OT: In your opinion, what is the greatest or most important invention of all time?

[jsusc]

Surely, we can't argue about this. Also, I did a search to see if a similar topic had ever been posted and it was several years ago on the insider's board, but I'm not a rich insider, so...

I'd just like to read your thoughts and opinions on this, because I think there are several smart people on this board.

 

[TopHook]

Tp

 

[BattleshipTexas]

fire? the wheel?

 

[jsusc]

I love my remote control. How did people live without one?

 

[Dizzy01]

Controlling electricity. Really a driver for so much of what we enjoy today.

 

[Who Cares_Who Cares]

Money. It enabled implicit cooperation, and therefore the modern economy, by eliminating the requirement for a double-coincidence of wants in interpersonal transactions (e.g. you didn't need to have something specific the farmer wanted in order to trade for food.)

 

[Judson1]

The photograph.

 

[viennacocks]

prophylactic

 

[nccock622]

FGF

 

[Freddie.B.Cocky]

The wheel. One could survive without fire and really the wheel, too, but the wheel was what was the mother invention for all things to come.

 

[Bftboy]

1 - Fire
2 - The wheel
3 - Electricity
4- Warp drive

 

[jeff2001]

Jeff2001

 

[jsusc]

Jeff2001

I'd argue if I could.

 

[Harvard Gamecock]

The wheel. One could survive without fire and really the wheel, too, but the wheel was what was the mother invention for all things to come.

The wheel has to be the one.
The wheel then leads to the pulley and these two change humankind forever.

 

[uscclassof74]

As the famous joke goes, the thermos.

 

[ClemDent]

Advanced mathematics

 

[Carolina Doc]

Vaccinations. (Antibiotics are a close second.)

 

[Garnet chicken]

As far as advancing the industrial age and increasing standard of living, electricity has to be up there along with the gasoline engine.

 

[ToddFlanders]

Clearly the answer is sliced bread - what other invention has such a ubiquitous saying associated with it?

 

[Silver_Coconut]

Football.

 

[Gamecock122]

Ray Tanner

 

[USMCatFan]

The wheel. One could survive without fire and really the wheel, too, but the wheel was what was the mother invention for all things to come.

If Necessity is the Mother of Invention. Laziness is surely the Father.

Example: Moving a pile of rocks was necessary. But, it took a bastard too lazy to carry them back and forth to invent a wheelbarrow.

 

[winloseortie]

Language

 

[jeff2001]

Electricity if you ask me.

 

[Harvard Gamecock]

1 - Fire
2 - The wheel
3 - Electricity
4- Warp drive

I know this is getting a bit technical, but fire should not be considered an invention, but a discovery.
And, specifically the discovery in how to harness it

 

[Bear_Rooster]

Surely, we can't argue about this. Also, I did a search to see if a similar topic had ever been posted and it was several years ago on the insider's board, but I'm not a rich insider, so...

I'd just like to read your thoughts and opinions on this, because I think there are several smart people on this board.

Rest assured , this will definitely be argued about 😂. They’re are a lot of smart people on this board .

 

[myrtlecock]

When it's all said and done, the one invention that may change the world more than any is the smartphone.

 

[OldWiseCock]

I would think the steam engine would be at the top of the list for the simple reason that it powered trains and ships which enabled so many other industries at the beginning of the industrial revolution.

One might also argue it is the personal computer (CPU) because it enabled the technological revolution.

But before that would be the transistor and printed circuit boards. The first computers (and TVs) used tubes instead of transistors.

 

[Golden Cock]

The toilet.

 

[rogue cock]

Electricity if you ask me.

Agree. It was the necessary element to many other great inventions.

 

[cockybren]

Television

 

[Silver_Coconut]

We didnt invent fire, electricity, or math. We learned how to understand it and harness it.

 

[rogue cock]

We didnt invent fire, electricity, or math. We learned how to understand it and harness it.

Regarding the latter, the Sumerians and the Hindus may disagree.

 

[uscg1984]

I don't know about the rest of the world, but the greatest invention for the south was air conditioning.

 

[sickoftryingtothinkofausername]

Who the hell says “fire”? Y’all know humans didn’t invent fire, right?

 

[Horseshoe 04]

Fishing pole (and reel as an upgrade)
Boat
Golf club (golf cart)
Grill
Bottled & Canned beer (to take, fishing, golfing, tailgating, hunting for my hunter friends)
Tailgating
Supercharged Digital fuel injection quad turbo
Bikinis
Yoga pants
Rihanna
.............

 

[Freddie.B.Cocky]

Advanced mathematics

Such as imaginary numbers that allowed mathematicians to solve equations that otherwise could not be solved.

 

[Ralph Sampson]

Embalming fluid

 

[atl-cock]

Money. It enabled implicit cooperation, and therefore the modern economy, by eliminating the requirement for a double-coincidence of wants in interpersonal transactions (e.g. you didn't need to have something specific the farmer wanted in order to trade for food.)

Neither fire nor electricity are human inventions. How humans harnessed fire and electricity are human inventions.

Since the OP did not specify that the most important invention be a technological one, I like this answer.

IMO the most important invention has to be the mother of numerous inventions.

 

[CockIN73]

And the correct answer is the smartphone. Have seen this ranking several times and the smartphone was the winner. It is not only a phone with mobile communications, it’s a GPS, a camera, a calculator, portable tv, video recorder, radio, flashlight, bar code scanner, clock, police scanner. Etc etc. the list Keeps going