What is the greatest invention ever?

[George Costanza]

fire

[Fugitive]

fire

 

One again, not invented.

 

Porn is the clear winner.

[mouse1989]

TK241 ratings

[AB13]

Who invented beans on a fry up? Would this count as one of the greatest!

[General Dryness]

Hot tubs and tequila have gotta be up there

 

You would say that.

 

As far as I'm concerned, until we see pics of this lavish, rock star type existence you claim to live, this is you.

 

[moof]

More white trash than rockstar I'd say

[General Dryness]

More white trash than rockstar I'd say

 

You're an unemployed welder living in a trailer park with your screeching harpy of a wife and 17 mewling babies, some of which are yours?

 

Hot tubbing with naked poontang ain't no white trash livin I ever done heard of, boy. 

[Guest Numero Veinticinco]

One again, not invented.

 

 

Hmn, if we are ruling out the discovery of a reaction, then invention becomes a pretty narrow field. After all, everything ever invented comes from that basic principle. Sets of reactions used in different ways.

 

And electricity was invented. By god. Facht.

[SammyAftershave]

Cod.

[moof]

You're an unemployed welder living in a trailer park with your screeching harpy of a wife and 17 mewling babies, some of which are yours?

 

Hot tubbing with naked poontang ain't no white trash livin I ever done heard of, boy.

Haha

[aikido]

Flushable toilet.

[Lee909]

Flushable toilet.

What was wrong with front wall fresh air orifices combined with a wide capacity gutter installation below.

 

 

[Guest Numero Veinticinco]

Flushable toilet.

Good shout. Proper sewerage, too. Water to homes, etc.

[Stu Monty]

The transformer was a biggie wasn't it?

 

I remember reading some clever shit about how the compass was a way more massive thing than people would give it credit for.

 

The winner though, surely, is the book (you can go with writing or the printing press I suppose). The one device that allowed knowledge to be passed on without each subsequent generation having to discover the same things again.

[setreal]

The two-point conversion.

[Section_31]

Language, no words - no thought.

[Guest Numero Veinticinco]

Language, no words - no thought.

Monkeys think? I'm no linguist, like. Stu makes a good point above about shared knowledge, though.

[setreal]

Technically, language would not be an invention. 

 

 

Monkeys think?

 

That question is quite interesting I think, as we also "think about" a lot of things (or our brain does) without using words. One of my profs was researching what is called "quiet knowledge" - stuff like "how to ride a bike" or "how to tie your shoelaces". Stuff you could learn/teach by showing/doing, rather than explaining/rationalizing.

[Guest Numero Veinticinco]

From the little I know about linguistics, Chomsky said that the ability for languae is inate. I guess (and I really mean that, I'm guessing) that means lamguages are invented (like Esperanto or Klingon or sign language, for example) or developed over time, but the ability is a natural process.

[Stu Monty]

Written language is definitely an invention. There's a definite difference between spoken and written language. 

[Guest Numero Veinticinco]

Written language is definitely an invention. There's a definite difference between spoken and written language.

Yeah, good point that. Letters representing the sounds rather than spoken words representing ideas.

[Mook]

Sweary words, bad language, expletives, turning the air blue etc.

 

Fuck a doodle doo, that sort of thing.

[Section_31]

It's interesting. I think language is still an invention though whether propensities are inate or not, there's a difference between communication and language. I might be able to grunt something at you and you might learn to interpret that means I'm constipated, but It's not language. A language should have specific rules that aren't open to interpretation.

 

I think the scope of language definitely impacts our thoughts and what we can do with those thoughts, that's the genius of 1984.

[Bjornebye]

The answer is still the cheeseburger

[Dougie Do'ins]

From the opposite ends of technology, the wheel and the internet

The wheel wasn't really an invention though was it ? Well not in the sense where one person had a eureka moment, developed the product and gave it to the world.

 

Not the best but the steam engine has to be up there.