'Great inventions in my lifetime: have there been any?' blog discussion

Former_MSE_Richard

For me it is Search Engines, which has enabled the Internet...

cepheus

It seems to me that there have been very few truly novel inventions in the past half century, merely refinement of concepts established earlier. In fact it is claimed that all inventions can be traced back to the 19th century or earlier. The last truly great original inventions that have had a profound influence on our lives were the transistor, laser and internet around the mid 20th century, just before my lifetime (1961)


A fundamental pioneer in the call for a global network, J.C.R. Licklider, articulated the ideas in his January 1960 paper, Man-Computer Symbiosis.

"A network of such [computers], connected to one another by wide-band communication lines [which provided] the functions of present-day libraries together with anticipated advances in information storage and retrieval and [other] symbiotic functions."

JimmyTheWig

MSE_Richard wrote: »

For me it is Search Engines, which has enabled the Internet...

Nice one. Good thinking.

Though I still maintain that a search engine without a GUI wouldn't interest the mass of people that the internet has captured.
Wikipedia, for example, isn't a search engine but can be used as a starting point to find what you are looking for. Therefore a GUI internet with no search engine could work... just about.

JulietMason

You might be interested in this site - allabouttheidea.co.uk/ideaawards - they're often blogging about cool exhibitions or innovative products and you can rate the world's greatest inventions and also submit them - you could win a bottle of champagne!

meher

I'm fascinated by this blog

I once sat thinking the same about all these venerated figures; why don't we have anymore saints, prophets, buddhas and why they all came from the far east. But that's by the by.

To think of a few inventions that I've heard mostly about are genome mapping, laser technology, hybrid cars, internet - some of these changed culture or have become a marketable entity.

sarahcmo

i know its a long shot but try the job centre they help with funding for things like this , you need to have a look online or go in and ask for a start up appointment , plus there are lots of other avenues such as princes trust good luck