Buzz
Right now, you’re probably using a device like a desktop, laptop, tablet, or phone, sitting in a resilient building, dressed in warm clothing (hopefully), and possibly snacking on food kept fresh by refrigeration. At the same time, countless technological wonders work to ensure your safety, comfort, and well-being. All of this highlights one thing: humanity's unmatched ability to invent.
While we may not be the fastest, strongest, or most numerous creatures on Earth, our true strength lies in our creativity – the ability to conceive ideas that make life better. In just 10,000 years – a mere blink in the context of Earth's history – we’ve progressed from hunting mammoths with sticks to having drones deliver cookies. But, as astonishing as that is, inventions that have truly transformed our world and humanity are far more significant. Here are 10 of the greatest.
10. Time
Time is, in a sense, both a discovery and an invention. As a natural part of the universe, it serves as the fourth coordinate of any event, alongside length, width, and height. However, when it comes to measuring time in standardized units, this is an invention, and a crucial one at that.
The timekeeping system we use today, with 24 hours each divided into 60 minutes, and those further divided into 60 seconds, originates from a blend of Egyptian, Babylonian, and Greek methods. This system has played a crucial role in the development of our modern, production-driven society.
Before standardized time, any process that required time – like cooking, fermenting, heating, or cooling – was organic, based on general intuitions linked to the position of the sun and other natural events. Timekeeping allowed these processes to be carried out with precision.
The greatest benefit time has brought to society is precision. Now, agriculture, medicine, engineering, computing, and other vital processes can be carried out with exactness, repeatedly, with the same level of accuracy. Just think about scheduling a critical surgery: without precise time, you’d have to rely on vague cues like ‘the day after the moon is halfway full and the sun has set a bit, but not too much.’ Oops, we’ve got a double-booking.
9. Space Travel
So far, space travel has given humanity two major gifts: valuable scientific insights about our solar system and inspiring symbolic achievements. However, any expert in astrophysics, futurism, or cosmology will tell you that space travel has much more to offer. In fact, it’s poised to become one of the greatest milestones in human history.
Given our history of expansion, development, and energy consumption, it’s easy to predict that we are growing at an exponential rate and will soon exceed the resources and energy our planet can supply. The solution to this challenge lies in our neighboring planets. Every year, the conversation about colonizing Mars intensifies, and other bodies like Venus, Mercury, and the Moon are now being discussed. If our population and energy needs continue to rise at this pace, all four of these celestial bodies will become essential as new homes for humanity.
8. Machine Learning
Machine learning is experiencing a resurgence, and its impact on our daily lives is growing exponentially. While computers have long been able to store and organize vast amounts of data, machine learning goes further by allowing computers to analyze this data and generate their own conclusions. These systems can independently detect patterns and adapt based on the data they encounter.
Currently, machine learning benefits us most in navigation systems, such as Google Maps and delivery apps that optimize routes for efficiency. It also plays a role in tasks like image recognition, but its most significant potential is still ahead. As a cornerstone of artificial intelligence, machine learning will soon enable automatic patient diagnoses, fully immersive and reactive digital assistants, and highly functional robots, among many other innovations.
7. Math
Math has brought countless benefits to humanity, and its importance cannot be overstated. There are virtually no significant areas of society that math hasn’t either enhanced or entirely shaped. Without math, there would be no measurement, engineering, or physics – which means no medicine, architecture, advanced technology, or computing.
Like time, math exists as a blend of discovery and invention, being composed of universal constants and relationships interpreted through a uniquely human lens. Its universal applicability may one day serve its ultimate purpose: communication with extraterrestrial life. As unlikely as it may seem, joining a greater cosmic community could be humanity’s true destiny. If that happens, English, Spanish, or Mandarin won’t be our language of choice; math, the universal language, will be. Though no alien species may appreciate Shakespeare, they will certainly understand that E=mc², which is a great starting point.
6. The Printing Press
While the printing press may seem like a cliché inclusion, it’s impossible to overlook its significance. Gutenberg’s version wasn’t the first automated book-making machine (that distinction belongs to an anonymous Chinese inventor centuries earlier), but it was the most user-friendly, versatile, and affordable. It made the mass production of written works feasible, helping to pull humanity out of the Dark Ages.
The printing press enabled information to reach broader audiences and sparked a rise in literacy rates among the lower classes, freeing knowledge from the grasp of the elite. This in turn drove political reform and revolution. It also allowed scientists and mathematicians to document and share their ideas widely, fostering an unprecedented level of collaboration and competition that fueled the European Renaissance.
5. The Internet
If knowledge is power, humanity is more powerful than ever – at least when it comes to access. The internet took the information-sharing power of the printing press and expanded it exponentially. Now, 50-70% of the global population with internet access can learn anything they wish, at any time, in any amount they desire.
Though spending five minutes in any comment section might prove that many internet users don’t always choose to learn, the opportunity remains, and that’s a modern-day miracle. I have open tabs for articles on Boltzmann brains, Tir Na Nog, and chiaroscuro techniques. Not familiar with some of those terms? Thanks to the internet, you can learn about them in seconds.
4. Sanitation
Around 200 years ago, the average life expectancy in the U.S. was between 35 and 40. Today, it’s 75 to 80. That’s a complete doubling of life expectancy in just a few generations. While you might think this is due to medical advancements like antibiotics and vaccines (which are indeed incredible), you’d only be partially correct. The most significant rise in life expectancy, seen in the late 1800s and early 1900s, occurred before modern medicine made its biggest strides. This surge was primarily due to improvements in sanitation.
We quickly began prioritizing clean water, safer food, sewage management, waste collection, personal hygiene, sterilization, and air quality. This shift led to a sharp decline in infectious diseases and ushered in what is now known as the First Public Health Revolution. These same standards are gradually being adopted globally, contributing to rising life expectancies in nearly every country, year after year, thanks largely to sanitation.
3. Dessert
Okay, hear me out. It’s easy to praise the inventions that drive our technology, communication, and quest for meaning. But there’s one aspect of life whose inventions deserve more attention: joy. That’s where dessert comes into play.
The first instance of dessert marked a major milestone in human history. Life, by necessity, is about hunting and eating for survival. Every choice made was driven by the need for energy. Then one of our ancestors paused, looked around, realized they had enough, and began eating – not for sustenance, but for sheer pleasure and celebration. This is still the role of dessert today. We have cake to mark birthdays, ice cream after a fun outing, and candy bars to reward well-behaved kids. Dessert represents the culmination of our hard work and the joys we’ve earned. The day we began enjoying dessert was the day we transitioned from mere survivors to true thrivers.
2. The Scientific Method
While mythology allows us to soar to the heavens in our imaginations, it’s science that keeps us firmly grounded on Earth. Well, that and literally taking us to the stars as well. Science, often seen as a collection of information and technology, is simply a method of investigation. We call it the scientific method, which involves asking questions, hypothesizing answers, testing those hypotheses, and refining them based on the results.
It’s that simple—so simple, in fact, that we perform it daily without even realizing. Yet the standardization of this process has completely transformed the world around us. Every bit of information we gather is tested against more information, and this has led us to all the truths we hold today, whether they are personal truths like your favorite breakfast sandwich, or universal truths such as The Planck constant. The scientific method is the bedrock of so much of our civilization, and it might be the greatest invention of all time. Well, except…
1. Mythology
Every culture on Earth has its own recorded mythology. From primitive hunter-gatherers in untamed jungles to powerful empires with sprawling cities, we have all created our own myths. The oldest known myth, the Epic of Gilgamesh, dates back 3,000 to 4,000 years and tells the story of a Mesopotamian/Sumerian king and adventurer. Beyond that, we have countless stories of gods, heroes, and fables from the Greeks, Norse, Egyptians, Hindus, Abrahamic religions, Native American tribes, and many other cultures.
Mythology serves many purposes, but its most common function is to provide us with lessons and meaning. The human mind is a sophisticated computer designed to spot patterns and extrapolate from them, and mythology is the expression of that computer at its finest. The greatest myths are both universal and transcendent, and billions of people dedicate their lives to religion and mythology. After all, what good is a long life full of knowledge and technology if it lacks meaning?
