Your top three inventions of ALL TIME

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Ajay

Lifer
Jan 8, 2001
16,094
8,114
136
Most of the critters that really need killing are human or smaller. Between a hammer and a fly-swatter you've got most of your violent rages covered.
I don't think fly-swatters were a thing a million years ago :)
 

SKORPI0

Lifer
Jan 18, 2000
18,500
2,426
136
Of all time.....
Teleportation
FTL traveling via wormhole
Holo deck

Now
Language. . Communicate with other cultures besides your own
Medicine ... Cure / prevent sickness
Agriculture ....feed the people
 

ultimatebob

Lifer
Jul 1, 2001
25,134
2,450
126
Writing, Gunpowder, and Nuclear Fission. Those three were always important in Civilization, anyway.
 

Crono

Lifer
Aug 8, 2001
23,720
1,503
136
pottery, bro.

p.o.t.t.e.r.y
.

It would definitely be near the top of any list. Not just for storing and carrying food and liquids (though pest-impervious grain storage alone makes it invaluable), but some of the earliest incendiary and explosive weapons were ceramic pots filled with Greek fire or, later, gunpowder.

Pottery has also long been a lasting medium for art and writing. Archaeology wouldn't be much of a field without pottery, either. Many eras of history would be completely or close to completely "dark" to us without pottery.
 
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Paladin3

Diamond Member
Mar 5, 2004
4,933
878
126
Cooking. Everyone forgets cooking. If we hadn't learned to cook meats, which processes the food for easier digestion, early humans couldn't have consumed sufficient calories to develop our big brains, thus making almost all else possible.
 

Crono

Lifer
Aug 8, 2001
23,720
1,503
136
Cooking. Everyone forgets cooking. If we hadn't learned to cook meats, which processes the food for easier digestion, early humans couldn't have consumed sufficient calories to develop our big brains, thus making almost all else possible.

That's more of a discovery (or series of discoveries) than an invention, unless you are talking about a specific tool, utensil, or perhaps even method. Cooking is a broad set of processes and techniques, though the "invention" of fire would probably cover the most important part of it.
 
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SKORPI0

Lifer
Jan 18, 2000
18,500
2,426
136
I'd go with refrigeration/canning of food for long term storage over "cooking". No need to keep hunting for meat everyday if you can keep it fresh at a later time. Plus you can bring them to places far from civilization.
 
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Crono

Lifer
Aug 8, 2001
23,720
1,503
136
I'd go with refrigeration/canning of food for long term storage over "cooking". No need to keep hunting for meat everyday if you can keep it fresh at a later time. Plus you can bring them to places far from civilization.

Also canned goods become a major part of the bartering economy after the zombie apocalypse in 2019. :p
 

Paladin3

Diamond Member
Mar 5, 2004
4,933
878
126
That's more of a discovery (or series of discoveries) than an invention, unless you are talking about a specific tool, utensil, or perhaps even method. Cooking is a broad set of processes and techniques, though the "invention" of fire would probably cover the most important part of it.

Yup, more of a discovery than invention. It was still one of the most important technologies primitive man discovered that allowed us to become modern man with a modern brain, capable of advanced thought and so many great inventions later on. I figured this discovery was worth an honorary mention.

I'd go with refrigeration/canning of food for long term storage over "cooking". No need to keep hunting for meat everyday if you can keep it fresh at a later time. Plus you can bring them to places far from civilization.

Cooking with fire was more essential to our early development as a thinking animal than food preservation was. Cooking high protein foods like meat made them easier and faster to digest. This allowed early man to consume more food and calories which made it possible for us grow a larger, more complex brain. Without cooking we wouldn't have had the brain power to come up with refrigeration or canning.

As you said though, preserving food was a very vital step for mankind. Without it we would have been tied to our fresh food sources and unable to travel far and populate the whole of the globe.
 
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