Could we say the printing press? Or is that 19th Century?
It seems like it revolutionized data transfer of making accurate information accessable to the commons, which sorta upended the world if you think about it. Everything else sorta came out of how much more common and easier to access information became with easily manufactured and printed books / pamphlets etc.
Prior to the printing press, inventors were a very rare breed of being rich (or access to money / not being forced to work for a living), educated, and innovative. All 3 were required for an inventor to be born. Now, anyone can become educated and innovation is much more common.
By "invention" must it be a physical device? Because, if not, may I posit a solution to the transistor/TV/Internet debate?
Quantum mechanical theory. Directly led to the massive rise in electronics. Led to the development of both atomic power and atomic weapons, and The Bomb had a massive effect on geopolitics over the last 60 years. Also influenced cultural thought, influenced the downgrading of modernism and rise of postmodernism.
These are not all good things, of course, but that simple realization that the world is vastly, vastly stranger than we ever thought has rippled through all our lives for a century.
The internet is great and all, but to me it seems like a natural consequence of the technology it builds on, rather than an "invention". You had computers talking to each other on the telephone instead of people, and then just made the system more complex. Furthermore, it hasn't changed the world in a way that'd justify naming it the greatest invention of the 20th century, not yet anyway.
A lot of the easy picks are gone already. the Cat is coming up with some good non-standard ideas. Let's see here....
Genetic engineering and nuklear power are both at once some of the most horrific and some of the most incredible things ever, both offering hope for the future development and progression of the species while also offering the spectre of annhiliation or corruption.
Spaceflight is almost mandatory if we are to fulfill our manifest destiny of expanding to the stars and beyond someday, although personally I'm holding out for interdimensional travel, which offers a possible way of escpaaing the likely eventual heat death of the universe. I'm just saying it never hurts to plan ahead.
edit: It's spelled nuclear. Damn you Brian Clevinger.
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Blake TDo you have enemies then?Good. That means you’ve stood up for something, sometime in your life.Registered Userregular
Those hats with beer attached to the sides and a straw from the can to your mouth are pretty neat.
And you wouldn't have those without plastics.
I still don't know about plastics. They're useful but the fact remains we could do everything we currently do with plastics with items we already had. They're useful no doubt but I don't think they can be labeled as the greatest.
Those hats with beer attached to the sides and a straw from the can to your mouth are pretty neat.
And you wouldn't have those without plastics.
I still don't know about plastics. They're useful but the fact remains we could do everything we currently do with plastics with items we already had. They're useful no doubt but I don't think they can be labeled as the greatest.
Well you have fun with your treated pine computer case and cast iron pacemaker there.
Those hats with beer attached to the sides and a straw from the can to your mouth are pretty neat.
And you wouldn't have those without plastics.
I still don't know about plastics. They're useful but the fact remains we could do everything we currently do with plastics with items we already had. They're useful no doubt but I don't think they can be labeled as the greatest.
Well you have fun with your treated pine computer case and cast iron pacemaker there.
Okey well without the production line I guess you could buy one of your plastic cups for four hundred dollars after it was manually crafted from oil.
But really? Computer case was the best you came up with? A computer case should be made almost entirely from metal, the plastic bits and the cheap crappy bits. Hell my computer case only have very small pieces of plastic to dampen sound. As an insulator of chords etc however it is more indispensable.
fjafjan on
Yepp, THE Fjafjan (who's THE fjafjan?)
- "Proving once again the deadliest animal of all ... is the Zoo Keeper" - Philip J Fry
I"m being mildly facetious there, but also not dissing the assembly line idea. Although I will point out that assembly lines depend heavily on polymers, particularly the fancy-schmancy robot ones that make hi-tech gear.
And plastic may not be essential, but neither is, say, electricity. They both make life a whole fuckload easier for everyone, though, particularly people who wouldn't have had a hope of owning similar goods not made of the stuff.
I still despite it as being an invention though. Plastics are still evolving and have been evolving for a long time. There are a huge huge number of plastics, it's hardly one guy going "well look at this thing I made!"
fjafjan on
Yepp, THE Fjafjan (who's THE fjafjan?)
- "Proving once again the deadliest animal of all ... is the Zoo Keeper" - Philip J Fry
The von Neumann architecture - ie, programmable computers. Not the integrated circuit, not the transistor: that's the moment of creation that made everything possible.
Those hats with beer attached to the sides and a straw from the can to your mouth are pretty neat.
And you wouldn't have those without plastics.
I still don't know about plastics. They're useful but the fact remains we could do everything we currently do with plastics with items we already had. They're useful no doubt but I don't think they can be labeled as the greatest.
Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha......no.
Plastics allow us to have have high precision, mass produced parts with physical characteristics that can equal or exceed steel relatively cheaply. If you really start to understand what goes into making a finished good you come to understand how stupidly useful plastics are.
Still, they get their asses kicked by computers for importance.
I still despite it as being an invention though. Plastics are still evolving and have been evolving for a long time. There are a huge huge number of plastics, it's hardly one guy going "well look at this thing I made!"
Bakelite. One dude, a huge improvement and the first commercial plastic. You can also make a strong case that modern industrial plastics were made by a few dudes at GE.
The von Neumann architecture - ie, programmable computers. Not the integrated circuit, not the transistor: that's the moment of creation that made everything possible.
The von Neumann architecture - ie, programmable computers. Not the integrated circuit, not the transistor: that's the moment of creation that made everything possible.
The key step in the 20th Century was building transistors, and thus making computers really useful.
Eh, I'm pretty hesitant to attribute "invention" to a guy who drew up plans. Da Vinci was awesome but he doesn't get credit for artificial flight.
I think that Babbage's achievement is more precise than Da Vinci's in so much as the Analytical Engine is demonstrably digital, programmable and Turing Complete, whereas lots of Da Vinci's flying machines either a) didn't work or b) were little more than gliders.
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RentI'm always rightFuckin' deal with itRegistered Userregular
Those hats with beer attached to the sides and a straw from the can to your mouth are pretty neat.
And you wouldn't have those without plastics.
I still don't know about plastics. They're useful but the fact remains we could do everything we currently do with plastics with items we already had. They're useful no doubt but I don't think they can be labeled as the greatest.
Well you have fun with your treated pine computer case and cast iron pacemaker there.
You do know this is a fun thread, and also its your own personal opinion, so there's no reason to be a dick to others because they have a legitimate disagreement with you
Saying people who believe the internet was the greatest invention of the 20th century are wrong and you're right is pretty stupid. Regardless of whether or not you agree you can agree that the internet was one of the most important and influential developments of the 20th century and surely deserves to be in contention
Anyways yeah plastic was a pretty important invention, and definitely deserves to be in contention. Without it our entire life would be completely different than today
The von Neumann architecture - ie, programmable computers. Not the integrated circuit, not the transistor: that's the moment of creation that made everything possible.
The key step in the 20th Century was building transistors, and thus making computers really useful.
Eh, I'm pretty hesitant to attribute "invention" to a guy who drew up plans. Da Vinci was awesome but he doesn't get credit for artificial flight.
I think that Babbage's achievement is more precise than Da Vinci's in so much as the Analytical Engine is demonstrably digital, programmable and Turing Complete, whereas lots of Da Vinci's flying machines either a) didn't work or b) were little more than gliders.
I'm pretty certain that some of Da Vinci's helicopter-esque things have been shown to work but weren't possible to construct with the technology of the time.
Though now that I read what you wrote I would absolutely agree that what Babbage did with computing is far more than Da Vinci did with flight but I still have trouble attributing invention to either.
Ya know, this is like the only contender I can really consider against "The Computer". Most anything else comes up against the fact that it's made so much better by our application of computing power to it. Reproductive control that is easy, safe and relatively inexpensive is pretty independent of that.
Uhm, so what about that other reproductive controller that is easy, cheap, safer and also prevents sexual deceases?
Probably not a 20th century invention. I seem to recall that the Ancient Greeks used condoms made of intestine.
edit: apparently it was the Egyptians. Also, the Chinese used oil-treated silk condoms in the early centuries A.D.
edit2: wait, you meant what's so great about the Pill compared to the good old condom? I think it's the fact that it gives reproductive control to the women.
Ya know, this is like the only contender I can really consider against "The Computer". Most anything else comes up against the fact that it's made so much better by our application of computing power to it. Reproductive control that is easy, safe and relatively inexpensive is pretty independent of that.
Refrigeration is essential in industry and medicine and everyday life, with or without the application of computing power.
yeah but the 20th century condom made from latex (I started writing that as LaTeX ...) is
1 cheaper
2 prevents more decease
3 far far far more widely used.
as wiki says
However, there is an increased risk of transmitting STDs compared to latex because of pores in the material, which are thought to be large enough to allow infectious agents to pass through, albeit blocking the passage of sperm.
fjafjan on
Yepp, THE Fjafjan (who's THE fjafjan?)
- "Proving once again the deadliest animal of all ... is the Zoo Keeper" - Philip J Fry
Ya know, this is like the only contender I can really consider against "The Computer". Most anything else comes up against the fact that it's made so much better by our application of computing power to it. Reproductive control that is easy, safe and relatively inexpensive is pretty independent of that.
Refrigeration is essential in industry and medicine and everyday life, with or without the application of computing power.
Refrigeration also pre-dates the 20th Century.
And to be nitpicky, antibiotics are a discovery, not an invention.
Ya know, this is like the only contender I can really consider against "The Computer". Most anything else comes up against the fact that it's made so much better by our application of computing power to it. Reproductive control that is easy, safe and relatively inexpensive is pretty independent of that.
I'd say dead-tie between these two really. The Pill certainly wasn't really aided or abetted by the computer very much.
Conversely everything since then has been aided and abetted by the computer, including the development of new and improved versions of it.
Then again, the idea of one single greatest invention is pretty fucking stupid - every invention is the product of numerous forces which create single moments of cohesion which make these things possible. I mean - the Pill was certainly not possible without modern mass production of pharmaceuticals, which as the Cat would point out, is in turn made possible by plastics which actually make large chemical reactors possible and the like. Teflon - for example - has aided so much chemistry it's ridiculous.
Uhm, so what about that other reproductive controller that is easy, cheap, safer and also prevents sexual deceases?
Diseases. And the condom is very much a pre-twentieth century invention, although it didn't really get properly effective before... plastics!
The other, major, thing about the pill is that a male can't veto its use without going to a fairly ridiculous amount of effort. People born after the 50's don't really get what a big deal female control over conception really is, but the cultural impact was massive.
Those hats with beer attached to the sides and a straw from the can to your mouth are pretty neat.
And you wouldn't have those without plastics.
I still don't know about plastics. They're useful but the fact remains we could do everything we currently do with plastics with items we already had. They're useful no doubt but I don't think they can be labeled as the greatest.
Well you have fun with your treated pine computer case and cast iron pacemaker there.
I knew a group of IT students at Uni with a system covering the entire wall of their flat in motherboards, wooden support struts, and not a lot else.
Edit: also that other guy who made his case out of lego, but, well, plastic, so....
Those hats with beer attached to the sides and a straw from the can to your mouth are pretty neat.
And you wouldn't have those without plastics.
I still don't know about plastics. They're useful but the fact remains we could do everything we currently do with plastics with items we already had. They're useful no doubt but I don't think they can be labeled as the greatest.
Well you have fun with your treated pine computer case and cast iron pacemaker there.
You do know this is a fun thread, and also its your own personal opinion, so there's no reason to be a dick to others because they have a legitimate disagreement with you
Saying people who believe the internet was the greatest invention of the 20th century are wrong and you're right is pretty stupid. Regardless of whether or not you agree you can agree that the internet was one of the most important and influential developments of the 20th century and surely deserves to be in contention
Anyways yeah plastic was a pretty important invention, and definitely deserves to be in contention. Without it our entire life would be completely different than today
So, like, your thing is now to follow me into threads and berate me whenever i get snippy, right? Like my own personal Miss Manners! How adorablenowaitshutup.
Well if you break it down, plastics also aren't one single invention, but many. Different plastics have different uses - teflon didn't come of age till post WW2 when they needed something for the Manhattan project.
Sure, they're a family of products, but their particular physical properties (lasting, bendy, strong, workable etc) distinguish them from other things.
I think I can just as easily call them the worst invention, though, given the pollution problems and oil demand they create. At least some of the newer stuff is biodegradeable and/or plant-sourced.
Sure, they're a family of products, but their particular physical properties (lasting, bendy, strong, workable etc) distinguish them from other things.
I think I can just as easily call them the worst invention, though, given the pollution problems and oil demand they create. At least some of the newer stuff is biodegradeable and/or plant-sourced.
No no I'm pretty with you on "greatest invention", though like I said - any single product is always going to be a mish-mash of other things which are also great inventions.
Also, re: computer industry - she's right guys, the entire semiconductor industry depends on plastics for processing. They don't let metal anywhere near semiconductor process lines since it's a lifetime killer in MOS devices.
But hence the major point - every great invention usually depends on another. Computer chips are encased in plastics.
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RentI'm always rightFuckin' deal with itRegistered Userregular
So, like, your thing is now to follow me into threads and berate me whenever i get snippy, right? Like my own personal Miss Manners! How adorablenowaitshutup.
What the hell? This is the first, last, and only time I think I've ever addressed you specifically negatively in any thread, to my recollection
Also, nice dodge of my point, and the use of ad hominem in response to it, which if anything strengthens it
Let me try it again: What the hell is your problem with people who disagree with you? Why must you be so vitriolic towards them? Especially on something as relatively benign as a question of personal opinion?
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It seems like it revolutionized data transfer of making accurate information accessable to the commons, which sorta upended the world if you think about it. Everything else sorta came out of how much more common and easier to access information became with easily manufactured and printed books / pamphlets etc.
Prior to the printing press, inventors were a very rare breed of being rich (or access to money / not being forced to work for a living), educated, and innovative. All 3 were required for an inventor to be born. Now, anyone can become educated and innovation is much more common.
MWO: Adamski
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Quantum mechanical theory. Directly led to the massive rise in electronics. Led to the development of both atomic power and atomic weapons, and The Bomb had a massive effect on geopolitics over the last 60 years. Also influenced cultural thought, influenced the downgrading of modernism and rise of postmodernism.
These are not all good things, of course, but that simple realization that the world is vastly, vastly stranger than we ever thought has rippled through all our lives for a century.
IOS Game Center ID: Isotope-X
Refrigeration gets my vote.
Genetic engineering and nuklear power are both at once some of the most horrific and some of the most incredible things ever, both offering hope for the future development and progression of the species while also offering the spectre of annhiliation or corruption.
Spaceflight is almost mandatory if we are to fulfill our manifest destiny of expanding to the stars and beyond someday, although personally I'm holding out for interdimensional travel, which offers a possible way of escpaaing the likely eventual heat death of the universe. I'm just saying it never hurts to plan ahead.
edit: It's spelled nuclear. Damn you Brian Clevinger.
I still don't know about plastics. They're useful but the fact remains we could do everything we currently do with plastics with items we already had. They're useful no doubt but I don't think they can be labeled as the greatest.
Satans..... hints.....
Screw-top wine bottles!
Well you have fun with your treated pine computer case and cast iron pacemaker there.
But really? Computer case was the best you came up with? A computer case should be made almost entirely from metal, the plastic bits and the cheap crappy bits. Hell my computer case only have very small pieces of plastic to dampen sound. As an insulator of chords etc however it is more indispensable.
- "Proving once again the deadliest animal of all ... is the Zoo Keeper" - Philip J Fry
And plastic may not be essential, but neither is, say, electricity. They both make life a whole fuckload easier for everyone, though, particularly people who wouldn't have had a hope of owning similar goods not made of the stuff.
- "Proving once again the deadliest animal of all ... is the Zoo Keeper" - Philip J Fry
Full stop
Mankinds dream for millennia and finally became a reality in the 20th century. The moonlanding is still the pinnacle of human achivment.
Babbage had already designed the first digital, programmable Turing-complete computer before the 20th Century rolled round.
The key step in the 20th Century was building transistors, and thus making computers really useful.
Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha......no.
Plastics allow us to have have high precision, mass produced parts with physical characteristics that can equal or exceed steel relatively cheaply. If you really start to understand what goes into making a finished good you come to understand how stupidly useful plastics are.
Still, they get their asses kicked by computers for importance.
Bakelite. One dude, a huge improvement and the first commercial plastic. You can also make a strong case that modern industrial plastics were made by a few dudes at GE.
Eh, I'm pretty hesitant to attribute "invention" to a guy who drew up plans. Da Vinci was awesome but he doesn't get credit for artificial flight.
I think that Babbage's achievement is more precise than Da Vinci's in so much as the Analytical Engine is demonstrably digital, programmable and Turing Complete, whereas lots of Da Vinci's flying machines either a) didn't work or b) were little more than gliders.
You do know this is a fun thread, and also its your own personal opinion, so there's no reason to be a dick to others because they have a legitimate disagreement with you
Saying people who believe the internet was the greatest invention of the 20th century are wrong and you're right is pretty stupid. Regardless of whether or not you agree you can agree that the internet was one of the most important and influential developments of the 20th century and surely deserves to be in contention
Anyways yeah plastic was a pretty important invention, and definitely deserves to be in contention. Without it our entire life would be completely different than today
I'm pretty certain that some of Da Vinci's helicopter-esque things have been shown to work but weren't possible to construct with the technology of the time.
Though now that I read what you wrote I would absolutely agree that what Babbage did with computing is far more than Da Vinci did with flight but I still have trouble attributing invention to either.
Ya know, this is like the only contender I can really consider against "The Computer". Most anything else comes up against the fact that it's made so much better by our application of computing power to it. Reproductive control that is easy, safe and relatively inexpensive is pretty independent of that.
- "Proving once again the deadliest animal of all ... is the Zoo Keeper" - Philip J Fry
Probably not a 20th century invention. I seem to recall that the Ancient Greeks used condoms made of intestine.
edit: apparently it was the Egyptians. Also, the Chinese used oil-treated silk condoms in the early centuries A.D.
edit2: wait, you meant what's so great about the Pill compared to the good old condom? I think it's the fact that it gives reproductive control to the women.
Refrigeration is essential in industry and medicine and everyday life, with or without the application of computing power.
1 cheaper
2 prevents more decease
3 far far far more widely used.
as wiki says
- "Proving once again the deadliest animal of all ... is the Zoo Keeper" - Philip J Fry
Refrigeration also pre-dates the 20th Century.
And to be nitpicky, antibiotics are a discovery, not an invention.
I'd say dead-tie between these two really. The Pill certainly wasn't really aided or abetted by the computer very much.
Conversely everything since then has been aided and abetted by the computer, including the development of new and improved versions of it.
Then again, the idea of one single greatest invention is pretty fucking stupid - every invention is the product of numerous forces which create single moments of cohesion which make these things possible. I mean - the Pill was certainly not possible without modern mass production of pharmaceuticals, which as the Cat would point out, is in turn made possible by plastics which actually make large chemical reactors possible and the like. Teflon - for example - has aided so much chemistry it's ridiculous.
Diseases. And the condom is very much a pre-twentieth century invention, although it didn't really get properly effective before... plastics!
The other, major, thing about the pill is that a male can't veto its use without going to a fairly ridiculous amount of effort. People born after the 50's don't really get what a big deal female control over conception really is, but the cultural impact was massive.
I knew a group of IT students at Uni with a system covering the entire wall of their flat in motherboards, wooden support struts, and not a lot else.
Edit: also that other guy who made his case out of lego, but, well, plastic, so....
So, like, your thing is now to follow me into threads and berate me whenever i get snippy, right? Like my own personal Miss Manners! How adorablenowaitshutup.
I think I can just as easily call them the worst invention, though, given the pollution problems and oil demand they create. At least some of the newer stuff is biodegradeable and/or plant-sourced.
No no I'm pretty with you on "greatest invention", though like I said - any single product is always going to be a mish-mash of other things which are also great inventions.
Also, re: computer industry - she's right guys, the entire semiconductor industry depends on plastics for processing. They don't let metal anywhere near semiconductor process lines since it's a lifetime killer in MOS devices.
But hence the major point - every great invention usually depends on another. Computer chips are encased in plastics.
What the hell? This is the first, last, and only time I think I've ever addressed you specifically negatively in any thread, to my recollection
Also, nice dodge of my point, and the use of ad hominem in response to it, which if anything strengthens it
Let me try it again: What the hell is your problem with people who disagree with you? Why must you be so vitriolic towards them? Especially on something as relatively benign as a question of personal opinion?
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Cite it
November 28, 2009 - The Spambot becomes self-aware. In their panic, they try to pull the plug.