# The most influencial INVENTION in history? **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [July 6, 2003, 6:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-influencial-invention-in-history/186600 "2003-07-06T18:14:21Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 16\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![buttonjockey308](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/bcef8e/32.png) [@buttonjockey308](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/buttonjockey308)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2003, 7:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-influencial-invention-in-history/186600/61 "2003-07-07T19:12:53Z")
My nom for the greatest invention ever… The pipe, in all of its’ incarnations, steel, pvc, copper, cement and lead, have helped mankind connect people with people, things with things and demand with supply throughout the endeavours of time, and meshes completely with all of the other inventions mentioned. ---
**Author:** ![Zenster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/cdc98d/32.png) [@Zenster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zenster)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2003, 8:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-influencial-invention-in-history/186600/62 "2003-07-07T20:51:25Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Lightkeeper \* > … What would you consider the most influencial invention in human history – the invention that had the deepest impact on the development of human civilization and on human lives at large? … No mention of “written” history in the OP, **Latro**. You, sir, are SOL. History is entirely independent of writing. (see below) From Merriam-Webster: > [@](#): > > Main Entry: his·to·ry > Pronunciation: 'his-t(&-)rE > Function: noun > Inflected Form(s): plural -ries > Etymology: Latin historia, from Greek, inquiry, history, from histOr, istOr knowing, learned; akin to Greek eidenai to know – more at WIT > Date: 14th century > 1 : TALE, STORY > 2 a : a chronological record of significant events (as affecting a nation or institution) often including an explanation of their causes b : a treatise presenting systematically related natural phenomena c : an account of a patient’s medical background d : an established record \ > 3 : a branch of knowledge that records and explains past events \ > 4 a : **events that form the subject matter of a history** b : **events of the past** c : one that is finished or done for \ \ d : previous treatment, handling, or experience (as of a metal) [sup]BOLDING ADDED[/sup] History was transmitted orally for millennia prior to the advent of writing. Does anyone honestly think that written instruction manuals accompanied the first fire-making kits? Non-verbal expression and oral tradition transmitted the method of fire starting for untold thousands of years prior to the advent of writing. Fire-making remains the single greatest invention in human history. ---
**Author:** ![jennalynn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/a698b9/32.png) [@jennalynn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jennalynn)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2003, 9:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-influencial-invention-in-history/186600/63 "2003-07-07T21:31:39Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Wearia \* > \*\* > But if they had fire and no writing how far could they get? Without a way of accurately comunicating any great discoveries or ideas on we would either be extinct or living in caves right now. \*\* Along the lines of what Zenster said… wasn’t talking a way of accurately communicating? ---
**Author:** ![Sofa\_King](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/58956e/32.png) [@Sofa\_King](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sofa_King)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2003, 9:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-influencial-invention-in-history/186600/64 "2003-07-07T21:36:21Z")
While I do not argue that fire-making was the most important invention for humanity, there is something to consider: it’s a fairly simple invention which has either been common human knowledge from time immemorial or which has been repeatedly invented independently. As far as I know, in recorded history only the Tasmanians were accused of being unable to make fire; some assert that they lost the recipe some twelve thousand years ago. Even if they really did not know how to make fire, they still used fire in their everyday lives by maintaining fires generated by lighting strikes. As such, it’s nearly impossible to track the impact that fire-making had on human society like we can track other inventions such as agriculture or gunpowder or the stirrup. I think that since possession of fire-making–or at least fire-preserving–appears to be a given for all societies dating from the dawn of humankind, it might have to be accorded nearly unique sort of status which transcends mere “invention” and begins to border on an essential trait for human life as we know it. Anyway, just a thought for your consideration. ---
**Author:** ![wolf\_meister](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wolf_meister/32/15202_2.png) [@wolf\_meister](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wolf_meister)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2003, 11:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-influencial-invention-in-history/186600/65 "2003-07-07T23:33:33Z")
Gee, I was one of the many who said fire was an INVENTION and then got bombarded by all kinds of semantic minutae. There have been several people that mentioned electricity. Okay - ELECTRICITY is NOT an invention. It was a discovery. Oh I guess you folks are talking about the ability to GENERATE electricity and to transmit it from one place to another thereby eliminating the necessity of living near a river for a power source. ---
**Author:** ![mangeorge](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d78d45/32.png) [@mangeorge](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mangeorge)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2003, 11:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-influencial-invention-in-history/186600/66 "2003-07-07T23:48:32Z")
Not writing. Writing wasn’t all that great 'till the printing press took it out of the hands of the clerics. ---
**Author:** ![Joetimg](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/dfb087/32.png) [@Joetimg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Joetimg)\ **Post date:** [July 8, 2003, 12:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-influencial-invention-in-history/186600/67 "2003-07-08T00:28:14Z")
No question, the TV remote control! ---
**Author:** ![Grrr](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/grrr/32/146_2.png) [@Grrr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Grrr)\ **Post date:** [July 8, 2003, 3:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-influencial-invention-in-history/186600/68 "2003-07-08T03:30:10Z")
Tisk, tisk tisk, I’m ashamed of you folks. Out of all the computer geeks we have on this board not one person mentioned the invention of the _integrated circuit_ . With out which none of us would be writting on this board. ---
**Author:** ![Zenster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/cdc98d/32.png) [@Zenster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zenster)\ **Post date:** [July 8, 2003, 3:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-influencial-invention-in-history/186600/69 "2003-07-08T03:48:02Z")
Sorry **SHAKES** , no matter how tempted I was to cite solid state circuitry, even the computer itself cannot approach the survival value of being able to make fire. Would you stake your life on surviving a plane crash with a laptop that could easily be damaged upon impact, or just having a box of matches in your pocket? One final clarification, lest anyone continue to argue that fire cannot be discovered or invented. I have always maintained that the tools used to make fire are the invention in question. To obtain such a powerful weapon and utility as fire from something that can be carried in a belt pouch remains a marvel of primative engineering to this very day. ---
**Author:** ![Blonde](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/3be4f8/32.png) [@Blonde](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Blonde)\ **Post date:** [July 8, 2003, 4:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-influencial-invention-in-history/186600/70 "2003-07-08T04:41:41Z")
So there you go: two sturdy branches, and you’ve launched a civilization. I must agree with you on that one, **Zen**. It’s downright amazing, when you stop and think about it. Again: the dictionary’s description of “invention” is **…A device, method, or process…** As such, the invention of fire qualifies on its own merit. ---
**Author:** ![wolf\_meister](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wolf_meister/32/15202_2.png) [@wolf\_meister](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wolf_meister)\ **Post date:** [July 8, 2003, 5:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-influencial-invention-in-history/186600/71 "2003-07-08T05:50:07Z")
Agreed about FIRE as an INVENTION. (as I’ve stated many times previously) ---
**Author:** ![Pergau](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/7c8e57/32.png) [@Pergau](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pergau)\ **Post date:** [July 8, 2003, 12:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-influencial-invention-in-history/186600/72 "2003-07-08T12:36:30Z")
Can I suggest a relatively recent invention - the Telegraph. The telegraph revolutionised the way that information could be sent (and controlled) and for effectively the first time allowed information to Travel faster than man could. It is the logical precurser to the telephone, radio, TV, Data transmission etc. And in the modern world, information is king ---
**Author:** ![prisoner6655321](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/5f8ce5/32.png) [@prisoner6655321](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/prisoner6655321)\ **Post date:** [July 8, 2003, 5:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-influencial-invention-in-history/186600/73 "2003-07-08T17:45:51Z")
It took more than fire (and clothing) to make a civilization. Fire (and clothing), as **Sofa King** mentioned, is an element for survival. The individual human being would be hard pressed to survive without fire, even today with technology and most certainly without technology. So fire, clothing, the knife, and other weapons like the bow and arrow, or spear, I suppose, could all be said to be the greatest inventions for the SPECIES. But there are certain “inventions” that are essential to CIVILIZATION. Language and Agriculture being the most obvious. Maybe math too. The printing press, though very important, was not around until late in history. The more modern technological advances, such as the telegraph and solid state circuitry are VERY late in the history of civilization, so I would say that civilization can do just fine without them. Sure we like our civilization a whole lot more now, but the difference between living in caves and living the way the Egyptians did 3000 years ago is a lot greater than the difference between the way we live now and the time before the industrial revolution. The revolution that had the greatest impact on the lives of human beings is the Agricultural Revolution, not the Industrial Revolution and certainly not the Informational Revolution. Some notes on some of the other suggestions. Though writing is not essential to history, it and its cousin, language, record history and you could say are essentials of HISTORY. Language in itself is also very helpful, not only for survival, but it is also essential for civilization. I like the suggestions for the pipe and the outrigger canoe, and the keel as well. They really had a significant impact on history, especially since the LEAD pipes the Romans used probably caused brain damage in a good portion of the population. The compass sure makes traveling to strange locations a lot easier. But before the compass we navigated by the stars. Would you say that astronomy is an invention? Electricity, or rather the inventions to generate it, absolutely changed our lives, but not so much as reducing the amount of time required to search for food. Math. Without it the pyramids could not have been built. Math isn’t a requirement for civilization, but it sure makes building things a whole lot easier. It seems to me that building a city larger than a small town would be practically impossible without math. There’s another invention that I’m not sure is a requirement of civilization or if it’s a by product of civilization: Politics. It’s certainly not a requirement for survival. In fact it makes many of our lives miserable, like with office politics. But it’s something else to put on the list. ---
**Author:** ![mascaroni](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/dc4da7/32.png) [@mascaroni](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mascaroni)\ **Post date:** [July 8, 2003, 7:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-influencial-invention-in-history/186600/74 "2003-07-08T19:50:52Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Declan \* > \*\*Not beer > > Refridgerators , to keep the beer cold > > Declan \*\* Cold Beer? How strange… Before we had a decent clean water supply beer was the normal drink for most people. So beer it is then… ---
**Author:** ![Sofa\_King](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/58956e/32.png) [@Sofa\_King](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sofa_King)\ **Post date:** [July 9, 2003, 3:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-influencial-invention-in-history/186600/75 "2003-07-09T03:22:57Z")
Fridges never work anyway unless you can pry the letter “d” out of the compressor. ---
**Author:** ![rhodyne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/91b2a8/32.png) [@rhodyne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rhodyne)\ **Post date:** [July 9, 2003, 4:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-influencial-invention-in-history/186600/76 "2003-07-09T04:59:36Z")
Unfortunately I don’t believe in history that I didn’t live thru so I will continue to assume that fire, language, beer, industry, agriculture, zero, clothing, philosophy, and all these others (including creation of the first transistor since I’m not that old), came into spontaneous existence. However, \*\*digital communications \*\*has been created since I arrived and still has to take the top of the list for invention history. Consider…all of current human history is being dumped into computers including our knowledge, literature, and arts. Inter-cultural communications is at an all time best because computers allow real time links without regard to location, sometimes even with two way auto-translations (Google is our friend). Your online avatar can be clothed (or not) as you see fit. And those that get really wasted can kill their computer, set fire to it, and bury it in a garden. Not that it helps the garden, but it will help their self esteem. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-influencial-invention-in-history/186600.md?page=3)