First, according to a survey by Quora, the top three human inventions are: 1. language, 2. fire, 3. Internet. 我想对今天的大众的第一感受而言，这个排名靠谱，没什么好争的。
Edge.org 上有一个关于近2000年来最重要的一个发明的讨论，108个著名的科学家、学者、作家、企业家、艺术家发表了自己的看法、莫衷一是。得票最多的是printing press。还有人说是Indo-Arab numeral’s和Philosophical skepticism的。要是扯到哲学、数学等抽象的东西，主观性太强。 我认为技术史更客观一点。正好，大西洋杂志曾在2013年招集了12位著名的科学家、企业家、工程师和技术史学者，让他们选出自轮子出现以后，人类前50最重要的发明。下面，我就与history论坛的网友分享这个问卷调查的结果，还有一句答卷人的画龙点睛的评语（语言是人类最重要的发明嘛）。
1. The printing press, 1430s Knowledge began freely replicating and quickly assumed a life of its own
2. Electricity, late 19th century And then there was light and most of the rest of modern life.
3. Penicillin, 1928 the silver bullet for any number of formerly deadly diseases
4. Semiconductor electronics, mid-20th century The physical foundation of the virtual world
5. Optical lenses, 13th century raised the collective human IQ, and eventually led to the creation of the microscope and the telescope.
6. Paper, second century The idea of stamping images is natural if you have paper, but until then, it’s economically unaffordable.
7. The internal combustion engine, late 19th century Turned air and fuel into power, eventually replacing the steam engine.
8. Vaccination, 1796 medicine—and government—began to accept the idea that making someone sick could prevent further sickness
9. The Internet, 1960s The infrastructure of the digital age
10. The steam engine, 1712 Powered the Industrial Revolution
11. Nitrogen fixation, 1918 create a new class of fertilizers central to the green revolution
12. Sanitation systems, mid-19th century A major reason we live 40 years longer than we did in 1880
13. Refrigeration, 1850s Discovering how to make cold would change the way we eat—and live—almost as profoundly as discovering how to cook
14. Gunpowder, 10th century Outsourced killing to a machine
15. The airplane, 1903 Transformed travel, warfare, and our view of the world
16. The personal computer, 1970s augmented human capabilities.
17. The compass, 12th century Oriented us, even at sea
18. The automobile, late 19th century Transformed daily life, our culture, and our landscape
19. Industrial steelmaking, 1850s the basis of modern industry
20. The contraceptive pill, 1960 Launched a social revolution
后面排21~50的我就不罗嗦了，包括麻醉、电话、电视、空调、钉子、水泥等等。
中国的造纸排第5，火药排第14，指南针排第17，纸币排第42（评价很高：“The abstraction at the core of the modern economy”）.
另外，在history.com 的排名中，中国古代发明高居世界前10大发明的第2，第3.
- Printing press
- The compass
- Paper currency
- Steel
- Electricity
- Domestication of the horse
- Transistors
- Magnifying lenses
- Telegraph
- Antibiotics
多个排名里，古登堡的printing press都是第一。没有古登堡的印刷机，马丁路德就不可能打破教庭的话语权，就没有政教分离，思想解放，文艺复兴就不是我们所知道的这样。将来人再来评价我们这个时代，最伟大的技术应该是互联网。小花梅事件也许就是教科书里的一个注脚。
