That's the reasoning I thought was behind your choice, steissd.
Art, creating from nature what is necessary to sustain the human and provide the history of the civilization?
I'd go back a step beyond the printing press and drop back to the standardization of language as a #1.
Beyond that, the lever, the wheel, ways to harness/distribute electricity, the internal combustion engine and the transistor.
Cicerone's list
Cicerone, none of your list inventions are on my list - sorry. I also categorize electricity as a discovery, not an invention.
BumbleBeeBoogie
Heeven
Heeven, TV is not on my list.
BBB
Joanne
Joanne, no, art is not the invention I'm leading you to find.
BBB
Fishin's list
Fishin, you are very smart and very close to my number 1 most important invention: Language. But you missed it by using "standardization" as the criteria. There is a much more important invention that precedes language standardization. Can you think of it?
The remaining four items on your list are not on my list of inventions.
BumbleBeeBoogie
I thought the printing press set us on the road to standardized language.
Writing precedes the printing press.
Personally, I think the Kleenex Pocket Pack is pretty important. Ach-choo!
Re: Fishin's list
BumbleBeeBoogie wrote:Fishin, you are very smart and very close to my number 1 most important invention: Language. But you missed it by using "standardization" as the criteria. There is a much more important invention that precedes language standardization. Can you think of it?
By "standardization" I was only referring to use of a common language by multiple people. "Language" doesn't mean much if no one else understands what you are conveying... lol
Yes, Babel still exists.
In any case, the invention should have been the alphabet.
Fishin, Language
Fishin, the invention of "Language" thoughout the world is my first choice of the most important invention benefiting humanity. To support my contention that language was an invention, one only need look at the variety of languages that were developed. Many disappeared and were replaced through the eons. Language facilitated the oral passing of information from generation to generation, thus accumulating knowledge to pass down.
"Language" thus leads to my second most important invention on my list. Do you know what it is?
BumbleBeeBoogie
BBB, In that case, I must also include music.
c.i.
Cicerone: Music?
Cicerone, Music is an important contribution to humanity, but it is not on my list.
BumbleBeeBoogie
BBB, In that case, I must also include music.
c.i.
I can only answer in terms of what I consider an 'invention' to be, the transformation of a scientific prinicple (abstract) into a concrete, practical device (or method). In that respect I would have to distingush between a scientific discovery (like antibiotics) and a process such as pastuerisation or canning.
My top five:
-literacy (the storage and transmission of data/knowledge)
-sanitation engineering (the actual mechanics of piping in fresh water and removing wastes)
-refrigeration
-the telegraph
-the photograph
Reply to Mr. Stillwater re #2 on my list
Mr. Stillwater; your first choice of -literacy (the storage and transmission of data/knowledge) would come under number 2 on my list, which is the invention of the alphabet. I have chosen the phonetic alphabet over the several other alphabets in the world (including the Asian pictorial alphabets) because I think it has had the most profound effect on the technical advancement of humanity.
Without the alphabet, language would have no way, except orally, to transmit knowledge from one generation to the next. Without the alphabet, written language would have been impossible and would have not prepared for the Printing Press, which is #4 on my list.
I've debated whether or not I should add another invention to my list or add a subcategory under language. With my limit of 5 inventions, I decided to add the subcategory of the Index. Without the Index, the organization of knowledge would have been almost impossible to store and transmit to subsequent generations. There are several forms of indexes: alphabet and Dewey Decimal System are only two of the important indexes.
Is language an invention?
Some people might not agree that language is an invention, seeing it as a natural evolution. But I think that is because language is so old that people have no concept of how a language would be invented.
To understand that process, we have to look at the invention of modern languages. Modern languages you ask? Well, one only has to examine a few of the modern language inventions: Braille, for the blind. Esperanza, the attempt to create a universal language. And the several varieties of computer languages. One could also say there is a language for science. Who knows what new languages will have to be invented to meet the needs of our expanding technology.
-----BumbleBeeBoogie
Shelters
Clothes
Alphabets
Printing press
Computers
Drains
Toilet paper
Domestication of cats (and horses and dogs and cattle and goats and sheep and such too!)
Alphabets and what came with them, of course.
Personally, I love answering machines...
Reply to Craven
Craven, two inventions, alphabet and printing press, on your list are also on mine.
I've listed my 1, 2, and 4th invention. Can you guest my 3rd invention?
BumbleBeeBoogie
