The greatest ever achievement of mankind?

RMAOK · 15-07-2019 8:41pm

Anya Attractive Vein wrote: »

Someone from 2030 said it was time-travel, also added as a word of caution, to be beware of Skynet.

He name wasn't Kyle Reese by any chance?

stimpson · 15-07-2019 9:41pm

Wibbs wrote: »

While the transister is an amazing invention S, without the printing press the modern world including the transistor would simply not have happened until it was invented. Without the printing press it's unlikely the Reformation would have happened, nor the Enlightenment. Printing gives you concepts like indexing(the interwebs wouldn't work without that), jargon, a massive increase in specialisation which gave rise to more research and more thorough research. Look at how Europe rapidly advanced compared to cultures that didn't use it, including China who largely came up with the concept. They stagnated.

I thought about the printing press and I guess it’s the printing press of our time.

I agree the transistor would not have existed but for the press, but the press was an evolution from paper and pen, which itself was an exclusion of chalk and slate.

I would argue that the transistor has had a bigger impact on our daily lives and likely will have going forward. AI may well be the next quantum leap.

filbert the fox · 15-07-2019 9:42pm

Pain Relief, anaesthetics,
Just imagine the complex nature of surgery today without anaesthetics

Radio.

A much underrated achievement we all listen to daily.

mr_edge_to_you · 15-07-2019 9:43pm

Chocolate Kimberly

jaxxx · 15-07-2019 9:43pm

Our failures far outweigh our achievements.

Pessimistic? Yes. True? Yes. Hotel? Trivago.

AMKC · 15-07-2019 9:53pm

The ISS is also a great human achievement. Because of it we have been able to do thousands of experiments that simply can not be done on Earth and from this advance technology and science. It is also a great way of showing what can be achieved when humans work together,

Franz Von Peppercorn II · 15-07-2019 9:58pm

JupiterKid wrote: »

Humankind has made so many achievements and advances over the past 10 millenia it is very difficult to pick one out as the greatest one of all.

However the top five in my book would be:

Writing
Agriculture
Fire
Computing
Space Travel

This is similar to a list I had (except space travel is a gimmick).

But how can people forget electricity? Nothing that people like in the modern world (transistors, computers, space travel, phones, the internet etc etc etc) can exist without it.

sabat · 15-07-2019 10:04pm

Landing a probe on a comet (or maybe that was just a lucky shot.)

d8491prj5boyvg · 15-07-2019 10:09pm

alchemist33 wrote: »

Making stars out of Jedward?

Or what happened 50 years ago, when three brave men took off on a giant explosive device and spent three days in the vacuum of space, landed on a rock, and got back safely again? All planned by hundreds of very smart people with computing power a fraction of your smartphone's. There have been probably advancements in medicine and society that have saved hundreds of thousands of lives and made everyone's lives better, but for the sheer audacity, teamwork and organisation, the moon landing must be our greatest achievement so far.

What about the single Russian lad or the Russian dog that did it before them? That was the real competition. The Americans made up the race to the moon when they lost the first one

Force Carrier · 15-07-2019 10:31pm

sabat wrote: »

Landing a probe on a comet (or maybe that was just a lucky shot.)

The rendezvous was complicated(no luck involved) but the landing equally as much. You have to kind of fall on to it and the the gravity of a comet is weak. Also they didn't know exactly what the surface of the nucleus of a comet was like when they designed and launched Rosetta. The first good look came from the probe itself as it got close.

Junkyard Tom · 15-07-2019 10:52pm

Stuff like electricity and grain were always there, waiting to be discovered and harnessed. The cat-flap though? The cat-flap is Isaac Newton's greatest ever invention, surely. A door within a door? Genius.

Upforthematch · 15-07-2019 11:01pm

Engines for me. The trains, planes and automobiles we have are unbelievable.

Richard Hillman · 15-07-2019 11:22pm

Sewerage systems.

Tuco88 · 15-07-2019 11:32pm

The 80s Toyota Hilux

The Satanist · 15-07-2019 11:36pm

Pornhub

jimbobaloobob · 15-07-2019 11:39pm

Destroying the planet

pah · 15-07-2019 11:41pm

I'm hoping that this thread is here in a hundred years and someone can append to it.

Saved itself from self destruction

Gimme A Pound · 15-07-2019 11:48pm

harry Bailey esq wrote: »

Has anyone mentioned sliced bread?

It's the greatest thing since... before sliced bread.

Blaizes · 15-07-2019 11:48pm

Medical advances, things like vaccines, prosthetic limbs, heart surgery etc.

Gimme A Pound · 15-07-2019 11:49pm

Jokey posts aside, I love the "edgy" stuff like "electing Trump" and "Brexit". Yeah definitely greater than electricity or antibiotics. :pac:

bodhrandude · 16-07-2019 12:50am

CrabRevolution wrote: »

NoBrowne was never Taoiseach.

You are right, got it mixed up, he was minister for health.

nuyil simp · 16-07-2019 3:17am

I'd go way back, language is pretty much a natural evolution, but writing is a big step forward from that. or even much further back; agriculture. moving from hunter-gatherers to planting seeds/ cultivating crops/ tending herds of animals, enabled the flourishing of civilizations..

the-island-man · 16-07-2019 5:25am

I would say the greatest achievement is tied to our greatest failure.

Given the constant reminders of the existential threat caused by climate change I would put the ability of previous generations to lay down public transport infrastructure to be used by the masses in supposedly less well off times as remarkable.

Countries have since maintained and in some cases advanced this infrastructure such as bullet trains in Japan or high speed electrified trains throughout mainland Europe.

Here however we completely abandoned the train networks in favour of the road.

Graces7 · 16-07-2019 5:33am

has yet to come... the future is an open unread book..

Shemale · 16-07-2019 6:20am

Littlehorny wrote: »

Writing must be one but for me it's mathematics it gave smart people the tools to understand and work out so much of our planet and the universe around it. I haven't the brain to understand a bit of it but physics and maths blows me away.

Imagine where we would be if we were taught properly in school, I was always told you could only things of the same type eg oranges and apples.

If you give "Mr Scientist" two Hydrogen atoms and one Oxygen atom he can make you a drink.

unknownlegend · 16-07-2019 6:21am

Air conditioning

seasidedub · 16-07-2019 6:36am

Woman.

Jimmy Conway · 16-07-2019 6:44am

The flugelbinder

Bandana boy · 16-07-2019 9:29am

Michelle Pfeiffer in the Fabulous baker boys

Boom_Bap · 16-07-2019 9:31am

It's a frikking spoon and a fricking fork!

branie2 · 16-07-2019 9:32am

Darwin's On the Origin of Species

patmahe · 16-07-2019 9:47am

BorneTobyWilde wrote: »

Putting a man on the moon did nothing for man. It was to simply beat the Russians.

Badly Drunk Boy wrote: »

And the Russians got most of the firsts when it came to space exploration.

With respect I disagree, the moon landings showed what the human race is capable of when it applies itself to a task. Where political will, rivalry, money, talent and ambition all come together to do something that was the stuff of dreams not long before.

It made us believe nothing is impossible.

Danzy · 16-07-2019 9:49am

Farming, everything else is a spin off, from strong bodies, larger brains, space travel, civilization etc.

inforfun · 16-07-2019 11:48am

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=It6VMI7pGE4

Knifewrench.
For kids.

jiltloop · 16-07-2019 12:10pm

As mentioned a few times already, farming has been the big game changer in terms of changing from a nomadic species to being able to stay in one place, spend less time focusing on the provision of sustenance and develop arts and crafts, governance and communities and eventually maths and technology.

To distill things even further you could say that the humble foodstuff, bread, has been one of the most important catalysts in the advancement of the human race.

Limpy · 16-07-2019 12:14pm

Splitting the atom

Boom_Bap · 16-07-2019 12:15pm

Putting 1000 elastic bands on a watermelon to see if it pops

4068ac1elhodqr · 16-07-2019 12:56pm

jiltloop wrote: »

As mentioned a few times already, farming has been the big game changer in terms of changing from a nomadic species to being able to stay in one place, spend less time focusing on the provision of sustenance and develop arts and crafts, governance and communities and eventually maths and technology.
To distill things even further you could say that the humble foodstuff, bread, has been one of the most important catalysts in the advancement of the human race.

Lack of crop rotation and use of pesticides leaves plenty of room for improvement. Maybe vertical, soil-free farming, beside green-powered sesalination plants around Africa's coast will be the next thing.

Bread is interesing: basic, easy to make and stores fairly well. Think the great lateral 'out of the box' thinker 'DeBono' blamed lack of certain breads (specific nutrition defency) in a specific region of the middle east for all the agro over there.

Maybe all the lead in the water pipes, lack of sun (D3) and too much iron (celtic hemochromatosis) in the blood gave the celts their short fuse.

Dakota Dan · 16-07-2019 1:01pm

Making nature redundant and changing the climate with co2.

jiltloop · 16-07-2019 1:32pm

Anya Attractive Vein wrote: »

Lack of crop rotation and use of pesticides leaves plenty of room for improvement. Maybe vertical, soil-free farming, beside green-powered sesalination plants around Africa's coast will be the next thing.

Bread is interesing: basic, easy to make and stores fairly well. Think the great lateral 'out of the box' thinker 'DeBono' blamed lack of certain breads (specific nutrition defency) in a specific region of the middle east for all the agro over there.

Maybe all the lead in the water pipes, lack of sun (D3) and too much iron (celtic hemochromatosis) in the blood gave the celts their short fuse.

I mentioned farming more in relation to the birth of ancient farming techniques allowing nomadic humans to harness nature and make their nomadic lifestyle redundant. Thus allowing them more time to be sedentary and begin the development of the skills and education that brought us to where we are today.

Obviously you have a point when you mention problems with modern farming and how it could be improved but that's a tangent that's not really relevant to this thread.

That's interesting what you mention about DeBono, I might read up on that and see what his reasoning was as it could be fascinating.

4068ac1elhodqr · 16-07-2019 1:46pm

jiltloop wrote: »

That's interesting what you mention about DeBono, I might read up on that and see what his reasoning was as it could be fascinating.

Nomadic folks are interesting, you could ask a Native Indian back in 1800's who's the happiest: him/her or some teenager up to their eyes in LoveIsland, caffine, fizzypop, twatter and instaselfies.
The folks in Asia that still carry their Yurt huts, regard a house full of stuff and a big TV as a form of oppression. The Chinese may also feel this way once cashless RFID, 5G & FRS become the norm.

Still scientific progress shouldn't be shunned.

deBono is a great fellow (might live in Dublin now), gets some criticism from neckbeards, but sure so does every innovator from Musk to Jacque Fresco.
He's a bit 'Marmite': https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/de-bonos-marmite-plan-for-peace-in-middle-yeast-740189.html

Some of the best achievements/inventions/discoveries are all still w-i-p.
Be that graphite, 3DP, aerogel, ion-propulsion, cold fusion and so on. All already invented (or at breakthrough stage), but not fully deployed as yet.
Application is everything (marketing too, as Telsa might say).

jiltloop · 16-07-2019 2:18pm

I'd say the nomads are the happiest for sure. I know which lifestyle I would opt for if there was a reset button!

chopperbyrne · 16-07-2019 3:30pm

Father Hernandez wrote: »

And going through the cell a few minutes later, incredible

The second bump is so much worse, as it was unplanned, and he landed right on his shoulder on the hard mat, compared to the planned, "softer" landing, on the announce table.

Your Face · 16-07-2019 5:54pm

chopperbyrne wrote: »

The second bump is so much worse, as it was unplanned, and he landed right on his shoulder on the hard mat, compared to the planned, "softer" landing, on the announce table.

Further to those two insane bumps there was his falling into thumbtacks.

kingchess · 16-07-2019 7:39pm

Maybe the human brain is the greatest ever achievement of Mankind??.We are living on a small planet near the edge of a galaxy,one of many in an immense universe, yet our scientists can tell us our position in this universe and explain how it all began with the Big Bang.
And from the very big to the very small ,trying to make sense of quantum theory,splitting the atom etc,the human brain really is an incredible and unique (probably) marvel, a super computer before there were even such things as super computers. , what a piece is Man, how noble in reason,how infinite in faculty..........in apprehension how like a god....

valoren · 16-07-2019 8:40pm

The development of Quantum Mechanics.

Enter name here · 16-07-2019 8:46pm

The greatest ever achievement, was to take the only 2 genders known to mankind and create multiple genders without actually changing anything.

4068ac1elhodqr · 16-07-2019 8:46pm

kingchess wrote: »

Maybe the human brain is the greatest ever achievement of Mankind??.

The human brain is on the verge of getting 'hacked', just recently a blind chap has had his vision restored somewhat, thanks to a chip brain implant, fed visual data wirelessly from another chip on his exterior sunglasses.

H+ they call it (transhumanism), a bit different from 'T', perhaps another flag will have to get designed for such folks who get chips willingly implanted. Such as the 4,000 in Swe that have RFID hand implants rather than carry a wireless credit card, or cash.

antodeco · 16-07-2019 8:56pm

Your Face wrote: »

The Transistor

But would it have been the same without Jason Statham?

Bobblehats · 16-07-2019 8:58pm

When he climbed up on that cage and threw the undertaker right off

The greatest ever achievement of mankind?

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