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

Of course, in the evolutionary equivalent to building muscle, the availability of protein, while necessary, does not initiate the change, only support it. That is, one needs over-tax & tear one's muscle fibers, in order to build additional muscle &, likewise, if there is not, first, a specific evolutionary need for greater mental capacity, it won't be naturally-selected out as the dominant trait, from its mutation (in the classic model).

While, certainly, more general intelligence would be helpful to any creature, it does not appear to develop that easily. I have read one speculation that it was hunting with projectiles which was the practice wherein larger brain capacity (for the quick spacial calculations required for hitting a moving target) found its proving grounds. I'm not endorsing the theory, just passing it along, as a matter of interest, which is leading to my invention proposal.

Since a protein-rich diet is necessary to support the development of a larger brain (which is kind of interesting, it now occurs to me, since isn't the brain largely fat?), the bow & arrows, no doubt, were a boon in this regard. I'm pretty sure, they didn't come along until long after the explosion in human brain size, but were helpful, nonetheless, in ensuring an adequate protein supply for childrens', still-developing brains.

 

Hmm, your link contains this cartoon...

...with this caption

The cartoon predates Snow's paper by 20 years.

 

Yes, it's a kind of chicken or the egg question.
Did eating more protein make us more intelligent or did becoming more intelligent make it easier to kill and eat more protein?
Most likely a bit of both.

 

But merely seeing these things did not allow them to understand which were harmful & which were innocuous. There are, after all, bacteria practically anywhere one looks. Seeing various, mysterious things under a microscope did not initially translate into the effective, practical avoidance of the dangerous ones.

 

Sure, but the invention of microscopes lead to the better understanding of what had previously been instinctual ie drinking dirty water makes you ill.
This is the root of my claim that glass is the invention which moved the centre of technological innovation from China to Europe.
The Chinese never developed glass because they had porcelain.
Porcelain may be perfectly adequate for fine drinking vessels but it is totally useless for making polished lenses.
Spectacles, telescopes and microscopes were the difference between Europe and China and led to China becoming scientifically and technologically backward in comparison.

 

So then, the inventions of the spinning wheel and loom would be part of that. Weaving is thought of as one of the basic measures of a society's sophistication, as is pottery (which I would have mentioned if I'd been here at the thread's beginning).

 

Oh, I'm not disputing glass-making or microscopes-- how about telescopes, as well!-- only saying that they were not the basis of this colossal improvement in public health. We were not smart enough to avoid contaminated water, for most of our history. Even once microscopes came along, scientists could see bacteria, but didn't immediately understand it.

Once common sense was finally accepted, that there was something about some particular activities which put pathogen contaminants in a certain supply of water, then we could break out the 'scopes & start identifying specific structures as suspects. But that was still a long way off from modern lab analysis of water samples.

 

Oh yes, pottery was pivotal as I mentioned here http://www.politicalforum.com/index...t-tools-and-why.583998/page-2#post-1072385218
I put it in second place after agriculture (if we accept verbal communication and the use of fire as older than homosapiens themselves).

 

They're right there in the post of mine you quoted, along with spectacles which may have been the most important use of polished lenses since they extended the useful careers of the great thinkers. Previous to spectacles many academics would have been seriously handicapped by their 40's because of their inability to read the latest information in their fields of knowledge.

 

I saw your post about pottery; that's why I said that I would have said, if I'd been here earlier (when you first suggested glass). Besides the similarity between pots & woven baskets, what brought pottery to my mind, in my post about weaving, is the traditional rivalry between the practitioners of these two crafts (see anthropologist Claude Levi-Strauss's, The Jealous Potter).

 

I would've been handicapped almost from the get-go; I've been wearing glasses since kindergarten. It's curious that this serious flaw of nearsightedness has carried on this long. I wonder if, perhaps, it was never as common and as bad (as it would be for an ancient hunter-gather) as it now is, prior to the invention of spectacles-- another variation on your thread's recurrent chicken & the egg motif.

(Oh, & sorry for missing telescopes, I was reading quickly because I hadn't actually been finished sleeping but took a peek at PF & was tempted by your thread.)

 

Woven baskets are no match for pottery when it comes to long term storage of grain and other foods though. A basket doesn't provide much protection against insects or damp. They are completely useless for storing liquids or cooking on an open fire.
They do have advantages in weight and ease of manufacture etc but in the transition between hunter gathering and agriculture they are insignificant compared to pots.
That book does look interesting. I'll have to check out the library when it's back in business.

 

One aspect of the light bulb that I find particularly interesting is that I read, as electricity became available to each place, the average amount of sleep of those people went from an average of 9 hrs. per night, to 7 hrs., practically overnight. It's hard to think of that not having an impact on a person.

To be as accurate as possible, I'm not sure of what data, my source was using to make the assertion. It is possible that, "time in bed," would have been a more exact description, or maybe the way it was put, "sleeping," was what their data indicated. Either way, the drastic shift in bed/sleep habits, not just happening quickly, but for entire communities, more or less simultaneously, must have been an odd thing to experience, and a curious thing, of which to gauge the ramifications.

 

The spork is obviously a recent abomination but the history of the fork in England doesn't go back as far as you'd imagine.
Despite being introduced (well re-introduced since the ancient Greeks had them) into Europe in the 10th century and in widespread use in Italy by the 11th they were not introduced to England until about 1632.
Even then they didn't really catch on until the 18th century.
Forks were felt to be effeminate by Englishmen used to eating with their hands. The church was also against them, despite them being mentioned in the Bible, and some writers for the Catholic church thought them blasphemous since God in his wisdom had already given us natural forks in the form of fingers.
So, down with sporks, hurrah for forks and go Leafs.

 

Granted. You understand, I brought up baskets not to compare their impact to that of pottery, but only to explain the mental connection which led me to bring up my noticing your earlier posts on glass & pottery-- I didn't want to be again reiterating a conversation that had already occurred, & this thread was still short enough to peruse-- in my post about weaving, and the loom, which was replying to your post about clothing.

Since all that doesn't add to the overall thread, I will make a couple of points, not to be a nuisance, but with the intent of sharpening it. First is that you asked for inventions, but are accepting some broader things, including conceptual developments (like harnessing electricity & long distance travel), while simultaneously, eliminating individual inventions under some broad categories. Do you prefer to focus on one or the other? Or, I'm guessing, your happy to be loose on that score?
An example of the latter was your naming, "clothing," as an invention, but not the various tools & machinery involved in its manufacture. (BTW, this is something I could bring up about a good number of threads here, & occasionally do, so I'm hoping this won't bother you).

Continuing on that tack, under transportation: I saw the wheel, but not the cart, or ROAD. Later on, of course, asphalt was a big invention. Even before that, we had the internal combustion engine. And a probably necessary prerequisite was the steam engine. But the foundation for both of these was the WHEEL & PULLEY system. You get the idea.

Then, there is the question of defining important: do you mean up to now, or ultimately? Because, despite how much difference they have made in the short time they've been around, it does not seem justifiable to list micro-chips as a top invention, measured against the entire length of human history, so far. But if we project into just our most realistic anticipations for the future, this has to be one of the greatest of all our inventions. You see what I mean?

Anyway, that example would also fit in the earlier category, because I believe computers have already been named, but without micro-processor chips, the reality would be much different. This finally brings me back to the first thing I mentioned, about concepts versus inventions. Not to seem like Leibnitz groupie, but he did, "invent," binary code.

 

I wonder what caused that reduction.
It's not as if we didn't have other methods of lighting our homes before the lightbulb.

Historically, wax candles and even cheaper smoky tallow lamps were an expensive luxury for most so their use would have been strictly rationed. This would have led to people rising at first light and going to bed not long after dark. But they were less expensive by the time electric light was introduced.
You would have thought time spent in bed was seasonal with long winter nights and short summer nights being the determining factor.

 

I agree with your criticism of my thread title. I regret not asking for developments of major importance since this is what I find most interesting. My original thought was to ask for important inventions since the industrial revolution but was persuaded to open it up to since stone tools. This has made the thread too wide ranging and made it very hard to come up with a list of inventions in order of importance. It's a confusing mix of two quite different subjects.

Still, I'm enjoying the conversations and it sure beats just talking about Trump all the time.

 

Blasphemy! This one doesn't recognize the holy Spork! Burn the witch!

 

Lol-- I heartily agree! So, I can throw in a couple of more, kind of playing off the already-mentioned wheel-&-pulley system, all having to do with LEVERAGE which, of course, has been of great use in both building, & in focusing energy in many applications. These two inventions would be the BLOCK & TACKLE system (a block is a system of pulleys in a small casing: long-essential in building, sailing, or the moving of anything of great weight); and the old-tyme classic, the FULCRUM.

As an afterthought, I'll suggest the ARCH (from which I'm going to lazily assume we got the word architecture) and the suspension bridge. Oh, and of course, CONCRETE.

 

Good list. I'd add the printing press, computers, and TikTok.

 

Heretic!!!
You come here with you new-fangled 19th century abomination trying to replace time honoured traditions.
What next? You'll be suggesting we eat fried chicken out of cardboard buckets.

 

We're only accepting the movable type printing press.

 

I'll admit not following my own suggestion. I should have first named the invention of the semi-conductor, the base material of the micro-chip, as a great breakthrough invention. Again, this takes into consideration its, expected, continued importance.

As a side note, though the form that could have practical application has yet to be found, the last 110 years has brought us closer to finding a SUPERconducting material, which might have potentially great significance in the future.

https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2020/10/after-decades-room-temperature-superconductivity-achieved

 

John Harrison's marine chronometer.
The first portable clock accurate enough to measure longitude.


Harrison's sea watch No1 (H4), a copy of which Captain Cook used to accurately map the southern ocean.

 

Has anyone mentioned beer/wine yet?

I've read that some anthropologists maintain that beer/wine is responsible for man changing from hunter-gatherer to a more established agricultural state because beer/wine needs to be stationary before it can ferment.