What do you consider the most important invention of all time?

[MyWarmOchreHare]

Have been pondering this and wondered what others thought. I know many stand on the shoulders of others, but what do people think?

The internet? Radio or TV? Cars, planes, steam engines? The flushing toilet? Clocks or watches? Wheels? Washing machines? Ships? Paper? Mobile phones? I keep coming back to the wrist watch.

Too much choice but I'll offer:

• The printing press
• Effective contaception
• Vaccinations

The wheel.

Tampons
The pill

Canoes/boats

Medicine. Antibiotics especially.

Yups. Even now. The wheel

The contraceptive pill.

Language. Closely followed by science.

Cooking food to extract maximum nutrients Wheel
Printing press
Antibiotics and vaccinations.

Portable oil lamps - because they made deep coal mining possible.

Glass because it is non reactive so it makes chemistry possible.

Antibiotics and doctors discovering that hand-washing is a wonderful idea when treating patients.

Amazingly important, but perhaps more discoveries than inventions? Will ponder.

Antibiotics. The refrigerator.

Electricity.

I know that this is utterly ridiculous to say, but I can’t wrap my head around why it took them so long to invent the wheel.

If there was some sort of disaster and we were plunged back into a primitive time, I could never invent electricity or trains or a clock, but I reckon I could knock a wheel up. It seems so obvious.

The vacuum cleaner, without it will would all still be riddled with lice !

Glass, mostly due to its inertness with chemicals but also to provide better eyesight to scholars back in the day to keep them studying longer. Without glasses many a mathematician, scientist or astronomer would have had to give up their works earlier

Industrialisation generally. Because in turn it has invented climate change.

Yep. One of those major ones which so much else rests on.

On a superficial level the plane- the fact you can be anywhere else in the world pretty much within a day is mind blowing. I recently went to a funeral in a European city within hours I was there and back.

They had a "back to the iron age" experiment some years back where people lived in roundhouses with chickens, etc . No mod cons. Those people voted wellies as being the best invention, more important than eg the washing machine, as having wet feet was unpleasant and could lead to foot rot.

Artificial fertiliser. IReplacing animal manure with man made fertilisers which can be tailored for the crop/soil has enabled us to feed ourselves. No more fears of famine times.

The Spinning wheel & Weaving loom must be one of them.

Fire (does that count though?)

Followed by the wheel