What Are Some of The Greatest Inventions in History Which Tend to Get Overlooked?

Author: Reece101

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Reece101
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I would say glass is one. The amount of applications it’s had is almost unfathomable.
Just think of all the scientific instruments and technology it’s been applied to.
IlDiavolo
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I'd say all the inventions that are part of our daily life are overlooked. The car, the electricity, the money, etc, all of them are common to us.
Mharman
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@Reece101
Glass windows especially.
zedvictor4
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Zip ties.
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Vaccines
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Interferometer
ebuc
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@Reece101
Zero { 0 }, cipher, zyphra as invented in Arabic numerals.  As Fuller points, do calculations with Roman numerals is near impossible, ergo, only good for counting sheep. Numbers{ counting sheep, mammoth, etc } came before other written language.

Mass-production of  words aka printing press.

Penicillin{?}  ---they didnt have it in any wars prior to 1928--.

Electric power AC and DC ergo a combination of many differrent parts.

Binary{ 0, 1 }, ergo, digtal electronic bit has exponentially moved humanity the furthest in in shortest amount of time.






Best.Korea
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Hierarchy - may not seem like important thing, but its actually crucial for any kind of organization of society.
sadolite
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@Best.Korea
"Hierarchy" I would not consider that an invention but more a fact of nature as it exists in all living animals. Some are just better than others, yes that includes humans. You can split hairs about intellect vs strength but it doesn't matter. Someone always comes out on top regardless of the methods used to get there.
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@sadolite
Bang on.

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@sadolite
Animals only have primitive hierarchy, which humans had at the start. 1 group and 1 leader is the simplest form of hierarchy. When you have thousands of group leaders, officers, generals, president each existing in order of command, having ranks that put them one above other, that is an advanced hierarchy.
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@Best.Korea
Like I said, the methods to get to the top are irrelevant. The desire to climb to the top has always been there. Its not an invention its an animal instinct.
Public-Choice
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Geometry.

No pyramids, no architecture, no pipes, no wells. So many things wouldn't have ever happened if geometry was never discovered.
Elliott
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The “written word,” it has enabled us to conserve and impartideas and knowledge. It allows us acquire knowledge from those we have nevermet, even those who lived and died thousands of years ago and that is pretty amazing.
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The leaver and the fulcrum.
Like many of man's invention, it is overlooked and taken for granted.
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@Elliott
The “written word,”
Indeed, but do you not think that writing may  have reduced our memory capacity/recall somewhat?
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so many, its hard to choose! i like lasers  though. from surgery to melting things, from causing cancer to removing kidney stones, from playing with cats to distracting neighbors.
it has much utility.
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@Stephen
Indeed, but do you not think that writing may  have reduced our memory capacity/recall somewhat?
I don’t see why it should, we have to remember what we read and we still have to remember the events that affect our daily lives, andthe things we read usually cover issues that are in addition to those events.
RationalMadman
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The contraceptive pill
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@RationalMadman
Worst invention ever
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@Elliott
Indeed, but do you not think that writing may  have reduced our memory capacity/recall somewhat?
I don’t see why it should, we have to remember what we read

But it will always be written down and be at hand to refer to at any time. The idea of writing in many cases is to save us having to remember everything said or done or to be said and to be done.. An example would be the Mrs Stephen's  shopping list.


and we still have to remember the events that affect our daily lives,

We do but routine is easily remembered if it is done on a daily basis i.e. repetition. Darts players are not necessarily mathematicians but they have no trouble remembering what treble 18 is without having to do the math but through repetition.





Elliott
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@Stephen
Indeed, but do you not think that writing may  have reduced our memory capacity/recall somewhat?
I don’t see why it should, we have to remember what we read

But it will always be written down and be at hand to refer to at any time. The idea of writing in many cases is to save us having to remember everything said or done or to be said and to be done.. An example would be the Mrs Stephen's  shopping list.


and we still have to remember the events that affect our daily lives,

We do but routine is easily remembered if it is done on a daily basis i.e. repetition. Darts players are not necessarily mathematicians but they have no trouble remembering what treble 18 is without having to do the math but through repetition.

I was initially thinking of books but yes you make a good point with the example of a shopping list, although I think that is more of an aide then a substitute for memory. If I’m going to the supermarket for a load of stuff, I take a shopping list, usually prepared by my wife. I could probably sit and memorise it if I had to, so it hasn’t affected my ability to memorise, it would simply be unnecessary.
 
I see no evidence that the written word has reduced our memory capacity, in fact reading is supposed to stimulate the brain and this can have a positive effect on concentration and memory.
Stephen
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@Elliott
I see no evidence that the written word has reduced our memory capacity.

Neither have I . It's just that I often wonder how far we would progressed without writing . Imagine an architects drawing for instance and having to remember every single detail or the millions of words that make up a  6 month court case. Stenographer springs to mind.

I could probably sit and memorise it [shopping list] if I had to

Time saved and or lost.  Mrs Stephen sometimes makes her list then leaves it at home and has to return to pick up the list she'd forget.😒🤦‍♀️

Still, all fascinating stuff for a conversation.

23 days later

DavidAZ
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I'm going with underarm deodorant.
zedvictor4
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@DavidAZ
Underarm deodorant.

Necessity for the vainglorious.

Only joking

But I think that the species could quite easily manage without it.
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Carrot cake. 

They would of had chocolate,  they would of had strawberry.
But some mutha fuckng genus seen carrots  ( some perhaps where going to waste ) 
Now Ya wouldn't make a cake with carrots.   Carrots and cake. NO WAY  
So you see carrots but cake has nothong to do with it. 
Years would pass with plain vanilla and chocolate . But still no carrot cake. 

Then some how some where shit aligned.
A bloke looked to the left and seen a pile of carrots and thought , i can probably make a cake out of them . 

And a BAMMMMMMMMMMMMM would of been heard far and wide..... 
Thus Creating a 
BCC = before carrot cake. 
NCC =  now carrot cake.  
If you will. 
In the carrot cake continuum 

Now  ( Dont say with leftovers you make a cake type dish ) as i think this is how carrot cake come s to be. And it ruins the thought of a brilliant man inventing something as truly brilliant as carrot cake.  

But ummmmm. 
To carrot cake. 



 
Deb-8-a-bull
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Me.... 

An Apache helicopter. 
ebuc
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@Reece101
Public education for the massess ergo literacy for one and all. Hip-hip Hooray1
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Wheels. To this day we don't know who invented it. Might have been some dude in mesopotamia. Who knows. See? Nobody cares. Should we though?
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@Intelligence_06
Wheels. To this day we don't know who invented it. Might have been some dude in mesopotamia. Who knows
Thor invented the wheel via his father Johnny Hart.
and here

but the one I always remember  most is this one.  In those days  it was common to call someone a derogatory ' dipshit ', for whatever reason compelled some one to do so.