What do you consider the top 3 inventions during your lifetime and why?
1. The computer, and specifically the explosion of the internet.
This is very much a double-edged sword for me. On the one hand, when used as a TOOL, it has inarguably expanded the realm of human capability. But I’m very leery of situations where the machine is actually the one doing the creating. Reading about programs that write music, for example, makes me rather queasy. I was actually headed into a career as an Architectural Engineer when computers burst upon the scene, and in very short order, that and other related fields adopted CAD (Computer Aided Drafting) systems as their foundation. As I said, when used as a tool, I understood, but when they started having the computers actually do the designing, I had to leave it forever.
But it is in its role as the provider of the internet that I find the most value. It has seemingly overnight exploded the geographical boundaries that have barred us from one another through history. The potential for shared knowledge and understanding is staggering – which is why the recent news of Google being partially blocked in China so distressed me. And forums such as this move us one step closer to a recognition of ourselves as one people, albeit with many tribes. As I mentioned earlier, lovely posters like Amasis (and many others) prove this on a daily basis – and give me hope.
2. Prosthetics and aided-sensory devices.
These are not really inventions made during my lifetime, but the development and refinement of them during that time has moved them into a whole new level of viability AND availability. Like never before, people who have suffered the loss of limbs or sensory perception – and more of them - can come closer than ever to full physical experience.
3. Airbags for cars.
As much as I think we may have lost something very precious by giving over to a completely mobile society, it certainly can’t be turned back at this point. And the number of cars and people just grows exponentially every day. Since we are unlikely to convince people of the dangers of driving, especially as congestion increases to the point of over-flowing, it is necessary to provide greater defenses in an area that dominates much of our lives (NYC notwithstanding
) Airbags seem to have been very effective in minimizing serious injury and even deaths from accidents – the number of which will undoubtedly rise as we cram more and more cars and people onto the roads.
And just because, the absolute number one that I disdain, because the ridiculous use of them precludes any possible advantage, is cell phones!
