This is my second IEOR 190G Blog Post regarding my ppt presentation of my selection of the 10 most innovative inventions ever.
In tenth place I have contraceptives as they allowed us to control the size of our population. This enabled humans in unsatisfactory living conditions to have a way to prevent childbirth. In so doing humans can now have a better chance of receiving a better parenting environment ultimately helping the growth of our population.
Next is refrigeration. It allowed us to conserve our aliments for more than one day enabling long distance trading of perishable goods.
Next come electricity. Not only did electricity lead to explosive bubble of new inventions, it revolutionized our outlook on energy and its transportation.
Next is anesthesia which allowed us to perform excruciating invasive procedures that would be impossible to perform otherwise greatly transforming our healthcare scene and changing life-ending diseases to just a surgery.
Telecommunications including the telegraph and the telephone revolutionized our society by allowing us to transfer information, human's most precious resource, at unprecedented speeds.
The compass allowed us to navigate over oceans, effectively increasing the size of our world and letting us know of the existence of other human societies.
I place the wheel in next place as it revolutionized our transportation. Being a mobile and originally nomadic species, this new ease in transportation improved almost every aspect of our lives in society.
In third place I have the control of fire. This allowed our ancestors to stay alive in the cold nights, it allowed us to cook our foods advancing our digestive systems and palates and it gave us protection. In second place I put the alphabet as it gave us a way to transfer knowledge, our most precious resource, through time and people.
I believe that the most important invention has been the internet. It gives us access to information coming from all the corners of the globe. Never before have we had so much information at our fingertips. Most importantly all of this information can be used in a vast multitude of applications.
Hi! Thank you for sharing your top 10 inventions. I agree with you that the internet, wheel, compass, electricity, and refrigerator were really important inventions that significantly impacted the world. However, it was interesting that you chose control of fire, alphabet and anesthesia. I never thought of these three, but they are also very important. The invention, control of fire, allowed heating to stay warm and cook meals. The alphabet is also important as it allowed people to communicate and transfer knowledge around the world and through generations. I am also really glad that you stated anesthesia because it completely changed medicine. Just like you said, it "allowed us to perform excruciating invasive procedures that would be impossible to perform otherwise greatly transforming our healthcare scene and changing life-ending diseases to just a surgery". Thank you for bringing up some of these less popular, yet really important inventions. Great Insight!
ReplyDeleteI find it interesting that you chose contraceptives. In general, birth control has helped control the population better but when looking at China they had a forced 1 child policy which did the same thing in a more forced manner. Also, people sometimes use children as an insurance policy so the worse off they are the more kids they have in hope that one makes it. Contraceptives have been important and you had great insight about it but not sure if it will make my top 10. Secondly, anesthesia was a great idea. It has revolutionized the way that medical treatment happens and how people's pain tolerances have changed allowing for unheard of things like open heart surgery.
ReplyDeleteI found some of your selections very interesting, as things like contraceptives, anesthesia, and the alphabet never crossed my mind while selecting these innovations. I believe your point about contraceptives was very insightful, as it is a very important aspect of population control. I see myself possibly replacing this for one of my top ten. Although anesthesia and the alphabet are two key inventions, they do not seem as paramount as some of the other innovations I have seen. However, you make very excellent points for these innovations and I enjoyed hearing your justifications. Great work!
ReplyDeleteHi Oliviero,
ReplyDeleteOne thing that caught my eye was how unique your list is compared to so many others. The addition of anesthesia really caught my eye because of how it revolutionized the healthcare industry. Prior to anesthesia, there were so many risks associated with surgery due to the plain fact that the patient could actually feel the brunt of the surgery. This can pose dangers for not only the patient but for the surgeon and anesthesia really provided an aid in making surgery a more "peaceful", if you could say, procedure. I also liked the inclusion of the control of fire. Before electricity and solar power and all of the new forms of energy we utilize today to power our world, fire was really one of the key elements that powered everything when it came to the daily lives of our ancestors. Fire in essence laid the foundation for other inventions to be borne and I truly find it fascinating that you point this out as so many of us tend to overlook this.
ReplyDeleteHi Oliviero,
First, I liked how you arranged your top ten inventions in the order of importance. It serves as a roadmap for me to understand what are the things that you value. Additionally, your inclusion of control of fire and alphabet is very interesting. I initially did not consider certain forms of “human activities” as inventions, but in light of your review, I think both do require innovation and serve purposes. Control of fire is used by people on daily basis ever since its invention as a protection, a cooking tool, a manufacturing tool and many more. However, I am not sure if I would have put alphabet on my list because I think it is replaceable. People could have used pictures to represent thoughts and track knowledge just as easily!
Hi Oliviero,
ReplyDeleteYou offer an extremely different view on the effects of birth control. Most of the other takes I've read have commented on its contributions on freedom, and you point out that it has greater impacts, such as population control and thus an improvement on our overall quality of life. Great insight!
Hello!
ReplyDeleteI truly loved reading your viewpoints regarding each of your inventions. I liked the details that you included. More specifically, the wheel and the alphabet stood out to me the most--especially the alphabet. It would be nearly impossible to live without either of those inventions. Thanks again for a great post! I loved the insights that you provided. I would recommend that you delve deeper into each of these inventions to grasp some more reasons as to why they are truly important and have large-scale impacts.
Cheers,
Alankrita Dayal
Hello!
ReplyDeleteWow - it's interesting that you added "control of fire" to your top 10. I actually never even thought of that as I was brainstorming. I liked your methodology of how you ranked each invention. I hope you enjoy this class and get all of your questions answered.
Best,
Janet