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Ask HN: What’s the most important modern simple invention?

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Re: Ask HN: What’s the most important modern simple invention?

#511

Post by WalterBright »

ken wrote: post #507
WalterBright wrote: post #468

Engines - replacement of muscle power. A steam engine isn't that hard to make (I built one in high school). The Romans got pretty far without it, but it's hard to see them going further.

I disagree: http://www.lowtechmagazine.com/2010/03/history-of-human-powe... > "There is no limit to the weight that humans can lift by sheer muscle power. Nor is there a limit to the height to which this weight can be lifted. The only advantage that [powered] cranes have brought us is a higher lifting speed." We moved to engines because they were cheaper, not because we were anywhere near the limits of muscle power.

The history of the industrial revolution since the advent of the steam engine amply makes my point.

Re: Ask HN: What’s the most important modern simple invention?

#512

Post by probably_wrong »

RandallBrown wrote: post #429
greggyb wrote: post #276

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And now you can get a cheap fountain pen that won't leak and writes delightfully. Financially, you're probably better off with hundreds of cheap Bics, but fountain pen ink lasts a long time.

> and writes delightfully If you're right handed. Fountain pens simply don't work for lefties, without writing in a completely unnatural way.

In case you missed it, there was a thread here yesterday about pen grip with a sub-discussion regarding left-handed writing and fountain pens: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22287679

Re: Ask HN: What’s the most important modern simple invention?

#513

Post by bdowling »

gumby wrote: post #463

The limited liability corporation

This. The ability for investors to fund risky business ventures without being personally liable for the debts of the venture is what enabled the industrial revolution and led to most of the other inventions on this list.

Number two is casualty and other types of insurance.

Re: Ask HN: What’s the most important modern simple invention?

#514

Post by kwhitefoot »

war1025 wrote: post #393
kwhitefoot wrote: post #240

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes. So long as we had a few reference works, freedom from attack by competing tribes, and landed on productive agricultural land. Simple radios are very easy and allow us to stick together over wider ranges than the locals, knowledge of simple medical concepts and sanitation keeps us alive and healthy longer. Understanding how to build effective shelters and storage systems allows us to keep an agricultural surplus…

The thing you are missing, which is a massive hurdle that is underappreciated, is that you need access to raw materials. Most of the modern gadgets we use require things that you can't just find out your front door.

That's why it takes a hundred years. You first have to create the infrastructure that allows you to free up people to prospect and mine. However if we concentrate on energy first then most of the materials one needs to get started are indeed just outside one's front door. All you need for an electronics industry is glass and metal. We can use valves until we have a supply of indium, etc.

Re: Ask HN: What’s the most important modern simple invention?

#515

Post by hoistbypetard »

puranjay wrote: post #461
hoistbypetard wrote: post #238

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Haven't pencils always been inexpensive?

Then you have to carry around a sharpener with you everywhere Never seen anyone walking around with a pencil clipped to their shirt pocket.

AKA a knife. Which we all carry everywhere, right? :)

And you put a (non-mechanical) pencil behind your ear, rather than clipping it to your pocket.

Re: Ask HN: What’s the most important modern simple invention?

#516

Post by awaze »

Equally important is contraception and elective abortion. Being able to control the timing of raising a family allows a much higher degree of freedom and also ensures a safer and more healthy environment to raise a child. I think the most important prerequisite to being a parent is the desire to be a parent. https://www.awazeuttarpradesh.com/blog/1337x/

Re: Ask HN: What’s the most important modern simple invention?

#517

Post by hoistbypetard »

mNovak wrote: post #272
hoistbypetard wrote: post #237

I think the soldering iron has to be in the hunt on all three (important, modern, simple) counts.

Sort of implies that electricity was really the important innovation, to warrant the need for soldering? (Unless I'm totally missing the important application of soldering.) I'd argue basic electric applications are pretty simple, and easily made by hand.

Electricity is obviously fundamental.

But I think that soldering (and the PCB, as @AWildC182 pointed out) facilitated certain widespread uses of electricity like radio and television that wouldn't have been democratized quite the way they were without it. i.e. TVs and radios would've had to hew to size and assembly labor restrictions of screw terminals and such.

Re: Ask HN: What’s the most important modern simple invention?

#518

Post by wyclif »

JustSomeNobody wrote: post #414
gridspy wrote: post #372

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Equally important is contraception and elective abortion. Being able to control the timing of raising a family allows a much higher degree of freedom and also ensures a safer and more healthy environment to raise a child. I think the most important prerequisite to being a parent is the desire to be a parent.

> ... safer and more healthy ... Not for that dead child. > I think the most important prerequisite to being a parent is the desire to be a parent. I don’t disagree with this. Thankfully adoption exists.

Not surprised you're getting downvoted around here for saying the abortion isn't healthcare. Techies can bury their heads in the sand about it because of their political correctness, but it doesn't change the fact that the procedure does not extend a child's life but ends it.

Re: Ask HN: What’s the most important modern simple invention?

#519

Post by TimSchumann »

kragen wrote: post #357
jvanderbot wrote: post #247

Hand washing. Modern disease control and prevention is borderline magic. Hand-washing is clearly the most important lifesaving and disease preventing invention in modern times. Materially ... Well, "yourself" precludes anything computerized, unless you mean "program". It also precludes a huge range of materials science advances. Technically, you can make steel and concrete yourself with enough real-world minecrafting…

This book should be called The Misinformation. It omits crucial safety information and other details about many of the processes it mentions, and the author doesn't maintain a public list of known errata; it's entertainment, not education. Three better alternatives: the Primitive Technology channel on YouTube, the Boy Scouts Handbook, and Wikipedia, which you can download as .zim files for offline reference. Other re…

Add The Essential Craftsman and Frank Howarth to that list to round out the woodworking skills.

One point you’re spot on about though, AvE is and will always be the absolute crème de la crème of the yous tubes.

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