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50,000 BCE
Tools
About 3.4 to 2.5 million years ago.
This was a game changer because basic stone and bone tools gave early man an advantage over other animals. What people lacked in size, teeth and strength, they made up with tools. Tools were used to help early man kill animals, eat, make clothing and shelter. Tools helped invent all the other inventions on this list.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tool -
40,000 BCE
Fire
400,000 BCE
This was a game changer because cooking meat with fire breaks down carbohydrates and makes nutrients more available for our bodies. This made human brains bigger over time increasing our ability for more game changing inventions. People also used fire both as a weapon and for warmth. It also allowed people to hunt at night and protected people from animals and insects.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Control_of_fire_by_early_humans
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ygpzm0S_rPQ -
11,500 BCE
Agriculture
This was a game changer because man flourished with agriculture. They hunted less and therefore did not get killed by wild animals as often. The population boomed, civilizations flourished, social systems were established including division of labour and social classes. It allowed for just about every other invention to happen.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agriculture -
8700 BCE
Metalworking
This was a game changer because metal allowed for stronger weapons and better tools. Better weapons meant people could conquer other people and take their stuff. It also led to gold and silver working which made for better more valuable items to trade. The first evidence of metal working is of a copper pendant in northern Iraq in 8700 BC.
Without metals, goods and services would cease to move around the globe on the scale we know today.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metalworking -
5000 BCE
Roads
This was a game changer because it allowed for the movement of people and goods. The first improved trails would have been at fords, mountain passes and through swamps. The first improvements would have consisted largely of clearing trees and big stones from the path. As commerce increased, the tracks were often flattened or widened to accommodate human and animal traffic. By about 5000 BC roads developed.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Road -
3500 BCE
The Wheel
This was a game changer because the invention of the wheel assisted the earliest agrarian societies to work grain better to produce better quality food. Later, after several wheel-less millennia, people figured out how to use them for transportation.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wheel -
2700 BCE
Plumbing
This was a game changer because plumbing allowed the ever increasing populations of Greece, Rome, Persia, India, China, etc. to develop public baths, potable water and wastewater removal.
Standardized earthen plumbing pipes with broad flanges making use of asphalt for preventing leakages appeared in the urban settlements of the Indus Valley Civilization by 2700 B.C. Plumbing was highly developed by the Roman Empire but went away with them.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plumbing -
200 BCE
Silk Road or Silk Routes
This was a game changer because trade on the Silk Road was a significant factor in the development of the civilizations of China, the Indian subcontinent, Persia, Europe, the Horn of Africa and Arabia, opening long-distance, political and economic relations between the civilizations spreading goods, religions, philosophies, various technologies, and diseases.
The routes did not happen at once, they took hundreds of years to develop a little at a time.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Silk_Road -
100 BCE
Paper
This was a game changer because paper allowed for the rapid spread of knowledge between people and civilizations. The oldest known archaeological fragments of the immediate precursor to modern paper, date to the 2nd century BC in China. With paper as an effective substitute for silk in many applications, China could export silk in greater quantity, contributing to a Golden Age. It remained a prized court secret, so paper making did not make it to Europe until the 1200's through Baghdad. -
30
Motors and Engines
This was a game changer because without motors and engines there would not be trains, autos, planes or factories.
Since the 1st century Hero of Alexandria's steam-powered aeolipile, the 13th century Chinese solid rocket motor, and the 17th century Thomas Savery's steam-powered water pump, engines and motors have continually improved. Now, there are too many kinds to count and they are an essential part of our lives.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeline_of_motor_and_engine_technology -
Jan 1, 800
Gunpowder
Gunpowder was a game changer because it changed the face of war and combat forever. In Chinese, gunpowder is called huo yao, meaning flaming medicine. Unlike paper and printing, the birth of gunpowder was quite accidental. It was first invented inadvertently by alchemists while attempting to make an elixir of immortality. It was a mixture of sulphur, saltpeter, and charcoal. Later, this medicine would be refined to gunpowder.
https://www.travelchinaguide.com/intro/focus/inventions.html -
Jan 1, 1000
Navigation and Compass
This was a game-changer because it helped sailors be sure of where they were going and also made it safer. Navigation helped establish the British Empire and colonize North America. The compass was invented in China in the 11th century and was introduced to Europe in the 14th century.
https://www.travelchinaguide.com/intro/focus/inventions.htm
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Navigation -
Jan 1, 1267
Scientific method
This was a game changer because the scientific method is all about what can be shown, instead of what people 'think' is the truth. Aristotle is the ancient philosopher credited with this early ideal, but Roger Bacon, an English scientist, is recognized by many to be the father of the modern scientific method. His view that mathematics was essential to a correct understanding of natural philosophy was considered to be 400 years ahead of its time.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scientific_method -
Jan 1, 1440
Printing Press
This was a game-changer because the arrival of mechanical movable type printing introduced the era of mass communication which permanently altered the structure of society: The circulation of information and ideas transcended borders, captured the masses in the Reformation and threatened the power of authorities; the sharp increase in literacy broke the monopoly of the literate elite on education and learning and bolstered the emerging middle class.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Printing_press -
Electricity
This was a game changer because electricity is an essential tool for modern life. While the early 19th century had seen rapid progress in electrical science, the late 19th century would see the greatest progress in electrical engineering. Through such people as Alexander Graham Bell, Thomas Edison, Joseph Swan, Nikola Tesla and George Westinghouse, electricity became a driving force of the Second Industrial Revolution.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electricity -
Refrigeration
This was a game changer because it allowed for better and more efficient food distribution which increased population and allowed for cities in places otherwise thought to be inhospitable such as Houston and Las Vegas.
Artificial refrigeration began when Scottish professor William Cullen designed a small refrigerating machine in 1755. Since then, several designs were created, but it didn't really succeed for another hundred years.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Refrigeration -
Light bulbs
This was a game changer because light is available to anyone with access to electricity. This allows for people to see at night. It replaced fire while being safer and more effective.
The light bulb's first success happened in 1802 when Humphry Davy successfully passed electricity through a piece of platinum. This brief success was the birth of the bulb and started a worldwide search for 'the better bulb'.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Incandescent_light_bulb -
Image Technology
This was a game changer because image technology, including photography, television, movies, computers, medicine and more have changed the way the world sees itself. This technology touches every aspect of the world from home entertainment to security to education and much more. Photography, started in the early 1800's. After 200 years, screens now help us see all sorts of things around us from the tiniest particle to the most distant planet.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_photography -
The Telephone
This was a game changer because the phone was the first device in history that enabled people to talk directly across long distances. Phones revolutionized communication and became an irreplaceable part of home and business life.
No one inventor is responsible for the phone, several inventors pioneered experimental work and built on each other's ideas. In 1876 Alexander Bell was granted a patent for a device that produced a clear replication of the voice.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Telephone -
Internet
This was a game changer because the Internet is the global system of interconnected computer networks that link billions of devices worldwide. It started in the early 1960's with the American Federal government wanting robust, fault-tolerant communication via computer networks. The Internet now carries almost 100% of the world's telecommunicated information.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internet
