Perhaps more lives have been saved by that last one than all medical advances in history...Of course, no one would
believe that, but go back to the 1890s to see how many died from not pure, unclean, and infected water..

Definitely!

The first written language, the first mathematician, the first to try to talk to another to settle differences instead of attacking them.

Many others.

Walking on the moon for one.

Gotta admit fried is the best. But obviously any dough is good dough.

PS. Is pizza dough the same as baked dough?🍕

🍞🥧🥟🍩🍪

Without string we would have a very different world.

https://www.hakaimagazine.com/features/the-long-knotty-world-spanning-story-of-string/

A very interesting article...

In his 1956 book The Marlinspike Sailor, marine illustrator Hervey Garrett Smith wrote that rope is “probably the most remarkable product known to mankind.” On its own, a stray thread cannot accomplish much. But when several fibers are twisted into yarn, and yarn into strands, and strands into string or rope, a once feeble thing becomes both strong and flexible—a hybrid material of limitless possibility. A string can cut, choke, and trip; it can also link, bandage, and reel. String makes it possible to sew, to shoot an arrow, to strum a chord. It’s difficult to think of an aspect of human culture that is not laced through with some form of string or rope; it has helped us develop shelter, clothing, agriculture, weaponry, art, mathematics, and oral hygiene. Without string, our ancestors could not have domesticated horses and cattle or efficiently plowed the earth to grow crops. If not for rope, the great stone monuments of the world—Stonehenge, the Pyramids at Giza, the moai of Easter Island—would still be recumbent. In a fiberless world, the age of naval exploration would never have happened; early light bulbs would have lacked suitable filaments; the pendulum would never have inspired advances in physics and timekeeping; and there would be no Golden Gate Bridge, no tennis shoes, no Beethoven’s fifth symphony.

“Everybody knows about fire and the wheel, but string is one of the most powerful tools and really the most overlooked,” says Saskia Wolsak, an ethnobotanist at the University of British Columbia who recently began a PhD on the cultural history of string. “It’s relatively invisible until you start looking for it. Then you see it everywhere.”

Hey me too. At our family dinner we always try to have some nugget for discussion.
I asked almost the same question you did. Three teachers, six college educated people no one even came close. Then the real discussion began.

but my top 5, no particular order:

(1) sanitation/plumbing (Korg hates dysentery! - beginnings of disease prevention.)
(2) control of fire (Fire warms Korg! Fire cooks meat for Korg!)
(3) metallurgy (Korg like new spear tip and new tools, thanks to #2)
(4) magnetic compass (Korg like travel!)
(5) wheel (Korg like travel AND hauling heavy things!)

what is euphemistically known as feminine hygiene products.

Along with indoor plumbing.

Both to make fire and fashion tools.

Wheels on luggage... what took them so long?

without which we would not have modern computers, radios, almost all electronics.

https://www.hakaimagazine.com/features/the-long-knotty-world-spanning-story-of-string/

In his 1956 book The Marlinspike Sailor, marine illustrator Hervey Garrett Smith wrote that rope is “probably the most remarkable product known to mankind.” On its own, a stray thread cannot accomplish much. But when several fibers are twisted into yarn, and yarn into strands, and strands into string or rope, a once feeble thing becomes both strong and flexible—a hybrid material of limitless possibility. A string can cut, choke, and trip; it can also link, bandage, and reel. String makes it possible to sew, to shoot an arrow, to strum a chord. It’s difficult to think of an aspect of human culture that is not laced through with some form of string or rope; it has helped us develop shelter, clothing, agriculture, weaponry, art, mathematics, and oral hygiene. Without string, our ancestors could not have domesticated horses and cattle or efficiently plowed the earth to grow crops. If not for rope, the great stone monuments of the world—Stonehenge, the Pyramids at Giza, the moai of Easter Island—would still be recumbent. In a fiberless world, the age of naval exploration would never have happened; early light bulbs would have lacked suitable filaments; the pendulum would never have inspired advances in physics and timekeeping; and there would be no Golden Gate Bridge, no tennis shoes, no Beethoven’s fifth symphony.

harnessing electricity, the telescope, the Internet, the printing press, the internal combustion engine (yes, I know it's polluting but it had a huge effect on the world), the domestication of animals and plants - too many to pick just one.

OUTSTANDING POINT.!!!!.... without relatively cheap Air Conditioning................

NO incredible Florida population growth...& other states with summer heat, parts of Texas and Arizona..

But stay tuned. You may be right.

This enabled our brains to grow - they wouldn't be the powerful dynamos they are without cooking, and you can't cook without fire.

Put it another way. We would still be humans without the wheel, special relativity, or vaccines. Can't say they about fire.

and taming horses to be our transportation.

Of course we domesticated our companions to work for us, and dogs still do, at least some of them, and cats have rightfully taken their place as gods and goddesses to be worshipped, no work expected from them anymore.

Observation,hypothesis,experimentation,theory, do over and over forever
Science ends Superstition, hooray for science!
This is the first time I have ever posted anything on the internet. kinda fun.

DU is a lot of fun. Welcome.

Invented in 1922, the electric washing machine began the freedom of women from the onerous task of doing laundry by hand, freeing many women to go to college, enter the workforce and politics. The washing machine also provided people with sterile underwear and clean clothes, promoting a general rise in health and longevity. The modern world as we know it (the first world, I guess) would not exist without the washing machine.

Last edited Wed Mar 10, 2021, 10:40 PM - Edit history (1)

Where is why...That first flight by the ..".Russians"....enabled the race to space and race to the moon......

In the process of.................."winning the race to the moon" ...the result was the miniaturization of computers and computer components.

It can be argued that the miniaturization of computers and computer components and their use in medicine and hospitals have saved thousands if not millions of lives. Yes, Instant communication that is the result of computers and miniaturization of them could have saved millions..................and speaking of saving lives.................................................................................................................................

How about the invention of the telephone?....calling for ambulance help and the ambulance coming
to help...saves a lot of lives every day.....doesn't it?

It permitted a farmer to make more food than was needed to feed one family. This excess created commerce, one can exchange another good or service for food, creating specialists. This permitted the formation of villages, then towns, then cities, and onward to nations.

There had to be leaders, soldiers, administrators, blacksmiths, weaver's, shopkeepers, etc... that needed a common location and protection. Because one farmer could produce food for many people, there had to be a way to dispose of the excess. Things went onward from there, essentially necessitating civilization.

Not my own, I can't remember where I saw it originally.

in the history of the world....than anything else...(In my opinion)...........

You would have to read more about underground plumbing and sewers to get the truth on that one..
but getting rid of the s**t from the home, and out houses..saved millions of lives.

Yes..I used an outhouse at Boy Scout Camp in the late 50s..NO IT WAS NOT NICE..AND GUESS WHAT???

THE SCOUTS TOOK TURNS AT CLEANING THE TOLIET SEAT, AND THE AREA AROUND THE SEAT..

....NOW THAT WAS ABOUT 60 YEARS AGO...(more like 63 years ago) and I remember cleaning the outhouse
very well..the few times I had to clean the seat and area around it..Yes it stunk ..

....i said it earlier...but I will say it again.........

The Space Race required much smaller computers to go to the moon, (because only so much weight could go
in a space ship)..and as a result the insides of the computer started to ..............shrink..........and shrink again...
and more and more...

............In the early 80s, I took a course on the future of computers..and the professor said, that someday
we would hold a computer in our hand...and I & everyone else thought the fellow was...NUTS!!! ..And, he
also said, "Everyone would own a computer"...Everyone..???He was totally NUTS!!! in today..money $10,000

.........................TOTALLY NUTS.........

. .................and guess what.......???? he was totally correct.

Wouldn’t last long.

One of the things we misssssss.

Yes, a long time ago, and far, far away..you had to stick your arm out to single that you were turning.

You don't believe...It is true.

Last edited Mon Apr 4, 2022, 09:04 PM - Edit history (1)

in a short time we went from clip clop horse travel, maybe 6 mph, to railroad travel at 36+ mph.

In today's words, our commutes to work average say 40mph, we would now be able to go 240mph. We'd be able to commute to another state daily for work.

It must have been mesmerizing back then to travel a first time on a train at 50-60 mph, like riding on a jet.