Best invention for the past 200 years?

Mycernius

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BBC radio four has been running a small poll in conjunction with this years Reith Lectures. As the lectures have been about technology and its impact on the world the poll was about what the public thought was the most important invention in the past two hundred years. There were several put forward and one was eventually selected. These included, radio, communication satellites, nuclear power, but strangely enough not TV. The winner was the bicycle. I wonder what your views on the most important invention for the past two hundred years is and your reasosn why? I would like a poll, but the chioces are vast and probably too large to do a poll for.
As for me I would go for the humble lightbulb. It gives us light at the flick of a switch and the ability to carry on working or posting into the night. Otherwise we would still be stuck with gas lighting, which smell and is a little bit more dangerous than the lightbulb. It has turned the human race into a 24 hour people.
 
Tough one. I'll wager... the personal computer? Don't know if that goes hand-in-hand with the internet but it seems like it will be the springboard for just about anything and everything that has to do with science and technology in the immediate future.
 
Communication methods in General.

Radio/TV/VHS/DVD/Internet

The ability to communicate and learn has greatly increased.
 
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I'm with Duo. I was going to say penicillin.
 
You are right. I guess I wasn't really thinking... :souka:

Invention: telegraph/telephone maybe(which I guess should probably make my first choice electricity?) Even though I'm not particularly fond of the phone at times, it did cut down response time, which is a good thing, I guess.
 
The phone was a good invention now its just an annoying advertising technique.

Getting phoned 3 times a day by companies wanting me to change my line, buy there furniture or win there fake prizes.

I actually leave my phone off the hook all day long now and the only reason i have it is because i need a phone line for internet use.
 
kirei_na_me said:
You are right. I guess I wasn't really thinking... :souka:

Invention: telegraph/telephone maybe(which I guess should probably make my first choice electricity?) Even though I'm not particularly fond of the phone at times, it did cut down response time, which is a good thing, I guess.


Well, if we really think about every invention is a discovery, I mean for example electricity or what not, is just a discover that if we stik charged electrons through a metal they will travel through, or smth like that, or like the radio, it was just a discovery of the radio waves and a way to exploit them, so the same with penicillin ;)
 
Tim33 said:
The phone was a good invention now its just an annoying advertising technique.

Getting phoned 3 times a day by companies wanting me to change my line, buy there furniture or win there fake prizes.

I actually leave my phone off the hook all day long now and the only reason i have it is because i need a phone line for internet use.

Personally, if I could find a time machine, there would be two people I could cheerfully murder .....

Adolf Hitler .... and Alexander Graham Bloody Bell !

If the fax machine and email had come first .... the telephone wouldn't have got a 'look in' in my book !

No record of what's been said, no body language, instant access wether you want it or not .... and that damned intrusive "ring"!

...... I'm glad he spilled acid on his knees ! He deserved it ! And he lied!

His first words were not (something to the effect...) "Come in here please, I need your assistance.."

They were (more than likely...) "Holy #%@*! My pants !"

No; the invention in this period that changed everything (for better or for worse), was without fail .... the internal combustion engine .... !

?W????
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Electric light!!!! even i like the dark, im happ my room is lighten in the evening, and that the streets are too!!!
 
I was thinking of what life would be like without:
Mass water purification systems
Mass sanitation systems
Air conditioning
Electricity
Refridgeration
Airplane
Cotton Underwear w/elastic waistband
Anesthesia
Plastic
Saran wrap
ziplock bags
teflon
comic books
right turn on red lights
 
Pornography.

Doc:ramen::happy:
 
Steam engine. If i remember history, correctly, it signaled the start of Industrial Revolution.

Television: It's one of the most popular entertainments for the past 200 years.

Betamax video player: With that, you can not only have video copies of your favorite movies but also can record movies into another tape. Too bad they went the way of dinosaurs despite its superior format.

Computer: It made my school life easier. You don't need it to write, then erase, and write again your lengthy homeworks.
 
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