I think the concept (rather than an invention) of negative feedback is very important. By that I mean envisioning that a machine can change it's own behaviour.

I think the concept (rather than an invention) of negative feedback is very important. By that I mean envisioning that a machine can change it's own behaviour. This seems to have not been understood with early steam engines. People had to manually control valves to operate the first steam engines used as pumps in the U.K. James Watt and Mathew Bolton realized that coupling the output to the steam control valve would make it cycle automagically, This concept permeates modern design so we don't always see it for the important development that it is IMHO.