Fifty Plus (50+) - Way OT

OK elders y'all have been around enough you should have good, reasoned opinions about many things. That said; what is your opinion about this:

What are the two most important, fundamental inventions since 1900?


Mind you I said inventions no discoveries. So, discovery of drugs, for example will not qualify. This also would eliminate such thing as "the computer" because computers are not a fundamental since they are merely an adaptation of technology.

Important would be something that literally changed the way we live.

The interwebs.

The PN junction

Edit: I hereby change my entry to Triode Vacuum Tube, since it appears the PN junction invented itself and was discovered.

I guess there need to be two entries. The second would be transistor. So there they are, the triode and the transistor. Right on.

antibiotics

transistor

Strange attractors living in phase space?

-G

The PN junction

Wasn't that more on the order of a discovery of previously suspected but not defined electrical and chemical properties and the development of technology to use it?


Yes, what is an "interweb"? Maybe a Romulan term?

Sliced bread.

The garage door opener.

What are the four most important, fundamental additions to your life?

Important would be something that literally changed the way you live.

Insulin. I've used it 4 times a day since since 1972. Done 26 running marathons, worked on offshore rigs all over the world, cycling centuries

Seana stoker spouse, artist and teacher and love of my life. Daughter Lucy, Theatre director. Son Simon geologist rig core sampler and the funniest Skype joke teller

For the US, the air conditioner. It grew the south.

Wasn't that more on the order of a discovery of previously suspected but not defined electrical and chemical properties and the development of technology to use it?I guess so, I thought it came about through experimentation, but if Wikipedia is correct the properties were observed first and explained later. Actually, thinking more about it, the Triode tube probably changed things as much as anything. I hereby change my entry to Triode vacuum tube.


Yes, what is an "interweb"? Maybe a Romulan term?Heh...probably an ancient place where Archie and the gang hunted for gophers ;-)

The electric light? Naw, that was in the 19th century. The telephone? The spoon? The wheel? Okay, I give up, what's the right answer?

The integrated circuit.
UNIX

" ... you should have good, reasoned opinions about many things ..." Errrm, ok?!?

The electric light? Naw, that was in the 19th century. The telephone? The spoon? The wheel? Okay, I give up, what's the right answer?

42

1. Integrated shift/brake levers (Shimano STI / Campagnolo Ergo).
2. Clipless pedals (Cinelli / Look)

Rick / OCRR

Rohloff Speedhub FTW.:p

The Aladdin/Stanley steel "thermos"

The 1911

The "aglet" - if no date minimum.

'Pepsi' in a can?

The "remote control"?

The "BIC lighter"?

The all-time winner; cell phones~!

The liquid fuel rocket

http://www-istp.gsfc.nasa.gov/stargaze/Sfigs/SGoddard.jpg



The airplane
http://www.wright-brothers.org/TBR/History%20Images/Wright%20St%20Clair%20bike.jpg

The line between discovery and invention can be pretty fuzzy.

Yes, what is an "interweb"? Maybe a Romulan term?

I'll give ya a hint...

You're using them right now. Or rather, your browser is.

Refrigeration

Refrigeration

I think this was a 18th century 'invention'. Commercially used in 19th and widely used in the 1920s.

Easy:

Spandex and the melding of chocolate and peanut butter.

A second vote for antibiotics

Television

I'll give ya a hint...

You're using them right now. Or rather, your browser is.

You can believe everything you read on the interweb. I read that on the interweb.

("She's the soup that made the Kale run in less than 12 parsnips.")

antibiotics

transistor


A second vote for antibiotics

Television
Antibiotics were clearly discoveries, not inventions. In fact, we still aren't really doing much in the way of inventing new ones, just making derivatives of Mom's originals.

thermonuclear weapons
television

Interesting answers. I offer for your consideration two:

1. The jet engine. It wasn't until the advent of the jet engine that large, reliable, economical airplanes were practical. As a result of those airplanes we are able to move goods and services from place to place relatively cheaply and reliably. This reliable time machine has affected just about every aspect of our lives and global culture. My dinner tonight was made possible by air transport of food from far away places, for example.

2. The fibre optic cable. It wasn't until the method of constructing and maintaining the fibre optic cable was current communication possible. We had all the essentials of world wide rapid communication before the fibre optic cable but the technology prior to the fibre optic cable was neither fast enough nor had enough capacity. Remember the old microwave towers that used to dot the landscape? What we are doing on this forum would not be possible without fibreoptic cables.

My candidates.

How about velcro?

Antibiotics were clearly discoveries, not inventions. In fact, we still aren't really doing much in the way of inventing new ones, just making derivatives of Mom's originals.

The fact that doping silicon creates a semiconductor is a discovery. Making a transistor is an invention.

The fact that a mold prevents bacterial growth is a discovery. Making a medicine from it fit for human consumption is an invention.

I'll give ya a hint...

You're using them right now. Or rather, your browser is.

Hmmmm....isn't there a structural difference between a "web" and a "net"? In short, even though both have interconnections in their peripheral structure a web has a central point where a net does not. Assuming you are just trying for a play on words about the internet.

thermonuclear weapons
television

Guess there is a difference between engineering and invention. Before nuclear or thermonuclear weapons the principles had already been discovered. Weaponizing those principles was the big engineering thrust. That was carried forward as technology allowed smaller and more reliable devices.

The Thermos

You put cold liquid into in the morning, leave it in the sun on a hot summer day, open it at noon and you have cold liquid.

Or, you put hot liquid in the AM on a cold day, open at noon and you have hot liquid.

And you ask your self "How does it know ?".

Shifters on the hoods.

Hmmmm....isn't there a structural difference between a "web" and a "net"?AFAIK they're all just protocols using the internet.

electric starter for automobile engines
MOS transistor

electric starter for automobile engines

Yeah, without that, people would be more likely to walk and less likely to hop in the car to go two blocks to McDonalds. ;)

AFAIK they're all just protocols using the internet.

interweb=internet=internet protocol? that is a new one for me.

Hybrid Grains
The Internut

interweb=internet=internet protocol?

The web is a bunch of documents served up by servers running a particular protocol that uses the internet. Interweb is meaningless, it's one of those layman-friendly terms, like microchip.