Again, distinguish between DISCOVERY (examples: electricity, gold, oil) and INVENTIONS (examples: combustible engine, computers)

The beautiful art of language... if we didn't have it, where would we be and what would we do?

if you know anything about electricity...

id say the greatest human invention of all time is the AMPLIFIER

my next vote goes for the pencil.

The Greatest human invention of all time is TV!!

ESPN Classic

speech....gotta be. without the rest o' these never happen.

OMG!!! I was thinking the same thing!! Just don't tell X-tians that...

Agreed. Almost everything is based on math.

I don't think major innovations in language ever occured out of the efforts a few individuals.

Woah...

I mean..

Woah..

Good one.

-SF

I have a hard time calling language an invention. Many other species communicate. Although our forms of communication are much more advanced than theirs, it's still a basic thing that people didn't invent, we just perfected it.

My vote goes for the harnessing electricity. No other invention had changed human life so rapidly.

Fire was great, but 150 years later we were still weak creatures that got our asses kicked on a regular basis. Same pretty much goes for the wheel.

Lol kutulu, we have in no way perfected language.... but I do agree on the point that we did not invent it either, it was yet another discovery.

electricity by far.. think where we wuold be today without it

If my wife were here, i'm sure she'd say the vibrator.

i'm going to have to say the spork

the wheel! it's what the first computers ran on :P

I'm not sure if someone said this, but women are up on my list.

I know we didn't technically invent them, but hell, I'm taking credit if they have my rib.

Writing, birth control, shoes, and the Nintendo Gameboy Advance SP. Not necessarily in that order.

High explosives.

Werd!! That would have to be the first (Bless those monks!!).

Secondly, the wheel. But remember boys and girls...the two do not mix!!

Besides electricity, i'd have to say music, telephone, and postal service.

Gunpowder....... it goes BOOM!

...
 

tongue-in-cheek answer...
the toilet

serious answer...
radio frequency catheter ablation

The former because it's something we use everyday & wouldn't want to live without. The latter because it probably saved my life, or saved me from a significantly-shortened life-span, or whatever.

No way! The one-eyed idol. TV can be such a waste of time. Jebus, we're becoming a nation of couch potatoes. It's such a tool for propaganda, it's something which undermines our culture. The Jerry Springer Show. Now when did the retarded trailer trash antics or a few morons become worthy of national syndication? C'mon, how many people really watch the History channel and Discovery and TLC, etc. Not. Enough. Have the morals and collective conscience of our nation improved with TV? Where's Mike Myers...SHA! Not! But between the sixth-grade-level advertising, the liberal bias in the news, there's just so much wrong with it. Ugh! Ultimately, I reckon it makes a big difference as to how we use it. Hmmmm.

I'm just disagreeing, Infernal, not trying to start a flame war as to when movable type was invented. ;)

Third...

texas toast. mmmm.

I just had a revalation....

birth control. people can have sex without fear of consequence, thus more people fucking less babies being born.

like so many others, i'd have to say the internet...

Tools.

Make up-stores... ;)

The wheel
Look what europe managed to achive with it.
Look what cultures in the new world achived without it.

Easy one: Chocolate. What other invention consistently brings more joy to more people?

Government. (namely the democracy)
Basically said "Fuck off" to our primal instincts and turned the world into the polluted, greedy hellhole it is now.

And also....

Numbers! :D can't do anything without them ever be created

without question, the single biggest invention was the printing press.

cha cha cha cha chia

The Knife.
Turned a weak, fragile species with no claws of its own into a stabbing/hunting/cutting machine o'death.
yay knives!

I'm not your wife, but I'd have to agree. :thumbsup: