In the third in our series of Big Questions, we invited six writers to make the case for the invention which they think trumps the rest. Samantha Weinberg, an editor on the Times' monthly science magazine Eureka, kicks us off, and sets the criteria. "I am taking the greatest to mean the invention that has had the greatest impact on the most people in a relatively immediate sense," she writes, "power equals energy over time."
But how do you measure one invention against another? How would you rate “the wheel against the space shuttle”? Your choice will depend on who you are and where and when you live. Ask women, Weinberg writes, "and we might vote for the contraceptive pill (Carl Djerassi, 1960), which, by handing us the responsibility for our own fertility, freed us to run our own lives. Blind people might point to Braille (1824)." Even around Samantha's own kitchen table the suggestions were diverse, from her daughter's favourite, the bridle, to her father's pick, the iPad.
Over the next few weeks we will be publishing online the arguments made by five other contributors in the magazine. But voting starts now. Perhaps readers will agree with Ed Carr, foreign editor of The Economist, who goes all the way back to the blade; or Tom Standage, The Economist's digital editor, who picks another ancient invention—writing. Or maybe readers will follow Roger Highfield (the scientific method), Nnaemeka Ikegwuonu (the transistor radio) or Nick Valéry (the flush toilet) and go for something more modern. Or maybe Weinberg's own choice will persuade—the most modern invention of them all, the internet, which has changed the way we live, love and overthrow dictators. Have your say by voting in the poll below. Or if you think the bicycle should ride away with the prize, or concrete has changed the world, you can make your own suggestions.
Writing
38% (320 votes)
The internet
24% (198 votes)
The scientific method
13% (110 votes)
The flush toilet
6% (50 votes)
The blade
3% (21 votes)
Electricity (other)
1% (11 votes)
The transistor radio
1% (10 votes)
Printing Press (other)
0% (4 votes)
the printing press (other)
0% (4 votes)
Language (other)
0% (3 votes)
The mobile types printing machine, by Gottenberg (other)
0% (3 votes)
The computer (other)
0% (3 votes)
Fire (other)
0% (3 votes)
Cooked food. (other)
0% (2 votes)
wheel (other)
0% (2 votes)
soft toilet paper (other)
0% (2 votes)
The wheel. It's the basis of everything. (other)
0% (2 votes)
Vaccinations (other)
0% (2 votes)
in my opinion fire is the biggest invention (other)
0% (2 votes)
internal combustion engine (other)
0% (2 votes)
zero (other)
0% (2 votes)
The stream Engineer; and consequently the Combution engine. (other)
0% (2 votes)
The lightbulb (other)
0% (2 votes)
0 (zero) (other)
0% (2 votes)
Steam Engine, nothing else has improved the quality of living by so much for so many. (other)
0% (2 votes)
The bicycle (other)
0% (2 votes)
light via electricity--made days longer;man could learn more from earlier writings;kept man warm then cool later. (other)
0% (2 votes)
Air conditioner (other)
0% (2 votes)
Greatest (and worst) = WASTE (....of life, of materials, of goods, of food...of effort...). (other)
0% (2 votes)
The greatest invention was triggered by accident - word of mouth. The gimmick most influential to our psychology. (other)
0% (2 votes)
Air conditioning. Changed the whole way work and leisure could be organized in hot climates. (other)
0% (1 vote)
An Idea (other)
0% (1 vote)
The soap (other)
0% (1 vote)
Mathematics (other)
0% (1 vote)
religion (other)
0% (1 vote)
The lighter in all it's forms, i.e spark plugs. We don't need to keep a live source of fire. (other)
0% (1 vote)
Cars (other)
0% (1 vote)
Money. Other inventions would have been impossible without the stored and portable value of money. (other)
0% (1 vote)
Radio frequency (other)
0% (1 vote)
Microwave Oven (other)
0% (1 vote)
Human (other)
0% (1 vote)
THE MICROCHIP (other)
0% (1 vote)
public education (other)
0% (1 vote)
internet (other)
0% (1 vote)
portable fire (other)
0% (1 vote)
Antiseptics/Microbicides, from Antiseptic Principle of the Practice of Surgery in 1867 by Joseph Lister, inspired by Louis Paste (other)
0% (1 vote)
The very first Turing machine, which, over time would develop into the whole computer industry and its spin offs. (other)
0% (1 vote)
Louis Pasteur's discovery of Penicillin and is uses in sterilization permanently raised the life expectancy of humans and progre (other)
0% (1 vote)
stumble (other)
0% (1 vote)
Printing press - nothing else catapulted civilization as we know it (other)
0% (1 vote)
the airplane. (other)
0% (1 vote)
Paper (other)
0% (1 vote)
Language. How would we communicate, unless by savage yells, how would we write, how would we be without language? (other)
0% (1 vote)
Horse Stirrup. The stirrup revolutionized combat, allowing mounted warfare and the rise of knights, creating nobility and class (other)
0% (1 vote)
Printing press. Because it lead to dissemination of knowledge like never before and brought about the renaissance and industrial (other)
0% (1 vote)
Understanding and use of electricity (other)
0% (1 vote)
TELESCOPE/MICROSCOPE (other)
0% (1 vote)
transistor (other)
0% (1 vote)
GUN (other)
0% (1 vote)
electrical energy - now everything is based on it (other)
0% (1 vote)
the piston engine. Because it led to the greatest mobility (cars, dependable ships and airplanes). Fred Rosenfeld - Phoenix, Az (other)
0% (1 vote)
AEROPLANE (other)
0% (1 vote)
Fire, Caused the change of diet from raw meat and vegetables to cooked meat, made us... US. (other)
0% (1 vote)
Mobile money transfer (other)
0% (1 vote)
electronic communication (the telegraph); THEN, of course, the phone, the radio, the television, the internet. (other)
0% (1 vote)
The plane (other)
0% (1 vote)
Manufacturing assembly line (other)
0% (1 vote)
the transistor (other)
0% (1 vote)
The Guttenberg Press: movable type (other)
0% (1 vote)
soap (other)
0% (1 vote)
space travel (the barrier broken not only in attitude bi (other)
0% (1 vote)
Vaccination (other)
0% (1 vote)
Turbine(Converting Mechanical of energy to Electrical Energy) (other)
0% (1 vote)
the printing press - speeded up dissemination of ideas + economic impact - no printing press no internet today (other)
0% (1 vote)
ziper (other)
0% (1 vote)
The printing press. Widespread (and relatively cheap) dissemination of information to the heretofore uninformed masses. (other)
0% (1 vote)
bicycle (other)
0% (1 vote)
electricity-would there be an internet, life-saving medical equipment, etc.? (other)
0% (1 vote)
THE AIRPLANE (other)
0% (1 vote)
time (other)
0% (1 vote)
The 6 simple machines (other)
0% (1 vote)
'the word invention' itself which made people to think aggressively about it and increase their effort to invent something. (other)
0% (1 vote)
individualism - with this mental invention the each ambitious human being can contribute to the groth of civilisation. (other)
0% (1 vote)
I think it would have to be the printing press ,for with out it knowledge would never have spread to the masses. (other)
0% (1 vote)
Paper (papyrus): Without paper we would still be engraving thoughts into stone. (other)
0% (1 vote)
AIRPLANE (other)
0% (1 vote)
Stem-Cell cures. It has and will revolutionise medicine... (other)
0% (1 vote)
LANGUAGE-The first requirement for information transfer and accumulation of knowledge, (other)
0% (1 vote)
The invention of the wheel (other)
0% (1 vote)
life (other)
0% (1 vote)
The wheel (other)
0% (1 vote)
THE PLOW (other)
0% (1 vote)
The Ship... Migration and Conquest (other)
0% (1 vote)
The reaper -- made it possible for one farmer to feed hundreds of people. Without we would be living on farms rather than urban (other)
0% (1 vote)
I-phone, It was completely revolutionary and it changed the way society thought cell phones, internet, and etc the list goes on! (other)
0% (1 vote)
potato (other)
0% (1 vote)
Fire - had there been no fire, we wouldn't have the idea of power ->electricity -> vehicles, power plantse etc. (other)
0% (1 vote)
tv (other)
0% (1 vote)
generator (other)
0% (1 vote)
The Bicycle. The most efficient machine. The transportation used by the most people world-wide. Does not pollute. (other)
0% (1 vote)
Toilet Paper - No explanation necessary. (other)
0% (1 vote)
electric (other)
0% (1 vote)
The Rocket, introduced instant, long distant, destruction. Redifiend & restrained Wars, & literaly lit the Internet touch paper (other)
0% (0 votes)
The concept of "Limited Liability", without which many of the other suggestions would not have seen the light of day. (other)
0% (0 votes)
Total voters: 833
