What is the most important discovery in the history of mankind?

Question

I would argue that the use and control of fire is the most important discovery our species ever made. Without the controlled use of fire modern civilization would not exist. We would not be able to smelt the metals that we use every day in our electronics and buildings. Fire also gave us the night.Before we had fire we were totally dependant upon natural lighting to do anything. Fire also stimulated conversation by giving us that time at night to sit around the campfire and discuss the events of the day along with plans for the following day.

Any comments would be appreciated.

Answer 1

BEER. Even Aristotle said "It was a wise man who invented beer". More nutritious than bread, tastes wonderful, and induces sleep.

Answer 2

i think you pretty much nailed it.. aside from replacing nomadic travel with stationary homes, you are right on the money

Answer 3

"the capability to discover" - i.e., the inner self which provokes/directs us to discover, and whenever a human discovered it in it self, VALLAH!

Answer 4

The discovery that it was indeed possible to wipe our own behinds.

After that discovery everything was possible.

Answer 5

Fire was indeed important, freeing up the tough masticating jaw and tongue muscles to develop language.

Another possibility would be tool making, which increased the dependence on technology rather than sheer hunting muscles which must have lead to the emergence of brainier humans.

A third possibility would be language - which provided a means of transmitting knowledge of control of fire and tool making.

It is rather difficult to decide which was more important or the primary source of creativity that lead to the emergence of the other two. Perhaps they co-evolved.

Answer 6

Crutches, of whatever kind !.

Answer 7

tv remote?

Answer 8

Yes, without fire I doubt even complicated syntaxial language would have developed. Fire kept away predators, allowed cooking of food & the ability to eat some foods that were barely edible when uncooked.  Moreover, it allowed time to interact & converse with other members of the group... thus socialization of groups. In short, we'd still be in heavy competition with chimps without fire.

Fire also allowed the homo species to move to cooler areas of the Earth.

Answer 9

I beg to differ.Man saw water extinguishing fire hence learnt(not discovered) control of fire.Use of stone for digging or self-defence is perhaps the  most imp. discovery .That is as far as primitive man is concerned.Regarding advanced man one may say ZERO is the best discovery.