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Greatest achievement of all time? (Original Post) LakeArenal Apr 2018 OP
The wheel (n/t) PJMcK Apr 2018 #1
A little late on this ....But Yes..."The wheel", then clean, drinkable, pure running whater Stuart G Oct 2020 #37
agreed Prof. Toru Tanaka Apr 2021 #44
Running water in the house to include toilet facilities. Heartstrings Apr 2018 #2
Yes....You got it..."include toliet facilities...that has saved millions of lives... Stuart G Oct 2020 #38
Toilet paper n/t Timewas Apr 2018 #3
the zipper! n/t Brainstormy Apr 2018 #4
Yes, the wheel and the first mariner to purposefully leave sight of land SonofDonald Apr 2018 #5
Fire. Shrike47 Apr 2018 #6
Fried dough. nt tomp Apr 2018 #7
That's great stuff. Served hot with home made strawberry jam on it. shraby Apr 2018 #8
Fried dough, baked dough, steamed dough LakeArenal Apr 2018 #10
Fermentation. nt yesphan Apr 2018 #9
Vaccines. n/t OnlinePoker Apr 2018 #11
Good stuff! 💉 LakeArenal Apr 2018 #12
The making of string... N_E_1 for Tennis Apr 2018 #13
Learned something new. Thanks! 😊 LakeArenal Apr 2018 #14
Your welcome... N_E_1 for Tennis Apr 2018 #15
Too many to list! Galileo126 Apr 2018 #16
The printing press and caller ID. maveric Apr 2018 #17
On a personal level, PoindexterOglethorpe Jul 2018 #18
The moon landings. n/t cloudbase Aug 2018 #19
Very true. LakeArenal Aug 2018 #20
+1 rampartc Oct 2018 #24
Making chips on a flint nodule canetoad Aug 2018 #21
Nice. LakeArenal Aug 2018 #22
Language Kaleva Oct 2018 #23
In addition to previously mentioned things... Talitha Oct 2018 #25
That's just brilliant. As a traveler totally agree! Laura PourMeADrink Dec 2021 #46
the silicon transistor lapfog_1 Oct 2018 #26
String...Without string there is no rope... N_E_1 for Tennis Oct 2018 #27
Indoor plumbing, vaccines, air conditioning, The Velveteen Ocelot Oct 2018 #28
.Yes..."AIR CONDITIONING"...VERY IMPORTANT...responsible for tremendous population growth in SOUTH Stuart G Mar 2021 #42
Lasting this long without destroying the planet (work in progress). Doodley Oct 2018 #29
Hmmm I'd rather our achievement was fixing earth instead LakeArenal Oct 2018 #30
Fire and then walking on the moon. Rustynaerduwell Oct 2018 #31
Fire. It allowed us to extract more energy from foods (via cooking) John Fante Oct 2018 #32
Domesticating dogs and cats to be our companions, nocoincidences Oct 2018 #33
Trade, electricity, printing press, transportation, a working gov't keithbvadu2 Oct 2018 #34
The scientific method, religion destroyer happyaccident Apr 2019 #35
Well I'm honored. I'm #1. Whooo!! LakeArenal Apr 2019 #36
I'm going very basic: Toilet Paper (instead of sponges, leaves, & Sears Catalogs) nt/ JustFiveMoreMinutes Oct 2020 #39
The Electric Washing Machine Dr. Skull Oct 2020 #40
The first flight into space by Russians in 1957... Stuart G Dec 2020 #41
The electric guitar. N/t. Gaugamela Mar 2021 #43
This message was self-deleted by its author GReedDiamond Jan 2022 #55
The plow Nac Mac Feegle Dec 2021 #45
Running Water and ....the ..TOLIET" & underground plumbing have saved more lives Stuart G Dec 2021 #47
About the "Space Race" & "Getting to the MOON!!!..just so you know.That is affecting you RIGHT NOW. Stuart G Dec 2021 #48
I remember the Today Show Gumbel and Couric saying the Internet seemed to be a fad. LakeArenal Dec 2021 #51
The donut. milestogo Dec 2021 #49
Mmmmm. They are not good in Costa Rica LakeArenal Dec 2021 #50
How about the.."internal combustion enjine"..well..often call it a ..."car" today or "automobile" Stuart G Dec 2021 #52
Turn Signals on Cars. ?? Stuart G Dec 2021 #53
Supposed still on a bike. LakeArenal Dec 2021 #54
The computer chip !!...maybe a repeat of post 21..that is ok, just for today... Stuart G Apr 2022 #56
Railroad newdayneeded Apr 2022 #57

Stuart G

(38,359 posts)
37. A little late on this ....But Yes..."The wheel", then clean, drinkable, pure running whater
Sun Oct 25, 2020, 07:59 PM
Oct 2020

Perhaps more lives have been saved by that last one than all medical advances in history...Of course, no one would
believe that, but go back to the 1890s to see how many died from not pure, unclean, and infected water..

SonofDonald

(2,050 posts)
5. Yes, the wheel and the first mariner to purposefully leave sight of land
Thu Apr 5, 2018, 11:43 AM
Apr 2018

The first written language, the first mathematician, the first to try to talk to another to settle differences instead of attacking them.

Many others.

Walking on the moon for one.

LakeArenal

(28,713 posts)
10. Fried dough, baked dough, steamed dough
Thu Apr 5, 2018, 12:55 PM
Apr 2018

Gotta admit fried is the best. But obviously any dough is good dough.

PS. Is pizza dough the same as baked dough?🍕

🍞🥧🥟🍩🍪

N_E_1 for Tennis

(9,593 posts)
13. The making of string...
Thu Apr 5, 2018, 01:31 PM
Apr 2018

Without string we would have a very different world.

https://www.hakaimagazine.com/features/the-long-knotty-world-spanning-story-of-string/

A very interesting article...

In his 1956 book The Marlinspike Sailor, marine illustrator Hervey Garrett Smith wrote that rope is “probably the most remarkable product known to mankind.” On its own, a stray thread cannot accomplish much. But when several fibers are twisted into yarn, and yarn into strands, and strands into string or rope, a once feeble thing becomes both strong and flexible—a hybrid material of limitless possibility. A string can cut, choke, and trip; it can also link, bandage, and reel. String makes it possible to sew, to shoot an arrow, to strum a chord. It’s difficult to think of an aspect of human culture that is not laced through with some form of string or rope; it has helped us develop shelter, clothing, agriculture, weaponry, art, mathematics, and oral hygiene. Without string, our ancestors could not have domesticated horses and cattle or efficiently plowed the earth to grow crops. If not for rope, the great stone monuments of the world—Stonehenge, the Pyramids at Giza, the moai of Easter Island—would still be recumbent. In a fiberless world, the age of naval exploration would never have happened; early light bulbs would have lacked suitable filaments; the pendulum would never have inspired advances in physics and timekeeping; and there would be no Golden Gate Bridge, no tennis shoes, no Beethoven’s fifth symphony.

“Everybody knows about fire and the wheel, but string is one of the most powerful tools and really the most overlooked,” says Saskia Wolsak, an ethnobotanist at the University of British Columbia who recently began a PhD on the cultural history of string. “It’s relatively invisible until you start looking for it. Then you see it everywhere.”

N_E_1 for Tennis

(9,593 posts)
15. Your welcome...
Thu Apr 5, 2018, 01:48 PM
Apr 2018

Hey me too. At our family dinner we always try to have some nugget for discussion.
I asked almost the same question you did. Three teachers, six college educated people no one even came close. Then the real discussion began.

Galileo126

(2,016 posts)
16. Too many to list!
Thu Apr 5, 2018, 02:11 PM
Apr 2018

but my top 5, no particular order:

(1) sanitation/plumbing (Korg hates dysentery! - beginnings of disease prevention.)
(2) control of fire (Fire warms Korg! Fire cooks meat for Korg!)
(3) metallurgy (Korg like new spear tip and new tools, thanks to #2)
(4) magnetic compass (Korg like travel!)
(5) wheel (Korg like travel AND hauling heavy things!)



lapfog_1

(29,166 posts)
26. the silicon transistor
Sun Oct 14, 2018, 05:56 PM
Oct 2018

without which we would not have modern computers, radios, almost all electronics.

N_E_1 for Tennis

(9,593 posts)
27. String...Without string there is no rope...
Sun Oct 14, 2018, 05:57 PM
Oct 2018
https://www.hakaimagazine.com/features/the-long-knotty-world-spanning-story-of-string/

In his 1956 book The Marlinspike Sailor, marine illustrator Hervey Garrett Smith wrote that rope is “probably the most remarkable product known to mankind.” On its own, a stray thread cannot accomplish much. But when several fibers are twisted into yarn, and yarn into strands, and strands into string or rope, a once feeble thing becomes both strong and flexible—a hybrid material of limitless possibility. A string can cut, choke, and trip; it can also link, bandage, and reel. String makes it possible to sew, to shoot an arrow, to strum a chord. It’s difficult to think of an aspect of human culture that is not laced through with some form of string or rope; it has helped us develop shelter, clothing, agriculture, weaponry, art, mathematics, and oral hygiene. Without string, our ancestors could not have domesticated horses and cattle or efficiently plowed the earth to grow crops. If not for rope, the great stone monuments of the world—Stonehenge, the Pyramids at Giza, the moai of Easter Island—would still be recumbent. In a fiberless world, the age of naval exploration would never have happened; early light bulbs would have lacked suitable filaments; the pendulum would never have inspired advances in physics and timekeeping; and there would be no Golden Gate Bridge, no tennis shoes, no Beethoven’s fifth symphony.

The Velveteen Ocelot

(115,267 posts)
28. Indoor plumbing, vaccines, air conditioning,
Sun Oct 14, 2018, 05:58 PM
Oct 2018

harnessing electricity, the telescope, the Internet, the printing press, the internal combustion engine (yes, I know it's polluting but it had a huge effect on the world), the domestication of animals and plants - too many to pick just one.

Stuart G

(38,359 posts)
42. .Yes..."AIR CONDITIONING"...VERY IMPORTANT...responsible for tremendous population growth in SOUTH
Wed Mar 10, 2021, 11:31 PM
Mar 2021
OUTSTANDING POINT.!!!!.... without relatively cheap Air Conditioning................

NO incredible Florida population growth...& other states with summer heat, parts of Texas and Arizona..

John Fante

(3,479 posts)
32. Fire. It allowed us to extract more energy from foods (via cooking)
Sun Oct 14, 2018, 07:31 PM
Oct 2018

This enabled our brains to grow - they wouldn't be the powerful dynamos they are without cooking, and you can't cook without fire.

Put it another way. We would still be humans without the wheel, special relativity, or vaccines. Can't say they about fire.

nocoincidences

(2,194 posts)
33. Domesticating dogs and cats to be our companions,
Sun Oct 14, 2018, 07:53 PM
Oct 2018

and taming horses to be our transportation.

Of course we domesticated our companions to work for us, and dogs still do, at least some of them, and cats have rightfully taken their place as gods and goddesses to be worshipped, no work expected from them anymore.

 

happyaccident

(136 posts)
35. The scientific method, religion destroyer
Sun Apr 21, 2019, 11:55 PM
Apr 2019

Observation,hypothesis,experimentation,theory, do over and over forever
Science ends Superstition, hooray for science!
This is the first time I have ever posted anything on the internet. kinda fun.

Dr. Skull

(26 posts)
40. The Electric Washing Machine
Wed Oct 28, 2020, 11:33 AM
Oct 2020

Invented in 1922, the electric washing machine began the freedom of women from the onerous task of doing laundry by hand, freeing many women to go to college, enter the workforce and politics. The washing machine also provided people with sterile underwear and clean clothes, promoting a general rise in health and longevity. The modern world as we know it (the first world, I guess) would not exist without the washing machine.

Stuart G

(38,359 posts)
41. The first flight into space by Russians in 1957...
Wed Dec 23, 2020, 12:24 AM
Dec 2020

Last edited Wed Mar 10, 2021, 11:40 PM - Edit history (1)

Where is why...That first flight by the ..".Russians"....enabled the race to space and race to the moon......

In the process of.................."winning the race to the moon" ...the result was the miniaturization of computers and computer components.

It can be argued that the miniaturization of computers and computer components and their use in medicine and hospitals have saved thousands if not millions of lives. Yes, Instant communication that is the result of computers and miniaturization of them could have saved millions..................and speaking of saving lives.................................................................................................................................

How about the invention of the telephone?....calling for ambulance help and the ambulance coming
to help...saves a lot of lives every day.....doesn't it?

Response to Gaugamela (Reply #43)

Nac Mac Feegle

(969 posts)
45. The plow
Fri Dec 3, 2021, 12:58 PM
Dec 2021

It permitted a farmer to make more food than was needed to feed one family. This excess created commerce, one can exchange another good or service for food, creating specialists. This permitted the formation of villages, then towns, then cities, and onward to nations.

There had to be leaders, soldiers, administrators, blacksmiths, weaver's, shopkeepers, etc... that needed a common location and protection. Because one farmer could produce food for many people, there had to be a way to dispose of the excess. Things went onward from there, essentially necessitating civilization.

Not my own, I can't remember where I saw it originally.

Stuart G

(38,359 posts)
47. Running Water and ....the ..TOLIET" & underground plumbing have saved more lives
Sat Dec 4, 2021, 12:50 AM
Dec 2021
in the history of the world....than anything else...(In my opinion)...........

You would have to read more about underground plumbing and sewers to get the truth on that one..
but getting rid of the s**t from the home, and out houses..saved millions of lives.

Yes..I used an outhouse at Boy Scout Camp in the late 50s..NO IT WAS NOT NICE..AND GUESS WHAT???

THE SCOUTS TOOK TURNS AT CLEANING THE TOLIET SEAT, AND THE AREA AROUND THE SEAT..

....NOW THAT WAS ABOUT 60 YEARS AGO...(more like 63 years ago) and I remember cleaning the outhouse
very well..the few times I had to clean the seat and area around it..Yes it stunk
..

Stuart G

(38,359 posts)
48. About the "Space Race" & "Getting to the MOON!!!..just so you know.That is affecting you RIGHT NOW.
Sat Dec 4, 2021, 01:05 AM
Dec 2021

....i said it earlier...but I will say it again.........

The Space Race required much smaller computers to go to the moon, (because only so much weight could go
in a space ship)..and as a result the insides of the computer started to ..............shrink..........and shrink again...
and more and more...

............In the early 80s, I took a course on the future of computers..and the professor said, that someday
we would hold a computer in our hand...and I & everyone else thought the fellow was...NUTS!!! ..And, he
also said, "Everyone would own a computer"...Everyone..???He was totally NUTS!!! in today..money $10,000

.........................TOTALLY NUTS.........

. .................and guess what.......???? he was totally correct.

LakeArenal

(28,713 posts)
51. I remember the Today Show Gumbel and Couric saying the Internet seemed to be a fad.
Wed Dec 22, 2021, 04:38 PM
Dec 2021

Wouldn’t last long.

Stuart G

(38,359 posts)
53. Turn Signals on Cars. ??
Sat Dec 25, 2021, 03:40 PM
Dec 2021

Yes, a long time ago, and far, far away..you had to stick your arm out to single that you were turning.

You don't believe...It is true.

Stuart G

(38,359 posts)
56. The computer chip !!...maybe a repeat of post 21..that is ok, just for today...
Mon Apr 4, 2022, 09:14 PM
Apr 2022

Last edited Mon Apr 4, 2022, 10:04 PM - Edit history (1)

newdayneeded

(1,939 posts)
57. Railroad
Fri Apr 15, 2022, 10:09 AM
Apr 2022

in a short time we went from clip clop horse travel, maybe 6 mph, to railroad travel at 36+ mph.

In today's words, our commutes to work average say 40mph, we would now be able to go 240mph. We'd be able to commute to another state daily for work.

It must have been mesmerizing back then to travel a first time on a train at 50-60 mph, like riding on a jet.

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