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#11
Fire isn't an innovation or invention because it existed already in nature. The USING OF FIRE to cook was the innovation.
Fire isn't an innovation or invention because it existed already in nature. The USING OF FIRE to cook was the innovation.
But the MAKING of Fire is surely an innovation?
I can make fire with two sticks, a bit of string, a small piece of hardwood, a small piece of softwood and some dry brushwood or small shavings. Did this in Army Service, it's called a bow drill: Fire - Bow Drill
The method shown is a bit OTT, the bow drill can be made with a much smaller bow. Where string is not available, a creeper plant such as Honeysuckle can be used, by plaiting longe lengths together. Mesolithic man used Honeysuckle vines to make rope.
The tools used to make a fire are a invention but fire is not a invention.
3 most important innovations of all time
Poking a hole in the earth and putting a seed in it is not a invention.
Creating a tool such as a plow to do the job better and quicker is inventing the plow.
Jack
If we are talking purely about innovation that did not exploit natural phenomena like fire, or mankind's tendency to beat the hell out of each other, I would have to say:
1. The ability to make fire - kept humans warm, cooked food, and kept dangerous wild animals away
2. Language - allowed for the dissemination and distribution of ideas and concepts
3. Agriculture - allowed permanent, larger human settlements to form and thrive
If I had to identify a fourth, I might name medicine to the list, for obvious reasons
Have to disagree, Bear! To invent something, requires thought and the use of imagination: "thinking outside the box" as it is known nowadays. The process of growing grain, began in separate locations around the world, perhaps as far back as 20,000 years ago. But those people who first realised that the wild grasses could be planted, grown and harvested, needed intelligence, thought and imagination to sow, protect and reap the crop. It needed more of those qualities to realise that the grasses could be developed into better crops, by taking the best-producing grains and replanting them. And a process of evolution began, is still happening in fact: over thousands of years, more productive crops are grown, and continue to be improved by science.
The process of creating a plough (Brit spelling!) requires the same thought and imagination, but then we discover the beginnings of Engineering! a process close to my heart, as all my male ancestors, back to 16th Century Wales, were blacksmiths. Even my dearly-missed nephew was a Blacksmith.
Here, though is a link to the 7 Greatest British Inventions. One of them had to happen, for you and I to have this electronic conversation.
7 Great British inventions that changed the world | Reader's Digest