What is the greatest invention in the history of humanity?

Question

and pls. explain why...

Answer 1

writing
do i really need to explain?

Answer 2

From a philosophical point of view the greatest invention was the strategy of
" The Modern Scientific Method"
All of the worlds great inventions have stemmed from that method

In a physical sense I'm going to be a bit different and give this answer:
"The screw" or "Nut & Bolt"

Thats right the humble little fastener. A cylinder of metal with a thread running around the outside. How small the diameter of a fastener was, drove the advancement of the machines of the industrial revolution. The thinner the diameter, the smaller the moving parts could be and the more intricate its make up.
Think about it , how many modern inventions would not be able to either operate or be assembled with out a screw.

One great story from that time goes this way. An American engineering company was competing with an English one to see who could create the thinnest piece of threaded metal. They sent their latest development across to England with the boast that no one could get it any thinner. The English sent it back with a hole drilled in the end and a thinner one screwed in it.

Answer 3

I'd prefer to list some of the most important ancient inventions:

Agriculture/irrigation, the wheel, domestication of animals, writing, math/the zero, duel-entry-accounting, steel-making/ferro-metalurgy, navigation by stars, season-changes by stars, mono-theism, compound interest, compass, gunpowder, algebra.

Modern inventions:

Printing press, steam engines, telegraph/telephone, electric light, electric dynamo, measuring longitude, microsocope/telescope/optics, RF propagation, rifled barrel, lifting-wing, theory of Turing machines, semi-conductors, binary code, information theory, anti-biotics, GUI, TCP/IP, the browser, the Pill,

There is no one greatest invention, because in a basic way, all critical inventions are linked to varying degrees. There are dynamic chains of inventions, and these chains cross back and forth with each other, at a rate that has been accelerating very rapidly the last 150 years.

Answer 4

Most often there are two greatest inventions talked about:

The Wheel

The Printing Press

Answer 5

Newton invented gravity, actually a pretty crap invention, he just noticed it..

He did however ever invent the cat flap...a door within a door, a moment of pure brilliance that no one had ever thought of before.

Simple things like this are wonderful, the thought process of getting to that answer is sublime, there are a million grerat examples of this though.

Penicilin or the small pox vacine are unequivacally the best inventions in terms of the lives they have saved though

Answer 6

The calendar

No society has succeeded without some form of one. This includes everything from the orietnation of mayan pyramids to stonehenge to the modern Julian calendar established by the church. The prediction of agricultural seasons has allowed society to move from hunter/gatherers to agriclutural, and then again later to an industrial society. Calendars have also been essential components of every major religion and philosophy, and control of the calendar was a major political power until very recently. The existance of a calendar is a primary milestone of a civilization.

Answer 7

Undoubtedly, the wheel.

For the reasons below:

1. It gave humans efficiency to move objects, without which many other developments would have been seriously hindered.

2. It gave humans efficiency to move themselves, without which we could well have become extinct.

3. It is the one invention that after so many years of civilization, remains largely similar to the original. The perfect wheel is still a wheel.

4. The wheel itself gave rise to thousands, if not millions of other significant inventions. All engines and motors have rotating parts, for instance.

Answer 8

I'm going to go with the toothpick. Although it was our own fault, caused our own gluttony, the toothpick has done more to relieve human misery and suffering than any other invention in history.

Every other invention has either been used to create more misery, the way dynamite has been used in bombs and weapons, or has been invented only in response to mass suffering, like bathing was invented to prevent disease, or agriculture to alleviate starvation, or the wheel to prevent backache from carryng heavy loads. And they brought their own problems with them. All the classic 'good' inventions like fire, metallurgy, the computer, were perverted and used to cause more harm than good.

I already mentioned dynamite, which was invented by Alfred Nobel and intended to be used to help mine and quarry ores and safely demolish buildings. He was so ashamed that it was used to kill people, that he established the Nobel "peace" prize. The hypocrite didn't want his name associated with death and destruction!

Similarly, more death, destruction and misery have flowed from every other invention. The toothpick is the only one I can think of that has not been used as a lethal weapon to AS GREAT an extent as all the other ones.

At least the toothpick directly relieves the immediate consequences of eating too fast by removing food debris stuck between the teeth, and indirectly contributes to dental health by preventing cavities and toothache. All other dental arts came later and were secondary responses to the pain and suffering. And they add their own degree of pain and suffering.

If you go by the criteria of which invention has done the most for humanity while not causing any additional misery, can you find anything else that is AS helpful and as LITTLE HARMFUL as the toothpick? Language is useful, sure, but words hurt. Forget about space rockets, they were developed from ballistic missiles. The automobile causes millions of deaths each year from air pollution. Indoor plumbing causes dozens of accidental drowning each year.

The humblest is the best. The Toothpick wins.

Answer 9

WHEEL was the greatest Invention.

Other Stuff like FIRE,Humans etc were all Discoveries!

Answer 10

Language is the greatest invention ever. Without it we humans would still be living primarily as hunter/gatherers, although I am not opposed to either activity.

Those that answered fire are wrong. It was discovered and not invented.

Thanks for the question!

Answer 11

If you're looking at the history of humanity you have to include those things that first allowed us to progress in the first place:

1. Fire for protections and warmth
2. Writting a means of communicating
3. The wheel for basic transportation
4. the loom for making clothes