I would say the printing press held that title for 500 years, then the Internet became the greatest invention. Your thoughts?
2007-06-17 02:06:46 · 33 answers · asked by Mr_Canada 2 in Science & Mathematics ➔ Other - Science
Printing press .......... without that the knowledge for anything else that came later wouldn't have been so widely spread
2007-06-17 02:09:35 · answer #1 · answered by Weatherman 7 · 2⤊ 0⤋
The greatest invention ever is the one that can be positively identified as the one thing that has been most benefitial to the human race up to this point.
Someone has said electricity, but that's not an invention, it's a discovery of a natural phenomenon as is fire.
Another has said the wheel, but due to it's use we now have the automobile and are polluting the planet because of it.
The written word has helped contribute to some of the worst wars the world has seen because it's helped communicate the intentions of people, so I'd go against picking that.
Personally, I would say farming and understanding of how to cultivate land to make it arrible is the greatest. Without food, we'd not survive at all to either discover or invent the other things that people have mentioned.
Either that, or the sewage system!!
2007-06-17 02:23:07 · answer #2 · answered by Damo 2 · 2⤊ 0⤋
The book is the greatest invention ever. Even the printing press is used to mass produce books. Computers are still an extension of the book. And when you get a new computer what do you usually get with it? An instruction book. Certain books have even changed history, for better or worse, like "The Discoursi" by Galileo - the first truly modern science textbook.
I also like electricity and the electric guitar, but without books the science behind the engineering for both might never have happened. (Fran L - :) )
2007-06-17 02:14:20 · answer #3 · answered by Paul Hxyz 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Although it arose before science itself.... the single most important invention to life as we know it today is clearly agriculture. Without a food supply we don't have time to think up moveable type (not the printing press) or the internet.
2007-06-17 02:11:24 · answer #4 · answered by michaelhobbsphd 3 · 3⤊ 0⤋
Not really and invention, but a discovery. . .The written word. Without that, no one could have written down their ideas for future inventions, like the printing press.
2007-06-17 02:16:32 · answer #5 · answered by PariahMaterial 6 · 1⤊ 0⤋
The printing press.
2007-06-20 07:15:09 · answer #6 · answered by johnandeileen2000 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Yes, I'd go along with that. History maintains that the wheel, and fire are the two fundemental human inventions.
Later, came electricity. I don't want to sound sexist but many ladies might agree that the washing machine was a good idea.
Science, penicillin, aspirin, etc. then there's good old Laszlo Biro and his pen.
2007-06-17 02:13:21 · answer #7 · answered by Barry K 5 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Considering the time and effort taken to develop THIS invention, I would appreciate most the LIGHTBULB of Edison.
They say it took more than 1000 tries and errors to obtain his success. And several other thousand tries to improve it.
I liked this history.
2007-06-17 02:24:58 · answer #8 · answered by mataharu 2 · 1⤊ 0⤋
Language.
2007-06-17 02:08:51 · answer #9 · answered by Colin G 5 · 2⤊ 0⤋
Concorde .
the only supersonic passenger aeroplane.
Its the best because all of the rest have been made better and it was scraped when nothing has supersede it.
added later
by all the rest i mean all other invention starting with the wheel
2007-06-17 02:31:49 · answer #10 · answered by mark the spark 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋