Originally posted by sonhouseDo these qualify as inventions? Grammar and spelling do--somebody wrote the first grammar (in which language?), somebody else was the first to formalise the spelling of a particular language (which one?). However, animals can be said to have language and music, while art is not an object but a practice.
I think one previous poster trumped you with 'language'. That has to be a biggie.
Another one: Art.
Another one: Music.
Time machine, if All Time in the title include future.
If not, I will go with "language" a few people mentioned previously, in a sense that it contributed in advance of logical thinking (it did, though L. Wittgenstein complained about it). Language in a broad sense including symbols, mathematical numerators, algorithm, sequences etc. these are the most useful tools humans ever invented.
Originally posted by uzlessi don't agree. tall buildings came first and then the elevator. no elevator doesn't mean no tall buildings, it simply means we find another way to get our lazy asses to the top floor.
I say it's the Elevator.
Without an elevator, we wouldn't have buildings over 10 stories which would mean cities would not have evolved the way they have. Jobs would be spread over a larger area which would mean not everyone would have to drive into the city to go to work. Our reliance on cars would be much less if it weren't for the elevator.
Originally posted by Bosse de NageA large component of "art" is the making of objects, be it talisman, totem, carved sculpture. In the ancient world it represented power and those who could create such things were people of power and were thus important to the society. That seems to put them in the same light as modern day Edison's, Pasteur's, Gates.
Do these qualify as inventions? Grammar and spelling do--somebody wrote the first grammar (in which language?), somebody else was the first to formalise the spelling of a particular language (which one?). However, animals can be said to have language and music, while art is not an object but a practice.