Inventions That Changed Everything

Sometimes I sit and think, are there any more inventions to be made that will TRULY revolutionize the world? It seems that most of the things invented these days are but improvements on past technology. Of course, I understand that this is the obvious perspective because if I knew what needed to be invented in order to completely change humanity, I would invent it. I’m just at a loss of what is next, but today, let’s look back and discuss some of the inventions that truly changed everything.

Penicillin has to be first on this list because this SEVERELY impacted the sorts of things people died from. At a time when a simple infection could kill you, Penicillin changed the game entirely. People could survive infections and other than saving people’s lives, it changed everything from what we ate, to our population density. With people living longer, more folks could reproduce for longer periods of time and those kids were also surviving at a higher rate.

Another major change had to be what we consider common currency. The idea of exchanging something for something, I’m sure, came at the same time as the first wheel was invented. Someone wanted to use the wheel, the guy that owned it wanted something in return and thus the idea of trade was invented, and money had to follow soon thereafter. Although it is true that money cannot buy you happiness, there are few things in the world that are untouched by the idea of money entirely, and if it is, I would be willing to be it is only one level removed from it.

I don’t think this list could also exist without cars. While everyone was riding trains and horses, cars certainly changed the way that we move. Horses are alive and had needs and had difficulties and need caretaking, a car is just an iron box that you put fuel into. Especially once cars became easy to mass-produce, the way people moved completely changed, the way we shipped goods completely changed, the way our roads and cities looked completely changed.

Telephones. I don’t even think I have to explain this one or add any further insight. The difference between morse code and letters to immediate verbal communication with anyone in the world… is game-changing on every level.

Just as important, and perhaps more, are personal computers. The power of the computer is entirely immeasurable because the computer is just a vehicle for computation… obviously… but that actually is an important point. Computers, in a way, are just a means of executing complex computation, and it is the programming of that computation which is truly life-changing. You can make the computer do almost anything, other than feel, so the computer became a truly all-encompassing invention that could do anything.

With the advent of computers, we discovered that computers could talk to each other, and then the internet was born. The internet has paved the way for the power of computation to live not just on one computer but on all of our computers at once. Now we can have the internet even in the most remote places with the use of cell phones and WiFi Hotspots (personally, I like Solis. Netgear is pretty reliable, too).

There’s no telling what will come next and how it will change our lives. Self-operating cars? Pretty much here. Microtechnology that lives within our bodies? I’ve seen some news stories introducing this concept. Which one will stick? Only time will tell!