By greatest invention I mean something that had big and positive influence.
Like it or not. The iPhone. It changed the phone and how we use it. I literally use my android phone for everything now, as a credit card, ticket, pc, social, gaming… some people get laid and marry thanks to them…
Marriage and sex decline when societies adopt smartphones and the digital craze.
Same as when the education level goes up. You know too much, I guess.
I should drink from one of those leaded Stanley cups.
Maybe sex with other people declines 😉
I mean we only have had fourth and things happen over time. So I want to say blue led but they existed before the century but just got the process such they can manufacture them. Native white ones are invented now but most white is using the combination method currently with the blue ones. Anyway if it counts I can’t imagine how much energy this has saved even over halogens for lighting and then for dispalys to. I would hate to think how much fossile fuel we would be using if we were still on incadescents and crts.
I didn’t truly understand how much energy incandescent were burning. Grew up with nothing but those.
One night my AC crapped out in my tiny apartment so I killed the lights except one in a far corner. The air was so still I could reach my hand out and sense the heat from a 60W bulb.
the base of the lcd still gets way hot. makes me think they could be made even more efficient and hoping they will.
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We are in a time where a single invention can rarelt be great. For technological development you need thousands of small inventions, each that use previous technological breakthrough through decades of research. And even great things we have, are just refinement and miniaturization of things we already had.
But if a single thing had to be said, I would say mRNA vaccines. Covid vaccines saved milions of lives, were developed in record times, and their technology could be used for HIV or even antitumoral vaccines.
The first successful transfection of designed mRNA packaged within a liposomal nanoparticle into a cell was published in 1989. “Naked” (or unprotected) lab-made mRNA was injected a year later into the muscle of mice.
But on the other hand, first human test was in 2001
but the research began already back in the 60s.
That’s why I’m saying that a single invention that changed the world is not something you can easily find.
That’s why I’m saying that a single invention that changed the world is not something you can easily find anymore.
Came here to say it.
The heroic inventor story is archaic.
Was going to say that too. Regardless of the motives and driving forces behind the incredible speed at which the vaccines were developed (i.e. certainly a similar urgency could be applied to other diseases killing thousands and millions in poorer countries, but there ain’t as much interest in that), the mRNA technology proved quite powerful and an avenue to continue exploring in future research.
People forget that the research behind those vaccines had been going on for 30+ years. What was accelerated was the trials and the gathering and analysis of efficacy and safety data. The actual vaccine technology had been in existence for around a decade at the time.
You’re right, I often forget about that. It’s still an incredible achievement.
The smartphone
That was 20th century.
What smartphones existed in the 20th century?
The IBM Simon, Nokia Communicator or Ericsson R380 for example.
Didn’t the iPhone come 2007?
Sure, but the iPhone was far from the first smartphone.
Okay, the iPhone and the smartphones after it. Better? :)
Honestly the iphone was the first big (culturally) smartphone it not the first one.
It may depend on your culture, but Blackberry and Windows Mobile phones were both fairly common in business circles years before iPhones.
The iPhone was an incremental advancement, not a major invention out of nowhere. The first iPhone was actually pretty crap compared to some models on the market. It wasn’t until the 3G model that iPhones took off.
I totally agree. But the question was about inventions not mass adaption.
That’s like saying Henry Ford invented the car because the Model T was the first widely available one.
I think anything you could call a smartphone had to be from post-2000 though, right?
That’s going to be a tough one to call. Nokia Communicator had diary (calendar), web browsing and email features in the 90s. You could also tether off it, but it was dialup and most phones could do that.
That was pretty much the definition of a smart phone at the time.
Guys you’re all wrong.
It’s PornHub.
It’s obviously bofa
What’s bofa
Bofa deez nuts
Goteem
Although not very impactful yet, it think aerographene has the potential to be massive.
Social media ;) /s
I gotta say mRNA vaccines. It’s not technically a 21st century invention, but much of the work to make them viable started in the early 2000s. The speed at which the COVID vaccine got developed and widely deployed was honestly incredible and a massive W for humanity. I remember thinking a vaccine would be years away.
Vaccines in general.
Then we’re very far away from the 21st century though.
I cast: sudo shred *
CRISPR
Corona vaccines
Online Streaming
Online Maps
Wikipedia
Drone Warfare
LHC
Paris climate treaty
Great list! I would also add to this PCR, the technology that allowed us to map the human genome.
PCR has been around since the 80s, though it has continued getting more efficient and cheaper
CRISPR is the closest we get It might be the honorary winner since it was wasn’t fully exploited until the 21st century, even though it was cloned and being used in the 90s.
Those little straws with the filters inside that allow people to drink contaminated water right from the source.
One of those saved my ass on a solo, overnight kayaking trip. I mostly brought beer, ice and food in my tow-behind cooler because I had a Life Straw.
The trip was hell, most difficult thing I’ve ever done, wasn’t sure I’d make it out. Was good on water until the next day when I finally broke out onto the main creek.
Cut the top off a can and sucked down 7 refills of creek water. Tasted exactly like warm, flat, tap water.
Look into Sawyer water filters. Much easier to use than lifestraws, last longer. Pressure instead of suction.
My little girl.
:)
Warmed my heart.
Gay.
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It was…clearly a joke. A silly reaction to something that was wholesome and sweet. Have you never had a sense of humor? Or is the lack of one more recent and something maybe a doctor should know about
Edit: wow. You really went back in my comment history to try to harass me? It doesn’t bother me as much as it worries me. Real creepy and, honestly, kinda sad behavior? You good?
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It wasn’t bullying. It was meant to make you laugh. It was meant to make everyone laugh. It wasn’t homophobic. It was the absurdity of reacting to flippantly something entirely wholesome and sweet that all comments were gushing over. Because the answer was sweet and wholesome. It’s really the kind of joke you can only make in an accepting and pro-lgtbtq community. Because the response was meant to be absurd. I didn’t realize it’d hit such a sore spot for you. I didn’t think it could, honestly. Because you way fuckin overreacted.
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lol you think I’ve never been bullied? I know full well what bullying is. Of course I didn’t go into your history. I had no idea you were gay. That doesn’t change the joke, though. I’m sorry to have hit a sore spot for you, that definitely wasn’t my intention. The joke was meant to be on me. The joke wasn’t that loving your goddamn kid is “gay.” How the hell could it be? The joke was that the reaction was meant to stand out as absurd and stupid. The joke was meant to point to my reaction as the thing that stood out as backwards. Not your love for your child. Nor being gay. It wasn’t even about the common use of the word “gay.” It was the idiotic caricature of someone who refuses to engage in anything remotely human or sentimental—it was basically a joke on toxic masculinity. Do you see that?
Hard to quantify, but stuff like PrEP (a drug used to prevent HIV infection) has probably saved a staggering number of lives across the globe, same with the yearly influenza vaccines.
For a more personal one?
I’d say the innovations to bikes, which have been staggering since 2000. Downhill mountain bikes have had staggering changes that make them lighter, faster, stronger, and way more stable, and they look dramatically different to their 90s counterparts. Stuff like dropper posts, modern full suspension, tubeless tires, disc brakes, and massive cassettes make them incredible. You can roll over a cantaloupe-sized rock at 20mph and the bike will just take it without you being ejected over the bars.
Ebikes have totally changed the calculus in hilly cities, even in flat ones to some extent. Being able to effortlessly bike 45 miles and not be totally thrashed the next day is such a gamechanger, it’s actually beyond belief. My car has been largely collecting dust because most trips day to day are under 45 miles. And it takes pennies to recharge vs $90 or so to refill the tank.
Bikes already help take tons of cars off the road worldwide, but ebikes could really help extend people’s ranges, particularly if they would normally drive otherwise.
getting from my house to my office on my old road bike used to take 45 mins and I’d be sweaty when I got there, and the idea of 45 mins uphill after work used to make me wanna off myself. Since I got an e-assist its 25 mins and I’m like lah de dah meep meep
Dude, same. My e-bike is hands down my favorite addition to my life. Where I had to deal with the train or the traffic and the waiting and the crowds, now I hop on my bike and cruise lah dee dah meep meep but when I am running late for work I’m all like eeeer vroom vroom skrrrt and I bomb down the bike path like aw yeah. And I’m honestly rarely late anymore because I get everywhere in about half the time it would’ve taken me otherwise.
das it mayne
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