This may have been discussed before, but I may be misrememberign the "Most
influential person of the 20th Century" debate.
The question posed:
WHAT IS THE MOST IMPORTANT INVENTION IN THE PAST TWO THOUSAND YEARS?
http://www.edge.org/documents/Invention.html
An amazing read, and an amazing group of contributors.
While I ponder my own answer, here are my favorites from the discussion:
- the scientific method
- human ego
- evolution by selection
Duncan Steel's answer is a pretty nifty read.
I might cop out and answer, "The most important invention in the past two
thousand years is the sum total of civilization present on Earth now,
capable of astounding feats unheard of two millenia before, and poised to
either destroy itself utterly in a flash or become something just as
unbelievable a few centuries hence."
Possibly, the notion of symbolic computation; if we move into a future where
human life is digital, we may, millenia hence, forget all of the hardware we
ever devised but the original notions of software will remain with us.
Joshua
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