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Atheism.
It always surprises me that it hasn't caught on more widely.
Maths? The ability to make sense of nearly everything through the use of numbers, reaching just about every facet of human existence, is quite impressive.
electric guitar.
Maths? The ability to make sense of nearly everything through the use of numbers, reaching just about every facet of human existence, is quite impressive.
I guess that raises the philosophical question about whether maths is invented or discovered...
Scientific discovery wise -
Gravity
Maxwell's equations
Relativity
Classical mechanics
Quantum phyiscs
All brilliant individually, but added together we get GPS 😀
AWESOME.....
Vaccines and modern fertilisers are the only two inventions that can each claim to have saved more than a billion lives.
I guess that raises the philosophical question about whether maths is invented or discovered...
I always think of maths and time as abstract concepts used to bring order to seemingly chaotic systems.
Whilst it is true that there are many naturally occurring patterns, maths, and time, provide standards by which all can be measured and compared.
Therefore. I'd say maths is an invention. A numerical expression of natural processses.
Steve77 - Member
Vaccines and modern fertilisers are the only two inventions that can each claim to have saved more than a billion lives.
POSTED 3 MINUTES AGO #
Sewage treatment? Clean water supplies?
The alphabet.
Maxwell's equations
Is that something to do with pension fund calculations?
No, but bringing a Maxwell and cycling connection together, I once raced a cyclocross race at Headington Hall which was rented by Maxwell for a good time, now used by Oxford Brookes Uni.
Gravity
I can't help thinking the world was a better place before they discovered gravity.
X-Ray machine
CT scanner
MRI and other derivatives.
Oh and Muck-Off dry shower.
On the other hand that has led directly to over-population.
Why should humans give a damn about nature besides their own selfish interest? We all forget that before agriculture we were slaves to the whims of nature, before homo sapiens etc our ancestors were probably predated by big cats when we first came down from the trees and since the beginning of human evolution we have been felled in the hundreds of millions if not billions by tiny shitty little bacteria.
Why give a damn apart from having a habital enough planet to live on with enough greenery and fluffy animals to make us go "ooooh look that's nice". There's no moral or ethical reason to care beyond that, nature is a callous mistress that never asked humans whether or not we actually wanted to live in it with a high degree of awareness in regards to our own suffering.
I should be surprised I'm the first person to say this but hey, I'm not really. This is STW after all.
The bike.
The bicycle isn't really rocket science, even I understand how it works.
Why should humans give a damn about nature besides their own selfish interest?
Good question. Humans are nature, after all.
We've already buggered up almost all of the British Isles beyond recognition, but people seem quite happy to wander around this raped scenery and admire it. Cos it feeds us.
Why should humans give a damn about nature besides their own selfish interest?
Do you vote Tory too? 😛
mrmonkfinger - Member
the scientific method itself
This. From which, all else flows.
We've already buggered up almost all of the British Isles beyond recognition
Don't be silly. Without management, it would just be a lot of scrub. Who wants to look at that?
Thermos flasks.
How do they know whether to keep the contents hot or cold?? Mine never get it wrong, put hot stuff in and it stays hot, put cold stuff in and it stays cold, I've never been able to catch them out.
Best achievement is lol-catz, it's wot the interweb was was made 4 
Tom_W
you really are contrary little madam at times.
Your argument is reductive, a bit llike the bollox spouted by neo-liberals about competition and the (misquoted) 'survival of the fittest' and society. HUmans socially organise for individual selfish gene type reasons but here's also an intellectual element to humans which has resulted in a range of moralities. In the northern and western hemispheres particulalry but not exclusively, being nice to each other (extending to altruism rarther than purely transactional behaviour) and the planet is seen as morally superior to the counter as it is a mesure of civilisation and enlightment. HTH.
Just returning to selfish interest - if what are you suggesting is short term rape and pillage then that is contrary to selfish interest anyway as an integral part of the earths ecosystem if it fundamentally changes, is unable to support us, we will expire. But then you knew that anyway.
Still not seen anything better than gravy on this list
I should be surprised I'm the first person to say this but hey, I'm not really. This is STW after all.The bike.
Steve Jones thought so...
...contrary to selfish interest anyway as an integral part of the earths ecosystem if it fundamentally changes, is unable to support us...
Depends how selfish though.
If we're talking about "within my lifetime", then it's not contrary at all.
I'm with ScothEgg.
Glass, without it you'd need to invent it.
Lots of clever glass stuff: David Payne at Southampton discovered that adding the tiniest amount of europium ions to silica fibres provides just the right amount of amplification between the absorption bands by OH ions to enable much much longer optical fibre cables. Thus speeding up the internet and challenging STW to add more hamsters to the server.
Your argument is reductive, a bit llike the bollox spouted by neo-liberals about competition and the (misquoted) 'survival of the fittest' and society. HUmans socially organise for individual selfish gene type reasons but here's also an intellectual element to humans which has resulted in a range of moralities. In the northern and western hemispheres particulalry but not exclusively, being nice to each other (extending to altruism rarther than purely transactional behaviour) and the planet is seen as morally superior to the counter as it is a mesure of civilisation and enlightment. HTH.
HAH! The only reason why we developed a sense of morality is because as soon as we started wielding weapons such as rocks and sharpened sticks, the playing field between the males were leveled to a considerable extent. Strength no longer mattered as much as a rock to the back of the skull in the night, hence social groups were forced to co-operate with each other more. Altruism is simply an evolutionary behavior to increase co-operation within the in-group. Outer group individuals still tend to be subjected to the most base of human instincts as highlighted in the comments of this rather lovely article.
Still, I consider myself a humanist, I like helping people who need it....it's just that I take a disappointed/pitying view of most of humanity.
Just returning to selfish interest - if what are you suggesting is short term rape and pillage then that is contrary to selfish interest anyway as an integral part of the earths ecosystem if it fundamentally changes, is unable to support us, we will expire. But then you knew that anyway.
and I refer you to -
[b]Why give a damn apart from having a habital enough planet to live on with enough greenery and fluffy animals to make us go "ooooh look that's nice".[/b] There's no moral or ethical reason to care beyond that, nature is a callous mistress that never asked humans whether or not we actually wanted to live in it with a high degree of awareness in regards to our own suffering.
In the northern and western hemispheres particulalry but not exclusively, being nice to each other (extending to altruism rarther than purely transactional behaviour) and the planet is seen as morally superior to the counter as it is a mesure of civilisation and enlightment. HTH.
Are you saying that Asians don't have a culture of being nice to each other? I think Buddhism and Hinduism would disagree with that, Islam to an extent as well if you leave out the beardy explosion prone types.
Making the world believe that man had been to the moon. They've done well to keep that one going.
You forgot the 😉 after that line.
Unless you actually belive that, of course...
I was torn between space flight and fireworks.... Luckily:
The greatest scientific discovery yet to happen.
The secret of eternal life.
You have 30 days to pay for your next 100 year subscription or attend your local end of life event faculty, if not there will be a further charge for collection.
I bought a thermos flask once, the salesman said it would keep hot food and drink hot and cold food and drink cold.
****ing useless, so I took it back and told him it was not fit for purpose.
He said what did I put in it?
I said four cups of coffee and and ice cream.