Having nothing better to do at work (lunch hour), well here's a poll on the most important advance in the course of human history.
Personally, I think the printing press is the most important advance of all. It led to education for the masses eventually which in turn led to the industrial and scientific revolutions of the past few centuries by enabling the mass circulation of written material. It also helped to preserve and spread human knowledge since books can now be mass-produced cheaply.
So what do you think? Discussion is of course wellcomed.

Writing- the distilation of thought into a solid form. As the late Carl Sagan said (well wrote actually) it is almost a form of magic.

Printing Press, given the nature of the question.

http://www.civfanatics.com/uploads/america1s.jpg

Printing Press... Many of the others couldnt have been discovered without the spreading of knowledge that this invention engendered...

Breathing... Then the wheel. Without it people would spread across the globe much slower and all technologies were discovered much later.

You people take too much for granted. ;) The flush toilet has my vote. Really, sewage systems allowed for clean cities, which allow for cleaner, better living conditions - less disease, longer lifespans. And it gave people a place to sit and read things printed on those handy printing presses.

Top ten in this order:

Flushing toilet
Writing
Zero
Printing press
Wheel
Telecommunications
Chips
Crisps
Freezer
Civ3 (I hope)

agriculture - it gave us the free time to invent and play games like Civilization! :p

According to my brother (an archaeologist) it is possible that the advent of agriculture had adverse effects on people's nutition and amount of free time.

Nutrition is no longer a problem (although dietitions might disaggree) but the curse of increased labour has never been lifted.

Even today people in Hunter gatherer societies have far more free time than we wage-slaves of the the civilised world.

OK then I change my answer to Money (which, oddly enough, isn't on that list either) now I have something with which to BUY the game Civilization. :p let those hunter-gatherers top THAT! :D

Originally posted by Magnus
OK then I change my answer to Money (which, oddly enough, isn't on that list either) now I have something with which to BUY the game Civilization. :p let those hunter-gatherers top THAT! :D Money is in the poll. It's called currency. However I have forgotten about agriculture. You see, I am coming to this from a Civ2 frame of mind and in Civ2, irrigation (i.e. agriculture) is a free advance. :p

OH YEA... :eek:

so it is, so it is. Ok I voted for it.

Originally posted by G-Man
Breathing... Then the wheel. Without it people would spread across the globe much slower and all technologies were discovered much later. Before the wheel, humans (and proto-humans) have already spread across the world. The Amerindian tribes who expanded into the Americas hardly used the wheel anyway. But it's still an important invention, encouraging movement and trade.

Originally posted by Sodak
You people take too much for granted. ;) The flush toilet has my vote. Really, sewage systems allowed for clean cities, which allow for cleaner, better living conditions - less disease, longer lifespans. And it gave people a place to sit and read things printed on those handy printing presses. :rotfl: That's really funny! Now that I think of it, can't really do without it every morning (and afternoon, evening, night).

Some of you people actually think that the "printing press" was more important than writing itself?

And what about organized agriculture? Everything about modern civilization revolves around organized agriculture - without it, we'd still be semi-nomadic with all the non-settled-down roving partiers/bandit connotations instead of all the big buildings, bureaucracies, and the DEA.

And what if Al Gore had never invented the Internet? Why, people would still be sociable...

"Some of you people actually think that the printing press" was more important than writing itself?"

We have writing for thousands of years prior to the invention of the printing press but it didn't help that much in terms of scientific advancement. Only the privileged few were literate cos it was extremely difficult and expensive to mass educate the people. And whole books were continuosly lost in wars, invasions, upheavals as copies were too fews. We lost a lot of the books written by Classical Romans and Greeks and so on.
Even after paper became common, it's still difficult cos books were being handcopied. It was only with the coming of printing that books became cheap and common and mass education became a possible reality. With large numbers of books, knowledge spread farther and faster and they were not as likely to be lost as in more ancient times cos somewhere, somehow there may be a copy.

The wheel has given us the car, which has given us the need for pavement, and henceforth layered the earth in suffocating materials, not to mention all the pollution and junk that cars are responsible for. If we'd never invented the wheel, we could've just skipped straight to hydrogen-cell hover-cars :D

My vote goes for writing. Or perhaps 'recorded language' would be more precise.

"And what about organized agriculture? Everything about modern civilization revolves around organized agriculture - without it, we'd still be semi-nomadic with all the non-settled-down roving partiers/bandit connotations instead of all the big buildings, bureaucracies, and the DEA."

Yes, I apologise for the overslight. Unfortunately I can't edit the poll any longer. As mentioned earlier, I was coming to this while thinking about advances in Civ2. In Civ2, irrigation (agriculture) is a free advance so I have completely overlooked it. :o

If I didn't have that, I would surley go the way of the dinosaur.

The major things that set humanity apart from animals are our abilities to (a) grow our own food, and (b) cook our own food. It has been argued that certain other species can maintain a crop of sorts, but this probably just amounts to waiting until it is ripe before eating it, rather than consciously collecting seeds and cultivating them. Homo sapiens are the only species who cook their food though and it is believed that this first set us apart from other intelligent species. It may have been the case that other intelligent primates could have discovered fire by smashing two rocks together, but only humans have been able to harness this great power, rather than just being afraid of it.

printing press...It crushed the Unlimited power of the Ecclesiastic and by that ended medieval times...

I would say paper.
The power of the printing press came from being able to produce lots of cheap books, and for that of course you need lots of cheap paper.

language is the most important, or maybe even the ability to think, and not just follow instincts.

We have writing for thousands of years prior to the invention of the printing press but it didn't help that much in terms of scientific advancement. Only the privileged few were literate cos it was extremely difficult and expensive to mass educate the people.

That writing didn't influence science is simply not true - without writing, most complex science would simply be impossible. Anything requiring mathematics wouldn't have come around, only teh simplest "striking a match" kind of science would ever be developed.

And you say writing only influenced the top strata of society, because only the aristocracy was literate. Well what do you think, when the printing press came around this suddenly changed? Most of Europe was still illiterate for hundreds of years after the printing press - it was first used mainly to print religious documents in Latin so that a bunch of old monks wouldn't have to rewrite them by hand. Even as late as the 1800s only wealthy and influential people could get things printed.

That may be true (or not) but ultimately you'll still need printing to disseminate scientific information and other forms of knowledge, even if it's among the wealthy. And I believe that literacy was quite high in late 1700s and 1800s Europe. Heck, even Tokugawa Japan (prior to opening up of the country) on the other side of the world had a literacy rate of 40% or so. That's one of the reasons why the Japanese could Westernize so rapidly.

"That writing didn't influence science is simply not true - without writing, most complex science would simply be impossible. Anything requiring mathematics wouldn't have come around, only teh simplest "striking a match" kind of science would ever be developed. "

You misunderstood me; I am not saying there's no science or writing didn't influence science. I am saying that science didn't advance as fast as it's possible compared with the period when printed books were widely available. Scientific advancement only steamrolled when printed material became common. Like I have said before, in the days before printing, knowledge could be discovered and then lost cos not enough copies of stored knowledged (in written form) survived wars, upheavals and disasters. With the advent of printing, humanity can more easily build upon previous knowledge and research.

Government!
No government means Anarchy and Anarchy means no improvement, things will most likely become even worse.

Writing is the more important discovery (i think), because without it there would be no way to ensure that the our great great.......great grandfathers would pass their knowledge from the BC years until now!!

Without writing they would have to pass their knowledge by mouth, and that way many things would be lost in that vain attempt of communication to others generations!!

Writing came to suppress this problem and accelerate the passing of knowledge from generation to generation!!

Note that writing skills does not mean it needs necessaraly paper (the first writing was on stone)!!

Without writing there would be almost no knowledge!!
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C:\WINDOWS\Profiles\asimoes\Os meus documentos\Toni\Bandeira de Portugal.gif

Portugal - Nation of Magellan's (from Magellan's Expedition)

Ribbed rubbers! :D

No seriously, I'd have to go with the printing press also. Sure it wouldn't have happened without writing, and sure computers (my second choice) were an even greater extention of the printing press (among other things), but the mass dissemination of information really started with the printing press--and mass dissemination of information was key to a lot of things:

--it made education for the common people possible, thus expanding literacy in general
--it helped end the "high priest" class of the few literate, who could manipulate things like religious texts because of their exclusive access to them (although by the time of Gutenberg the damage was probably already pretty much done)
--it "democratized" information, allowing ordinary people to read about more things without having to travel to some faraway city's library. Scientists working far away from other scientists could also benefit from each others' data much easier
--it enabled journalism (which could be either useful or detrimental depending on how it was used), which if used honestly and responsibly would be an essential pillar of modern democracy

Although, as was mentioned, these effects didn't occur overnight, the press DID make all these things possible.

Computers are extending these things even further, but the mass replication of texts was fundamental....

Nice analysis, Allan. Writing was around for thousands of years, but the printing press really turned the corner in the acceleration of mankind's development. Naturally, all advances are important... but the greatest direct influence and importance of the choices given is the Printing Press :).

how could you forget fire

agriculture; without it, humans woudl have never settled down from roaving, hunter-gather bands of people, to begin the treck towards all other advancments.

Again I must say The Human Imagination.

The major things that set humanity apart from animals are our abilities to (a) grow our own food, and (b) cook our own food. It has been argued that certain other species can maintain a crop of sorts, but this probably just amounts to waiting until it is ripe before eating it, rather than consciously collecting seeds and cultivating them. Homo sapiens are the only species who cook their food though and it is believed that this first set us apart from other intelligent species. It may have been the case that other intelligent primates could have discovered fire by smashing two rocks together, but only humans have been able to harness this great power, rather than just being afraid of it.

I think some ants farm some little(er) bugs

Sliced bread?

Sliced bread?

:shakehead :shakehead

Agriculture and the Weel, and people should not go around bumping threads.

Sid Meier's Civilization. :p

Seriously -

Agriculture, since it provided a steady source of food, allowed men to shift resources and work force to accomplish other tasks.

Writing. The greatest advance attributed to one person is Tsai Lun's invention of paper.

Language.

Of the available options, Writing.

The flushing toilet and running water/sewage system in general. Think how miserable our lives would be otherwise.

That's a fairly impressive bump ...

I voted writing.

I think this has been said before.. but: -

The most important advance in history was First Woman accepting First Man's request for a date (and the rest is history)

I voted "religion", because I think it went hand-in-hand with a paradigm shift in human consciousness that resulted in abstract thought, religion, art, philosophy etc. It was the final building block in what made us human.

Where's fire? Without it you wouldn't be able to make the printing press!

and where's agriculture?

You need a storable food surplus for pretty much everything, specialists, extensive tradition, high population density etc.

"Some of you people actually think that the printing press" was more important than writing itself?"

We have writing for thousands of years prior to the invention of the printing press but it didn't help that much in terms of scientific advancement. Only the privileged few were literate cos it was extremely difficult and expensive to mass educate the people. And whole books were continuosly lost in wars, invasions, upheavals as copies were too fews. We lost a lot of the books written by Classical Romans and Greeks and so on.
Even after paper became common, it's still difficult cos books were being handcopied. It was only with the coming of printing that books became cheap and common and mass education became a possible reality. With large numbers of books, knowledge spread farther and faster and they were not as likely to be lost as in more ancient times cos somewhere, somehow there may be a copy.


Couldn't agree more. Writing is great, but when no one ever sees that writing, it kinda defeates the purpose.

Printing Press is my answer.

Wow, you agree with me almost 4 years after I wrote that.... :goodjob: :p

I don't even remember writing it... :lol: This thread is ancient...

and where's agriculture?

You need a storable food surplus for pretty much everything, specialists, extensive tradition, high population density etc.Post #18. Like I said almost 4 years ago... :p

The most important invention was invention - the idea that better ways of doing things could be found.

This was not on your list XIII:

"For millions of years mankind lived just like the animals. Then something happened which unleashed the power of our imagination. We learned to talk."
-Stephen Hawking

Wow, you agree with me almost 4 years after I wrote that.... :goodjob: :p

I don't even remember writing it... :lol: This thread is ancient...

I didn't realize the thread was four years old, until after I quoted you. :)

Actually, I was thinking "Hmm...XIII seems a little more upbeat, talkative, informative, and almost seems younger today, not his old grumpy self"...now I know why. :crazyeye: ;)

thetrooper, haven't we always been able to communicate though, using sounds or other things?

how could you forget fireThis was my immediate thought as well.

Fire is the basis for almost all industrial processes, particularly metal working and ceramics.

The Printing Press was the most important invention. Not only did it bring literature and knowledge to the common people (rather than just the elite), it served as a springboard for people to express ideas and quickly spread technology. And of course, the development of newspaper is the biggest advancement in communication along with the telegraph, telephone, television, and the internet (should be called the "telenet" :D).

and of course, the press revolutionized government structure, spreading Protestanism. The fall of the chruch in social life, or as Nietzsche puts it, "the Death of God", ended the so called slave morality that plauged human expression.

I can't choose a particular one at the moment so I'm going to choose several
writing - allows nonverbal communication which can be stored.
printing press - allowed mass communication.
electricity - can you see a process in the modern world which doesn't need electricity.
currency - a base currency is essential for high level trade.
industrialisation - almost everything today is made in a factory.

I don't think government should be in the poll since even dogs have government of a sort.