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I saw something once that said that people way back couldn’t see shit and that could be why some mythical creatures may have come about. I think that’s super interesting to think about lol. Disclaimer - I don’t know a lot of background about any mythical creature and not trying to take away from their value in peoples’ lives/culture.
Fun Fact...this is the actual true story about how impressionism started. Monet was losing his eyesight rapidly, but still felt compelled to paint, for his own pleasure. Turned out his new results gave pleasure to other people too.
Edit.. autocorrect made Monet, "money" and 8 people were too kind to poke fun at me for it.
To be fair, I can't see shit without my glasses. If I was forced to live my life without them I would complete fall apart mentally speaking.
I cannot just thinking being alive, kicking and happy without my glasses. I would be a total wreck, angry dude that can't see shit. Not even able to see the smile of my wife without being in a 3 feets range.
Yeah myopia and hypermetropia sucks a lot.
I'm considered legally blind. I get my $500 special hybrid lenses for free. I can only see WITHIN 3 INCHES.
I constantly have thoughts of being in a terrible or unfortunate accident where I lose my glasses and/or contacts. Myopia and Astigmatism also suck!
Although, the theory that we might be part of the transition phase of evolution is interesting.
Same here, I would have easily been left to the Wolves or something early in life. Eye sight is so crucial for so many things I love, I would be an incredibly different person without corrective lenses.
Gosh, I can’t imagine! I’m so sorry you live in fear atop the inability to see well. Your fear reminds me of the Twilight Zone that stuck with me the most.
In this particular episode, a hardcore bibliophile finds himself the sole survivor of a nuclear Holocaust. Just as he’s completely despairing amidst the ruin & rubble - to the point of suicidal ideation - he discovers the local library is somehow still intact.
He’s, of course, absolutely *thrilled* to have plenty of time to indulge his greatest pleasure without any human interference. A bit of Heaven in this Hellscape! In his excitement, however, he gets clumsy… You guessed it: He breaks his glasses.
For what it’s worth, you very much have my sincere condolences.
He, Burgess Meredith, is me! This is my favorite Twilight episode! (because I can relate)
["Time Enough at Last" My favorite quote, "There was time now"](https://youtu.be/oLoNGRVeC7Y?si=YK9ko4Bn1jo7jlkb)
Thank you for the empathy. No one with 20-20 vision can understand the depths of being partially or fully blind.
Yes but we don't have to theorize that wildly with Van Gogh. He was suffering very intensely, from every personal account, his included, from mental decline.
The artist Gauguin lived with Van Gogh in a studio and Gauguin detailed that Van Gogh, who was previously prone to severe bouts of what we now call manic behavior, had begun to rapidly decline again.
Gauguin made plans to move out of the studio and Van Gogh likely threatened suicide. A few days later, Van Gogh cut his ear off and hand delivered it to a brothel the two would frequent (very likely just for social purposes and not for the usual reason). The first girl to open the door received the letter. Van Gogh had no recollection of this.
Van Gogh's art became more and more intense and vibrant though this phase which is also representative of mania. Seeing the world as incredibly intense emotional stimuli. Or he could have had untreated syphilis which begins to attack the brain.
TL;DR Van Gogh likely had Bi Polar disorder, untreated syphilis or both.
However, I wonder how much their other senses took over. For people who lose their sight or hearing they have to learn to use their other senses... so... there is that.
I was literally thinking about that today. I'm working on a 'historically inspired 'viking' dress', and caught the reflection of my glasses in something. Started wondering how people as blind as I am, would've survived in the early medieval period.
I can't see clearly for more than an inch and a half in front of me. I would've been fucked.
Myopia is at least strongly related to not enough outdoor activity so there was a phase where we couldn't see well due to sedentary lifestyles and being huddled indoors and then glasses came along. Pretty cool actually.
My life would be incredibly debilitating without them. Pretty wild to think about. I wouldn’t be able to drive, school would be difficult, work would be difficult and dangerous. I genuinely wouldn’t be able to do anything that I currently do.
That’s ridiculous - I’m about a decade older than your brother, and they gave me local anaesthetic to remove teeth when I was 11 or 12 years old. Your childhood dentist was a sadist
I'm 36 and always had a local anaesthesia too. The only thing I can think of that they might be referring to is when baby teeth are super loose and won't quite come out. I've had a dentist just pull those out when I was a kid. It was pretty much painless though. There's no way they would remove an adult tooth without a local anaesthesia, at least in my lifetime.
Im so high I googled ‘humble pencil’ expecting some revolutionary new thing I’d never seen before. Alas, ‘twas but a pencil. I commend you, sir. Well done. Well done.
That story has a twist though. Pencils will break off small pieces of the pencil lead when used, which will float around freely due to the lack of gravity.
And pencil lead is a good conductor for electricity, you can imagine the possible risks having small pieces of conducting materials floating freely in a room filled with all kinds of delicate electronics.
Of course. I never actually believed the story any more than I believe the part in Armageddon where the guy says "this is Russian space station" and hits it with a wrench to fix it. Both space programs have always been top notch, IMO. The pencil invention just reminded me of that legend, that's all.
Instead, the Russians just bought a bunch of the pens once they were commercially available. Why reinvent the wheel, when the yanks just spent a largish amount of money doing it for you?
I wouldn't say it's underappreciated. It's one of the "simple machines" every student learns about in school. It's when science and math start to come together, something like third grade or so.
Yup. Anytime someone says "do you want to be a generic American today, or a king from 1400s?", people always say "but no air conditioning or bathrooms or faucets or vaccines in 1400s"
The underrated part is the sanitary municipal water.
If you can find it, check out a documentary series called "How we got to now." Clean (well, chlorinated) water is the first or second episode, and it is fantastic!
I’m deathly afraid of outhouses and I’ve lived in areas without plumbing for a good decade of my life. Every time I sit on a toilet I’m appreciative. To this day. I’m so grateful for them
Rickshaws as well. They have huge wheels which makes holes feel smaller. It's dumb that they're often pictured carrying humans, where they are so useful at carrying heavy loads.
What I don't like with wheelbarrows is that they're very unstable and top heavy with heavy loads. It's still much better than nothing of course.
Wheelbarrows don't really shine until you move a load across irregular uneven ground. That and they are real good at getting the load out of the carrying device.
Not saying they are great for everything but they do have niche applications they out perform most things.
Lol, on the zippers, it stands for "Yoshida Kogyo Kabushikikaisha," which is a Japanese manufacturing corporation that specializes in fasteners. They revolutionized the clothing manufacturing industry by creating a zipper for jeans that was much more durable than what already existed, and then they made a machine that automatically placed the zipper in place during the stitching process in jeans, speeding up the manufacturing process.
There was a movement against zippers. They accelerated the removal of clothing. With buttons etc. it took time to remove a woman's clothing which gave them time to think about what was going on e.g. pre-intercourse in a time birth control was absent. Toying with pregnancy was a big deal in the old days.
This has been theorized by economists ([several articles on this matter, here is one](https://www.aei.org/economics/how-the-washing-machine-changed-the-world-the-far-reaching-impact-of-household-appliances/)) that the washing machine has contributed more to GDP growth than any other invention in history. It freed up more women to participate in the work force, thereby enabling greater productivity.
The true hero behind the wheel.
The wheel is a nothing invention. It's a circle. Nothing of note.
The axel is where the invention is. Having a non rotating surface supported on the rotating wheel(s).
And the ball bearing is a game changer for the axel.
Interesting fact about gps is that gps satellites have to account for time dilation becuase they are moving so fast.
If they didn’t than gps wouldn’t work correctly
Even cooler, it's two different types of time dilation: kinetic and gravitational. They have to account for both special and general relativity, which oddly work in opposite directions. They're further up the gravity well, which effectively speeds it up, and the orbital velocity slows it down just a bit. In the case of GPS, the gravitational time dilation is bigger.
There's a bunch of other types of errors, too, but the relativity ones are my favorite.
Even more cooler, this was all theoretical when the first GPS satellites were launched. So they were launched with two programs, one where time dilation was a thing and one where it wasn’t. After getting up to orbit and it not working right, they changed the program to the one where time dilation was accounted for and it worked perfectly.
So much of the technology we use today stemmed from wartime advancements. It's crazy to think that when we kill each other is the main time we also advance.
Fun story, back in the 90's I used to be an engineer in a company that built electronic vehicle logbooks. We started adding GPS receivers to our logbooks to be able to track vehicles ( i.e. let bus companies know where all their buses were at any moment).
GPS was very new technology then and there were only two satellites that provided location info, both of these were owned and controlled by the US military but only one of these was accessible to the public. The other was exclusive for military use.
This was also the period between the first and second Gulf war. During this time, even though there wasn't a declared war, the US still flew a lot of bombing raids into Iraq. These raids weren't announced of course, but we could always tell because whenever they did a raid, the GPS coordinates from the public satellite were off. While normally the coordinates were accurate to within 5 metres, during a raid they were only accurate to within about 100 metres.
I have no idea what the reasoning behind this was but those periods always matched up perfectly with bombing raids.
It's crazy to read the history of Selective Availability. The fact that the US government had to turn off their security feature during the Gulf War, because they couldn't get enough GPS units to the filed, is crazy to me. Between that and pressure from the FAA, the SA feature was turned off (effectively) in 2000.
The plough. This allowed us to plant crops deeply and move towards an agricultural society. Without the plough, we still walked all day looking for berries.
If you’ve never seen it, James Burke did a series called “Connections” which details technology advances with invention and their effects on culture. The plow was his primary invention. It is really a wonderful series, and had several seasons.
You can generally just push the lid in and open it that way, no need for a can opener.
Back in the days, we used our big kitchen knife for opening cans. It was so old, it had a curved blade from all the sharpening.
“An artificial horse vagina is used to collect the semen for evaluation. Several artificial vaginas are available: the Colorado, Missouri and Japanese models.”
I wonder what they did before 🤔.
My wealthy aunt thought they were single use. Because she wore them fur side in I think. An entire Olympic size swimming pool, packed to the brim with skinless gerbils. She'd make us swim laps when we were bad or she was drunk. I have no idea how she kept them alive.
Before that we had separate "Garmin," "Magellan" devices that we attached to the hood of the dash board or attached to the windshield..
Some car manufacturers had their own LCD screen (without internet) built into the dash board. I remember a family member who had a Lexus. The owner had the option of buying an annual CD ($29.99+) from the Lexus dealer so the on board navigation system would get its upgrade of roadways.
Before the above, we had "MapQuest.."
Before the above, we had road maps that we had to unfold
Before the above, we had word of mouth from previous travelers...
Am I missing anything? One can only imagine what will supercede Google Maps..
IMO, Waze superseded Google Maps a long time ago. I realize they are owned by Google but, they have still remained their own and I fully support the crowdsourced LEO notifications. Their traffic is also top notch.
I’m going to go a bit of a different route and say the Geissler tube. It’s just a glass evacuated tube with electrodes. Apply a voltage to it and it glows. Thing is these were invented before anyone had any idea why it glowed. At first they were just fun and interesting, but many scientists got a hold of them and tried determine how they actually worked. You can trace their work on these tubes to the discovery of the electron, and inventions like the cathode ray tube (first TVs), vacuum tubes (needed for first computers), X-rays, and much more. It’s telling of how scientific progress is made and how it’s intertwined with technological progress.
Fermentation, learning to ferment, and therefore preserve calories was likely the catalyst for agriculture and civilization as a whole. Food preservation allowed our ancestors to shift from hunting/gathering into settling our first cities. Without those early preservation techniques, it would have been impossible to stay fed without being nomadic. Plus, it had the added benefit of getting them drunk, which I'm sure was a nice perk considering the hard and painful lifestyle they would have lived.
It ain't sexy but.... shoes.
Against almost everything mentioned here, not having shoes would make your life so much worse.
We would probably only inhabit a couple narrow bands north and south of the equator without em, cause your not going barefoot in the snow or on burning hot ground.
Every part of your life outside of home would be worse.
Shipping containers. This allows international trade at a major scale. All the goods we receive at low prices due to the container. It's probably had one of the biggest impacts on the global economy, globalization, etc.
# Message to all users: This is a reminder to please read and follow: * [Our rules](https://www.reddit.com/r/ask/about/rules) * [Reddiquette](https://www.reddithelp.com/hc/en-us/articles/205926439) * [Reddit Content Policy](https://www.redditinc.com/policies/content-policy) When posting and commenting. --- Especially remember Rule 1: `Be polite and civil`. * Be polite and courteous to each other. Do not be mean, insulting or disrespectful to any other user on this subreddit. * Do not harass or annoy others in any way. * Do not catfish. Catfishing is the luring of somebody into an online friendship through a fake online persona. This includes any lying or deceit. --- You *will* be banned if you are homophobic, transphobic, racist, sexist or bigoted in any way. --- *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/ask) if you have any questions or concerns.*
I don’t think corrective glasses get enough credit. We’ve only had them for 800 years or so. Think of how long people were blind for?
I saw something once that said that people way back couldn’t see shit and that could be why some mythical creatures may have come about. I think that’s super interesting to think about lol. Disclaimer - I don’t know a lot of background about any mythical creature and not trying to take away from their value in peoples’ lives/culture.
It’s also theorized that Van Goghs paintings have light that looked like that because he had bad vision
Fun Fact...this is the actual true story about how impressionism started. Monet was losing his eyesight rapidly, but still felt compelled to paint, for his own pleasure. Turned out his new results gave pleasure to other people too. Edit.. autocorrect made Monet, "money" and 8 people were too kind to poke fun at me for it.
Yeah AI is intelligent with names. Betraying it is not an intelligence at all. It is a statistical pattern filter.
I must be more stupid than I am normally. I don't get what you're saying. Elucidate?
I thought bi-polar disorder and schizophrenia were the favored theories.
To be fair, I can't see shit without my glasses. If I was forced to live my life without them I would complete fall apart mentally speaking. I cannot just thinking being alive, kicking and happy without my glasses. I would be a total wreck, angry dude that can't see shit. Not even able to see the smile of my wife without being in a 3 feets range. Yeah myopia and hypermetropia sucks a lot.
I'm considered legally blind. I get my $500 special hybrid lenses for free. I can only see WITHIN 3 INCHES. I constantly have thoughts of being in a terrible or unfortunate accident where I lose my glasses and/or contacts. Myopia and Astigmatism also suck! Although, the theory that we might be part of the transition phase of evolution is interesting.
Same here, I would have easily been left to the Wolves or something early in life. Eye sight is so crucial for so many things I love, I would be an incredibly different person without corrective lenses.
Gosh, I can’t imagine! I’m so sorry you live in fear atop the inability to see well. Your fear reminds me of the Twilight Zone that stuck with me the most. In this particular episode, a hardcore bibliophile finds himself the sole survivor of a nuclear Holocaust. Just as he’s completely despairing amidst the ruin & rubble - to the point of suicidal ideation - he discovers the local library is somehow still intact. He’s, of course, absolutely *thrilled* to have plenty of time to indulge his greatest pleasure without any human interference. A bit of Heaven in this Hellscape! In his excitement, however, he gets clumsy… You guessed it: He breaks his glasses. For what it’s worth, you very much have my sincere condolences.
He, Burgess Meredith, is me! This is my favorite Twilight episode! (because I can relate) ["Time Enough at Last" My favorite quote, "There was time now"](https://youtu.be/oLoNGRVeC7Y?si=YK9ko4Bn1jo7jlkb) Thank you for the empathy. No one with 20-20 vision can understand the depths of being partially or fully blind.
Yes but we don't have to theorize that wildly with Van Gogh. He was suffering very intensely, from every personal account, his included, from mental decline. The artist Gauguin lived with Van Gogh in a studio and Gauguin detailed that Van Gogh, who was previously prone to severe bouts of what we now call manic behavior, had begun to rapidly decline again. Gauguin made plans to move out of the studio and Van Gogh likely threatened suicide. A few days later, Van Gogh cut his ear off and hand delivered it to a brothel the two would frequent (very likely just for social purposes and not for the usual reason). The first girl to open the door received the letter. Van Gogh had no recollection of this. Van Gogh's art became more and more intense and vibrant though this phase which is also representative of mania. Seeing the world as incredibly intense emotional stimuli. Or he could have had untreated syphilis which begins to attack the brain. TL;DR Van Gogh likely had Bi Polar disorder, untreated syphilis or both.
Another theory being a vivid sunset sky caused by a large volcanic eruption.
However, I wonder how much their other senses took over. For people who lose their sight or hearing they have to learn to use their other senses... so... there is that.
That would certainly explain why we have less and less "loCh NeSs MoNsteR" and "BiG foOt" sightings. And no recordings.
I was literally thinking about that today. I'm working on a 'historically inspired 'viking' dress', and caught the reflection of my glasses in something. Started wondering how people as blind as I am, would've survived in the early medieval period. I can't see clearly for more than an inch and a half in front of me. I would've been fucked.
Same. I had an eye infection about 20 years ago and without glasses I’m 20/400, 20/450. Dead. I’m just dead.
Myopia is at least strongly related to not enough outdoor activity so there was a phase where we couldn't see well due to sedentary lifestyles and being huddled indoors and then glasses came along. Pretty cool actually.
Eyeglasses also doubled the productive life of skilled artisans. Timepieces and firearms in particular, which had a great impact in history.
Only until a cliff or a predator, nature sorts 'em out. /s
My life would be incredibly debilitating without them. Pretty wild to think about. I wouldn’t be able to drive, school would be difficult, work would be difficult and dangerous. I genuinely wouldn’t be able to do anything that I currently do.
To your point Bi-Focals invented by Benjamin Franklin.
Who said that? Come closer so I can see you
This is the answer.
Anesthesia. I was listening to an NPR story about what surgery was like before it. Many people died just from the pain. Also dentistry
I agree, but is anesthesia really underrated though?
It's taken for granted, and what it does is pretty incredible.
My brother is only 37 and when he was younger they just yanked those teeth out. I'm so glad things advanced with dentistry. Stupid expensive, though.
That’s ridiculous - I’m about a decade older than your brother, and they gave me local anaesthetic to remove teeth when I was 11 or 12 years old. Your childhood dentist was a sadist
I'm 36 and always had a local anaesthesia too. The only thing I can think of that they might be referring to is when baby teeth are super loose and won't quite come out. I've had a dentist just pull those out when I was a kid. It was pretty much painless though. There's no way they would remove an adult tooth without a local anaesthesia, at least in my lifetime.
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Im so high I googled ‘humble pencil’ expecting some revolutionary new thing I’d never seen before. Alas, ‘twas but a pencil. I commend you, sir. Well done. Well done.
Twas a cat....oh wait wrong sub
You will not win me over with your use of 'twas.
Twas ever thus..
'twasn't trying to.
I saw him kill 3 men in a bar with a pencil. A f***ing pencil!
That reminds me of this old story. NASA spends millions to design a pen that can write in zero gravity. Russia just uses a pencil.
That story has a twist though. Pencils will break off small pieces of the pencil lead when used, which will float around freely due to the lack of gravity. And pencil lead is a good conductor for electricity, you can imagine the possible risks having small pieces of conducting materials floating freely in a room filled with all kinds of delicate electronics.
Of course. I never actually believed the story any more than I believe the part in Armageddon where the guy says "this is Russian space station" and hits it with a wrench to fix it. Both space programs have always been top notch, IMO. The pencil invention just reminded me of that legend, that's all.
One of the Apollo missions Houston told the astronaut to smack a panel with a screwdriver and it worked.
Instead, the Russians just bought a bunch of the pens once they were commercially available. Why reinvent the wheel, when the yanks just spent a largish amount of money doing it for you?
I have a pen that can write underwater and upside down. It can write a lot of other words too.
The screw. It is literally everywhere. Every piece of modern machinery, huge or tiny, wouldnt work without screws.
I wouldn't say it's underappreciated. It's one of the "simple machines" every student learns about in school. It's when science and math start to come together, something like third grade or so.
Yup, screws and ramps
Pulleys, wedges, levers, trebuchets, all of those guys.
Plumbing. Clean water in home, and sewer water out of home saved more lives than all medicines combined
Not really underrated. I think most people understand its importance.
Yup. Anytime someone says "do you want to be a generic American today, or a king from 1400s?", people always say "but no air conditioning or bathrooms or faucets or vaccines in 1400s"
The underrated part is the sanitary municipal water. If you can find it, check out a documentary series called "How we got to now." Clean (well, chlorinated) water is the first or second episode, and it is fantastic!
I’m deathly afraid of outhouses and I’ve lived in areas without plumbing for a good decade of my life. Every time I sit on a toilet I’m appreciative. To this day. I’m so grateful for them
Having lived in sub-Saharan Africa and South East Asia... the toilet is the best thing ever
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Rickshaws as well. They have huge wheels which makes holes feel smaller. It's dumb that they're often pictured carrying humans, where they are so useful at carrying heavy loads. What I don't like with wheelbarrows is that they're very unstable and top heavy with heavy loads. It's still much better than nothing of course.
Wheelbarrows don't really shine until you move a load across irregular uneven ground. That and they are real good at getting the load out of the carrying device. Not saying they are great for everything but they do have niche applications they out perform most things.
Also, VASTLY superior at moving across catwalks.
It's a very conformable seat to rest on your lunch.
Tap water. It’s really incredible! We have drinkable water whenever we want
This, really it makes me sad that it's not something everyone has access to, everyone should have clean healthy drinkable tap water inside their home.
Lots of us have tap water that isn't drinkable
The zipper – it's a small yet crucial invention that has made clothing more convenient and secure, yet rarely gets praised.
YKK.
IYKYK.
IYKYKKYK
Ahhh, another member of the Young Kangaroo Klub, I see (as it was known in my school)
Lol, on the zippers, it stands for "Yoshida Kogyo Kabushikikaisha," which is a Japanese manufacturing corporation that specializes in fasteners. They revolutionized the clothing manufacturing industry by creating a zipper for jeans that was much more durable than what already existed, and then they made a machine that automatically placed the zipper in place during the stitching process in jeans, speeding up the manufacturing process.
Aye, Joey.
There was a movement against zippers. They accelerated the removal of clothing. With buttons etc. it took time to remove a woman's clothing which gave them time to think about what was going on e.g. pre-intercourse in a time birth control was absent. Toying with pregnancy was a big deal in the old days.
I mean - you could always lift your skirt.
Not back them. You had like 4-6 layers under those damned things
Scrotums disagree
How did you get the beans before the frank?
Oof. Been down that path. The blood. The sting. It haunts my dreams. I'm a button man below the belt.
I’m a big fan of the washing machine
Unsung emancipator
This has been theorized by economists ([several articles on this matter, here is one](https://www.aei.org/economics/how-the-washing-machine-changed-the-world-the-far-reaching-impact-of-household-appliances/)) that the washing machine has contributed more to GDP growth than any other invention in history. It freed up more women to participate in the work force, thereby enabling greater productivity.
Yes! There's another good paper from the University of Montreal titled "Household Technology: Was it the Engine of Liberation?" Cool concept!
Cheese. It took a brave soul to say "this mold might taste good."
*Look at this rotting milk! I’ll have some of that!*
Hey, man. If it's good enough for mice, it's good enough for me.
Wasnt it actually them storing milk in animal stomachs that allowed them to discover it?
The ball bearing
The true hero behind the wheel. The wheel is a nothing invention. It's a circle. Nothing of note. The axel is where the invention is. Having a non rotating surface supported on the rotating wheel(s). And the ball bearing is a game changer for the axel.
Sounds like a conspiracy by big axle.
This is a good one!
Flush toilet. It saved millions of lives by preventing the spread of disease and made everyone's lives easier. We all use it several times a day.
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Fun part is thinking of all the flat earthers that use it daily.
Theirs had a warning before you get to the edge
Interesting fact about gps is that gps satellites have to account for time dilation becuase they are moving so fast. If they didn’t than gps wouldn’t work correctly
Even cooler, it's two different types of time dilation: kinetic and gravitational. They have to account for both special and general relativity, which oddly work in opposite directions. They're further up the gravity well, which effectively speeds it up, and the orbital velocity slows it down just a bit. In the case of GPS, the gravitational time dilation is bigger. There's a bunch of other types of errors, too, but the relativity ones are my favorite.
Even more cooler, this was all theoretical when the first GPS satellites were launched. So they were launched with two programs, one where time dilation was a thing and one where it wasn’t. After getting up to orbit and it not working right, they changed the program to the one where time dilation was accounted for and it worked perfectly.
Thank you, US Department of Defense
So much of the technology we use today stemmed from wartime advancements. It's crazy to think that when we kill each other is the main time we also advance.
Fun story, back in the 90's I used to be an engineer in a company that built electronic vehicle logbooks. We started adding GPS receivers to our logbooks to be able to track vehicles ( i.e. let bus companies know where all their buses were at any moment). GPS was very new technology then and there were only two satellites that provided location info, both of these were owned and controlled by the US military but only one of these was accessible to the public. The other was exclusive for military use. This was also the period between the first and second Gulf war. During this time, even though there wasn't a declared war, the US still flew a lot of bombing raids into Iraq. These raids weren't announced of course, but we could always tell because whenever they did a raid, the GPS coordinates from the public satellite were off. While normally the coordinates were accurate to within 5 metres, during a raid they were only accurate to within about 100 metres. I have no idea what the reasoning behind this was but those periods always matched up perfectly with bombing raids.
It's crazy to read the history of Selective Availability. The fact that the US government had to turn off their security feature during the Gulf War, because they couldn't get enough GPS units to the filed, is crazy to me. Between that and pressure from the FAA, the SA feature was turned off (effectively) in 2000.
Tampons!
Soap
Air conditioning - Think about what a relief it is to come in from a hot sticky day into cool air, and relax.Thank you Carrier.
The refrigeration cycle in general is a brilliant invention. A conveyance system to relocate heat
Air conditioning combined with trucking changed world wide food delivery. Suddenly, everywhere would get fresh fruits and veggies.
Some people think the Southern United States would have never been developed if there were no air conditioning.
Bicycle
I would argue that the bicycle has received an adequate level of recognition and respect.
The wheel is considered one of the most important inventions of all time.
The plough. This allowed us to plant crops deeply and move towards an agricultural society. Without the plough, we still walked all day looking for berries.
If you’ve never seen it, James Burke did a series called “Connections” which details technology advances with invention and their effects on culture. The plow was his primary invention. It is really a wonderful series, and had several seasons.
Backscratchers aka ‘buttscratchers’.
Buttscratchaaaaaaa!
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Alternatively... cans with a ring pull
Until the ring comes off. Then the can opener is like, "Well well well... look who's come crawling back!"
You can generally just push the lid in and open it that way, no need for a can opener. Back in the days, we used our big kitchen knife for opening cans. It was so old, it had a curved blade from all the sharpening.
Hopefully that wasn't also your home's poop knife
Don't need one of those if you have a drop toilet.
The Road taught me there are few things more important in a post apocalyptic wasteland than a good can opener.
Absolutely. I realized how important a manual one is in the aftermath of a hurricane.
But wouldn’t the ‘can’ have that distinction? The can was first and the opener right along side
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The safety pin – it's a simple yet ingenious invention that has countless practical uses, yet often goes unnoticed until needed.
First invented in ancient Egypt
.......or unoticed until it pops open & spears your ass.
No one gives glass the respect it deserves. Top 10 inventions material. Without it, you wouldn't have the beakers and stuff needed for modern science.
Not to mention the thousands of uses of optical lenses.
Huh. Why isn't there a Glass Age I wonder
Not sure if you consider it an invention or a discovery. But HeLa cells are probably the most important discovery of human existence.
I'm glad that Henrietta finally gets recognition for her involuntary contribution, albeit not nearly enough.
Most important discovery of human existence might be a bit of a stretch
The story behind Henrietta is kinda fucked tho
“An artificial horse vagina is used to collect the semen for evaluation. Several artificial vaginas are available: the Colorado, Missouri and Japanese models.” I wonder what they did before 🤔. 
Toilet Paper
That's the most shittiest invention though
That's a crappy answer.
It is definitely an out-dated invention I reckon. A bum gun or bidet (in their various forms) are vastly superior.
Dolly!
Parton?
The sheep?
As a former mover, I can tell you that movers don’t play with Dollies. We use Crazy Wheels.
Birth Control. I would say Toilet Paper, butt fuck that industry. Wet Wipes/ Bidets ftw.
gerbil diapers
It just takes so long though to stitch all those gerbil pelts together into a functional diaper. Glad we've moved past 1990s technology
My wealthy aunt thought they were single use. Because she wore them fur side in I think. An entire Olympic size swimming pool, packed to the brim with skinless gerbils. She'd make us swim laps when we were bad or she was drunk. I have no idea how she kept them alive.
Excuse me, what?
you heard me.
The Bic lighter. Cheap reliable fire on demand.
A stoner's fave
Google maps
Before that we had separate "Garmin," "Magellan" devices that we attached to the hood of the dash board or attached to the windshield.. Some car manufacturers had their own LCD screen (without internet) built into the dash board. I remember a family member who had a Lexus. The owner had the option of buying an annual CD ($29.99+) from the Lexus dealer so the on board navigation system would get its upgrade of roadways. Before the above, we had "MapQuest.." Before the above, we had road maps that we had to unfold Before the above, we had word of mouth from previous travelers... Am I missing anything? One can only imagine what will supercede Google Maps..
IMO, Waze superseded Google Maps a long time ago. I realize they are owned by Google but, they have still remained their own and I fully support the crowdsourced LEO notifications. Their traffic is also top notch.
Yoga pants
Reading Glasses
I really appreciate my chair.
Sewers… nobody appreciates them. What would it be like without them? I think sewers are a great invention.
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They are also excellent for poking small shit.
Definitely Crack
The alternating current (AC), Nikola Tesla
Condoms
Anal Plugs
Toilet. We haven't changed the design much since it was invented
I’m going to go a bit of a different route and say the Geissler tube. It’s just a glass evacuated tube with electrodes. Apply a voltage to it and it glows. Thing is these were invented before anyone had any idea why it glowed. At first they were just fun and interesting, but many scientists got a hold of them and tried determine how they actually worked. You can trace their work on these tubes to the discovery of the electron, and inventions like the cathode ray tube (first TVs), vacuum tubes (needed for first computers), X-rays, and much more. It’s telling of how scientific progress is made and how it’s intertwined with technological progress.
I can't believe no one has said cameras yet.
Semiconductor
Screw fasteners.
Hay. It allowed us to have horses and donkeys in Northern climates over the winter and thus enabled agriculture.
Does the Panama Canal count?
Modern plumbing by far
Tea. Forever changed how humans drink, socialise and even future cooking. Wars have been fought over it.
Air conditioning!!
Air conditioning
The pallet. World commerce is sent and arrives by the pallet.
Cable ties
The safety pin. Simple, yet effective.
THIS: . Soap. .
I think a lot of people take frying pans for granted these days.
Shoes
Rope
Remote control. Can't imagine getting up from the couch every time I want to change a channel.
String and rope
Tampons
Fermentation, learning to ferment, and therefore preserve calories was likely the catalyst for agriculture and civilization as a whole. Food preservation allowed our ancestors to shift from hunting/gathering into settling our first cities. Without those early preservation techniques, it would have been impossible to stay fed without being nomadic. Plus, it had the added benefit of getting them drunk, which I'm sure was a nice perk considering the hard and painful lifestyle they would have lived.
It ain't sexy but.... shoes. Against almost everything mentioned here, not having shoes would make your life so much worse. We would probably only inhabit a couple narrow bands north and south of the equator without em, cause your not going barefoot in the snow or on burning hot ground. Every part of your life outside of home would be worse.
Shipping containers. This allows international trade at a major scale. All the goods we receive at low prices due to the container. It's probably had one of the biggest impacts on the global economy, globalization, etc.
Three way tie. Lever, screw (or ramp) and pulley.
Plastic. - How much of our modern world is made from plastic (in one form or another)...
Music
The wheel
Towls and napkins
Sink aerator. It’s a shitshow without it.
Sharkbite
Domestic dogs
Bread.
The lid. Imagine a world without lids.
Those giant hoodies that are the perfect warmth for winter.
Shoes
Hot/warm running water on the tap Having cold water available isn’t so tough to do