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> If you look at lists of the 100 greatest inventions of all time, electricity figures prominently. Once you get past some key enablers that can’t really be cal
by X6S1x6Okd1st 6y ago
> If you look at lists of the 100 greatest inventions of all time, electricity figures prominently. Once you get past some key enablers that can’t really be called inventions—fire, money, the wheel, calendars, the alphabet
Well that's a doozy of a way to start. How is electricity an invention but those listed after are not?
- na85 6y agoFire is a natural phenomenon and I don't see how it can credibly be called an invention. That would be like calling water an invention. The others, though, are certainly inventions.
- iaw 6y agoI would argue that the ability to make controlled fires was an invention and perhaps the first chemistry humans intentionally performed, but I think it's just a point of semantics.
- SECProto 6y agoI see a lot more natural electricity (lightning, monthly) than I do natural fire (wildfires? Never)
- danielheath 6y agoAlmost as though methods to prevent wildfires are one of the earliest human inventions.
- gizmo385 6y agoGiven the record fire seasons in Colorado and California, not sure how well this comment reads.
- dylan604 6y agoIt reads just fine. That particular individual has not seen wildfires in person. No need to read anything else into it.
- SECProto 6y agoI mean, the reason I have never seen a wildfire is because they are exceedingly rare in my local biome. Nothing to do with artificial wildfire prevention.
- deleted 6y ago[deleted]
- ClumsyPilot 6y agoWell, by that logic neither is electricity, since lightning exists. And magnets certainly do occur naturaly, and so does nuclear fission and fusion.
- na85 6y agoI agree. To say that a natually-occurring physical process or phenomenon was invented is nonsensical. Electricity is not the same as electric power, just as nuclear fission is not the same as a nuclear weapon, just the same as fire is not the same as a coal fired power plant. Electricity and nuclear fission were discovered, not invented.
- X6S1x6Okd1st 6y agoDo you think that electricity can credibly be called an invention?
- na85 6y agoNo, but I distinguish between Electricity, the physical phenomenon, and Electric Power, the application of electric charge to energize a device. Lightning is the obvious example of electricity that is not electric power.
- X6S1x6Okd1st 6y agoWhy not distinguish between fire the physical phenomenon and controlled fire the application of fire to heat up objects or provide light?
- analog31 6y agoIndeed, I was about to say that with electricity, we know when and by whom it was invented, but then again, the development of electricity as a useful power source was the work of multiple inventors over the span of decades. With those other inventions, possibly centuries, who knows. So I'd still call them inventions.
- dredmorbius 6y agoThe line between capability and invention is ... broad and ill-defined. I stumbled over that comment as well, though the article doesn't hinge on it.