# What Is the Most Important Invention In Human History? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [June 20, 2018, 5:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-most-important-invention-in-human-history/816431 "2018-06-20T05:22:19Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![wintertime](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/c68b51/32.png) [@wintertime](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wintertime)\ **Post date:** [June 20, 2018, 10:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-most-important-invention-in-human-history/816431/22 "2018-06-20T10:10:12Z")
Math. [Unless you follow some variant of Platonic theory which defines it as a discoverable system.] Added: I wanted to say “fiction” at first, but inventing stuff in our heads is so much us that it’s part of our nature. ---
**Author:** ![Kobal2](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kobal2/32/20_2.png) [@Kobal2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kobal2)\ **Post date:** [June 20, 2018, 10:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-most-important-invention-in-human-history/816431/23 "2018-06-20T10:14:49Z")
> [@Mean\_Mr.Mustard](#): > > Clearly the answer is Venetian blinds. > > Without them, it would be curtains for all of us. > mmm I don’t know who you are. I don’t know what you want. If you are looking for chuckles, I can tell you I don’t have any. But what I do have are a very particular set of skills, skills I have acquired over a very long career. Skills that make me a nightmare for people like you. If you quit punning right now, that’ll be the end of it. I will not look for you, I will not pursue you. But if you don’t, I will look for you, I will find you, and I will hurt you. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![MrDibble](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mrdibble/32/114_2.png) [@MrDibble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrDibble)\ **Post date:** [June 20, 2018, 10:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-most-important-invention-in-human-history/816431/24 "2018-06-20T10:30:17Z")
Writing. The answer is writing. ---
**Author:** ![kayT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kayt/32/3633_2.png) [@kayT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kayT)\ **Post date:** [June 20, 2018, 10:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-most-important-invention-in-human-history/816431/25 "2018-06-20T10:33:19Z")
Chocolate. ---
**Author:** ![wintertime](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/c68b51/32.png) [@wintertime](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wintertime)\ **Post date:** [June 20, 2018, 10:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-most-important-invention-in-human-history/816431/26 "2018-06-20T10:33:47Z")
Well, I’ll stand by my first answer, math, looking into the future; but for the past, I might go with religion, if “most important” equals most influential. ---
**Author:** ![Fear\_Itself](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fear_itself/32/19637_2.png) [@Fear\_Itself](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fear_Itself)\ **Post date:** [June 20, 2018, 11:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-most-important-invention-in-human-history/816431/27 "2018-06-20T11:23:42Z")
Sewers. ---
**Author:** ![GuanoLad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guanolad/32/42_2.png) [@GuanoLad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GuanoLad)\ **Post date:** [June 20, 2018, 11:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-most-important-invention-in-human-history/816431/28 "2018-06-20T11:27:36Z")
> [@Mean\_Mr.Mustard](#): > > Clearly the answer is Venetian blinds Bloody hell. Ignoring the lame Dad joke, there is nothing lower on the list of important inventions than bloody venetian effing blinds. ---
**Author:** ![septimus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/septimus/32/410_2.png) [@septimus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/septimus)\ **Post date:** [June 20, 2018, 11:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-most-important-invention-in-human-history/816431/29 "2018-06-20T11:36:22Z")
The printing press and resultant mass-produced books propelled the Scientific and Industrial Revolutions, but written language and paper were also prerequisites for books. So, if threesomes are not frowned on, I’ll go with {written language, paper, movable-type printing press}. ---
**Author:** ![elbows](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/b3f665/32.png) [@elbows](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elbows)\ **Post date:** [June 20, 2018, 11:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-most-important-invention-in-human-history/816431/30 "2018-06-20T11:42:01Z")
Poop management, for both humans and the animals they keep. We didn’t have to keep moving along once we began to manage our poop better, we could set down roots! Discovering we ought not live among the dung of our animals would be of equal importance, I should think. I feel these two things might be instrumental in all the developments that followed. ---
**Author:** ![iiandyiiii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/iiandyiiii/32/7924_2.png) [@iiandyiiii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/iiandyiiii)\ **Post date:** [June 20, 2018, 11:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-most-important-invention-in-human-history/816431/31 "2018-06-20T11:54:46Z")
If spoken language qualifies, it was surely the most important invention, IMO. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [June 20, 2018, 12:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-most-important-invention-in-human-history/816431/32 "2018-06-20T12:32:49Z")
[Moderating] Invention might be creativity, but it’s not art. IMHO would be a better fit. Moving. [Not moderating] Language is by far the most important, followed by writing. Language transformed the capacity for human thought from a single brain to a whole tribe’s worth of brains. Writing transformed it from a tribe’s worth of brains to the collective brains of all humans, past and present. Further, both enabled other inventions, not only to be developed, but to last: Without language and writing, an invention could be developed, but then lost, with the death of the inventor or es tribe. With them, inventions persist indefinitely. ---
**Author:** ![Jasmine](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jasmine/32/2964_2.png) [@Jasmine](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jasmine)\ **Post date:** [June 20, 2018, 12:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-most-important-invention-in-human-history/816431/33 "2018-06-20T12:46:10Z")
I think the Gutenberg Printing Press deserves strong consideration. However, human history is (hopefully) ongoing, so the most important invention/discovery may yet await us. Ultimately, it may be a Quantum Theory of Gravity that will allow us to manipulate and direct gravity so as to produce a form of propulsion that will allow us to truly expand into space on a major scale. ---
**Author:** ![Ludovic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7ab992/32.png) [@Ludovic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ludovic)\ **Post date:** [June 20, 2018, 1:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-most-important-invention-in-human-history/816431/34 "2018-06-20T13:07:29Z")
I’d say agriculture. Up until some time in either the late 19th or early 20th century, the winners of conflicts were usually the ones with the most population under a cohesive society, and even up until the present it still works that way a lot of the time. You need food to feed your population. The exceptions are horse archer armies who could only operate well in places where they had a lot of naturally growing grass so they could _feed their horses_ while on the go. The Native Americans didn’t get pushed off their land due to inferior technology, they got pushed off due to sheer numbers. The guns and cannons of Europe didn’t mean anything since the northern native americans were much better warriors per capita even with just their arrows and whatever firearms they could buy. (The central and southern native empires were taken over because they were not united.) ---
**Author:** ![BrotherCadfael](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/977dab/32.png) [@BrotherCadfael](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrotherCadfael)\ **Post date:** [June 20, 2018, 1:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-most-important-invention-in-human-history/816431/35 "2018-06-20T13:13:53Z")
You know I just am not going to be able to avoid a Heinlein quote, right? > [@Robert A. Heinlein](#): > > **The greatest creation of mankind is government**. It is also the hardest of all. More individualistic than cats, nevertheless we have learned to cooperate more efficiently than ants or bees or termites. Wilder, bloodier, and more deadly than sharks, we have learned to live together as peacefully as lambs. > [@Robert A. Heinlein](#): > > Politics is not evil; **politics is the human race’s most magnificent achievement**. When politics is good, it’s wonderful and when politics is bad – well, it’s still pretty good. Politics is just a name for the way we get things done … without fighting. We dicker and compromise and everybody thinks he has received a raw deal, but somehow after a tedious amount of talk we come up with some jury-rigged way to do it without getting anybody’s head bashed in. That’s politics. The only other way to settle a dispute is by bashing a few heads in … and that is what happens when one or both sides is no longer willing to dicker. That’s why I say politics is good even when it is bad because the only alternative is force- and somebody gets hurt. He makes a good case. ---
**Author:** ![Annie-Xmas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecc23a/32.png) [@Annie-Xmas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Annie-Xmas)\ **Post date:** [June 20, 2018, 1:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-most-important-invention-in-human-history/816431/37 "2018-06-20T13:18:38Z")
One that hasn’t been mentioned yet is the clock. Suddenly, we had a mechanical way to gauge time, and lives are run by it. But nothing took lives over faster and more completely than our modern computers. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [June 20, 2018, 1:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-most-important-invention-in-human-history/816431/38 "2018-06-20T13:27:06Z")
Yup, politics is important, all right, but it’s impossible without language. ---
**Author:** ![WotNot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/e19b73/32.png) [@WotNot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WotNot)\ **Post date:** [June 20, 2018, 1:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-most-important-invention-in-human-history/816431/39 "2018-06-20T13:33:02Z")
> [@Measure\_for\_Measure](#): > > Over human history, I’d propose the first weapon, the club followed by the 2nd weapon, the spear. Or maybe the axe. Those all pre-date modern humans, though, don’t they? I’m inclined to disqualify them on that basis. I’m going to vote for string, which doesn’t get nearly enough credit, in my opinion. ---
**Author:** ![Turble](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/8dc957/32.png) [@Turble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Turble)\ **Post date:** [June 20, 2018, 1:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-most-important-invention-in-human-history/816431/40 "2018-06-20T13:47:14Z")
The horse collar – the increase in agricultural output freed many people from subsistence farming which brought about the beginnings of modern society. ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [June 20, 2018, 1:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-most-important-invention-in-human-history/816431/41 "2018-06-20T13:48:51Z")
The Fish Weir You can talk about your modern inventions and how world-changing they were, but the Fish Weir is an extremely simple bit of invention\* that works flawlessly and fed uncountable numbers of people for thousands of years with minimal effort. In Back Bay Boston a fish weir dates back up to 5,700 years ago, and was still used in colonial days. Nowadays, rivers are too polluted, and there are too many people. But for a huge chunk of human history these passive fish-catching devices fed huge numbers of people. And with no moving parts. > **[Fishing weir](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fishing_weir)** > > A fishing weir, fish weir, fishgarth or kiddle is an obstruction placed in tidal waters, or wholly or partially across a river, to direct the passage of, or trap fish. A weir may be used to trap marine fish in the intertidal zone as the tide recedes, fish such as salmon as they attempt to swim upstream to breed in a river, or eels as they migrate downstream. Alternatively, fish weirs can be used to channel fish to a particular location, such as to a fish ladder. Weirs were traditionally bui The E... ---
**Author:** ![Icarus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/icarus/32/72_2.png) [@Icarus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Icarus)\ **Post date:** [June 20, 2018, 2:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-most-important-invention-in-human-history/816431/42 "2018-06-20T14:03:34Z")
> [@Ludovic](#): > > I’d say agriculture. Up until some time in either the late 19th or early 20th century, the winners of conflicts were usually the ones with the most population under a cohesive society, and even up until the present it still works that way a lot of the time. You need food to feed your population. I’m going with this - with agriculture, nomadic cultures stayed put, food production created surpluses, which allowed for individuals to diversify their labor (from hunting and gathering), populations expanded which precipitated the formation of organized leadership, etc. etc…which all eventually led to Porn on your iPhone! Regarding writing - even nomadic cultures had some form of memory recording through marks on a stone or beads on a string, supplemented with oral references. So that to me is a form of “writing”. But we would all still be nomadic hunter gatherers without agriculture. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-most-important-invention-in-human-history/816431.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-most-important-invention-in-human-history/816431.md?page=3)