The best invention(s)?

[Thianne]

Hey, everyone! i'm starting this thread 'cause i was thinking the other night and i realized that there are a lot of things that we take for granted, but, really, they're just recent inventions: like TV, computers, music players....
i'd really like to know what each one of you think: what is/are the best invention(s) in the history of mankind, in your opinion?

for me are:
1) running water. i talked to my grandma, and she told me about the times when they had the bathroom outside the house....and it really got me. so....running water. i love showers.

2) ballpoint pens. in another, lenghty conversation with my grandma (i talk a lot with my grandma) we were talking about pens and what a difference they made....i mean, they last practically forever, no "ink problems", they're easy to use....

so this are my two. what about you kittens?

[oneyedchicklet]

One of the best inventions to me is the computer. How else besides snail mail would we be able to communicate so quickly with friends, family and loved ones throughout the world? Sure there is the telephone but once the computer came along, it made "world travel" a little easier.

The vacuum cleaner also. I'm so thankful for my vacuum cleaner. I love my vacuum cleaner. Without it and living with 2 cats, I'd be surrounded in cat hair. (notice I said living with 2 cats not 2 cats living with me. They rule my life

The worst invention in my opinion is the snoozed button on an alarm clock. Everyone knows it gives you 9 (not 10 but 9) extra minutes. Just when you get warm and comfy....BAM, it goes off again. Now, how many people know you have 9 minutes so you set the time for ahead in an attempt to trick yourself that it is in fact later but then realized you've set the time ahead?

Ok, enough rambling.

HUGS
Barb

[WebWarlock]

The Bunn Coffee Maker

The next step in an already great invention, the automatic drip coffee maker.

Turns water into an entire pot of perfect black coffee in under 3 minutes.
More expensive models do it faster and with a lifetime guarentee.

I have had one now for 15+ years and I will NEVER buy a different coffee maker. In fact in the last 15 years I have only owned 2. The first one was the cheaper model with the 3 year guarentee (it lasted 10 years of daily use) and now a newer one.

Warlock

[willlovestara]

For me, it's electricity. Imagine all the things we wouldn't be able to use if we didn't have it.
Hannah.

[werewolf123]

The automatic dishwasher, the person who invented that should get the Nobel Peace Prize.

[Thianne]

(notice I said living with 2 cats not 2 cats living with me. They rule my life

i'm forced to live with a dog.....so

3) vacuum cleaner

[Artemis]

Putting on my serious face, I think the two best inventions have been movable type, and the modem. Both for roughly the same reason: they used existing technology in a new way to massively increase the speed at which the exchange of ideas could take place. If you ask me, the ability to communicate ideas - to create a discourse that you can take ideas from, and contribute ideas to - is the basis of, well, everything humans do that isn't just following our biological drives, and the speed at which you can access and contribute to a common discourse is the defining factor in our species' non-biological evolution. Other species do it to, to degrees, but we're damn good at it (even though the ideas themselves sometimes suck spectacularly). And those two inventions were great, because they didn't really involve a new technology - there were already printing presses and the ability to make engraved type, and there were already computers and phone lines and the ability to make electrical equipment such as a modem. So the manufacturing capacity for the inventions was already widespread - all that needed to be carried outwards from the point where someone thought of the idea was a piece of paper saying "Okay, this is what you do..."

That's basically it. There's lots of other cool things, but I think it basically boils down to speed-of-discourse - anything that boosts that will increase your chances of getting whatever else you might want invented.

That said, as an individual, I'm really glad that I have access to mozzie zappers and indoor plumbing.

[Auburn]

Hair streightners.... such a shallow thing to be thankful for.

[WillowsGirlXX]

Flushing Toilets for really useful items.

ipod for my personal choice.

[JustSkipIt]

Um... Tampons and contact lenses

[dynigirl]

contact lenses

I second that I gave up on glasses a couple of years ago. I now wear contacts you put in and take out a month later, even less eye poking required.

Topic: Communication

[Candleshoe]

May I present for your consideration: The bicycle.

It was the very first low-cost way of escaping from the place where we lived. It stopped us from interbreeding ourselves out of existance. It meant the people could travel to work in other places, and workers realised they had rights, as the good places were accessible and the bad places realised that they couldn't rely on local workers who had no choice. And it meant that exercise and healthier lifestyles were possible for everyone.

And it gave the stabilizer industry a much needed boost, as their only previous success had been in using them to trundle tortoises.

[Auburn]

Sun cream is a really good invention because without it I would never be able to go outside during summer!

[Thianne]

Sun cream is a really good invention because without it I would never be able to go outside during summer!

i second that!

[Twisted Minstrel]

It encompasses more than one thing, but the 'invention' of organized music - from taking our first primal noises and puttiing them together in such a way to create harmony and melody. Add to it the contribution of poets - the first troubadors and trouvares, or words of worship, the psalms - and you have what is arguably humankind's richest contribution to the beauty of our world.

[ambercissism]

The telephone and airplanes. And simple things like soap, toothpaste, toothbrush, etc.

[Candleshoe]

I've changed my mind, stuff the bicycle, the Chuckit Dog Ball Tosser is the best invention ever. I now don't have to pick up slobbery tennis balls, and I don't get laughed at for throwing like a girl anymore.

Bliss...

[DelWhicker]

TiVo and mugs that keep your coffee hot.

[notl33t]

Backpacks, cellphones and public transportation.

(I think my grad student experience is showing)

[Auburn]

Deodorant.

Thank goodness for deodorant!!!!

[Emms]

I would think Toilet Paper has to rank high on the list... right? Where would we all be without TP? I'll tell you.... we'd be in the jungle wiping our bottoms (and delicates) with leaves.

[Candleshoe]

Is this another US thing? We call it toilet paper...which gives hooligans plenty of scope on "To Let" signs.

Topic: Spray paint. Not only does it cheer up a To Let sign, but the locals have doctored a nearby town sign to take off the first and last few letters. Now it proudly reads "You are entering Lesbo. Please drive carefully".

[Emms]

No... it's an "I-can't-spell-worth-a-sh*t" thing...

[Candleshoe]

No... it's an "I-can't-spell-worth-a-sh*t" thing...

[Useful_Oxymoron]

To me, the most meaningful invention in human history is both language and the written word, which started it's evolution with cuniform to finally evolve (and continue to evolve) into the alphabet and grammatical structures we use today.

Worst invention ever? No contest : the Karaoke machine.

[Boschi]

I got so happy when I saw this thread, because I love to rave about

Rumble strips

1) They're cheap to add to the side of roads

2) They're incredibly simple and uncomplicated

3) They give clear signals to drivers if they stray off the road, so

4) They've probably saved an awful lot of folks from accidents.

5) And, most importantly, they're kinda fun.

[MemsMapper]

Rumble strips... I never knew until recently that was their real name. In my family, we call them "wubba-wubbas" cuz that's the sound your car makes as you go over them. And I agree, they've helped me out a couple of times, very useful.

Mems

[Sn0wflak3]

Artificial light- atm we've got about 6/7 hours of natural light, and it seems to rain all the bloody time where i am = dark all day! ..Not good during the exam period.
LOVE my uber bright lamp

[summer fairy]

The internet! I love being able to have friends in the US or Australia, I have other friends in holland, arac, everywhere, it can bring ppl together!

I also think mobiles are brilliant! I loveit that i can txt my mates/family whenever, it's better than say ringing them if all you want to do is say goodmorning!

Cash machines! I hate going to the bank so it's great that I hardly ever have to go there because of cash machines!

Space Rockets! We have all learned so much because we can now go into space!

[Pinocchio1940]

The internet! I love being able to have friends in the US or Australia, I have other friends in holland, arac, everywhere, it can bring ppl together!

I agree! That and eBay. Computers and the Internet have certainly made life easier.