With the exception of fire and the wheel, what do you consider the single most important technological advance

Question

of man

Answer 1

Agriculture. It probably should have been in your "other than" section along with fire and the wheel. Without it, stable society could never have developed at all. We'd all still be nomadic.

Answer 2

If you mean importance as of benefit to humankind, then I think the ability to harness nuclear power - not necessarily as a bomb - more for the ability to use nuclear materials as fuels. Recall that before the arms race to develop the first atomic bomb, nuclear reactions were proving very difficult to control - there was the almost painfully slow attempts to extract the 'heavy water' isotope of H₂O prior to developments in Oppenheimer's research. Now nuclear energy can be harnessed in power stations - much more proficiently overseas than here in the UK - but it is a double edged sword. Atomic bombs are now many times as powerful as those landed on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, and what was potentially the greatest technological advancement from WWII has the potential to destroy the human race completely.

Answer 3

Glass

Answer 4

The printing press.

Answer 5

the Internet along with the air conditioner

Answer 6

internet? it just changed the whole world way to communicate

Answer 7

ice cream

Answer 8

I am going for the obvious here.... the computer!

Answer 9

vaccinies and antibiotics, you can't invent the internet if everyone was dead of infection/disease.