What’s an invention that quietly changed the world, but doesn’t get enough credit?
Robot
This page is a permanent link to the reply below and its nested replies. See all post replies »
ArishMell · 70-79, M
Not so much invention as discovery: that of being able to create and control Heat Energy: Fire.
Probably the most fundamental of all human achievements, without which almost everything else could not have been possible... and we do not know where, when and how this happened.
In rough chronological order but spanning millennia:
Controlling Fire led to...
Cooking
Pottery
Copper, Tin and Zinc (hence Bronze and Brass, respectively)
Glass,
Iron (our most valuable, versatile and ubiquitous metallic element, especially in its leading to -
- Steel.
Mechanised Manufacturing and -
- Mechanical Transport
Electricity.
All else are developments from, or relying on, one or more of these!
Probably the most fundamental of all human achievements, without which almost everything else could not have been possible... and we do not know where, when and how this happened.
In rough chronological order but spanning millennia:
Controlling Fire led to...
Cooking
Pottery
Copper, Tin and Zinc (hence Bronze and Brass, respectively)
Glass,
Iron (our most valuable, versatile and ubiquitous metallic element, especially in its leading to -
- Steel.
Mechanised Manufacturing and -
- Mechanical Transport
Electricity.
All else are developments from, or relying on, one or more of these!