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Article: The Power of Big Ideas.(inventions of the past 2,000 years)
- Article from:
- Newsweek
- Article date:
- January 11, 1999
- Author:
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Was the light bulb more important than the pill? An online gathering of scientists nominates the most important inventions of the past 2,000 years. Some of their choices might surprise you.
What changed the course of human events most profoundly? It wasn't a general or battle, emperor or president or assassin, as the "Great Man" school of history holds. It was more likely well, clocks or hay, the thermos bottle or smelting or writing. It was, in other words, a technological invention, according to 80-plus scholars gathered in the electronic salon called Edge (www.edge.org). In November, literary agent and author John Brockman, who presides over Edge, asked ...