What has had a bigger impact on humanity. The automobile or the computer?

[Newbian]

And how do all of the goods that stores need get delivered? Raw materials to build the city? Sourcing the raw materials?

Don't worry as computers will go over there and pick them up for you. 😛

 

[sdifox]

Another form of the automobile, so? And if you think farming like the pic is a good alternative then you've established the automobile progressed humanity greater than the computer.

Are you saying a diesel electric locomotive is an automobile? Or that an all electric car is not an automotive because it doesn't have ICE?

The picture is there to illustrate the point I was trying to make. ICE added to the tiller, replacing the ox or horse improved farming, not the automobile.

 

[Murloc]

What do you think farm/mining equipment are based on?

when someone says car, I think personal motorized transportation, I think automobile.

Trucks and tractors aren't made to transport people, they are not cars.
The primary purpose of tractors isn't even to transport anything at all, it's just an engine to provide mechanical power and get work done.

Are you saying a diesel electric locomotive is an automobile? Or that an all electric car is not an automotive because it doesn't have ICE?

The picture is there to illustrate the point I was trying to make. ICE added to the tiller, replacing the ox or horse improved farming, not the automobile.

This.

If you argue that this is a car, then a mule is also a car and the question doesn't make sense since mules are not recent or high-tech invention and have obviously been critical in the early stages of our race.

If this is not a car, there's no reason to consider other farming machinery as cars either since they do the same things that you can do with a one-axis tractor like this one, if the proper attachments are available.

Also where I live all the old factories have their own railroad access track because back then trucks weren't that good so let's not overestimate the importance of trucks for industrial/mail/supermarket goods transportation either.

 

[Mr.IncrediblyBored]

The automobile as personal mobility is hugely overrated. The public impact (in the US, anyway) came from decades of social engineering needed to make it the defacto transportation option. Before that, every city had train terminals connecting them with the rest of the country. Major Midwestern cities -- like Cincinnati, Cleveland, St. Louis -- had hundreds of regional and interstate trains stopping EVERY DAY. And locally, St. Louis had nearly 500 miles of streetcar track connecting parts of the city, which is now all gone. Meanwhile they celebrate the return of the streetcar, a whopping 2.2 mile loop.

 

[Capt Caveman]

when someone says car, I think personal motorized transportation, I think automobile.

Trucks and tractors aren't made to transport people, they are not cars.
The primary purpose of tractors isn't even to transport anything at all, it's just an engine to provide mechanical power and get work done.


This.

If you argue that this is a car, then a mule is also a car and the question doesn't make sense since mules are not recent or high-tech invention and have obviously been critical in the early stages of our race.

If this is not a car, there's no reason to consider other farming machinery as cars either since they do the same things that you can do with a one-axis tractor like this one, if the proper attachments are available.

Also where I live all the old factories have their own railroad access track because back then trucks weren't that good so let's not overestimate the importance of trucks for industrial/mail/supermarket goods transportation either.

Trucks aren't based off of the automobile? Yeah, let's ignore trucks b/c transporting goods from the train depot with a horse and wagon was just as good. Yes, single axle tractor can perform the farm duties that today's massive farms require.

I consider these under the umbrella of automobile:

 

[IronWing]

What is this abomination?

Kind of cool. Does donuts toward the end.

 

[Murloc]

If you make anything with wheels and non-human propulsion fall under the definition of car, regardless of the use, then it's easy to make the argument that the car is more important. But then it doesn't make sense to compare it to the computer: the wheel and animals have been powering human development for thousands of years.

If you say a combine is a car, then a mule and plow are also a car, there's no way around it, it's the same thing, just the technology is different and this brought gradual scaling advantages thorought history.

 

[Newbian]

If you make anything with wheels and non-human propulsion fall under the definition of car, regardless of the use, then it's easy to make the argument that the car is more important. But then it doesn't make sense to compare it to the computer: the wheel and animals have been powering human development for thousands of years.

If you say a combine is a car, then a mule and plow are also a car, there's no way around it, it's the same thing, just the technology is different and this brought gradual scaling advantages thorought history.

https://www.google.com/#q=automobile

a road vehicle, typically with four wheels, powered by an internal combustion engine or electric motor and able to carry a small number of people.

Those tractors in the images fall under it for obvious reasons as they are transport vehicles, as in actually able to transport people such as the drivers, and are powered by the engines.

Cars only are not automobiles.

 

[Capt Caveman]

If you make anything with wheels and non-human propulsion fall under the definition of car, regardless of the use, then it's easy to make the argument that the car is more important. But then it doesn't make sense to compare it to the computer: the wheel and animals have been powering human development for thousands of years.

If you say a combine is a car, then a mule and plow are also a car, there's no way around it, it's the same thing, just the technology is different and this brought gradual scaling advantages thorought history.

Mule and a plow have wheels and powered by an mechanical engine?

 

[yhelothar]

And how do all of the goods that stores need get delivered? Raw materials to build the city? Sourcing the raw materials?

How were they delivered before automobiles existed? Here's NYC at the turn of the 20th century. Huge cities were built back before there were cars. It won't be anywhere near the density as it would be with automobiles, but there were still bustling cities back in the Oregon Trail days.

Think of it this way. If all of the sudden, cities were forced to rely on rail, bicycles, horse/ox & wagons, how much different would life be for most people? On the other hand, if computers were removed, how different would life be?

Both automobiles and computers increase efficiency. Automobiles make transportation quicker and cheaper. Computers run algorithms to automate and optimize many processes. Both tremendously reduce the amount of manpower required in the production process. It's difficult to say which increased productivity more. Perhaps the GDP growth rate can provide a rough estimation of productivity gains with the advent of automobiles and computers. Doing a quick eyeball of the areas under the curves, it looks like GDP has been increasing at nearly the same rate after the mass production of cars in the 1920s as it has after computers started to go mainstream in the 80s and 90s - that is if you ignore the change from the Great Depression and WW2.

However, on top of increasing the efficiency of our lives, computers have drastically changed the way we consume information and communicate. Prior to computers, most people would probably be passively consuming information in front of television screens and still be writing letters to each other to communicate.