What are the most important inventions since flint tools and why?

Discussion in 'History and Culture' started by Montegriffo, Jan 18, 2021.

  1. Montegriffo

    Montegriffo Well-Known Member

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    I'll accept both the zero and complex mathematics as world changing.
    The first maths was probably when some farmer counted his produce and worked out a system of recording the number. Tally sticks, knots in a bit of string or something similar.
    There's an argument for the abacus as an important invention.
     
  2. Montegriffo

    Montegriffo Well-Known Member

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    I'll take the first three but you'll have to put the case for shoe laces. Shoes maybe but laces are just string put to a novel use.
     
  3. Montegriffo

    Montegriffo Well-Known Member

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    Yes, the discovery of germs and their countermeasures definitely saved a lot of lives. Probably something which was instinctive for thousands of years but not understood before the invention of the microscope. I'll chalk that one up to the invention of polished glass lenses. Glass is much underrated, telescopes and spectacles being more examples of how it changed the world and beyond.
     
  4. The Rhetoric of Life

    The Rhetoric of Life Banned

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    no, there's no need, but I am wondering if you got the joke with my 4th contribution there or if you're continuing it by asking me to make a case for your acceptance.
     
    Last edited: Jan 18, 2021
  5. The Rhetoric of Life

    The Rhetoric of Life Banned

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    What? No, the discovery of germs and their countermeasures lead to instincts of fire and organised religion and witch burning, no.

    It's the invention of modern medicine in a nutshell.

    ... You say not understood like the coming of understanding was somehow inevitable instead of a giant leap forward.
     
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  6. Montegriffo

    Montegriffo Well-Known Member

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    I'm making the argument that the giant leap forward was the microscope and we'd always understood the need for cleanliness.
    Cleanliness is next to Godliness after all.
    Especially in really bad dictionaries.
     
  7. The Rhetoric of Life

    The Rhetoric of Life Banned

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    So without glass we'd be screwed.
    Glass ended cleansing curses with scripture and fire (half right but wrong tree they were barking at) to... The world we know it thus far, what prey tell is the next 'glass'?

    I'm thinking some sort of plasma of the super heated gas variety to make a case for solid light and weightlessness and containment and blocking of radioactive properties meaning lighter travel for nuclear generators - if we can get both reactor and plasma field online, if we continue down this avenue, might change things.
    Also, I hate to say it, but China's CCP are currently leading the way for quantum entanglement, a move perhaps that may pave the way for atom publication and creating atoms we can manipulate to be anything rather than pairing for encryption, try and restructure I say, get our replicators on and make food and whatnot.

    Or 3D printers, part replicator part mass production though, let's get quantum for a 4D printer, and work on restructuring.
     
    Last edited: Jan 18, 2021
  8. freedom8

    freedom8 Well-Known Member

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    My vote goes to the refrigerator.
     
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  9. Montegriffo

    Montegriffo Well-Known Member

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    Is that a beer related decision?
     
  10. Montegriffo

    Montegriffo Well-Known Member

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    I think the plough has to be top ten.
     
  11. freedom8

    freedom8 Well-Known Member

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    I'm afraid it is. Cheers!

    And I would add a hammer to make your plough as efficient as possible.
     
    Last edited: Jan 18, 2021
  12. Bezukhov

    Bezukhov Active Member

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    I love questions like this. Sticking to the OP's original list it has to be agriculture. It was the basis for everything else enumerated.
    Also think of the mental leap between eating that seed now, or sticking it in the ground so in a few moths you'll have hundreds instead.
     
    Last edited: Jan 18, 2021
  13. Montegriffo

    Montegriffo Well-Known Member

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    Yes I agree, agriculture allowed the division of labour and lead the way to civilisation.
    I'd put pottery in second. Without safe storage of grain and other foods agriculture could never have become as successful as it has.
    Maybe the plough in third place. Even without domesticated animals to pull a plough it was still the most important development in farming.
     
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  14. Montegriffo

    Montegriffo Well-Known Member

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    Cheers.

    Got to include steel before the hammer although that's a bit of a chicken or egg question. Maybe just settle for metallurgy to encompass them both.
    The first ploughs would have been bone, horn or stone though so not reliant on metal at all.
     
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  15. freedom8

    freedom8 Well-Known Member

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    Absolutely! But have "we" invented fire yet in preparation for metallurgy? I don't remember now. Or it came with the flintstone?;-):smile:
     
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  16. Montegriffo

    Montegriffo Well-Known Member

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    It's a really good question. Did ''we'' have fire before we developed flint tools. I think the answer may be that tools were developed first but not by us. Modern man has been around for about 200,000 years but evidence of stone tools marked by fire go back 350,000 years.
    https://www.ibtimes.com/when-did-ma...ools, the earliest form of manmade technology.
     
  17. Montegriffo

    Montegriffo Well-Known Member

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    Last edited: Jan 19, 2021
  18. Montegriffo

    Montegriffo Well-Known Member

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    Of course nobody invented fire, fire has been around since the beginnings of the universe. What we invented were the methods to start fires. Maybe the early hominids just took advantage of natural fires at first.
    Bloody good question though, I'm going to go down that rabbit hole now to see what I can find out.
    ''I'm gone man, solid gone''
     
    Last edited: Jan 19, 2021
  19. freedom8

    freedom8 Well-Known Member

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  20. freedom8

    freedom8 Well-Known Member

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    Oh, you met them!:smile::wink:
     
  21. Montegriffo

    Montegriffo Well-Known Member

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    Well, short answer we don't really know which came first.

    Long answer, the archaeological evidence for the use of flint napping does seem to go back further. Chipped flint fragments found in a Kenyan riverbank are estimated to be 3.3 million years old while the earliest evidence for hominid's use of controlled fire goes back 1.7 - 2 million years.
    Of course, just because evidence of earlier use of fire hasn't been found it doesn't mean it doesn't exist.

    One interesting theory is that cooking meat allowed our brains to become larger as we were able to absorb more protein and nutrients than before. This is contested though.
    Another idea offered is that, after hunting and gathering, cooking may well have been the first specialisation of labour. As a chef this makes me a little proud. Without people like me you lot would still be swinging from the trees and living off nuts and berries. You're welcome.
    The first steps in language development may also have come from huddling around a fire at night to keep warm and share cooked meats.
     
    Last edited: Jan 19, 2021
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  22. freedom8

    freedom8 Well-Known Member

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    or fight over them.;-)
     
    Last edited: Jan 19, 2021
  23. Pixie

    Pixie Well-Known Member

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    Not sure if this counts as an invention, but productive use of animals.
    I spent 22 years "doing" border collie training and spent many gorgeous days in mountains tending and moving flocks of sheep.
    Without dogs there would be just wild sheep, difficult to manage. and from sheep we got meat, horn, wool, blood etc. Ditto cows.
    Dogs were trained to hunt, chase food down burrows to trap them or run over large areas to find food, defend us, attack our enemies and find things, including our companions. Animals haul things and take us places on their backs.
    We simply would still be savages and spending all day finding food and cowering near a fire if we didn't train them to work with us.
     
  24. Montegriffo

    Montegriffo Well-Known Member

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    I did cover that in my OP with the wide ranging ''domestication of animals'' but yes, dogs do deserve a special mention. As do cats which have been performing the very valuable service of pest control protecting our grain supplies etc for thousands of years.
    Horses have also played a major part in our development and the invention of the stirrup was world changing.
     
  25. Pixie

    Pixie Well-Known Member

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    Sorry I missed your reference.
     

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