Non-destructivly speaking, cast my vote for the CRT. The thingy your reading this on.
The telephone.
Without instantaneous mass communication, progress would not have increased at the exponential rate that it has.
“Waheeey! ‘Duck!’ Get it?”
“Errr… No…”
“Duck! Sounds almost exactly like fu-”
The Pill.
The silicon chip.
If you’re hot, that’s good.
If you’re cool, that’s good.
I don’t get it.
Spelling.
I would have to go with the invention of the printing press.
– Sylence
“The problem with reality is the lack of background music.” – Anon
I’m reading these on an LCD screen, not a CRT, thank you…
Printing press?! oy…
Transistor. Gotta be.
The internet – thanks Mr. Gore!
(I hope I don’t have to put “HAHA” but I better, for the sake of trolls.)
Railroads, or maybe airplanes.
“Had I been around at the creation, I would have given some useful hints for the better ordering of the universe.”
- Alfonso X
The clock
I think it’s impossible to single out one thing for a thousand years.
But I’ll take these five, as the ones I think had the very mos tto do with advancing our civilization to the point it is now:
The printing press
Cotton gin
photography
flight
telecommunications (how do you pick between the telegraph, television, radio, and the telephone? I can’t!)
stoid
The Pocket Fisherman
Ginsu knives (hey it cut through that aluminum can AND sliced that tomato!)
seriously though I will say:
antibiotics (hey it prolonged life and wiped out most of the most horrible and deadly dieases that have plagued mankind since we started walking around on two legs)
Top contenders:
Movable type printing press -perhaps responsible for everything that followed it.
Steam engine -basis of the industrial revolution.
The global-range sailing ship -made possible the European expansion and the creation of a world economy.
The musket -Chinese had gunpowder, but Europeans came up with the idea of using it to shoot bullets.
The computer -although it’s influence is still just getting started.
Also, if ideas or concepts are allowed as well as physical objects, then I would add:
Double entry bookeeping
The scientific method
Germ theory of disease
Atomic theory of matter
The printing Press
The Steam Engine
Commercial Pesticides (if we didn’t have 'em, food harvests reduced by 1/2 at least!)
Antiseptic Surgery (can you say ‘gangrene’?)
Vaccinations
Public Sanitation & Public Hygene (cities used to be pest holes of diseaes, now they’re a lot better)
The Scientific Method (which made the rest possible
<font color=blue>The computer cannot even make the list!</font>
“The truth is uncontrovertible. Panic may resent it; ignorance may deride it; malice may destroy it, but there it is.”-Sir Winston Churchill
I’d have to go for the sleep sofa. It’s a very underappreciated invention, just look at all it’s good points! It makes visits more pleasant for guests, promoting good diplomatic relations; it helps to relieve fighting among siblings for bed space at hotels, promoting non-violence; it’s a technological wonder, just look at it and tell me if you could havce desinged it…It could be considered the pinacle of mechanical engineering.
-
Printing Press
-
Steam / Combustion Engine
-
Beer
-
Contraceptives
-
Antibiotics
-
Formula I (see also: combustion engine)
-
Soccer (see also: beer)
Coldfire
“You know how complex women are”
- Neil Peart, Rush (1993)
*penicillin
*commercial airplanes
*television
*refrigerator
and these from my husband:
*48" blade lawn mowers
*weed whackers
*silicone implants
Well, actually, Dennis the Short (Dionysius Exiguus) invented the Millennium back around the sixth century (at least for the current reckoning).
The Hot Water Heater/Indoor plumbing
Printing Press
Steam Engine
and of course Pizza
Another vote for the printing press here.
I can’t imagine any civilization growing technologically without a literate informed populace.
Just add water, it makes it’s own sauce!