This blog post will outline my new list of top 10 inventions. After receiving feedback from my classmates, I made 2 main edits. First, I briefly outlined my top 10 most important inventions so that the people viewing the video would have an idea of the pacing and structure. I also was convinced, after watching other videos that the airplane has been more significant than the automobile because of its ability to transport people over different landmasses and areas that are farther apart.
Below are the justifications for my new top 10 inventions.
1. Money/Currency
What and Why: Money refers to a unit of exchange that is a store of value. However, money is ultimately a human construct that facilitates exchange. It is backed by the issuing government and has had its value tied to gold, before our current floating rate regime.
When: Evidence of some form of barter and exchange regime dated to the Roman Empire, but fully developed floating regime occurred around 1970s when Nixon delinked the dollar from gold.
Source: Prior knowledge from multiple business/finance classes
2. Global Capital Markets, GCM (Stock Exchanges)
What and Why: The global capital markets refers to the worldwide interconnected system of monetary exchange and forms of raising capital through debt and stock. GCM has allowed companies to grow at fast rates as they are able to sell shares and borrow money from the public (retail investor) and even select private sector companies.
When: Late 19th century (E.g. Chicago mercantile exchange in 1898)
3. Steam Engine:
What and Why: The steam engine made it possible to convert power from coal to cost effective application to boats, trucks, and trains. It allowed humans to tap into energy of stored natural resources when we previously were limited by the energy of photosynthesis (the sun).
When: 1700s
4. Refrigeration
What and why: Refrigerators have significantly impacted the availability and storage of food, prolonging the storage of foods, especially fresh food. This increases our breadth for food choices, our diets, and our eating habits.
When: The early 20th century. Chemical refrigerants became widespread in the 1920s.
5. Airplane (Changed from cars)
What and why: Airplanes have had a greater impact in terms of being able to transport people from geographical regions that are farther away, and reduced the deadliness of sea travelling when people want to visit places that are not physically attached to one another.
When: The Ford Model T (early 1900s) increased demand for cars due to effective marketing, but the production process also revolutionized manufacturing due to the application of specialization, interchangeable parts, and other streamlined production techniques.
6. Internet
What and Why: The internet is a network of computers that allow access to almost any information any time. It spearheaded the information revolution; now information can be readily accessed and can be applied to education, disease prevention, research, etc.
When: Originally made for the military in the late 1960 (as DARPA)
7. Computers
What and why: Computers take information and manipulate it to create new output. They can make mathematical calculations at speeds faster than humans and has numerous applications in research, business operations, hospitals, and numerous other cases.
When: 1800s computing devices were created, but electronic computers invented in the 20th century
8. Telephone:
What and Why: The telephone has improved our communication significantly and permits long distance interaction between people in very far geographical regions. It “converts voice and sound signals into electrical impulses for transmission by wire to a different location where it is turned back to voice.”
When: Alexander Graham Bell invented the first telephone in 1875
9. Printing Press
What and why: The printing press is really important because it allowed the mass distribution and led to the democratization of information, as books had to be hand copied previously. This has knock on effects on knowledge, education, and scientific progress.
When: Johann Gutenberg in the 1430s
10. Agriculture
What and why: Agriculture is ultimately a human construct that has allowed humans to stay fixed in one place rather than stay as nomadic hunter gatherers. Agriculture is key to economies today and is being increasingly more mechanized and “efficient.”
When: Before Roman times, ancient civilizations.
Hi Sean! Great post! I found some of your top 10 choices to be really unique, especially the one on the Global Capital Markets. I think that it is a great invention as it connected different countries together and helped individual companies grow as foreign individuals could invest in hot companies.
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