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Re: Humanity's Greatest Achievement
Posted: Tue Apr 05, 2011 1:25 am
by pkay
cityzen wrote:One could argue that the human race would not be here at all if we hadn't worked out how to create fire.
Also, I have never in my life seen a naturally occurring fire. We don't have too many volcanoes/lightning hitting super dry trees round here.
11.6 million results for "united states wildfire"
http://www.google.com/search?q=united+s ... =firefox-a
you likely don't hear about wildfires much where you're from as you are in a densely populated portion of the world. Back when the world was young and was dominated by wilderness, fires were very common in nature. Hundreds of thousands of acres burned yearly, naturally.
Re: Humanity's Greatest Achievement
Posted: Tue Apr 05, 2011 1:36 am
by cityzen
Yes, i've heard of wild fires. Yes, i've seen them on the telly. No, I haven't seen one with my own eyes. Yes, I have traveled around the world. Im saying, I doubt that they happened a lot in my ends. My country is a bit damp don't you know.
What you seem to be saying is that we could have got along just fine by waiting around to use fire created naturally. I'm saying, I doubt lightning strikes were more frequent back then than they are now, so naturally occurring fires were not a daily thing so not being able to create it ourselves would have stunted our development as a species.
Re: Humanity's Greatest Achievement
Posted: Tue Apr 05, 2011 1:41 am
by particle-jim
I'm just gunna go ahead and say it... Pornography
Porn is humanities greatest achievement, hands down
Re: Humanity's Greatest Achievement
Posted: Tue Apr 05, 2011 1:49 am
by pkay
cityzen wrote:Yes, i've heard of wild fires. Yes, i've seen them on the telly. No, I haven't seen one with my own eyes. Yes, I have traveled around the world. Im saying, I doubt that they happened a lot in my ends. My country is a bit damp don't you know.
What you seem to be saying is that we could have got along just fine by waiting around to use fire created naturally. I'm saying, I doubt lightning strikes were more frequent back then than they are now, so naturally occurring fires were not a daily thing so not being able to create it ourselves would have stunted our development as a species.
my point is that harnessing fire would lead to the same end results as creating fire.... being able to use fire
Man would have eventually found and understood the advantages of harnessing naturally occurring fire.
The question was humanity's greatest achievement.... not it's most useful.
Re: Humanity's Greatest Achievement
Posted: Tue Apr 05, 2011 2:00 am
by cityzen
Re: Humanity's Greatest Achievement
Posted: Tue Apr 05, 2011 2:10 am
by pkay
Romans had commonplace areas for acquisition of flame... and even found ways with sulfur/lime to make flame submergeable in water for periods without being extinguished.
Point being, shortly after fire was created it was learned to be harnessed. Harnessing flame could have still occurred without manual creation of flame.
Re: Humanity's Greatest Achievement
Posted: Tue Apr 05, 2011 2:22 am
by cityzen
pkay wrote:Romans had commonplace areas for acquisition of flame... and even found ways with sulfur/lime to make flame submergeable in water for periods without being extinguished.
Point being, shortly after fire was created it was learned to be harnessed. Harnessing flame could have still occurred without manual creation of flame.
Cool, got any links?
Re: Humanity's Greatest Achievement
Posted: Tue Apr 05, 2011 2:33 am
by cityzen
Back on topic - If we could harness nuclear fusion.... that would be quite something.
Re: Humanity's Greatest Achievement
Posted: Tue Apr 05, 2011 2:41 am
by pkay
cityzen wrote:pkay wrote:Romans had commonplace areas for acquisition of flame... and even found ways with sulfur/lime to make flame submergeable in water for periods without being extinguished.
Point being, shortly after fire was created it was learned to be harnessed. Harnessing flame could have still occurred without manual creation of flame.
Cool, got any links?
no, I'm just familiar with how a torch works
It is a great advancement for mankind, but our greatest achievement, no.
Re: Humanity's Greatest Achievement
Posted: Tue Apr 05, 2011 3:33 am
by dj0045
64hz wrote:DRTY wrote:Language. Without that there'd be none of the above
beat me to it. but can it be considered an achievment of humanity or is it just an achievment of evolution?
otherwise it would be this shit:
french?
Re: Humanity's Greatest Achievement
Posted: Tue Apr 05, 2011 3:36 am
by dj0045
It's language Imo...
otherwise asdflkjh sadjhsdf kjhdsf jhdjfheuyewqr nvco oisdne jloiccn sdjheoiryads jhlkjh nalmdsfnlkcxoi ieroiqewr os
Re: Humanity's Greatest Achievement
Posted: Tue Apr 05, 2011 3:37 am
by esfandyar
particle-jim wrote:I'm just gunna go ahead and say it... Pornography
Porn is humanities greatest achievement, hands down
eeeeeeeeeeeeee
Yes.
Re: Humanity's Greatest Achievement
Posted: Tue Apr 05, 2011 3:46 am
by esfandyar
Washing hands was super important. Ignaz Semmelweis popularized it by using it To reduce incidence of childbed fever. Loads of religions used it too.
Re: Humanity's Greatest Achievement
Posted: Tue Apr 05, 2011 3:52 am
by pkay
possibly our greatest feat was not shitting in our drinking water.
Re: Humanity's Greatest Achievement
Posted: Tue Apr 05, 2011 4:55 am
by AllNightDayDream
Re: Humanity's Greatest Achievement
Posted: Tue Apr 05, 2011 5:12 am
by Raggles
I'd say either antibiotics or indoor plumbing
Re: Humanity's Greatest Achievement
Posted: Tue Apr 05, 2011 7:21 am
by christophera
i'm going to go ahead and say that language is the biggest (tiniest?) prison we know.
Re: Humanity's Greatest Achievement
Posted: Tue Apr 05, 2011 10:37 am
by ashley
Time is the greatest discovery.
Re: Humanity's Greatest Achievement
Posted: Tue Apr 05, 2011 10:53 am
by Badman Juice
christophera wrote:i'm going to go ahead and say that language is the biggest (tiniest?) prison we know.
is this meant to be some sort of profound statement because ppl have been theorising about this for a long time.
Re: Humanity's Greatest Achievement
Posted: Tue Apr 05, 2011 10:59 am
by ahier
christophera wrote:i'm going to go ahead and say that language is the biggest (tiniest?) prison we know.
its a reasonably inescapable one though. like the cave
