greatest invention, 'dead thread reviver'

or maybe it was the harnessing of electricity, after all. all that we know is based around elecrtricity

How come people do not know the difference between "invention" and "discovery"? Electricity, fire, and sticks were not invented, they were discovered. If you counted discoveries you would have to say food before electricity.
So for the greatest invention I will list several as they are equally, or almost equally, important:
Wheel
Computers
Telephone
Plastic (as someone mentioned above; almost all food is stored in plastic; medicine, etc.)

Isn't the obvious answer sliced bread?

Either velcro or my chipotle chicken wings. But I'm pulling for velcro.

I think Omar already said it, but the answer is 'Antiseptics'

I don't know why that's the answer, except that I remember watching a movie or something, where they a school age guy what the greatest invention of the millenium was or something like that, and the answer was antiseptics.

Before I entered the thread, my answer was the wheel.

Now that I've read the thread, my answer is language.

The sewer system greatest invention evar.

I think it's the automobile personally. Sure there were many other influential inventions out there that changed the paradigm, but could you imagine the world without cars? having to take trains to get everywhere? I for one would hate the world without cars.

The ballpoint pen.
It beats a quill, any day.


runners-up:
The abacus and weighing scales.

Mathematics.

Marconi's radio. It moved communication into the modern era. Radio, then Television, then the Internet. But i guess we have to thank Al Gore for the internet, tho.

Donnie Darko.


Agriculture, as lebell pointed out, made civilization viable. I think it could be said that if not for agriculture, most inventions wouldn't exist. It made engineering possible, since it allowed food production to be put in the hands of, relatively, small group of people. In doing so other people were freed up to pursue other things like invention.

That being said, language is pretty freaking big too.

Hmm...I'm surpprised no one picks money yet....So I'll change my mind about the stick and pick MONEY!! :D Where would be we without that precious medium of exchange?

Would you agree that it's both the cause and solution to all our problems?

Deoderant kicked some serious ass too!

I think I am gonna go with the scientific method.

The George Forman Grill.

Beer.

Hello?? the clapper!

Language.

The one and only answer.

Though, another answer most definitely could be Baileys haagen daaas ice cream.

MMmmmmm....

I'll go with Written Language

Ever heard of "wood"? :D

And I agree that farming is pretty far up there.

I'd like to say "sex", but that wasn't invented by us.

the greatest invention of humanity is easily, and obviously, the blowjob.



ok, seriously, I've always thought that the machined screw was one of the best, and yet most overlooked, inventions.

The first cave man who hit a bone on something, creating a reverberating sound, being the first drum, and the beginning of man made music.

Not so life-shattering, but my favorite invention nonetheless

Robo-Bush.

http://www.gradis.net/xray.htm

I agree with hu-man about beer.

First brewed in 10 000 BC, beer encouraged the development of agriculture and society and ended the hunter-gatherer phase of the human race. Most importantly though, we forget that for much of human history, water was a rather dangerous thing - source of dysentary and cholera. The very act of forming communties, cities and towns made water sources contaminated. Beer provided fluid sustenance and nutrition without the risk of death.

Hail the brewers who wrote the US constitution. Hail aqua vitae - the water of life.

I'm for language too. Without language, what good is the printing press (invented in Korea, BTW, and then reinvented in Europe), the telephone, or the internet without language.

Jst spent 4 years in Japan, and they have the greatest invention ever, hands down. Coffee in a can from a vending machine. You know how many times this simple little thing saved my life, or at least my paycheck, by keeping me up for the midwatch? There is nothing greater in the world.

Pornography. It keeps us single males from going insane and killing everything in sight.

Definitely the internet :D

i agree with bundy. The printing press i believe ushered in a new era of enlightenment.

edit: to all those with a "language" answer- How did anyone "invent" language? All animals have some form of communication with one another that could be termed as a language of sorts, and some of these communications are really quite complex.
Human language is merely the evolution of grunts and squacks into a greater vocabulary. I don't think any one ancestor invented language when he made up a new grunt for tree, or clouds. Language of a sort has been with up for hundreds of thousands of years, perhaps millions. (if you believe that darwinian evolution stuff)

computers/networking... can't beat that

:DEJACULATION!!!:D

Electricity by far

The greatest human invention, of all time...the sharpened stick. Without it, we never would have been able to overcome natural obstacles, like the Sabre Tooth Tiger, that had to think twice about his dining choices. It was...the first manufactured weapon.

I would have to agree with Language. Without it we would not have been able to achieve any of the other inventions/discoveries. It allowed early man to communicate so that he could share his ideas and methods.

Pasteurization...

Without it, our food sources would have such a short lifespan...

-SF

God.


Think about it.

The wheel begat kinetic energy, which begat electricity...........


the wheel = $$$

I would have to say BANANNAS... but if that doesnt count i guess i would say THE COASTER...

Got to go with electricity on this one. Without it, I haven't the slightest idea what I would be doing right now... besides sitting in the dark.