The World's Greatest Idea

In My Humble Opinion
1

I’ve been reading a book with the above title by John Farndon where he outlines 50 ideas drawn up by a “panel of experts” as a selection of the greatest. These were then listed on a websiteand voting invited - the book lists the ideas in the order on which they were voted for.

I wondered whether the Dope would agree with the results of this poll/book, so have listed the ideas in alphabetical order (or will do if the poll works) for your consideration and comment. I’ll reveal the winner of the original poll after a while…

Grim

2

Third time lucky - I forgot to include an “Other” option, so feel free to contribute your suggestions for what should have made the short list below. I’ve also allowed you to vote for more than one option…

3

Where’s Einsteins’ Relativity (either Special or General)?

That’s commonly considered the greatest feat of human thought.

4

IMO the “Abolition of Slavery” should not count as a “Greatest Idea”. Slavery was the idea; its abolition was obvious to the very first slave.

5

FYI- it wasn’t obvious to me- this is a multiple options poll.

6

Likewise, “Evolution by Natural Selection” was not an idea. In fact, a lot of things on this list are not ideas.

7

This is true - the author is quite explicit that he made "no attempt to rigidly define what is meant by a ‘great’ idea or even an ‘idea’. "

8

I chose ‘the scientific method’. By enabling us to sort through the clutter and figure out what actually works, it enabled so much else.

9

While QI is a great TV show, I wouldn’t neccessarily put it in the top 50 greatest ideas ever. Top 100, maybe.

10

I chose hope, without which none of these would have flourished.

11

Except evolution.

12

No, the theory of evolution would not exists without humans. The data that might lead to the theory would exist, of course, but that’s all the universe does - produces data. It needs humans to form the data into theories.

Incidentally, I chose “bread”. It’s what started human civilization.

13

I chose two. Music and sewerage. Music because I love it so and sewerage because I hate the idea of a world without it.

14

I wonder if, in a poll this large, there’s a somewhat even spacing between the most clicked options – a result of some urge to ‘click something again’ after having passed over a few options. You find the first item to click on, then pass the next, the next, the next, and you start to get antsy – ‘there’s gotta be something worth clicking on real soon’, and then you click on, say, the fifth or the seventh if you can at all arrange yourself with what the item says, just to have clicked on something…

15

I went with ‘use of fire’, without which we never would have made it north of the Tropic of Cancer.

16

The TV remote control.

17

I put in the “other” option for you.

18

By whom?

19

I chose “contraceptive” and “feminism.” Even the deepest ideas and most amazing inventions have generally meant next to nothing for half of the human population.

20

I thought “scientific method” as soon as I saw the thread title.