Greatest innovation in the world

8/22/2011 6:11 PM EDT

the ruler...? And what about the balance (weight scale)? Nothing we know of today could exist without these.

8/22/2011 6:42 PM EDT

If you want a great understanding of how innovation happens, and how it borrows, adapts, and expands on other (often unrelated) innovations, check out the fascinating and enjoyable BBC series "Connections" (1978/1979) hosted by James Burke: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Connections_(TV_series). Innovation is not linear, not predictable, and does not follow a "road map".

8/23/2011 12:06 AM EDT

The sail? It made life easier for a lot of rowers, and enabled the discovery of distant lands. When was it invented, though?

8/23/2011 1:54 AM EDT

n my opinion the WHEEL is one of the greatest innovations of all time as it is the WHEEL that set the whole humanity in motion.

In today's world some of the importance of the wheel has been taken away by modern communications which have made a lot of tasks to be done sitting at home but otherwise the life on this earth would have been much different without this WHEEL.

May be without wheels the whole of humanity would have habitats on the seas because that is the only place where you move without wheels

8/23/2011 2:17 AM EDT

~1830 with Faraday and the electromagnetic generators and dynamos.

8/23/2011 10:02 AM EDT

As per as my thinking,pencil and paper is greatest innovation in history of humankind.The next innovation is wheel..bicycle....and so on. Really interesting question to think..!

8/23/2011 11:57 AM EDT

A reader named Roxy emailed these comments: I had to answer your question about the innovation of 1100's compared to today. If we could be half as creative we would still be lucky. I can't imagine memorizing drawings from sand pits or tables and working toward an image that has never been seen, and wich may not be completed in your life time. It never occurred to me that any on those earlier buildings fell down because of design flaws. In my ignorance I didn't realize the ones that remain are only the success stories, explained as being "right in God's eyes". Considering that most of the work force were illiterate and work conditions were brutal the whole building process must have been a challenge to organize and keep on track.
The craftsmen made their own tools and often invented new ones as needed, we would never be able to match the skill, dedication, and work ethic of the time.

And when asked about favorite innovation from the book...

It's been some time since I read either of the books but I would have to agree that the single most dramatic or at least the most significant innovation was the flying buttress. Although seeing those very high stone walls with wonderous images in stained glass and light are still very impressive today, it must have been very awe inspiring to the local peasants.

8/23/2011 11:57 AM EDT

I suggest the alphabet as the greatest invention. With only 26 letters we can express and communicate just about anything we want to.

8/23/2011 1:03 PM EDT

Fuel (or the controlled use of). Of course, fuel comes in many forms, but going back to the first fires to deliver warmth and cook food. [A side question - why did we ever start to cook food?]

The utilization of different types of fuels in different capacities has been a prerequisite to almost every major period of innovation. Wood, Coal, Oil, Fusion (hopefully). Each exponentially increased our capacity to develop as a civilization.

8/23/2011 1:25 PM EDT

Language of sufficient complexity to convey sophisticated social concepts, such as "Let's all make some new spears and eat deer tonight."

8/23/2011 3:20 PM EDT

was language needed to invent the wheel? If not then perhaps the wheel was one of the greatest inventions.

8/23/2011 6:08 PM EDT

As a mathematician, I am going to vote for nothing, that is, '0', the zero. An innovation of the Middle East (hence the name "Arabic numerals"), it allows both the concept of "none" and works as a placeholder, allowing us to group numbers into sets, whether decimal, octal hexidecimal or binary. Think how much harder arithmetic would be if we still did everything in Roman numerals.

8/23/2011 6:25 PM EDT

A powerful argument can be made for symbolism, the idea that a thing stands for something else, as this is the basis of oral and written language, mathematics, art, ritual, political and social structure.

A separate argument can be made for various tool inventions, whether stone, iron or silicon, as well as an argument for synergy between tools and symbolism. In a way, a tool is a symbol, an item that abstractly takes the place of hand, fingers, teeth, feet or other body part.

A third argument can be made for agriculture, but agriculture would hardly have gotten far without prior development of at least stone tools.

Fuel and energy are only used to power tools.

The computer is a tool whose business it is entirely to store and manipulate symbols. It is now used to design and control most every other kind of tool. The practicality and ubiquity of the computer and its associated communication and control networks are made possible by the silicon integrated circuit. Eventually it might
replace humans altogether, and would certainly be the most disruptive of all innovations if that happens.

But the question was the "greatest" innovation. What one innovation would I be least willing to live without?

There are substitutes available for almost everything except writing. However, writing is of limited use if few can read it, and widespread literacy was not possible until the invention of phonetic writing in 1400 BC. It allows me to know the past, record my thoughts and feelings for the future, forms the basis of symbol and therefore tool manipulation and design, and is my nomination for the "greatest" innovation. It also escapes blame for the perils of war, agriculture, and civilization generally, which far pre-date phonetic writing.

8/23/2011 9:05 PM EDT

Most notable inventions don't cause a quantum leap or immediate big change in the way the human race works. You could say the transistor - but that just made things a bit smaller at the time, though its importance was that - over a relatively short 50 years - it led to the ICs that control just about everything today, and massive changes in lifestyles.

The industrial revolution - mid 1700s to 1800s - also caused some fairly massive lifestyle changes for the "developed" world, though it was a series of less important inventions.

I'd probably get behind Glen with language, that's what really separates us from the rest of the animal kingdom (though I sometimes wonder whether to our advantage or not.... :-) but even that was a series of small developments, not one big step.

8/24/2011 3:41 AM EDT

I would like to add electricity to the list since its the basic of all electronics and today's modern marvels.

8/24/2011 4:09 AM EDT

Language.

No doubt at all in my mind. Without it, we'd still be just another great ape eating berries and the occasional animal. Nothing much more advanced than basics like stone tools, levers, rollers or wheels and simple shelters seems likely.
The moment I saw the question, I scanned the answers looking for it.
It's encouraging to me to see so many of us in engineering see it, because it seems to me that most other groups overlook it. I think it demonstrates that engineers see a bigger picture than most people.
Of course there are dozens of close behind innovations that could be number two on the list.

8/24/2011 5:42 AM EDT

Transport: Pockets or woven bags must rate pretty high as Enablers; removing basic limits on foraging, allowing eating to be deferred to safe locations (including weaning children), creating trading possibilites, creating the need for other inventions like measurements, counting, drawing/mapping (more berries like these over there). Apes don't need advanced technologies because they can only carry a little at a time and so food is never an abstract concept, separated from its source.
Probably language was invented around the meal table - it was the only place where it was safe to make any noise.

8/24/2011 7:28 AM EDT

I see software (language, math, symbols, should be all written characters) vs. hardware (energy, transportation, etc.) division already ;p

8/24/2011 7:39 AM EDT

Agriculture which turned us from wandering tribes into settlements where people could work together and drive innovation.

8/24/2011 9:08 AM EDT

The sanitary sewer. Invented in ancient times, re-invented in the 19th century, the sanitary sewer facilitates the modern cities. Though one might consider modern cities a drawback :)

8/24/2011 10:20 AM EDT

Great suggestions here. Language then the written word (images, hieroglyphics etc..) are definitely atop the list, but to the others I'd add candles (so we could write, read and invent late into the night), the lever, the telegraph (and Morse code), RF communication, the telescope, flight, submarines, pennicllin...it's incredible when you think about it. The list could go on forever. Thanks for posting this Naomi!

8/24/2011 10:48 AM EDT

I posed a similar question to my friends about a year ago ... Name the top 5 greatest inventions of mankind. After much deliberation (and a few fermented beverages) we came up with our list of 5 generalized inventions.

Time - we considered this a building block that allowed the interpretation of quantative measurement
Language/written/spoken word - Allows the free flow of information and ideas
Agriculture/mass farming - As a basis for allowing a culture to grow and expand.
Navigation - Whether by stars, the sun, dead reckoning or signposts, it allowed exploration, the free flow of ideas and commerce
Mathematics - In essence, this could be considered another language, but it is a building block. We had trouble deciding whether this should be considered an invention or a discovery.

Others generalizations that were considered:
Medicine, alchemy, the wheel, fire (control of), tools (in general), energy storage/conversion (ie a dam), electricity, sanitation and currency (also debated as one of the worst inventions)

It was a lively debate that night. We then went on to discuss how our top 5 picks applied to the purchase of another round. As you can imagine, we did alot of research that night.

8/24/2011 11:54 AM EDT

I remember back in college wondering with my roommate, how people who needed glasses in the olden days before eyeglasses survived. Generalize to optics I guess.

8/24/2011 12:47 PM EDT

The first law of thermodynamics states that energy cannot be created or destroyed. That forces me to say every invention is only another form of discovery. Invention or discovery, the best of the best are Music, Language, Agriculture, Cloth, Electricity, Transistor, Medicine and Movies, Cooking, Mirror etc...

8/24/2011 4:34 PM EDT

"The greatest innovation" is perhaps too hard to pin down, since you can answer differently depending on the criteria you set up. However I've always been amazed at the incredible avalanche of modern inventions that came about between mostly the middle of the 19th Century and the early 20th century. Astounding.

Just think about the fact that the automobile and the heavier than air, powered airplane, were invented just a few short years apart. The train, steam-powered ships, factories, the light bulb, and the first power generating plant, radio and electronics, all in that slim sliver of time.

During the time of Lewis and Clark, people lived and traveled much like thay had been doing centuries before. That was the very early 1800s. It's incredible to think how different everything became all of a sudden, starting just a few short years later, to the first couple of decades of the 20th Century.

8/25/2011 6:13 AM EDT

Copy & Paste is one of the greatest innovations. In simple term "CTRL-C" "CTRL-V". Is there a single day we dont use that option ???

8/25/2011 12:26 PM EDT

All incredible suggestions...keep them flowing! I like Jeff.Petro's list, though I don't think time can be considered an innovation: humans did not invent time, nor did we alter it to suit our desires.

All forms of communication seem to rank very high. Forms of transit are also up there. And both would be of limited use without the other...

8/25/2011 3:17 PM EDT

Anesthesia. Imagine a c-section without anesthesia. How many babies and women saved because of emergency c-sections. Or a heart bypass, brain tumor, kidney transplant; not even possible. Removing wisdom teeth would be unbearable. Antibiotics would be a close second since all of these can result in infection.

8/25/2011 3:57 PM EDT

That's easy. When god created us he gave us the human mind. That is easily the greatest creation. Sorry but all the other inventions came from this one! Man made innovation is difficult to pin point as a singular item. Possibly the use of easily obtained fire. Without it the rest of humanity would not have survived.

This subject is really flawed. The whole idea of technology is to borrow, grow, and build from earlier ideas. Needs to be narrowed down a bit or you end up with these fundamental issues of water, clothing, fire, food, shelter.

8/25/2011 8:25 PM EDT

Obviously it's the television commercial. Gives you a chance to refill the popcorn bowl and get a fresh cold brewskie without missing any action on the football field.

8/26/2011 1:21 PM EDT

the greatest innovation was the creation of life.

8/26/2011 1:36 PM EDT

It seems to me that there were all these lists at the turn of the century. As I recall the greatest invention was selected as the printing press.

8/26/2011 1:44 PM EDT

The most innovative century was the 19th. Coming into the 19th, people got around the way they always had - muscle or wind power. By the end of the 19th there was a worldwide rail system and powered ships (steam) and the beginnings of our oil driven transportation. There was a worldwide telecommunications network (telegraph & telephone). Oh, and slavery was abolished in most of the world.

8/26/2011 1:47 PM EDT

I'd say the most far-reaching invention of the last thousand years was movable type. That made publication affordable, and was probably a prerequisite to the scientific revolution.
The most innovative century in technology would be the nineteenth, or the 1830-1930 period; still, that built on the industrial revolution, which began in the late 18th centuryl
The most innovative century in politics and society would be the 18th, though it built on important philosophical thinking of the 17th.

8/26/2011 1:55 PM EDT

I believe most of the computer generation is about innovation and not as much invention. The greatest inventions I can think of no greater invention in the last 60 years than the transistor and integrated circuit.

8/26/2011 3:09 PM EDT

“Without question, the greatest invention in the history of mankind is beer. Oh, I grant you that the wheel was also a fine invention, but the wheel does not go nearly as well with pizza.” – Dave Barry

8/26/2011 3:15 PM EDT

I'm surprised no one mentioned Viagra (just kidding). I would have to say the greatest invention was the internal combustion engine. And the most innovative timeframe was the 20th century.

8/26/2011 3:39 PM EDT

How about the club / spear. Moved our ancestors from somewhere in the middle to the top of the food chain.

8/26/2011 4:05 PM EDT

All of the suggestions thus far are really great. I would also consider Einstein's theory of General Relativity, which was a staggering achievement...

...but...

..if we want to talk about the things that really changed the world and made us into the creatures we are today, I would offer the following as being the most fundamental:

-- The mastery of fire and the use of it to cook food and keep us warm

-- The invention of the fish-hook, especially the version with the barb (some of the earliest recorded fish hooks were from Palestine about 7000 BC)

-- The invention of stone blades (knives, axes, and spear heads)

-- The invention of the bow and arrow

-- I don't know if I would class spoken language as an "invention" -- but certainly written language has to count.

-- MUSIC!!! From multiple people banging on things together to whistles and flutes to stringed instruments and song.

-- ART!!! Whenever I see pictures of stone-age cave paintings and Australian Aboriginal paintings I am rendered speechless (and it's not often you'll hear that).

-- BEER!!! I can't help it. Alcohol in general, and beer in particular, certainly makes me happier and my life better (check out by recent blog http://bit.ly/ns2XHe)

The above suggestions are just off the top of my head -- I could waffle on for hours about this (or most things, come to think about it)

Thank goodness it's Friday :-)

8/26/2011 4:20 PM EDT

Soap!

8/26/2011 5:17 PM EDT

Among the hardwares, laser is pretty neat too. Used quite diversely as well from medicine to industry to presentations.

8/26/2011 5:49 PM EDT

The greatest innovation is "THINKING MAN"

8/26/2011 6:11 PM EDT

Wheat? It's importance is getting smaller as rice and maize is increasing, but these three provide approx. 60% of the world's food energy.
I also consider Norman Borlaug's work that doubled farming output in the second half of the 20th century to be extremely important innovation. What would've happened without it? Definitely huge famines. Wars?

Inventing the human's ability to invent was probably the greatest invention :-)

8/27/2011 1:01 PM EDT

The toothbrush or dental floss. Without good oral hygiene ones health, longevity and overall well-being are seriously diminished.
From another P.O.V. we as in our/the various consciousnesses like to think that it is the concious man that invents, but a plausible argument :) can be made that our conciousness is little more than a by-product(or perhaps the beginning of a potentially more inclusive/meaningful feedback system), of the subconsciousness (the link with the 'greater' universe, with the larger nature that our conciousness and everything else that we think of is an extension of), and 'we' don't actually decide to do or think of anything, it just appears that way. So with this in mind :) I go with the mitochondria.

8/27/2011 1:13 PM EDT

oh by the way all the "what is the greatest..." type questions are just for fun of course. There is no greatest anything. Not even nature for I don't have the ability to manifest the idea of nature in another nature, but then I suppose that greater nature would become the new nature... but it is still a creationist way of thinking. All of the parts(if you will), of nature that can be categorised are just as important as each other. Everything that can, does or will exist including all corporeal and non-corporeal and all that do and do not fit into this way of thinking are of equal importance all of no importance at all. :)

8/27/2011 3:27 PM EDT

I'd have to stand behind agriculture, though it wasn't a single innovation. From the day Thag decided it would be a lot more convenient if we had a pear tree over here rather than on the other side of the valley to modern intensive cultivation, they all decreased the fraction of a person's time spent in getting something food for the tummy and allowed time to perfect the wheel, hour glass, and beer can.

8/27/2011 3:29 PM EDT

FWIW, were you aware that the can opener was not invented until almost a decade after merchants began carrying food in cans? The Mrs. had to stop at the blacksmith's on the way home from the supermarket!

8/28/2011 6:51 PM EDT

A lot of these suggestions would only benefit part of the human race. Optics for example - I wear glasses so in the caveman days I'd have been history long before I got to my present age - but the rest of the well sighted human race would have gone on quite well without me (sob).... and a lot of them thwart Darwinian natural selection so actually make the human race worse....

Language was invented, but I get the feeling most people want something more tangible.

Which makes it very difficult. I'd have to second Max's nomination of beer.

8/29/2011 2:51 AM EDT

Apart from "WHEEL" which I feel is the greatest innovation, the binary ( or mistakenly called digital ) computing is the greatest innovation that has caused today's information technology and electronics revolution.

8/29/2011 3:35 AM EDT

The biggest innovation of human being is : "Invention of God"

8/29/2011 3:37 AM EDT

The biggest innovation of human being is : "Invention of God"

8/29/2011 3:39 AM EDT

The biggest innovation of human being is : "Invention of God"

8/29/2011 7:40 AM EDT

The greatest innovations are many and many. Just sit and think for a few minutes. It starts with learning every thing from nature. The nature on this earth has taught us every one innovation a nd leading us to a safer and safer healthier life. It starts with the invention of creating Fire whenever we need.The Food ,then land,then dressing,the shelter ,then travel on earth,water and fly in space, then magnetisim, communicatio,information storage,information processing and very important medicines for longeivity.There are end less innovations and it will continue.On top of all the greatest innovation is our Earth with 8400000 vareities of living beings and the Solar system.

8/30/2011 5:17 AM EDT

It is difficult to say which are the greatest inventions, but I would like to put few here (in no particular order):

1. Ruler
2. Astronomy
3. Medicine
4. Electricity
5. Computer
6. Language
7. Philosophy
8. Mathematics

8/30/2011 5:46 AM EDT

The fridge is a pretty powerful invention. Without it a lot of modern medicine would be near impossible and it's been one of the inventions that can be credited with having major improvements on human health by preventing food poisoning. In fact it has produce enormous change in societies that have adopted it.

Of course it still requires electricity so... maybe electricity is the greatest discovery and the electrical grid the greatest invention. Without it not much would happen these days!

8/30/2011 12:30 PM EDT

I would put forth Nicola Tesla and his lifetime. He was so far ahead of his time and created so many new inventions that I feel he (and his time) is the most inventive. Wireless, remote control subs, Tesla coil, Tesla Turbine, AC power distribution (over Thomas Edison's objections), the list goes on...

8/30/2011 1:07 PM EDT

I believe the introduction of tea to England allowed the industrial revolution to occur. Prior to that, in an ubran setting, the only safe beverages where alcoholic. Drinking boiled water made urban living safer and avoided the problems of operating the new fangled dangerous equipment while tipsy. The introduction of tea predated our understanding of water borne deseases by at least 100 years.

8/31/2011 11:09 AM EDT

Language is probably the greatest innovation. Without it, our thoughts would have been trapped in our minds till this very day...

8/31/2011 5:36 PM EDT

I read somewhere that the invention that was most quickly adopted around the world was eyeglasses. They were invented in China in like the 12th century, and within 2 years had spread to India and Baghdad, and in a few more years reached Europe. Given that most geeks and the elderly wear glasses, this invention is something which is a sine qua non in the modern technological world.

Glasses spurred the development of lenses, which led to their use in telescopes and camera.

Perhaps they also changed the very way we think about disease...we no longer see health problems are a curse or something to suffer through--we just look at diseases as problems to be fixed. Because of eyeglasses there is no "stigma" attached to vision problems, pardon the pun.

8/31/2011 8:42 PM EDT

If earlier inventions which last until today indicate greater significance, just follow caveman movie stereotypes like fire, sharp tools, drawings, etc.

9/2/2011 1:24 PM EDT

The development of new stronger and lighter materials from which to make things. Early on, we made things from naturally occurring substances like stone, wood, and bone. Then came bronze and iron, then steel, aluminum, and now plastics and silicon.

9/2/2011 6:51 PM EDT

In my mind the greatest invention is the universal language of mathematics. I would also include the advancements made in agriculture and farming. People tend to explore, invent, create and think more productively when the are not distracted by hunger. (Agriculture and trade was one of the earliest reasons for creating mathematics.)

9/3/2011 3:42 PM EDT

I tend to side with monoculture farming and the plow as the greatest inventions of all time. Without those we would still be running over hill and dale several hours a day trying to eat instead of being able to sit around and invent ICs.

9/13/2011 5:00 PM EDT

The greatest invention was paper, a convenient affordable method for recording and communicating in one's native language all the "other" greatest" inventions.

9/25/2011 8:54 PM EDT

While for some baffling reason innovation in our culture is benchmarked by the invention of sliced bread, I think the greatest physical innovation may be the wheel. I'd vote for language as the greatest conceptual / abstract innovation.

10/5/2011 5:27 PM EDT

I think the innovation that makes innovation possible is the concept of free thought, allowing individuals to freely exchange ideas and pursue dreams for a better standard of living. Without the opportunity to use the human mind for this endeavor by oppression of free thinking would have kept us in the caves.

10/5/2011 6:29 PM EDT

I kind of hate to have to put it this way, but the greatest invention by man, is God.

10/5/2011 8:28 PM EDT

Without a doubt the invention of writing!

12/7/2011 1:37 AM EST

Rope.