.sdf.org ) 6•2 months agoPrinting Press