Top 10 Inventions of All Time

Posted by JohnP 02/27/2008 at 16:24

Top 10 Inventions of All Time in my opinion

  1. Language(s) / writing
  2. Agriculture / farming / plumbing / calendar
  3. Money
  4. Medicine esp. Germ Theory
  5. Printing Press / Refrigeration (yes, these are related)
  6. Calculus (differential/integral/N-dimensional) / Math
  7. Vaccinations
  8. Electromagnetic Theories (this is huge / radio/tv/telephones/networking/computers/etc.)
  9. UNIX
  10. rsync

Ok, there you have it.

Fire isn’t an invention, it is a discovery. I differentiate these categories by whether a human had to create it or not. Could it have remained completely unseen without someone to think it up?

Other lists of this type have lasers, TV, automobile, and computers in them. Eh, no. Without electro magnetics, forget that. Steam power, railroads, government are impressive inventions, IMHO.