[MattKeil]

Antibiotics

This plus vaccinations. Number one with a bullet.

[Deified Data]

Soap?

Hygeine in general, I guess. It all kinda goes hand-in-hand.

[Alebrije]

writing.

[GQman2121]

The ice maker. Seriously, after the wheel, the ice maker is the greatest invention ever devised.

[Fenderputty]

People might laugh, but the modern toilets/plumbing system was a huge jump for us. It's a large reason for the boom in life span. Prior to this disease was far more common. Simply washing ones hands due to the discovery of germ theory was gigantic.

http://medicine-opera.com/2009/02/li...-and-medicare/

Deaths from these diseases virtually disappeared because of routine inoculations, antibiotics, and most important modern plumbing, sanitation and hygiene. The plumber by separating drinking water from sewerage has saved more lives than all the physicians who have lived or ever will live

Damnit: Beaten by a mile.

[linkboy]

Think about all of the great things you can do with it.



Its an under appreciated tool

[Luap]

Agree with those who say landing on the moon. Just incredible. We are actually able to leave our planet and visit another celestial body. Sure, the moon isn't too far or too harsh, but it proves that we (should be not blow ourselves up beforehand) will be able to visit other moons, planets, etc. one day.

[Lactose_Intolerant]

Soap?

[Kinyou]

There's an astronomer who has the idea of giving someone a one way ticket to mars. He then would be supplied with food and oxygen through the occasional unmanned rockets. The Nasa doesn't really like the concept though. When they get someone onto a planet they also want to get him back.

A little more extra info:

Vaclav Smil, in his book Enriching the Earth, says that the Haber-Bosch process "has been of greater fundamental importance to the modern world than ... the airplane, nuclear energy, space flight, or television. The expansion of the world's population from 1.6 billion people in 1900 to six billion in 2000 would not have been possible without the synthesis of ammonia." The International Fertilizer Industry Association reports that over 100 million metric tons of nitrogen produced by the Haber-Bosch Process are applied annually to global crops, over half of it to cereal crops. Smil and others have calculated that over 2 billion people, about 40% of those alive, are fed by food grown using fertilizer from the Haber-Bosch process. Haber received the Nobel Prize for his discovery in 1918.

Source

I'm really fascinated by this stuff

[theignoramus]

discovery of higher mathematics.

[white dynamite]

Soap?

Deoderant is like a shower on the go.

[Luap]

There's an astronomer who has the idea of giving someone a one way ticket to mars. He then would be supplied with food and oxygen through the occasional unmanned rockets. The Nasa doesn't really like the concept though. When they get someone onto a planet they also want to get him back.

If they gave me a solar energy generator and a bunch of video games I'd be up for it.

[ItAintEasyBeinCheesy]

Air conditioner

[zoukka]

Come on guys... enough grime and deodorant won't save your stinky ass.

Also most of them smell bad in their own right.

Air conditioner

Not everyone lives in the tropic :(

[ConfusingJazz]

Modern Agriculture

The Toilet

And this:

[ItAintEasyBeinCheesy]

Come on guys... enough grime and deodorant won't save your stinky ass. Also most of them smell bad in their own right. Not everyone lives in the tropic :(

If you did, you also would say it's the greatest thing ever.

[wenis]

fleshlight

[Parch]

I'll agree with electricity.
Most tech mentioned starts with that critical knowledge.

[zoukka]

If you did, you also would say it's the greatest thing ever.

Dig a nice cool basement.

Also I'd like to nominate sauna in the thread for good balance.

[DanteFox]

And this:

Yeah the american flag is definitely up there.










;]

[Black Mamba]

[yukonrye]

Transistor

[Narcosis]

Language.

Having a form of communication as advanced as ours led to our ability to collectively progress in every facet of society.

[NathanMcMahon]

air conditioning or more generally climate controlled environments.

[RedSwirl]

Don't know if I wanna count spoken language since it probably wasn't invented by homo sapiens. Previous hominid species probably possessed language. Organized civilization maybe, or written language.