What Are The Most Important Developments in Human History?

[BK613]

Crows make tools. They are capable of teaching their offspring and others in their flock to hate specific humans. That's more than a cut above most birds.

The question was "What are the most important developments in human history?" Not "uniquely human" or "solely human." Without tool use, and the ability to conceptualize new ones, there aren't many others. No writing. No printing press. No computers. No Internet.

Whales can't make tools, but are we going to argue on a Star Trek forum that they don't have language and culture?

Nope. Nor am I. I'm just answering the original question with what I think is one of the most important developments. YMMV.

 

[Kor]

Gutenberg independently developed the printing press with movable metal type for the Western world.
But it behooves us to acknowledge that East Asia had already had it for two centuries.

Kor

 

[Timewalker]

Gutenberg independently developed the printing press with movable metal type for the Western world.
But it behooves us to acknowledge that East Asia had already had it for two centuries.

Kor

And...? Did Gutenberg base his ideas off of what was done in East Asia? Or did he think it up himself? How did literacy in China benefit the average future reader of mass-produced books in western Europe? I know Marco Polo has been credited with bringing back all sorts of knowledge from his travels, but some of those are merely apocryphal and either not verified, or known to be false.

We've already acknowledged in the thread that some of the most basic advances occurred independently in various regions around the world. But they didn't all happen at the same time, nor can it be inferred that one only occurred because the people there heard about it from elsewhere.

I don't think it's wrong for the A&E countdown list of the 100 most influential people of the last thousand years to put Gutenberg in first place. Without his invention and what it made possible, many of us would never have heard of any of the others, nor could many of them have achieved what fame they did.

 

[Kor]

And...? Did Gutenberg base his ideas off of what was done in East Asia? Or did he think it up himself? How did literacy in China benefit the average future reader of mass-produced books in western Europe? I know Marco Polo has been credited with bringing back all sorts of knowledge from his travels, but some of those are merely apocryphal and either not verified, or known to be false.

We've already acknowledged in the thread that some of the most basic advances occurred independently in various regions around the world. But they didn't all happen at the same time, nor can it be inferred that one only occurred because the people there heard about it from elsewhere.

I don't think it's wrong for the A&E countdown list of the 100 most influential people of the last thousand years to put Gutenberg in first place. Without his invention and what it made possible, many of us would never have heard of any of the others, nor could many of them have achieved what fame they did.

I would say the A&E list is very Europe/Americas-centric (like much western popular discourse on general history and civilization tends to be), as if the western world is the "default" of human civilization. The small handful of non-westerners on the list were individuals who engaged heavily with the western world (or whose descendants/successors did), thereby still treating the west as the standard of relevancy in the whole framework.

Of course, that's easily relatable and digestible for the western audience that it is meant for. But in framing the whole topic in that manner, it marginalizes the majority of the global community, and the rich strains of human civilization and culture that exist outside of the western traditions (including the ancestors and living relatives of many of us who only moved to the west in the last couple generations), not to mention the indigenous traditions of the Americas that have been largely displaced only fairly recently in human history.

Kor

 

[Timewalker]

I would say the A&E list is very Europe/Americas-centric (like much western popular discourse on general history and civilization tends to be), as if the western world is the "default" of human civilization. The small handful of non-westerners on the list were individuals who engaged heavily with the western world (or whose descendants/successors did), thereby still treating the west as the standard of relevancy in the whole framework.

Of course, that's easily relatable and digestible for the western audience that it is meant for. But in framing the whole topic in that manner, it marginalizes the majority of the global community, and the rich strains of human civilization and culture that exist outside of the western traditions (including the ancestors and living relatives of many of us who only moved to the west in the last couple generations), not to mention the indigenous traditions of the Americas that have been largely displaced only fairly recently in human history.

Kor

As I recall, the list was based on names people submitted, and of course a North American/European audience would be more inclined to submit names they were familiar with.

This is A&E's list, not some definitive list handed down from "on high." I absolutely disagree with some of the names on it; for instance, there's no way that Princess Diana belongs on that list. Yet she's there.

I'm happy with Gutenberg coming in at #1. And I say that even though his invention was also used to disseminate some truly reprehensible information and ideas that resulted in great harm for many people over the centuries.

 

[BillJ]

Condoms and other methods of birth control. Unfortunately, many still aren't smart enough to use them.

 

[Qonundrum]

AI is great until people think into it, some too much more than others.

 

[CorporalClegg]

Penicillin.

 

[JD]

The question was "What are the most important developments in human history?" Not "uniquely human" or "solely human." Without tool use, and the ability to conceptualize new ones, there aren't many others. No writing. No printing press. No computers. No Internet.
Nope. Nor am I. I'm just answering the original question with what I think is one of the most important developments. YMMV.

When I said human civilization, I meant that to mean things that were uniquely human. Sorry, I guess I should have been more specific.

Condoms and other methods of birth control. Unfortunately, many still aren't smart enough to use them.

Penicillin.

Those two never would have occured to me, but they definitely belong on the list.
I also thought of another, the building of space stations in orbit. They are the first time human beings have lived off of the Earth for extended periods of time.

 

[Timewalker]

When I said human civilization, I meant that to mean things that were uniquely human. Sorry, I guess I should have been more specific.

Then tool-making doesn't qualify, since some birds make tools.

 

[BK613]

Then tool-making doesn't qualify, since some birds make tools.

By that criteria, language itself is on the trash heap. Because cetaceans definitely use language. Hell, dolphins even have names for each other.
But try to have a civilization without language.

 

[BK613]

When I said human civilization, I meant that to mean things that were uniquely human. Sorry, I guess I should have been more specific.

Actually, your original post doesn't use the word "civilization" at all, not to mention "human civilization". Instead it says "the most important developments that we have come up with in our entire history." So, yes, you probably should have been more specific.

 

[StarCruiser]

Condoms and other methods of birth control. Unfortunately, many still aren't smart enough to use them.

And it's most unfortunate that they are not using them - might raise the average human intelligence a notch or two!

 

[JD]

Then tool-making doesn't qualify, since some birds make tools.

And apes.

 

[Mrs. Silvercrest]

I think it is important that we as people wonder. We need to know, understand. We keep trying and trying until we figure it out. We improve and keep things simple. We make things to help ourselves and others. Like wheelchairs and canes. We try to make things easier. Like glasses, that is a big one for me. If I lived in a way earlier time with my eye sight, I would have been considered a blind beggar on a street. So yeah, EYE GLASSES number one with me .

 

[Nyotarules]

The sewage system with flushing toilets
The Birth Control Pill
Boats and ships lead to exploration (historically not always a good thing)

 

[Tenacity]

Penicillin.

Mold.

Most important invention is a spoken language.

 

[think]

^ can we say when spoken language occurred ? no, -- maybe 35000 bc IDK about then-- really-

from wiki~

The history of cannabis and its usage by humans dates back to at least the third millennium BC in written history, and possibly further back by archaeological evidence.​

yeah this is longer ago then I would care to think about- but I guess that might explain how messed up the people were back then-- right stoners in the stone age-

 

[Captain pl1ngpl0ng]

we need to fix this (looking at my kids and their generation)

 

[Nyotarules]

It took some time for the green bits to become green