What Are The Inventions That Have Been The Most Important For Our Lives?

[JackWilliams129]

There are so many inventions , but for you which invention is the most important? Mine is the computer

[Mamyalynne]

The Wheel.

[rockyracoon]

The internet, for me.

[Tilly2]

The flushing toilet.

[RandyMarsh]

the bike

[-Talbot-]

Glass is a much underrated invention

[Tilly2]

Can we have more than one?

[Buenchico]

I'd look to what came before modern computers and suggest that it was the invention of the transistor which revolutionised technology. Up until then electronic devices required the use of large, expensive valves, which weren't good at withstanding physical shocks and often failed quickly. They also required a lot of power to run them, ruling out the development of effective mobile electronic devices.

Once the transistor had been invented, far more compact and reliable electronic devices, with far lower power requirements, became viable. It also led the way towards the development of integrated circuits (which, of course, still contain vast numbers of transistors within each one).

Without the invention of the transistor we wouldn't have any of the following:
Computers
Mobile phones
Cash machines
Contactless debit cards
Mobile phones
The internet
Social media
HD TV sets
Large numbers of TV channels
Satnavs
MP3 players
PVRs
DVD & Blu-Ray players
DAB radios
MRI scanners
CT scanners
Ultrasound scanners
EPOS retail systems
Automotive electronics
and much, much more!

[Togo]

More to glass than meets the eye Talbot. Seriously.

[Tilly2]

Eyeglass?

[corylus]

Has to be electricity for me, without that no lights, no instant heat, no phone lines, no internet and whatever else, like Iceland Frozen Foods!!!

[Tilly2]

penicillin.

[Berniecuddles2]

i would say mobile phones nowadays, some people just cant live without them

[Old_Geezer]

Viagra.

[Old_Geezer]

It stands to reason.

[MallyJ]

Are you bored this bank holiday?.....6 questions in as many hours..... I suspect computers will prove to be the downfall of society......people simply don't talk to each other any more...very sad that machines have taken over from conversation...eg before everyone had computers all these questions that you are asking of total strangers that you will probably never meet would be asked in a social aren face to face and may start a lively debate...with friends!

[Togo]

With Buen partly with the transistor. I was actually servicing TV sets and radios as they were being introduced including solid state diode devices and the very first I.C.s that were used. However without the triode valve that was developed by L. D. Forest, which was really a development of the cathode ray tube(vacuum valve), the transistor would never have been a required concept. The triode valve allowed amplification of minute electrical signals and led to the development of radio transmission and reception including, eventually, the early radar systems. Once radio transmission was an everyday thing the need for portable devices became paramount, not least with the military. Although portable sets were made, and used, they were unreliable, hard to power and heavy. The need for smaller lighter devices, the development of plastics and the P.C. board made the transistor a device waiting to happen. Also the better understanding of atomic theory, helped by oscilloscopes using triode valves helped understand tunnelling in the materials used to make the early transistors. So for me the Triode valve edges it. It is indeed a thing of beauty and made all things we now take for granted possible, including transistors and an array of devices since.

[Mamyalynne]

I didn't say which wheel was bestest though.

[Khandro]

The W.C.