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Shoes.
Perhaps not so much discovered as designed;
The Gutenberg press in the 1400s - it took information out of the hands of a minority and allowed it to be shared with more people; it drove improvements in literacy and allowed the spread of knowledge and information through time and across geography.
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Indoor plumbing.
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Bows and arrows. I think going from melee weapons to ranged weapons was a big deal to evolve humans from prey to apex predators.
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Refrigeration is civilization
A.C and friges.
Although off grid homesteads without them, that have their foods based around local agriculture and preserves are super cozy.
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Planting a seed in the ground to grow food kinda matters.
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Fire. Cannabis / Hemp. Printing Press. Paper money (before human greed messed that up) Electricity. Computers. The internet. Nostr.
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Law, language and blunts.
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Nuclear Power. Fusion is coming, especially since NIF managed to prove it.
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The Haber-Bosch process. It converts hydrogen and nitrogen into ammonia, allowing the mass production of ammonia-based fertilizer that helps the world feed the population. Without it, food production for the world population would not be possible.
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The internet.
Also I hate shoes! Sandal maxi.
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im in the market. do you recommend a certain pair for walking lighter hikes?
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I've been wearing Shammas for 7+ years. I prefer the Warriors because the soles are so thin, but I usually buy Cruzers which are a little thicker and last about 50% longer (I walk ~4 miles everyday). I also get my Shammas custom made (they do this for free) because my toes are longer than average.
There's a bunch of companies making this kind of sandal now. Earth Runners are probably one of the more popular brands. They ground you with metal thread and a copper plug - which is supposed to be more like walking barefoot from an electrical charge perspective.
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The internet is great... but something happened some time between the early/mid 2000s and now which has made it a lot crappier. And I'm trying to figure out what is the technology that made it crappier.
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Fire, agriculture, writing, wheel, gunpowder, printing press, steam engine, internal combustion engine, electricity, computer.
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Glass.
A few points from one of my favorite books:
  • Mirrors (played a role in enabling the renaissance, allowed people to see a clear reflection of themselves and reality)
  • Telescopes (enabled us to understand the cosmos and earth’s relationship to it)
  • Glasses (enabled most Europeans to read once the printing press was discovered)
  • Glass fibers (crucial for fiber-optic cables and the internet today)
  • Microscopes (enabling humans to study bacteria, and radically improve health standards)
  • And then all the obvious use cases like windows, device screens, skyscrapers
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Money is right up there with language, fire, and agriculture. Prices are the only way to usefully allocate resources across the entire world.
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Birth control pill
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antibiotics, coal oil and nuclear energy, steel, the microscope, the telescope, the microchip, the automobile
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Spoken language, written language, and clocks are the only three comparable inventions/discoveries.
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Probably whatever the military industrial complex is keeping from us
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ai is a pretty big deal
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Alternating Current (electricity) Allows transmission of enormous energy over long distances using just a wire and some step-up/down transformers.
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Public Key Cryptography
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