What invention do you think made the biggest impact on human civilization?

[KrazyHorse]

Yes. A socialist did.

[Urban Ranger]

Language, writing, paper, printing. I suppose argiculture is somewhere up there too.

[dunk]

Originally posted by GeneralTacticus

Doesn't language come first? After all writing was just a convenient way of keeping it around...

Well, humans didn't invent language. Ours is more perfected and universal, but most vertabrates communicate verbally. Dogs howl and bark. Cats meow and purr. Monkeys chatter.

Language may be more important, but all life communicates somehow (scents, etc.) Ours is just more complex and subtle.

I would say writing is more important becuase it allowed a legacy for information. Now communication could be stored for future use.

[Th0mas]

Originally posted by Sagacious Dolphin
And how poorly English grammar is used.

..not to mention English spelling

My vote also goes for the domestication of the Wild Plough

[GeneralTacticus]

Well, humans didn't invent language. Ours is more perfected and universal, but most vertabrates communicate verbally. Dogs howl and bark. Cats meow and purr. Monkeys chatter.

Language may be more important, but all life communicates somehow (scents, etc.) Ours is just more complex and subtle.

We invented our language, and if we hadn't developed it this far, like I said, we wouldn't be anything more than bright monkeys.

I would say writing is more important becuase it allowed a legacy for information. Now communication could be stored for future use.

Yes, writing was very important, especially in the development of the state, but it's merely a subsection of language, really.

[The Vagabond]

Metal working and the wheel.

Strictly speaking, language was not 'invented'. Rather, it evoved from zero in the course of thousands of years.

Originally posted by Sagacious Dolphin
Are you refering to radio?

Marconi (who mainly worked in England), and some German guy (Braun?) won the Nobel prize jointly. And we all know which semi-american the US Supreme court accredited as the inventor of the radio.

Actually, the radio was first invented by Popov in Russia. Unfortunately, this is not recognized in the West.

[GeneralTacticus]

Strictly speaking, language was not 'invented'. Rather, it evoved from zero in the course of thousands of years.

Couldn't you say that about every other early human invention as well?

[The Vagabond]

Of course, not. For example, the wheel most certainly dawned upon some genius in a flash of revelation.

[GeneralTacticus]

Apart from that?

[The Vagabond]

The very notion of invention assumes its revolutionary character, i.e. a fast and drastic modification in the way things are done, in contrast with a gradual evolution. Therefore, language can't be termed invention.

Originally posted by GeneralTacticus
Apart from that?

For example, fire, metal working, agriculture, gunpowder are all inventions.

[Drake Tungsten]

The greatest invention is, of course, Invention. Duh.

[The Vagabond]

This is an answer from the series "If you play too much Civ".

[GeneralTacticus]

For example, fire, metal working, agriculture, gunpowder are all inventions.

Fire wasn't exactly 'invented'; it was already there. Metal working and agriculture wouldn't fit your criteria for invention; they too evolved, rather than just striking someone like a flash of lightning. Gunpowder isn't exacly an early human invention.

EDIT: spelling.

[The Vagabond]

Originally posted by GeneralTacticus
Fire wasn't exactly 'invented'; it was already there.

By 'fire' as an invention we don't actually mean fire as such, but rather artificial extraction of fire by humans. And that was a big deal of an invention.

Metal working and agriculture wouldn't fit your criteria for invention; they too evolved, rather than just striking someone like a flash of lightning.

Sure, they too evolved. Nevertheless, it is understood that at certain moment of history, food extraction underwent a drastic and revolutionary change in a relatively short period of time. (From simple gathering to agriculture). This permits to regard it an invention.

Gunpowder isn't exacly an early human invention.

True.

[GeneralTacticus]

By 'fire' as an invention we don't actually mean fire as such, but rather artificial extraction of fire by humans. And that was a big deal of an invention.

At what point do you define that as having occurred? When humans first started using it? Or when they were first able to light a fire themselves?

Sure, they too evolved. Nevertheless, it is understood that at certain moment of history, food extraction underwent a drastic and revolutionary change in a relatively short period of time. (From simple gathering to agriculture). This permits to regard it an invention.

True. But it all depends on what you define as a 'relatively short period of time'.