4 ms·
Ask HN: What where the key inventions in the history of mankind?
So far I got...
year / invention
-2000000 Stone tools
-1000000 Using fire
-6000 Metal tools
-6000 Agriculture
-4000 Writing
1550 Printing
1888 Telephones
1888 Cars
1903 Planes
1941 Penicillin
1941 First computer
1982 Homecomputers
1983 Mobile phones
1990 The internet
2001 Wikipedia
2004 Facebook
2007 Iphone
- irunbackwards 14y agoRailroads & Freight Shipping (by sea) are probably key ones to include.
- no_gravity 14y agoBoth probably evolved gradually, so it might be hard to give it an invention date.
- irunbackwards 14y agoSorry, was proposing both as one kind of. I didn't realize there was a term for it. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intermodal_freight_transport http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intermodal_freight_transport IIRC, this is what made it cheaper to mass produce overseas, definitely a huge impact on industry.
- charonn0 14y agoThe iPhone? Seriously? On the same list as agriculture and fire?
- no_gravity 14y agoI put iphone there as a short form of "mobile internet".
- charonn0 14y agoI don't think there's been nearly enough time to determine whether the internet, mobile or otherwise, as we now understand the concept will have a lasting (e.g. centuries or millennia long) influence. It probably will, but it hasn't demonstrated that yet.
- charonn0 14y agoSpeech and non-verbal linguistic communication.
- no_gravity 14y agoI would suspect that speech can hardly be given an invention date. As it gradually evolved. Did apes speak already?
- charonn0 14y agoThe origin of human speech is obscure and may never been known with any exactness or certitude. However, language has been known to develop nearly spontaneously in human groups: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/centralamericaandthecaribbean/nicaragua/1471947/Deaf-children-invent-a-new-sign-language.html http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/centralamericaandt...
- marquis 14y agoThe needle. It allowed humans to hunt and live in cold climates. (disclaimer: watching Andrew Marr's History of the World. It's got everything you need in there).
- aorshan 14y agoThe Wheel is probably pretty important. Also I would argue the transistor is pretty up there. As would be the nuclear bomb.
- charonn0 14y agoThe domestication of livestock and beasts of burden.
- RollAHardSix 14y agoI'm really tired so I'm sorry for not expanding. Dynamite. Lightbulb. Tool Manufacturing (wide-spread use of tools has grown COUNTLESS industries). Educational Institutions (College but obviously others as-well)
- abhijat 14y agoThe spear should have been pretty important for human history as one of the first (if not the first) ranged weapons.
- Lionga 14y agoMoney