# AC/refrigeration is perhaps the greatest invention of modern times **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [June 3, 2014, 8:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ac-refrigeration-is-perhaps-the-greatest-invention-of-modern-times/689958 "2014-06-03T20:27:25Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Doctor\_Jackson](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/doctor_jackson/32/32_2.png) [@Doctor\_Jackson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Doctor_Jackson)\ **Post date:** [June 9, 2014, 7:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ac-refrigeration-is-perhaps-the-greatest-invention-of-modern-times/689958/41 "2014-06-09T19:11:21Z")
> [@Green\_Bean](#): > > Refrigeration revolutionized the human diet. > > A/C is nice and all, but it’s small potatoes compared to refrigerated transport, freezing as a form of food preservation, etc. > > In other words, I agree with your basic premise that artificial refrigeration is one of the most important technological innovations, but you’re grossly underestimating the importance of mechanical refrigeration for food. Having spent weeks at a time in Haiti, completely off the grid, I will say that the thing I missed most - way more than AC or modern plumbing - was cold drinks. We couldn’t partake of the river water, which was at least cool. We had to rely on room temp bottled water, day after day. Since there was no AC, room temp was mid-80’s. Wet, but not particularly refreshing. Having no refrigeration also means much more planning around food. One only harvests what can be eaten or sold within a few days or it spoils. If an animal is slaughtered one must share with/sell to neighbors so it doesn’t go to waste. Even salt wasn’t easy to come by in that region. Food storage just pretty much doesn’t exist. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [June 9, 2014, 8:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ac-refrigeration-is-perhaps-the-greatest-invention-of-modern-times/689958/42 "2014-06-09T20:01:55Z")
> [@Terr](#): > > That’s why I have the whole house standby generator. Kind of a “let them eat cake” attitude there. A family that can’t afford an air conditioner or a refrigerator isn’t going to be able to afford a whole house standby generator either. ---
**Author:** ![Terr](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/839c29/32.png) [@Terr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Terr)\ **Post date:** [June 9, 2014, 8:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ac-refrigeration-is-perhaps-the-greatest-invention-of-modern-times/689958/43 "2014-06-09T20:03:50Z")
> [@Little\_Nemo](#): > > Kind of a “let them eat cake” attitude there. A family that can’t afford an air conditioner or a refrigerator isn’t going to be able to afford a whole house standby generator either. _Whoosh_ ---
**Author:** ![SlackerInc](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/slackerinc/32/275_2.png) [@SlackerInc](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SlackerInc)\ **Post date:** [June 10, 2014, 12:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ac-refrigeration-is-perhaps-the-greatest-invention-of-modern-times/689958/44 "2014-06-10T00:04:12Z")
> [@Crafter\_Man](#): > > In my opinion, the best modern invention is something most people don’t think about, since it remains hidden from view: **sanitation/waste processing systems**. I thought of this comment when I heard this NPR story today: > **[How A Lack Of Toilets Puts India's Women At Risk Of Assault](https://www.npr.org/sections/parallels/2014/06/09/319529037/indias-rape-uproar-ignites-demand-to-end-open-defecation)** > > The rape and lynching of two girls has caused an uproar and focused attention on sexual assaults. A lack of toilets forces women and girls to go outside at night, where they are vulnerable to attack. > [@](#): > > “There has been a huge change in our lives. Before, the men would follow us, wait for us to sit in the field and watch. Now, thanks to Mr. Pathak, we have a lavatory at home.” Laxmi says[…] > > Pathak’s NGO, Sulabh International, has built 1.3 million toilets in Indian homes the past four decades. While commendable, the Sulabh toilet has not dramatically reduced the incidence of open defecation, which presents dire consequences for public health. > > The practice contaminates food and water, and transmits diarrhea-related diseases that kill 700,000 children every year worldwide — 200,000 of them are in India, says Brian Arbogast, director of the Water Sanitation and Hygiene Program at the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. > > “There is an increasing body of evidence that says poor sanitation when a child is young, can lead to mental and cognitive stunting,” Arbogast says. > […] > Arbogast says even affordable innovations won’t alone solve India’s sanitation problems. He says India needs to shift the mindset that open defecation is “natural and normal” to “it is not healthy.” > > “You teach them that their children and their families are suffering a lot of sickness because of basically fecal matter being transmitted, by flies or other ways, to the food they eat,” Arbogast says. “And once people really realize that, that can really be a triggering event for a community.” > > Diane Coffey, a Ph.D. candidate with Princeton’s Woodrow Wilson School and an economist, says simply providing latrines is no guarantee that people will actually use them. She studied five northern Indian states and found that 19 percent of women with access to a latrine still preferred to defecate in the open. > […] > India and China each have more than a billion people, and here’s the contrast: The World Health Organization says in China, 1 out of every 100 people defecate out in the open; in India, it’s 1 out of every 2 people — the highest rate in the world. Srsly? When the story started out, I thought “oh, how awful that they are so desperately poor they can’t afford even basic toilets”. But even before they stated that many people simply prefer to shit in a field (WTF), I started thinking about other poor places I’ve spent significant time among poor populations (Kenya, Jamaica) where this didn’t seem to be at all common. Combine that with it apparently being a common form of Indian entertainment for men to gather and watch the women shit in a field, and I’m raising a serious eyebrow at India right now. Just, no. I mean, it’s bad enough if you have to do it in a pinch and it’s a field that doesn’t already have shit in it. But in a country with over ten times the population density of the U.S., and almost three times the density of China, for chrissakes, that field has got to be just, well, full of shit–right? Do they have some kind of informal system of rotation, with unshat-upon corridors? And my god, the smell and the flies! I can’t even. ---
**Author:** ![Becky2844](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/91b2a8/32.png) [@Becky2844](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Becky2844)\ **Post date:** [June 10, 2014, 1:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ac-refrigeration-is-perhaps-the-greatest-invention-of-modern-times/689958/45 "2014-06-10T01:55:29Z")
> [@Tapioca\_Dextrin](#): > > I don’t know what’s sticking in your head, but it isn’t Dillinger’s wang > > [http://www.snopes.com/risque/penile/dillinger.asp](http://www.snopes.com/risque/penile/dillinger.asp) I saw it labeled in a jar on a shelf with my own eyes. In yellow liguid. In 1967. Tell me I’m wrong, Oh You with an app but no experience. PLEASE tell me I’m a liar. ---
**Author:** ![Lacunae\_Matata](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/8491ac/32.png) [@Lacunae\_Matata](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lacunae_Matata)\ **Post date:** [June 10, 2014, 4:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ac-refrigeration-is-perhaps-the-greatest-invention-of-modern-times/689958/46 "2014-06-10T04:13:05Z")
> [@Becky2844](#): > > I saw it labeled in a jar on a shelf with my own eyes. In yellow liguid. In 1967. Tell me I’m wrong, Oh You with an app but no experience. PLEASE tell me I’m a liar. Since you asked nicely, there may actually be a basis for your memory, but it may not be what you think you remember: [2006 Washington Post article](http://urbanlegends.about.com/gi/dynamic/offsite.htm?zi=1/XJ&sdn=urbanlegends&cdn=newsissues&tm=49&f=11&su=p504.1.336.ip_&tt=2&bt=1&bts=1&zu=http%3A//www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/01/23/AR2006012301854_pf.html) ---
**Author:** ![jtur88](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e9c0ed/32.png) [@jtur88](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jtur88)\ **Post date:** [June 10, 2014, 4:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ac-refrigeration-is-perhaps-the-greatest-invention-of-modern-times/689958/47 "2014-06-10T04:26:16Z")
Having lived in Louisiana before anything was air-conditioned, I disagree with the AC part of the statement. Everybody got along just fine. ---
**Author:** ![Lacunae\_Matata](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/8491ac/32.png) [@Lacunae\_Matata](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lacunae_Matata)\ **Post date:** [June 10, 2014, 5:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ac-refrigeration-is-perhaps-the-greatest-invention-of-modern-times/689958/48 "2014-06-10T05:01:04Z")
Serious question, though: Don’t a lot of manufacturing processes require temperature and humidity control? Things like cleanrooms for the manufacture of drugs and integrated circuits, or operating rooms (at least the filtering part of the “conditioning,”) or nuclear power plants? Would modern computers even be possible if those early giant mainframes hadn’t been cooled by an external system, and how much does a home computer’s cooling system owe to technology borrowed from the air conditioning industry? ---
**Author:** ![Ken001](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/43a26b/32.png) [@Ken001](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ken001)\ **Post date:** [June 10, 2014, 7:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ac-refrigeration-is-perhaps-the-greatest-invention-of-modern-times/689958/49 "2014-06-10T07:04:10Z")
> [@Crafter\_Man](#): > > In my opinion, the best modern invention is something most people don’t think about, since it remains hidden from view: **sanitation/waste processing systems**. > > In most developed countries, there is a huge network of underground pipes that takes away the waste created by the people, resulting in an almost immeasurable benefit to human health and comfort. > > Given a choice between air conditioning and a modern sanitation system, I will choose the latter. Agreed. My pick however for the greatest invention - Anti-biotics. Penicillin and its peers. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ac-refrigeration-is-perhaps-the-greatest-invention-of-modern-times/689958.md?page=2)