The 10 Most Important Events in Human History

[kennyc]

This question is raging at another forum, wonder if the selections/events might be different here.

Here are some of my thoughts (not sure how precisely any of these might be measured/delineated)

controlling fire

writing

printing press

radio

scientific method

christianity

democracy



And yours?

[Pablo]

Controlling fire
Invention of the wheel
Agriculture
writing
arithmetic and geometry
Iron
printing press
scientific method
steam engine
radio

[kennyc]

Maybe to back up a bit on my initial list

most important might be "use of tools"

[ardeegee]

First, you must define "human." Some of the most basic things, like tool use and the control of fire, were discovered by hominids predating Homo sapiens. And how closely you define the term "event." "Tool use" had lots of steps-- some of the most important steps could probably be argued to be the invention of the spear, allowing you to kill from a distance for the first time (or at least, better than throwing a rock or stick, and not counting deliberate wildfires.) Also, "agriculture" needs to be in the list (lumping together all of the various crop domestication processes) and also animal domestication (lumping together all of those events.) And "money" as a portable token of exchange. Math. The germ theory of disease. Powered flight. The production, control, and manipulation of electricity...

[Elfwreck]

Domestication of animals, with dogs & horses topping the list

Block & tackle

Germ theory

Internet (yeah, it's new; in a hundred years, the beginning of global multidirectional communication will be marked as one of the turning points in human history)

...
It's a silly topic for discussion. It's mental masturbation for history experts, and can be fun for people to talk about, but it's pointless; we can't reach any conclusions. Debating whether radio is, or is not, more important to the history of mankind than germ theory is meaningless, and those are contemporary. Debating whether Christianity had more impact on humanity than sailboats is beyond pointless. And where do we put gunpowder?

If it were divided into sections--military, information technology, medicine, transportation, power sources, daily life--maybe it'd be easier to deal with. But comparing across fields is useless. Which has had a bigger impact on humanity: the knife or the bandage? And what scope will the discussion cover--will it be comparing huge variable memes like "writing" to individual inventions like "steam engine?"

(FWIW, I'm not complaining about the topic. I'm just saying it can't be more than a just-for-fun, lets-think-about-it discussion.)

[kennyc]

Originally Posted by ardeegee

First, you must define "human." Some of the most basic things, like tool use and the control of fire, were discovered by hominids predating Homo sapiens. And how closely you define the term "event." "Tool use" had lots of steps-- some of the most important steps could probably be argued to be the invention of the spear, allowing you to kill from a distance for the first time (or at least, better than throwing a rock or stick, and not counting deliberate wildfires.) Also, "agriculture" needs to be in the list (lumping together all of the various crop domestication processes) and also animal domestication (lumping together all of those events.) And "money" as a portable token of exchange. Math. The germ theory of disease. Powered flight. The production, control, and manipulation of electricity...

If you want to be pedantic, then go ahead, just annotate your list.

[Angst]

antibiotics - probably the largest contributor to human longevity.

[wodin]

Originally Posted by Angst

antibiotics - probably the largest contributor to human longevity.

Or human overpopulation?

[kennyc]

Originally Posted by wodin

Or human overpopulation?

Probably most of the "events" listed contributed to overpopulation, eh?

[mentored1]

That's crazy. There will likely be common factors in every list, but it's a great thought-provoking exercise...

- Fire
- Weapons
- Language
- Writing
- The Ice Age
- Agriculture
- Animal Domestication
- Discovery of DNA
- Concept of Germs
- Clothes (thank the gods)

[TGS]

Are any of these properly described as "events"?

[6charlong]

I don't think it's possible to list the most important events in human history in only ten items. You might make a list of ten events in Western European history, and ten events in Chinese history, Middle Eastern history, ten events in pre-Colombian America, etc., then list the ten most important things the Europeans borrowed from China and the ten the Chinese borrowed from Europe, etc., but these lists get very complicated.

Something like gunpowder was important but might be seen as doing more harm than good outside of the culture that developed it and events like the development of Christianity and Islam are important within the cultures where they emerged but proved harmful outside of their native cultures.

The universal things are the simplest ones that were adopted by people everywhere. There are fewer of these. Treating inventions as events:

language
control of fire
cooking food
clothing
tool making
counting
domestication of dogs
agriculture
peaceful trade
marriage

These seem to be fairly universal to humans. All of them break down under environmental stress though.

[obs20]

How about the discovery of beer?

[TGS]

Originally Posted by obs20

How about the discovery of beer?

The drinking of substantial amounts of the stuff often seem to give the events that happen when such amounts have been drunk a disproportionate importance.

[kennyc]

Originally Posted by obs20

How about the discovery of beer?

Oh Man! How'd I forget that one!!!

Originally Posted by TGS

The drinking of substantial amounts of the stuff often seem to give the events that happen when such amounts have been drunk a disproportionate importance.

Particularly those you can't remember later.