Best invention of the 20th century?

[eatcustard]

ipod

Not invented in the 20th Century

 

[Masterdog]

Not invented in the 20th Century

Or, really, an invention

 

[Raymond Lin]

Pennicillin

It saves soooooooooooooo many lives, and continue to do so.

 

[The Dread Pirate]

The Turing machine

LSD.

While indeed a splendid invention it has little in the way of practical use.

 

[fretted]

Not invented in the 20th Century

Wow, I had to check that. Can't believe that they are not even 10 years old yet!

 

[richb93]

The internet. For me it still boggles the mind that it can send a message to a computer thousands of miles away through various switches in different countries in under a tenth of a second

 

[mrk]

Woops* Edit* my bad

 

[Cosimo]

Non-stick pans.

 

[Sp00n]

The semi-conductor.

 

[Musty Pie]

[Doctor] Id be lying if i said i did ...


All this traveling through time and space has left my memory a little bit distorted.


[/Doctor]

 

[p4radox]

I think this has got to win or be very high on the list (above computer).

Exactly. The transistor wins by a large margin. Imagine if we'd never worked out how to do computation on a massive scale, or manage power electrical power, or miniaturise everything...

For anyone who's interested, this is the first transistor:

A little bit bigger than today's...

 

[clv101]

I'd vote for telecommunications/Internet. The internal combustion engine/jet engine may ultimately be seen as a bad move, locking us into dependency on a finite energy resource and driving climate change.

 

[Castiel]

The internal combustion engine/jet engine may ultimately be seen as a bad move, driving climate change.

Allegedly!

 

[SiriusB]

This, imagine if we were still using tubes for everything!

We would probably go out more!

 

[cm1179]

the future!
http://uk.news.yahoo.com/21/20101011/tsc-virgin-spaceship-in-first-solo-trip-4b158bc.html

 

[Tefal]

I'd vote for telecommunications/Internet. The internal combustion engine/jet engine may ultimately be seen as a bad move, locking us into dependency on a finite energy resource and driving climate change.

Because coal powered steam engines where well known for their low emissions.

 

[mame]

I saw this topic covered in a newspaper somewhere a few years ago. They decided that the Digital Camera was the the best invention. It seems an odd choice in a way but its because of the Digital Camera that pretty much everything is documented in photo or video.

 

[Von Smallhausen]

Possibly the Spitfire or Hurricane.

Without them perhaps Britain would have been invaded by Nazi Germany.

 

[kwerk]

Nuclear bombs.

 

[Bleek]

Your mum.



I hope I was the first. With the suggestion, that is.