??
'Course there's even a sliiim chance of a subpar Gibson too... lol
Posted on 06/17/2014 11:35:24 AM PDT by Scoutmaster
Still a localized luxury. Have you visited the parts of Europe that still use waxed paper? What about the regions of Africa and Asia that don't bother with anything?
Well, the light bulb is on the list - and it was the killer app which motivated the generation/distribution of electric power.If you’re going for a grand list of “top 10 inventions,” I’d say that you have to go back a long way. Things like plumbing, and
the wheelthe bearing (which has to be made of metal, itself a major development).In such a grand list, “communications, computer, internet” should all be one item.
And mass production, the auto, and refined petroleum should be one item.
The airplane probably deserves a point on the list.
“Steam engine” should be generalized to “heat engine” to include IC engines, piston and turbine flavors. And the air conditioner is just a heat engine run in reverse, just as an electric generator is an electric motor run in reverse.
Thing is, one technology enables another.
Money is an invention, too . . . and so is antibiotic medicine. X-rays, photography . . .
Actually, the horse (as we know it) is an invention; originally horses weren’t nearly as big and powerful as they are now. Selective breeding did the trick.
Genetically modifying both our food and domesticated animals.
Corn, rice and wheat alone took untold generations of selective gemo to allow us to support much of the world we have now, not to mention animals like horses and pigs.
I love to tweek people who hate GM food by telling me what they eat that isn’t GM, aside from some natural scavenged foods like mushrooms, blackberries, etc. Almost anything we have grown for a reason has been changed to benefit us, it just took longer than now is all.
The point is that when you are going for a top ten list, the order has to make sense. Without electrical generation, a light bulb is useless as is the internet and the computer. So electricity has to be a more significant since so many other inventions depend upon it. The same way that the automobile is trumped by the wheel. However, some things are clearly distinct. The wheel and electricity are distinct from one another.
Money is a more fundamental invention than the wheel, which existed as an impractical curiosity until the development of the bearing, which was impractical without strong metals.
The bottle opener. Because beer.
'Course there's even a sliiim chance of a subpar Gibson too... lol
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.