CellBioGuy comments on Innovation's low-hanging fruits: on the demand or supply sides? - Less Wrong

3 Post author: Stuart_Armstrong 25 February 2014 02:58PM

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Comment author: CellBioGuy 26 February 2014 12:35:33AM *  1 point [-]

I'd say the big four were agriculture, metallurgy, electromagnetism, and germ theory. Fossil fuels would get the cut but they have an expiration date not terribly far in our future all things considered. Come back in 200 years and we get to see if molecular biology makes the cut for #5.

Comment author: polymathwannabe 26 February 2014 03:20:26AM *  0 points [-]

Mi big list would include more items, such as (but not limited to):

Domestication of fire (it should be on the flag of the future One World State)

Domestication of food (i.e. agriculture/cattle raising), from which comes the next item:

Cities (terribly underrated)

Writing (this alone increased a thousandfold the pace of cultural evolution as compared to Neolithic times; only the Internet starts to barely compare)

Legal systems/human rights (a.k.a. what prevents you from smashing your neighbor's head to take his wife)

Contraception (especially the pill)