Forum adverts like this one are shown to any user who is not logged in. Join us by filling out a tiny 3 field form and you will get your own, free, dakka user account which gives a good range of benefits to you: No adverts like this in the forums anymore. Times and dates in your local timezone. Full tracking of what you have read so you can skip to your first unread post, easily see what has changed since you last logged in, and easily see what is new at a glance. Email notifications for threads you want to watch closely. Being a part of the oldest wargaming community on the net. If you are already a member then feel free to login now.

Ok, been thinking about this a lot recently (especially as it's been in discussions in class)

It's generally, or universally regarded that Gutenberg's movable type printing press revolutionized information, leading to newspapers, literacy, etc. This allowed the Protestant Reformation to take hold and really take off, leading to all sorts of things throughout history.


Now, here's the idea I've been pondering..... Are there any other singular items like the printing press that have had such a profound affect on society as a whole, discounting newspapers, telephones, TV and now internet, as they've all had the same basic affect as the printing press: they altered the way in which we communicate ideas.


Personally, I am thinking gun powder. And here's why: Before the 16-1700s when gunpowder became "cheap" and viable, the typical commoner didn't have many weapons readily available to him/her. As in other threads, the peasantry were often "mobs of farmers with pitchforks" and didn't pose a very significant threat to the established order of Nobles/Kings ruling from above. After gunpowder became cheap and viable for warfare, and more and more commoners came to possess decent arms, there seems to be a trend where those in Power realized "ohh gak, these peasants no longer have pitchforks, they have guns" and as such, they had to "do" something about them.

What is your evidence for gunpowder becoming cheap?

You would also need guns, of course.

Its a biggie thats for sure.
Fire
The Wheel
Electricity
The internal combustion engine
Iron working
chocolate cake
computers

The most important achievement in human history is agriculture, bar none.

If you want singular innovations/inventions, there are plenty of things I would place above gunpowder. Chief among them is penicillin, discovered accidentally in 1928 by Alexander Flemming, it ushered in the modern age of medicine and has improved and saved an untold number of lives since then. I would also say the compass is pretty damn important to humanity, for both its use in military conquests and peaceful navigation.

The steam engine is high on the list too, since it was one of the key components to the Industrial Revolution. The growth of the economy's productive power during the Industrial Revolution was unprecedented and it led to the first real growth in the standard of living to a majority of the population.

I would submit that it was more the Black Death that killed many who were in power allowing advancement to take place.

True, the use of gunpowder allowed an equalization to take place and the use of movable type/printing press allowed information to be disseminated rapidly and cheaply, but the Plague got rid of so many of those who would have opposed progress that it was an opening of the door to 'revolution'.

The flush toilet. All of modern hygiene exists because of this.

 Kilkrazy wrote:
What is your evidence for gunpowder becoming cheap?

Often times (and we can see this today) when a new tech hits the market, it is prohibitively expensive. As time goes on, improvements are made and things become cheaper to produce and most of the time, prices come down, unless there's a perceived reason for keeping prices high.

The Laserdisc is an example that I can think of, where a technology never took off because it was "prohibitively expensive", not so much the base price tag, but that the price never got to a point where people said, "yeah, that looks like a good idea/investment to me" as they have done with VHS over betamax, DVD over VHS and now Blu-Ray over HD-DVD and VHS combined.


In my mind at least, gun powder becomes viable for more than just warfare because somewhere along the line, it has to have become cheap enough for the commoner to be able to afford it.


@xraytango, Yes the plagues killed off a lot of people, but that created a labor shortage, which led to other revolutions, etc. However, for the purposes of this thread, I guess I'm looking for ways in which mankind improved itself through our inventive creation/use of tools.

You should play civilization, it gets to the big ones.

I'd vote for agriculture and the aqua ducts which lead to pipes. Without pipes california would be a dust bowl and never would have been able to sustain the amount of people there.

Actually I took this sarcastically until the very end of it, and then it made alot of sense.

Radio.
Without that key step of transmitted messages, we would still be an isolated bunch of nations, rather than a world community.

 Gitzbitah wrote:
world community.

I honestly hope that was meant facetiously.

That this was not response #1 should shame us all.

Air Conditioning.

 Ensis Ferrae wrote:
Ok, been thinking about this a lot recently (especially as it's been in discussions in class)

It's generally, or universally regarded that Gutenberg's movable type printing press revolutionized information, leading to newspapers, literacy, etc. This allowed the Protestant Reformation to take hold and really take off, leading to all sorts of things throughout history.


Now, here's the idea I've been pondering..... Are there any other singular items like the printing press that have had such a profound affect on society as a whole, discounting newspapers, telephones, TV and now internet, as they've all had the same basic affect as the printing press: they altered the way in which we communicate ideas.


Personally, I am thinking gun powder. And here's why: Before the 16-1700s when gunpowder became "cheap" and viable, the typical commoner didn't have many weapons readily available to him/her. As in other threads, the peasantry were often "mobs of farmers with pitchforks" and didn't pose a very significant threat to the established order of Nobles/Kings ruling from above. After gunpowder became cheap and viable for warfare, and more and more commoners came to possess decent arms, there seems to be a trend where those in Power realized "ohh gak, these peasants no longer have pitchforks, they have guns" and as such, they had to "do" something about them.

Although you don't realise it, the book you are currently looking for is called, 'Technology and War' by Martin Van Creveld. It's a fairly digestible easy reading account of what is a very complex subject. You can pick it up on Amazon for the cost of a cup of coffee .

[b]The most important achievement in human history is agriculture, bar none.

[b]
This.

In terms of societal revolutions, it fundamentally shifted human existence from a nomadic paradigm to that of settlement, with the effect being that civilisation could commence. The surplus resources created by settled communities created the birth of such professions as the artisan, professional (by the standards of the day) health practitioners and the politician (for better or worse), allowing for the advancement of human society.

Personally, though, and it's more anthropological, I would say the humble wheel - slightly cliched, I know - as this is the example of the first truly original human thought. Previous tools created by humans had only really reflected what we had seen in nature.