everyone: i have a question

[Abcinthia]

Soap and keeping everything clean and sterile, especially in medicine.

The reason being, it saved lives to learn to be clean. Childbirth used to be the biggest risk to a woman's life for hundreds of years. And while part of that was not fully understanding it as we do today, a bigger part of it was it being so unhygienic. As soon as hygienic measures were introduced, the amount of women dying from puerperal fever went down.

Semmelweis began experimenting with various cleansing agents and, from May 1847, ordered all doctors and students working in the First Division wash their hands in chlorinated lime solution before starting ward work, and later before each vaginal examination. The mortality rate from puerperal fever in the division fell from 18% in May 1847 to less than 3% in June–November of the same year

And it's not just childbirth that soap had a major impact, all medical procedures have benefited from the use of being clean via soap and other cleaning agents.

 

[Mystic]

This question has many answers and they are all matter of opinion.
I'm curious to see what people will answer and before you all get into a debate about each others answers think clearly of your response. I'll tell you my initial answer after a few people have posted. I suggest posting it as a spoiler because I want honest answers not answers fed off of other replies.

The question has two parts:
What do you believe is the greatest invention that has benefit humanity within the last 300 years, and why?

This is the first part of the question. I'll ask the second part in rep

ok i'll answer this post before i read the others...

greatest invention, last 300 years and why? The airplane, because it allows us to go from coast to coast without it taking months or weeks as it did when we only had boats. Flight is certainly the best benefit. It also allows for medical and other important inventions to get from A to B faster like air ambulances. So yes i would say flight, the airplane.:thumbup

 

[FreightTrain]

moveable type. without it we are not using keyboards to type our responses.

Your answer is good, but I'm gonna one-up ya. PAPER PRODUCTS--writing paper, paper towels, toilet paper, paper bags, waxed paper, etc. Waaaay before typewriters and keyboards there was a major need to write things down on paper. Not to mention the convenience of carrying things in paper bags and placing sticky foods on waxed paper or wiping your backside. I much prefer paper to twigs and leaves on that one!:thumbup

 

[brieze]

Computers. Not really the internet part, but the machine itself. Calculations, programs and programming, files.. it completely changed how the world operates.

 

[StripedCat]

Mh..the more I think about it the less I find anything really helpful for humankind, because every invention has its downside and in my opinion humankind is far from really being happy. Instead we are destroying ourselves as also our environment, not learning anything from our mistakes.

@Wyndex: I hope, you don't receive this answer as being unserious. I really mean it seriously.

 

[Withers]

I'm not sure if it's been within the last 300 years, but I'd have to say the invention of concrete. For obvious reasons....roads, bridges, columns, etc. Without concrete most of these structures would be ill-built, unstable, and wouldn't last very long.

 

[Siphorous]

As per the request:

Spoiler

It's not really a single invention as such so feel free to ask me to choose something else but for me, the many improvements as a whole in medicine and treatments over the last 300 years would have to count as one of the most important if not the most important things to have happened.

 

[HK]

When is the whole 'next part in rep' happening?

 

[itsmeJonB]

When is the whole 'next part in rep' happening?

When I'm at a computer, sorry for the delay.

Also the reps are not going to be insulting, but thought provoking so everyone who's been offended by me so far please understand this is in the debate section

 

[Tuffdisc]

I think it has to be the combustible engine, otherwise we would still be in horse drawn carriages and smelly streets

oh, we wouldn't be flying as well without the combustible engine

 

[itsmeJonB]

I didnt forget this thread
bumping it so you know to check your reps
im repping now

 

[itsmeJonB]

my original answer when I was posed this question was penicillin
because without it we wouldnt have any of the modern medicines we benefit from today

 

[jassilem]

my original answer when I was posed this question was penicillin
because without it we wouldnt have any of the modern medicines we benefit from today

That makes good sense!

 

[itsmeJonB]

there is a "right" answer. I didnt come up with it, and I will disclose it later.
the critical thinking part of this was to make you come up with an answer that you feel truly benefit humanity.
the only real benefit humanity can prosper from is survival, so answers that ultimately were a luxury rank low

 

[JoeCool10]

I can't really think of anything this world couldn't live without besides the progress medicine has made in the past 300+ years. I can't even pin point one thing, necessarily. Most everything mentioned in this thread has played some part in dealing with each others successes. So I guess my answer is the evolution of the human mind.

 

[Pet Sounds]

Germ theory. I have asked this question before. If you could send back one sentence, or one idea/piece of information back to people in earlier times, what would it be? Germ theory.

 

[brieze]

How about self pollinating plants? With the bees almost extinct.. yeah.

 

[hart]

Personally, I wouldn't want to live w/o indoor plumbing

 

[dkwrtw]

there is a "right" answer. I didnt come up with it, and I will disclose it later.
the critical thinking part of this was to make you come up with an answer that you feel truly benefit humanity.
the only real benefit humanity can prosper from is survival, so answers that ultimately were a luxury rank low

In response to your rep I don't think there's any single invention that mankind couldn't survive without, we survived back in the days when man had nothing but sticks and stones to use as tools :dunno

 

[Alexis]

Personally, I wouldn't want to live w/o indoor plumbing

I would have to agree with this. Many inventions have helped us. I would however, go with indoor plumbing and toilet paper.