The Alphabet. Simply put the idea that “words” were made up of various “syllables” and could be broken down into their component “letters” formed the very basics of reductionist thought without which - no atomic theory, no moveable type, no distilling 
the most important discovery and invention is the semiconducter without it we would still be back in the 1900’s new surgical techniques would never of been discovered without it and computers would never exist also all the systems and neato machines would never exist either.
Okay. I changed my mind. MAXIS RULE!! Now we have the option of different thicknesses and colours. What’d they have in the old days? Maple leafs for the tail-end of your period? Thick oak ones for those heavy flow days?
Plus staples are pretty useful.
What about worst discovery? I’m lobbying for guns/gun powder, or maybe underwear.
The Periodic Table of Elements, by Dmitri Mendeleev.
For an example, see http://www.chemicalelements.com/
The periodic table of elements enabled chemists to deduce the chemical properties of undiscovered elements by simple extrapolation.
It also explains very neatly the way molecules bind together.
Not exactly a scientific discovery, but I am really impressed by the uncelebrated folks who set down our spoken languages into drawings/characters that represent sounds (as opposed to drawings/characters that represent ideas - these are separate languages from the spoken ones) so that people can “see” the spoken language. I am really, really impressed by whoever worked out French - what a genius.
Helen Keller would never have learned to speak without these systems. Helps computers, too.
Relating to another thread, I guess I am on the side of phonics.
I agree that the most important discovery was probably the development of a written language. This enabled further discoveries to be reliable recorded, and not forgotten.
I am trying to distinguish the phonetic written languages meant to set the spoken languages down versus the ideogram written languages which were meant only to communicate by writing with no indication of the spoken language.
I’m also going to say The Scientific Method.
Spam. You don’t need tupperware with Spam.
Or, how about the transistor and silicon chips.
Air Conditioning. ( the science behind it)
This invention has had profound effects on industry and on where people live. The south went through a huge economic boom because of it. Do you think Houston or Dallas would be the huge population centers without it?
Other that that I would have to also propose the transporter. I mean it saved the show lots of expensive landing and taking off sequences which helped get the show on the air in the first place. (ok like that last bit was sarcasm but I don’t know how to use the emoticons
or like to )
Agriculture. Hungry people don’t think well.
Grrrr.
Everyone at the time knew the Earth was round. NOBODY thought it was flat; they knew it was round and they had an excellent estimate of the Earth’s circumference.
Where Columbus differedwas that he felt the Earth was much smaller than it actually is, and therefore that it would be possible to sail to India.
The notion that Columbus “discovered” the Earth’s shape is a myth, first invented by Washington Irving.
Gotta go with the scientific method myself. Everything we have and are today as a species owes something to the discovery that the world was understandable and therefore manipulable.
The first Irving Legend.
I don’t understand how underwear could be the worst invention. Exactly how would you wear your thick/thin maxi pad without underwear?
And if it were not for thong underwear, today’s high school students would have nothing to protest!
I’m too sexy for a sig.
KarlGauss wrote:
I thought it was Sir Francis Bacon who said that, not Roger Bacon. (Although Roger Bacon certainly had an experimental streak in him.)
As to what the greatest discovery/invention of all time was, that’s easy: It was Nicholas LeBlanc’s invention of a cheap way to make lye out of ordinary table salt in 1791. Why was this so crucial? Because cheap lye means cheap soap! Try to imagine living without soap. You can’t, can you? That’s how all-pervasive LeBlanc’s legacy has become.
Colin Wilkinson wrote:
And here I am, going to great lengths to write up a long-winded, detailed, skeptical de-bunking of Wilhelm Reich and Orgone Energy! (See my work-in-progress at http://www.netcom.com/~rogermw/Reich.)
I think Al Gore’s in ventun of the internet was way kool.
I am always partial to the dishwasher.
Not that I think it is the most influential invention, but I think it may be the most ideal.
It is faster than washing dishes by hand.
It is more sanitary than washing dishes by hand.
It uses less water than washing dishes by hand.
It uses less energy than washing dishes by hand.
So, faster, cheaper, better and more ecological. I can’t think of another invention that meets all four criteria.
According to a popular phonograph record circa 1965 by Mel Brooks and Carl Reiner called “The Thousand Year-Old Man”, the greatest discovery in the last 1000 years was Saran Wrap.