My great-grandmother was simply amazed with color television. My grandparents were amazed with the microwave. My parents were amazed with cell phones.
What are you most amazed with?
Throughout time, mankind has constantly been obsessed with finding ways to do things better, easier and faster. From discovering fire to creating the wheel to miracle medicines and around-the-world flight to test-messaging and surfing the Internet, every era — every decade, for the most part — has had its “breakthrough” in something.
The Internet, which has made things far more global than anything else ever has, holds numerous website that deal with the best inventions of all time. Some are serious — such as the one which lists its top 10, in descending order, of television, printing press, the laser, automobile, Internet, airplane, DNA, steam engine, birth control pill and the computer. Some are questionable — such as the one that lists the top 10 as, in descending order, flight, film, TV dinners, microwave, computer, disposable diaper, hanger, telephone, light bulb and automobile.
And then there’s the completely silly — such as the one that lists its top 10, in descending order, as air-conditioning, electricity, television, Pringles, God, computers, make-up, music and text-messaging.
We’ve always heard, and you’ve probably said it yourself at one time or another, “that’s the best thing since sliced bread.” Does that mean sliced bread is the greatest invention ever? Certainly not.
But what is?
The challenge of determining the best invention ever is that it’s a subjective task. It’s a lot like trying to say who the best baseball player of all time is.
Can you really compare Babe Ruth and Ty Cobb to Ted Williams and Joe DiMaggio, or Reggie Jackson and Pete Rose with Albert Pujols and Derek Jeter? Or Shaquille O’Neal to Kareem Abdul Jabbar or Bill Russell? Is Brett Favre as good as Johnny Unitas or Bart Starr?
All hard to say for sure.
So you may think the printing press is the best invention ever. Someone else may think the automobile is the best ever. Others may think the computer is tops.
Those things would certainly fit as the best within their own eras.
The 1800s were marked by the invention of electricity, typewriters, internal combustion engines, the telephone and sewing machines.
The early 1900s saw the invention of airplanes, the automobile, radio and the blood bank.
The latter part of the 1900s brought us the polio vaccine, space travel, computers, cell phones and the Internet.
And already in this century, inventions have included the artificial liver, YouTube, Facebook, the Segway Human Transporter, digital satellite radio, the iPod, robots and Alexa.
It might be easy to pick out the No. 1 invention of each era from among lists like that.
But let’s NOT break things into eras.
I’m tempted to list the printing press as the best invention of all time, but only because that speaks directly to the business I am in. Think about it, though — without the printing press, there’d be no newspapers, no books, no instructional manuals, no Bible as we know it, no school books, nothing written and mass-produced for the world to see and learn from. That’s hard to imagine.
A case can be made for many things that have come along through the years — and I’d be interested in knowing what YOU think is the best invention of all time, and why. Take a couple of weeks, think it over and then send me an email or letter to let me know. Include your name, hometown, age and phone number. I’ll be looking for your thoughts between now and Wednesday, Jan. 16, at noon.
The watch this space on Saturday, Jan. 19, for the results.
W. Curt Vincent can be reached at 910506-3023 or cvincent@laurinburgexch.wpenginepowered.com.
