What is the greatest human invention?

Poll on "What is the greatest human invention?"

For a start I asked the question, in twitter. Although I have dead followers mostly, 8 of the active ones responded by the time of writing. And all were in favour of language. I can assume even if the number went upto 80 this would still represent the same result. So, I would keep the poll alive as the first comment to the article so you can contribute. The four answers directly came from google AI. As it seem these were the most common answers people have given in other forums. Let's consider each carefully and first considering my own answer which is "The Pen and Paper".

Language.

Language: https://unsplash.com/@hannahwrightdesigner

Language lets us communicate, and abstract our perceptions. This has a great advantage, as it helps to keep our memory of things, understand complex things by combining words together. Some animals use sounds to communicate but not as complex as even a fundemental human language. From the answers in the poll, some considered language not to be an invention. It is unlikely a lanuage was created by a single person, like English for that matter. But there are examples. The smallest language in the world Toki Pona is made by Sonja Lang. Which has thousands of fans around the world today. I consider this a miracle.

On the other hand I like to imagine what would happen if the language was not there. We would still be able to percieve things, but not be able to communicate? or will be hard. And it would take ages to develop a complex concept. How about eleminating the past and present from a language for a change? If you want to be happy I suggest you just do that, just like Piraha tribe, who owns the happiest language on the earth. But language lacks an important ability. Which is to persist across time. So, even if you are able to communicate something your friend, his memory is notoriously subjective and unreliable, and by the time he goes home it is likely he has forgotton at least some of the meterial. And that is where the Printing Press comes in.

What is the greatest human invention is it the Printing Press?

Printing Press: https://unsplash.com/@marco_djallo

First when I thought about the greatest human invention, I was thinking about the pen and paper. The reason behind this is the pen and paper has the ability to capture and presereve human thoughts over time. True human values are created in human consciousness, as I have argued this countless times here in this blog. And unless these thoughts are captured, they will lose their values when the memory goes away. How many thoughts you can remember from the last year? Handful right? But think about the guy has a diary, or an everything book. He would be having a tressure trove of human values in one year. Legends are not created in battlefields, but in the hands of a writer, on pen and paper. So, the invention of pen and paper, and the printing press has hastened the growth and distribution of human values more than previous era. And this is why printing press should be most valuable human creation. And this gives why internet is not.

Internet.

Internet came late, and although it has the ability to reach the millions, its just extension of pen and paper. Fundementally I don't see anything "newer" than pen and paper it just captures human consciousness and do faster maths. In that matter AI, which appears to create new values, maybe a challanger to human consciousness, but still need the human judegments to date, to build human values over its creation. And also, I do see, internet is dependent on very advanced technology, which is liable to fail, just like a tall tower like Buraj Kalifa, when compared to Pentagon, is unstable for many reasons. You may have different views about this.

Internet: https://unsplash.com/@yapics

What about the wheel?

What about the wheel? Is it the most valuable invention of human kind? I highly doubt this. Certainly wheel have potential. But in a ragged terrain without roads, and trained horses to pull a cart, wheels are useless. There are lot of friction for a wheel, which cannot be overcome. Wheel for that matter is not a standalone invention. I really do not know, why we can consider wheel as an invention, just like language for some. Wheels doesn't serve a purpose without a cart. But let's say we are talking about carts and horse carriages for that matter. Still I would say, money and economics, and stock markets played a role more than wheels in exapanding human values. Because every wheel rolls on money.

There are some other candidates. I wonder your answer to the question, "What is the greatest human invention?" is in these.

The wheel: https://unsplash.com/@ninjason

Steam engine

Telephone

Airplanes

Cars

Lightbulb

Bessimer Process (making Steel)