Ok, Zenster, since you put it that way. I’m convinced.
Thanks, mangeorge. Let’s have lunch at Mario’s La Fiesta sometime. You’re living in my hometown.
I’m not. I’m still holding out for language. 
Without language, you have extreme limits placed on the ability to transmit accumulated knowledge (of things like how to make fire) from generation to generation, making long term technological advance nigh impossible. Not to mention that it’s really hard to tell your buddy to circle round that auroch and hide behind that big rock in the ravine up ahead, and once he’s in place you’ll flush the beast down the ravine onto his spear, if all you can do is grunt and wave your hands.
Fire is a #1.
Spoken language is nifty, but the key to civilization is written language and representational art. Telling someone how to hunt and where the herd is is fine and dandy. Writing it down for later is genius.
Fire, and its most important use was probably boiling water. Disease from bad water still kills lots of people, even today, so it was a key to survival. I’ve always said that in a real pinch, I’m in good shape, because I live in walking distance of a reservoir and lots of woods, and I have a wood stove. So I can get water and I can boil it for use with some easily available fuel.
Agriculture, most definitely.
It allowed folks to settle down in a certain area, thus began cities. Great civilizations cannot exist without cities.
Another vote for the written word. The ability to make fire is undoubtedly a big part of our history but not the most important.
For example, imagine if we never made fire but made the written word. We’d be confined to living in only warmer climates and eating raw and dried food but we would have groups of humans that could communicate and pass knowledge onto generations.
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.
I would have to say the printing press, because it mass produced publications of all kinds.
I would say the invention of the production line (AKA the “American System”). With the development of the production line, things that normally required master craftsmen to make and repair (such as guns) were made one at a time, and parts were not interchangeable. Once it was introduced, it allowed mass production of pretty much ANYTHING, without needing a worker to be a master craftsmen, which meant they could cut costs and drastically increase production.
Zenster , I’m convinced the “making of fire” can be considered an invention. I go with the opinion that fire is the most influencial invention ever. Perhaps a tie with writing.
As for the printing press, don’t know if it would have been practical without paper . I think paper should be considered among the top 10.
Other candidates for the top 10 (in no order):
- The zero
- The sewage system (don’t think large cities would have been possible without it)
- Clothing
- The wheel
- Algebra
- Agriculture
Agriculture.
We made fire, we did not have civilisation,
We had language, we did not have civilisation,
We had images drawn on walls, a precursor to writing, we did not have civilisation.
Some civilisations did not invent the wheel and yet constructed massive stone monuments, but they did have agriculture.
Agriculture has made civilisation possible.
Either the Alphabet, or (more likely) a sense of duty.
Would eugenics count as an invention or a discovery? If the former, I’d like to at least toss that in the ring.
If not, my vote goes to girl-on-girl porn. It may not have moved civilization forward, but it sure gave it something fun to look at.
A bizarre idea, but if you define an invention as a technalogical development (the wheel) rather than a new ability (language) or production technique (fire) - how about the bottle?
OK, originally it was made from animal hide or whatever, but how far was mankind going to make it out of Africa without someting to carry drinking water in? Being able to carry provisions with you means you can travel, not just moving from waterhole to waterhole, restricted by the constant search for food and water. With a bottle of water and a bag of antelope steaks you can actually explore!
Then we invented milk cartons and ruined everything.
Reading this thread, I’m quite surprised no one mentioned Gunpowder.
Every bit as influential, if not more so, than the Printing Press. (IMHO)
Sorry Zenster, fire is out.
Fire (the making of it) is the most influential invention of pre-history. The OP calls for an invention from history.
Same goes for agriculture and domestication of animals.
So it has to be writing.
Oh dangit! Latro is right. Shoot. And I thought I had the “correct” answer.
However, it’s true that writing made history possible, we don’t really have a record of its invention. So I’d have to say that writing is also pre-history.
So, after the agricultural revolution, the next revolution was the industrial revolution, then the informational revolution. If I’m missing one let me know. Without the industrial revolution, there would be no information revolution, so I’m going to have to say steel is the most influential invention in History. It had the most impact.
Drat, you have a point there.
after the killer storms in the central Indiana area, and the subsequent lack of electricity, I will vote for one of the following;
Electricity - it is astonishing how our lifes change when there is none
Air Conditioning - who ever invented AC should get their own freaking holiday!!! You don’t realize how much you love it until it is 104 F at 3 am and you can’t sleep.
The invention of the outrigger canoe by the Austronesians and much later the ship’s keel by the Vikings was highly important for the post-firebuilding world. Those two inventions literally changed the biological face of the planet through the introduction of foreign diseases and species around the globe. They also facilitated the transmission of other inventions by providing new and faster communication routes.
There is a very simple argument for the importance of the keel in human society: after its invention, nations which did not or could not embrace seafaring almost invariably became the subjects of those that did.