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What's The Greatest Invention in History?


Irv

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56 minutes ago, Tiberius said:

It also quickened human evolution, by making food more nutritious, calorie rich, easier to eat and chew (so smaller teeth and larger brains) and safer (killed bacteria and such). It also gave humans protection from other animals and allowed us to live almost anywhere on the planet. 

 

Plumbing might be a luxury, but sewage systems are a public health measure that makes life in cities possible

Maybe. But places like Kolkata & Mumbai exist...

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Posted (edited)
On 4/18/2024 at 8:35 PM, ExiledInIllinois said:

Yeah... But the wheel is basic. Of course it's great, I don't think that's ever in question.  BUT, it's like saying primary colors are the greatest. 

 

Stuff like the wheel should get a look over to greater things. The wheel is an innately human invention that was bound to happen. 

 

Not necessarily.  The wheel as a tool was unknown in the Western Hemisphere although the Aztecs and maybe some other groups used wheels in toys.  The most likely explanation is that the people who migrated into the Americas left before the use of the wheel as a tool had spread to their area of Eurasia.

 

On 6/5/2024 at 2:23 AM, Doc Brown said:

Surprised penicillin hasn't been mentioned yet.  Antibiotics are the greatest medical invention at least.

 

I think that people today take good health for granted so they don't even think about how important preventing and/or combating infectious diseases has been.  The first successful vaccine was Jenner's smallpox vaccine in 1796 but Pasteur didn't prove that germs spread disease until 1861 ... which led to other improvements in dealing with infectious diseases.  The 600,000+ deaths during the Civil War is more than all the other American deaths in all the other American wars, but most of those deaths came from disease not combat. 

 

11 hours ago, Tiberius said:

Plumbing might be a luxury, but sewage systems are a public health measure that makes life in cities possible. 

^^^

10 hours ago, ExiledInIllinois said:

Maybe. But places like Kolkata & Mumbai exist...

 

Okay, maybe Tiberius should have said "comfortable life in cities possible".  

 

On 6/4/2024 at 11:42 PM, bleve said:

The Antikythera Mechanism

 

Civilization has progressed pretty far without anybody figuring out the purpose of the  Antikythera Mechanism or how it worked or was  used. 

Edited by SoTier
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1 hour ago, ExiledInIllinois said:

How about the mesh window screen?

 

The mosquito 🦟 has killed more humans than all wars combined in HUMAN HISTORY.

 

Think about that on the 80th anniversary of D-Day...

 

Sewers drain standing water where mosquitos breed! ;)

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Posted (edited)
9 minutes ago, Tiberius said:

Sewers drain standing water where mosquitos breed! ;)

Yeah... First line of defense... BUT screens better. Can't drain all the water!  We still have malaria, etc... in the US.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited by ExiledInIllinois
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On 6/5/2024 at 2:23 AM, Doc Brown said:

Surprised penicillin hasn't been mentioned yet.  Antibiotics are the greatest medical invention at least.

 

In a similar vein, soap.  Although that would be more of a discovery.

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7 minutes ago, ExiledInIllinois said:

 

I agree!

 

I beat you to it. Way up thread.

 

 

Then you were right lol. I didn't read the thread!

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Posted (edited)

I can’t believe people are saying the wheel. 
 

It was invented by a friggin caveman.  Ipsofatso, how great can it be?

 

The only correct answer is Josh Allen. 
 

 

 

Edited by WotAGuy
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