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To date, what do you think is the greatest invention or discovery and why? (kbin.social)

submitted 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago) by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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Mine is the computer. I continue to be amazed at what we can do with them.

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[–] [email protected] 9 points 7 months ago (2 children)

Either fire or the wheel. Not sure which I would place higher. But both really are the two greatest inventions/discoveries. Without either you basically don't have future discoveries or inventions.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 7 months ago

fire makes sense given many evolutionary biologists think cooked food influenced the ability of early hominids to evolve complex reasoning and symbolic logic, simply because proteins partially digested by fire make more nutrients available for brain growth

this theory is beginning to be contested, however: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4842772/

[–] [email protected] 1 points 7 months ago

My vote is definitely for fire. Learning to first contain and sustain, then how to create fire. Everything else follows on from that.

Cooking food probably started us down a path to become as intelligent as we are today.

And the light allowed us to have free time at night to try new ideas.

And the warmth allowed us to spread out of Africa.