Just pondered about which human inventions had the most impact in shaping what we call our modern civilisation. I came up with three distinct and significant ones that I'm going to share later in this thread.

Which ones would you pick?

Locking in mine:
md5(5af4f6c33e0ee8268012f1e1dc8feff3)

@nblr Cheese.

@guenterhack Oh, yes! Water management. Another one I just noticed after locking in: antibiotics... One of mine is related to that goal of those two though.

@leonceundlena Not as much of a shitpost as I thought at first. Cheese. I can see that.

@nblr depends on how you define "modern civilization" - so do inventions like sanitation count or are you more thinking about stuff like transistors or even just internet and newer?

@electronic_eel Open question. Getting my context and perspective contested is part of the fun.

@nblr
language, writing, printing press, TV, internet

@kolya Oh. And movable type printing.

@nblr Plumbing, electricity, industrial chemistry, telecommunications. It's all in the pipes.

@nblr specialization and delegation of tasks to specialists, trading, describing our world in numbers (maths)

@olbohlen That’s a very high level answer. I like it.
Glad I asked so openly as there are no wrong answers just different perspectives.

@nblr *nods* (To be more precise: Glad you can see it, but at the same time I thought you would.)

@nblr ok, so in my view this includes a longer timeframe. I pick sanitation, steam engine and fertilizer.

@nblr and a not so serious alternative: HTTP, SSL and Javascript/DOM

@nblr air conditioning

@nblr time meassurement, communication and literacy

@nblr Penicillin, anesthetics and the fridge.

@nblr Music, Science, Table Tennis

@nblr how „modern“ is your modern? Apparently the three-field-rotation in agriculture was the trick that allowed us to stop worrying so much about food and from there everything was inevitable, including the transistor.

@hhf It’s an open question and I’m really enjoying the answers. There are no wrong answers after all, just different perspectives. Insightful ones at that, including yours.

@nblr Steam engine, combustion engine, electric engi^W motor

@nblr one possible set of complementary inventions

- astronomy
- timekeeping
- shipbuilding

Which are prerequisites for marine navigation and globalized trade (and colonialism, of course)

@nblr firstborn says sailing ship. Need to look up when that was first invented, probably not „modern“ at all.

@nblr arc welding, concrete
(large engineering structures made on-site)

@chris I’d argue both would be moot without the invention of the elevator.

@nblr
1. Printing (Argument: We wouldn't have made the advancements in knowledge distribution we have without it)
2. Motor-Driven actuation (Argument: This led to replacing humans doing manual labor and large scale automation)
3. The internet (Argument: Obvious, I guess? Completely new sense of connection to others, instant knowledge sharing, memes)

We are in the middle of 1-2 more of those. Certainly regenerative power is one that re-shapes society in the long run (Argument: We become independent of limited resources) - another potential one is the advent of AI, replacing a previously irreplaceable resource: Human creativity and ingenuity. If (potentially: when) we get general AI, it will be a rapid and complete shift of how our society operates.

@tim @nblr printing on its own wont do shit without teaching the broad masses to read and write

There have been a lot of answers from you, some high level concepts like "social insurance", "knowledge transfer", "literacy" which are in part aided by key technologies like printing, movable type, computers. Cultural techniques like agriculture, the scientific method but also single items like door locks. You're encouraged to skim through the replies. There are no wrong answers, just different perspectives. Mine aren't complete or authoritative either. I focused on things rather than concepts.

Now here's my first of three "inventions that make modern life possible":

• The elevator
With concrete, welding, and other modern building techniques we can build seemingly arbitrary shapes of sometimes astonishing heights. In the end however, it's the concept of moving people quickly up and down inside of these, that allows us to build high density structures like in Manhattan or Tokyo. The elevator was a key invention to modern life. Maybe obvious and inevitable, but important none the less.

Some fun facts about its genesis:

While elevators had been in use for the transport of goods and in construction for a long time, it wasn't until Elisha Otis' development of the "safety elevator" that humans trusted them as a safe mode of vertical transportation.

The first elevator shaft was built way before it was fitted with a cabin. A New York architect foresaw elevators becoming a thing, but didn't know yet in what shape, so it's a round shaft with a square cabin.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TL4xc5bsSUU

@nblr Square peg in a round hole.

@nblr Lovely information, made my Sunday evening!

@nico Two more to come :-)

@nblr Glas has to be one of them: enabling cleaner medicine, chemistry, as an early isolator, optics, windows. What would our world look like without glas?

@ingmar Glass is one of these things keeps on giving. It was a long way from the first crude crown glass windows to durable oleophobic smartphone displays. No internet without glass fibers either.

@nblr hot water, good dentistry and soft lavatory paper.
(https://www.quotes.net/mquote/892045)

Almost forgot the thread. So here is the second one of my three picks for Inventions that shaped our modern life: The fridge.

It changed our entire concept of food preparation, afforded us to radically reallocate time in our household schedules. Not only did having a proper cool chain change what and how food ends up on our tables, but also large parts of modern medicine would be impossible without affordable access to refrigeration.

@nblr My brain: William Perry.