This is my list of the top-ten greatest inventions of all time:
1) Agriculture would be my number-one pick. It enabled mankind to settle in one place to grow crops and domesticate animals. Farming led to the formation of settlements and eventually cities.
2) The plow has to be one of the greatest inventions ever. Agriculture was once a labor-intensive venture. The plow, however, made tilling the soil and weeding a one-man operation with a plow and a team of oxen. As a result, many farm laborers were able to move on into specialized jobs and trades. The plow led to the first diversification of society.
3) The wheel is another great invention. It has enabled mankind to travel and to carry loads easier. From logs used to push large stones to wooden wheels on wagons to tires on cars, the wheel is such a simple wonder.
4) The written word has allowed us to write down everything that is uttered. It has led us to record history, make laws, keep records. The written word has been the foundation of many of our greatest civilizations.
5) The ship has helped mankind to explore around the world. Ships, until the 20th century, were also the major means for travel and transportation.
6) The printing press has enabled mankind to mass produce the written word at a reasonable cost. As a result, the lower-classes were able to do something that was once left to the privileged few. To read and to write.
7) The steam engine has allowed the human race the first opportunity to travel long distances in relative comfort. And at a steady speed higher than what animals could offer. Trains pulled by the steam engine could also carry huge cargos at a lower cost.
8) The airplane has opened up the world for travel like nothing else in history. It is an extremely quick way to move people and cargo. One can now cross the Atlantic in a few hours. It would have taken days in a ship. The airplane has, indeed, made the world a smaller place.
9) The computer has pushed mankind into a futuristic world where breakthroughs from medicine to space travel have become common place. A world where messages can be sent thousands of miles in a blink of an eye, a world of break-neck change, a world of never-ending discoveries.
10) The space shuttle has become the first reusable space craft that has enabled mankind to take people and cargo into space. It is now near the end of its life span, but the space shuttle will always be remembered as the first of its kind. The ancestor of those space craft that will eventually carry people to Mars, to the next star, to the next galaxy.
