Reply to Dlowan
Dlowan, the alphabet on your list is number 2 on mine. Can you guess what my 3rd invention is?
BumbleBeeBoogie
1. ether anaesthetic
2. polio vaccine
3. internet/computer technology
4. telephone
5. in-door toliet
Good choice relative to penicillin, Joan.
Deb:
Toliet paper? But you didn't list toliets!
I'd rather use a hold in the groud with toilet paper than a toilet with no tp.
Hmmmm New Haven - yes.....I COULD, of course, argue that the concept of toilet paper assumes and contains the concept of toilet - and I think I will try for that.
However, it may well be that you caught me with me pants down, as it were...
I believe poor Craven has a cold - or... there is a whole different system of holds in the groud in the USA that are used to hold our waste grouds...
must agree with toilet paper.
how about a match, or ability to start a fire?
boats were useful too, without them we'd still be in medieval ages.
written language is on the list as well
plough, or the invention of cultivation of soil and agriculture seem quite important too. without it we'd still be out there hunting and gathering.
Reply to New Haven and Dagmaraka
New Haven and Dagmaraka, interesting choices but they are not on my list, except for language.
My list so far is:
1. Language
2. Alphabet (including the Index)
3. ___________
4. Printing Press
5. ___________
Who can fill in numbers 3 and 5?
BumbleBeeBoogie
paper should be there, otherwise the printing press will not be to much use.
dag,
I'd considered papyrus.
Papyrus is neat. The greeks (actually it today is Turkey) made their 'paper' out of baby goats stomachs. Works too. I suppose any vehicle for writing counts.
Based on what appears to be BBB's train of thought I'd throw "mathmatics" into the ring as one of the possibilites for the remaining spots.
Some even write on walls. :-)
I didn't list papyrus, stylus etc because there were so many mediums and they all were labor intensive.
Reply to Fishin
Fishin, BINGO! The invention of Mathematics is #3 on my list.
But which form of mathematics first opened the door to technical and scientific progress? I'm not a scholar in math or any other profession, but I would suggest that geometry was the first important advance in the science of mathematics.
Perhaps someone with more expertise than I may suggest another first step in mathematics that really took a giant step. I emphasize the "first" because, without geometry, all of the subsequent giant steps up to quantum mechanics, for example, would not have been possible.
1. Language
2. Alphabet (including the Index)
3. Mathematics (specifically Geometry)
4. Printing Press
5. ___________
Now my list has only one open spot. Number 5. Can anyone guess what it is?
i feebly remember, though my history lessons were years ago, that geometry was preceded by and based on astrology and irrigation mechanisms. the two were somehow connected and geometry was born out of all of that. phew. note to self: beat it, you know a didley squat about all of this!
reply to Dagmaraka
Dagmaraka, I'm not sure I agree with the path to Geometry that you suggest, but I could be wrong. However, I do know that geometry opened the door to perspective in art and that changed art forever from two to three dimentional representations on flat surfaces.
-----BumbleBeeBoogie
As I say, I will not even pretend to defend what I wrote, as far as i know, it can be entirely the other way around, all i remember is that the three were connected.
I still think the fifth one should be paper or a related invention ;-)
Egypt also use papyrus as their 'paper.' There are places in Luxor that still makes papyrus paper, and produces art works on them - similar to what one might find in the tombs. They're very popular with tourists, and some can run up into some $$$$$. c.i.
