# The most mission-critical human invention? (The mission being civilization) **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [August 27, 2025, 8:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-mission-critical-human-invention-the-mission-being-civilization/1022521 "2025-08-27T08:13:09Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Stoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/stoid/32/272_2.png) [@Stoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stoid)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2025, 11:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-mission-critical-human-invention-the-mission-being-civilization/1022521/21 "2025-08-27T11:55:42Z")
No I didn’t make any rules or anything I just brought it up as an obvious choice that some people would make or argue for. ---
**Author:** ![Stoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/stoid/32/272_2.png) [@Stoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stoid)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2025, 12:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-mission-critical-human-invention-the-mission-being-civilization/1022521/22 "2025-08-27T12:12:10Z")
By our civilization I’m referring essentially to the line drawn between us and the rest of the animals on earth. While some animals do alter their environments both for themselves and incidentallytheir neighbors (beavers for instance) no animal comes within screaming distance of doing the kind of wholesale alteration of the world for its own use and pleasure that we have done since pretty much the beginning. So that in mind what early invention made that possible? What was the thing upon which all other things were built, had to be built? I came up with the answer (and I do mean the answer not an answer… After I tell everybody what it is I think anybody would have a hard time arguing against it) a few years ago and I cracked myself up because it is absolutely the answer but hardly anybody else would’ve ever thought of it because it’s so much part of the fabric of our existence while being exceedingly low-key and unassuming (if those words can be used) that we don’t think about it as An Invention, even though it very much is, we’re hardly aware of it; it’s just there, it just works… ---
**Author:** ![Darren\_Garrison](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darren_garrison/32/92_2.png) [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2025, 12:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-mission-critical-human-invention-the-mission-being-civilization/1022521/23 "2025-08-27T12:41:58Z")
> [@Stoid](#): > > I came up with the answer (and I do mean the answer not an answer… After I tell everybody what it is I think anybody would have a hard time arguing against it) Prediction: this thread will become quite frustrating for you. ---
**Author:** ![Stoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/stoid/32/272_2.png) [@Stoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stoid)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2025, 12:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-mission-critical-human-invention-the-mission-being-civilization/1022521/24 "2025-08-27T12:50:29Z")
Nah. Just a bit of fun, no investment. ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2025, 1:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-mission-critical-human-invention-the-mission-being-civilization/1022521/25 "2025-08-27T13:04:00Z")
Before the story (great choice) there had to come the desire for stories. The fundamental thing that enables us to alter our environment large scale as the OP suggests, and that separates us from the brute beasts is language. Language enables cooperation. Language enables stories. Language enables writing. Whatever language whales or dogs have, it’s a pale ghost of communication compared to what even early H Sapiens could do. Some might argue we didn’t so much “invent” language as “discover” it. There’s a deep philosophical argument there I don’t care to entertain here. We discovered we had thumbs. Then we invented ways to use them. The use is what matters, and that was invented. ---
**Author:** ![Northern\_Piper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/northern_piper/32/5304_2.png) [@Northern\_Piper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Northern_Piper)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2025, 1:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-mission-critical-human-invention-the-mission-being-civilization/1022521/26 "2025-08-27T13:45:42Z")
Money. It’s impossible to have a civilization without money. There’s an excellent passage in _Stranger in A Strange Land_ when Valentine Michael Smith groks the meaning of money: not as bits of paper, but a medium for interlocking obligations. Without money, our civilisation would not exist. ---
**Author:** ![Darren\_Garrison](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darren_garrison/32/92_2.png) [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2025, 2:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-mission-critical-human-invention-the-mission-being-civilization/1022521/27 "2025-08-27T14:00:28Z")
> [@LSLGuy](#): > > Some might argue we didn’t so much “invent” language as “discover” it. And I would not say “discover it” so much as “evolve it”. We didn’t “invent” language any more than we “invented” sweat glands. ---
**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:** [August 27, 2025, 2:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-mission-critical-human-invention-the-mission-being-civilization/1022521/28 "2025-08-27T14:04:33Z")
> [@Monty](#): > > I’m going with writing. Seconded. I feel writing was the key invention because it allowed knowledge to be stored and therefore accumulated. ---
**Author:** ![Crane](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/crane/32/3495_2.png) [@Crane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Crane)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2025, 2:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-mission-critical-human-invention-the-mission-being-civilization/1022521/29 "2025-08-27T14:36:45Z")
If the criterion is the difference between human civilization and animal civilization then the answer is the ability to boil water. That requires fire, water and a container. I am not aware of any animal that boils liquids. Animals have complicated social structures, agriculture, communication and tool use but they do not boil water. Our technology is broadly based on our ability to boil water and especially the ability to create steam. That is basic to much of cooking and is the essential method of separating the constituents of liquids like oil to yield gasoline, plastics, asphalt and medicines. From roasting meat over an open fire to operating nuclear submarines it is all done by boiling water. Without the ability to boil water you could not have civilization. No paper, or pencils or ink: no electricity, powered presses, sterilization or ham sandwiches. It’s what separates us from the apes. Apes don’t boil water. ---
**Author:** ![HoneyBadgerDC](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/honeybadgerdc/32/1033_2.png) [@HoneyBadgerDC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HoneyBadgerDC)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2025, 2:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-mission-critical-human-invention-the-mission-being-civilization/1022521/30 "2025-08-27T14:39:33Z")
> [@Crane](#): > > Without the ability to boil water you could not have civilization. No paper, or pencils or ink: no electricity, powered presses, sterilization or ham sandwiches. It’s what separates us from the apes. Apes don’t boil water. I would agree with this but narrowing it down a bit to the ability to transport and carry water. ---
**Author:** ![Crane](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/crane/32/3495_2.png) [@Crane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Crane)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2025, 2:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-mission-critical-human-invention-the-mission-being-civilization/1022521/31 "2025-08-27T14:44:54Z")
> [@HoneyBadgerDC](#): > > I would agree with this but narrowing it down a bit to the ability to transport and carry water. Yes, that is a major factor, but I believe you need to add fire and the container to get civilization. ---
**Author:** ![Cheesesteak](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cheesesteak/32/3694_2.png) [@Cheesesteak](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cheesesteak)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2025, 3:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-mission-critical-human-invention-the-mission-being-civilization/1022521/32 "2025-08-27T15:00:59Z")
> [@Little\_Nemo](#): > > > [@Monty](#): > > > > I’m going with writing. > > Seconded. Thirded. Human memory sucks. Writing allows knowledge permanence, transfer, and accumulation. ---
**Author:** ![Crane](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/crane/32/3495_2.png) [@Crane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Crane)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2025, 3:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-mission-critical-human-invention-the-mission-being-civilization/1022521/33 "2025-08-27T15:09:16Z")
> [@Cheesesteak](#): > > Writing allows knowledge permanence, transfer, and accumulation. Agreed, but for it’s use to be wide spread required boiling water. No boiling water no ink or paper. ---
**Author:** ![bump](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7c8e57/32.png) [@bump](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bump)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2025, 3:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-mission-critical-human-invention-the-mission-being-civilization/1022521/34 "2025-08-27T15:16:04Z")
Should we maybe go back a little bit further, and say that _language_ was the invention that underpins everything else? Writing is just a way of using symbols to represent it in some fashion. ---
**Author:** ![Crane](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/crane/32/3495_2.png) [@Crane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Crane)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2025, 3:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-mission-critical-human-invention-the-mission-being-civilization/1022521/35 "2025-08-27T15:24:10Z")
> [@Cheesesteak](#): > > Writing allows knowledge permanence, transfer, and accumulation The OP seeks the one thing that is basic to civilization. Does your post imply that civilization did not exist prior to the invention of writing. ---
**Author:** ![HoneyBadgerDC](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/honeybadgerdc/32/1033_2.png) [@HoneyBadgerDC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HoneyBadgerDC)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2025, 3:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-mission-critical-human-invention-the-mission-being-civilization/1022521/36 "2025-08-27T15:35:59Z")
> [@bump](#): > > underpins everything else? Writing is just a way of using symbols to represent it in some fashion Wouldn’t language be more a product of evolution than invention? ---
**Author:** ![HoneyBadgerDC](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/honeybadgerdc/32/1033_2.png) [@HoneyBadgerDC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HoneyBadgerDC)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2025, 3:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-mission-critical-human-invention-the-mission-being-civilization/1022521/37 "2025-08-27T15:39:04Z")
How should we define civilization in its most basic form? Possibly the invention of God as a model for humanity. This would become our operating system common to our civilization. ---
**Author:** ![Crane](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/crane/32/3495_2.png) [@Crane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Crane)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2025, 3:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-mission-critical-human-invention-the-mission-being-civilization/1022521/38 "2025-08-27T15:45:42Z")
> [@HoneyBadgerDC](#): > > Possibly the invention of God How is that relevant to civilization? More of a hinderance than mission-critical invention. ---
**Author:** ![Whack-a-Mole](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/whack-a-mole/32/141_2.png) [@Whack-a-Mole](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Whack-a-Mole)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2025, 3:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-mission-critical-human-invention-the-mission-being-civilization/1022521/39 "2025-08-27T15:51:23Z")
> [@HoneyBadgerDC](#): > > Wouldn’t language be more a product of evolution than invention? ISTM it is akin to the question of did we invent math or discover math? I think discover. Which is why my money is on paper as the critical invention. Sure, you need language to use it but not sure language is an invention. And without paper language helps but doesn’t really do the heavy lift of building a global civilization. If there was no paper to help disseminate ideas and pass knowledge to future generations we’d all still be living in caves in isolated groups each with their own language and telling stories around the campfire. ---
**Author:** ![Cervaise](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cervaise/32/16693_2.png) [@Cervaise](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cervaise)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2025, 4:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-mission-critical-human-invention-the-mission-being-civilization/1022521/40 "2025-08-27T16:17:37Z")
> [@Whack-a-Mole](#): > > If there was no paper to help disseminate ideas and pass knowledge to future generations we’d all still be living in caves in isolated groups each with their own language and telling stories around the campfire. Ah, finally, a logical argument that explains why the Incan empire didn’t exist. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-mission-critical-human-invention-the-mission-being-civilization/1022521.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-mission-critical-human-invention-the-mission-being-civilization/1022521.md?page=3)