The Greatest Invention of Mankind

[furie]

What do you think is the greatest invention of all time?

I'm going to go with the printing press. It facilitated the transfer of knowledge and really took us into the industrial revolution.

[Coach]

The Chair, Jesus invented it.:laugh:

[Gvac]

Right now I'm thinking either the Swiffer mop or the tongue scraper on the back of toothbrushes.

[WampusCrandle]

i would go with the lightbulb. it harnesses electricity. that has got to be a biggie.

[Farmer Dave]

I'm going with the internal combustion engine. Allowed for more work with less labor and greater travel distances in less time.

That or birth control.

[DarkHippie]

the campfire.

[SatCam]

language

[MacVittie]

The Amphicar

http://www.amphicarparts.com/images/amphicar01.jpg

[booster11373]

The Alphabet and reading

[cougarjake13]

i was gonna say fire cause without it nothing thats comes after it would have ever happened

[boosterp]

The ability to generate AC current.

[boosterp]

i was gonna say fire cause without it nothing thats comes after it would have ever happened

But, fire is a natural occurrence. Man did not event it, just methods of using it.

[Drunky McBetidont]

booze.

lock it up

[Foster]

sliced bread

[MacVittie]

Shandals.

[Jib]

The snuggie.

[furie]

the campfire.

that's more of a discovery than invention. fire always existed

[Suspect Chin]

The Jack-and-Ride

[King Hippos Bandaid]

the razor, we would all be bearded creeps without it

[underdog]

fleshlight

[underdog]

the razor, we would all be bearded creeps without it

Most people here are still bearded creeps.

[King Hippos Bandaid]

Most people here are still bearded creeps.


w/o a razor, you would need a machete to go down on a chick

[furie]

fleshlight

what?

[SatCam]

fleshlight

I think that was more of a discovery

[underdog]

what?

Google it.

[beachbum]

Language/math.

[Foster]

can language be considered an invention?

its like saying walking or picking something up with your hands are inventions

[furie]

can language be considered an invention?

its like saying walking or picking something up with your hands are inventions

no, for the sake of the argument, it has to be something that is made

[BlackSpider]

I'm sticking with the wheel...

[SatCam]

no, for the sake of the argument, it has to be something that is made

in that case I'll go with alphabet soup

[MacVittie]

Language/math.

Math isn't an invention. Math is empirical.

[beachbum]

All right,written language.

[DolaMight]

The ability to generate AC current.

this is one and only answer.

fuck everything else especially the wheel and fire, and anything round or hot.

[DarkHippie]

that's more of a discovery than invention. fire always existed

yes, but once we found how to create fire, things changed. warmth and cooking, and all htat

[Fallon]

booze.

lock it up

Locks.

[weekapaugjz]

this is an interesting debate. i had a few pop into my head as soon as i saw the title. i agree with furie about the printing press with the spreading of knowledge to the masses of people. the computer chip would have to be along these same lines. can anyone imagine their lives today with computers? almost our entire society is based or runs off of computers and their chips.

also, on the medical side, the invention of antiseptic by joseph lister revolutionized the way doctors conducted surgeries and other medical procedures.

[extracheese]

http://news.softpedia.com/news/Top-10-Greatest-Inventions-Ever-50819.shtml

This guy says the TOILET - and it makes some sense. Where would we flush our weed when our GF comes home??

[hanso]

What do you think is the greatest invention of all time?

I'm going to go with the printing press. It facilitated the transfer of knowledge and really took us into the industrial revolution.

Along the same lines (paper)
I'm going with toilet paper for obvious reasons.

[A.J.]

The cellphone.

[realmenhatelife]

Written language is an invention, and more importantly so is an alphabet rather than using pictoral language. With no alphabet there would be no democracy.

But I'd say it's cultivated farming, or I guess the plow if you have to make it a physical invention.

[ToiletCrusher]

These can be both the greatest (obvious benefits) and/or worst inventions:

Radio
TV

but in a general sense - mass media (outside of print).

Making what was once available in print more accessible.

However, it has crippled more traditional means of presenting news and media to people and decreasing their dependence on reading.

[sailor]

Math isn't an invention. Math is empirical.

the number zero.

[hanso]

The push up bra.
Turn those droopy dogs into young pups.

[Aggie]

Vibrators.

[sr71blackbird]

<object width="425" height="344"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/5OOT7p2hLJg&hl=en&fs=1"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/5OOT7p2hLJg&hl=en&fs=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"></embed></object>

[ToiletCrusher]

AC and heating.

[sr71blackbird]

Do you remember life before the Segway?

<object width="512" height="296"><param name="movie" value="http://www.hulu.com/embed/BVhrKXbn8gIQ9C4BrKlr3Q"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><embed src="http://www.hulu.com/embed/BVhrKXbn8gIQ9C4BrKlr3Q" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowFullScreen="true" width="512" height="296"></embed></object>

[STC-Dub]

The Internet.

[jab]

writing and language have slowed humans down. now we have to twist pure emotion and feeling into words which dont get it across as absolutely as we could if we could just communicate on some sort of garbled thought level. its like reading gabriel garcia marquez in english.

the toaster oven. now thats the greatest damn thing ever. you put a nice cold slice of pizza in there. near instant yum.

[hanso]

the number zero.
I wondered if the Mayans had used the number zero.

Look like they did from the start.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/0_(number)#History_of_zero

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mesoamerican_Long_Count_calendar

See you in 2011? :flush: