Okay, the answers to last week’s questions were incredibly interesting! I had really expected everyone to fall in line with a questions/beginnings and answers/endings groupings, but to my surprise there were quite a number people who fell across the boundary! Strange, I guess you learn something new and unexpected about people all the time! Many people also pointed out the link between the two sides, with a cyclical relationship between the two choices.

This week, I guess I will be going with something less philosophical and abstract, but nothing as interesting as asking about the colour of a banana (as suggested by @simplymike)! The question does have something to do with the fact that I'm a tech nerd at heart. I love gadgets and learning about new ways to harness natural and physical universe to our benefit (or otherwise).

Technology and inventions are the visible and tangible artefacts of our scientific progress, and they all serve to raise our living standards in various ways. Of course, there is no morality to tools, and so for every scientific or technological advance, there are ways to use it for both common good or common less good! (I’m still not convinced of the existence of an absolute evil, but that is a post for a different day!)

So, this has got me to thinking, out of the myriad of technological and scientific advances, what would have been the most important ones that have impacted on all of us in a profound and meaningful way?

My Question

1.What do you consider to be the most important invention to have been developed? And why do you consider it to be so important?

Just as a little pre-emptive strike, I am going to rule out answers like “scientific method” and other philosophical modes of thought, I am looking really looking for tangible answers not abstract ones! Not to say that the abstract ones are unimportant (I personally think they are the more important of the two!) but only that I'm interested only about asking (this week) about the tangible inventions.

Also, I will rule out answers like “Crypto” and “Blockchain” as they are currently unrealised potential rather than things that have born fruit. They might (I hope) have the possibility of revolutionising many things via decentralisation of data and computing, but as yet, nothing is fully realised in this space!

My sample answer

Unsplash
My answer is Sewage and the system of cleaning and distribution of clean water at a large scale to a town or city sized population.
Humans need water, full stop, and untreated water is a breeding ground for parasites and other nasties that would prevent the formation of large population centres. After a natural disaster, we are reminded of this fact, the lack of clean drinking water can lead quickly to disease outbreaks if it is not solved in short order.

Of course the modern way of doing it is far superior to the old ways, but even in the Roman times, the invention of this technology enabled populations centres to grow and flourish, which in turn allowed trade, research and other non-survival pursuits to develop in relative safety. Who knows, perhaps the future holds further advances in the field of water purification that improve on the techniques that we already employ, developments that rely more upon molecular filtering or other interesting techniques that wouldn’t be limited by energy requirements?

Rules

1.Upvote if you want, it increases the payout and then I can hopefully sponsor more people.
2.Resteem is NOT neccessary, but the more people see this, the more the people will be likely to be sponsored.
3.In the comments, answer as best as you can the questions that are posed in the "My Questions"!
4.I have added a small Steem-Bounty to the post, so that everyone who replies with a valid entry will get something back. If I give your post a small upvote, it is valid (also, subscribe to @dustsweeper for maximum benefit!).
5.I will be sponsoring as many people as this post pays out in liquid SBD/STEEM. Also I will kick in at least the required amount to round up to the full number. Winner is by random generator after a shortlisting of quality comments!

Steem Basic Income

One of the first communities that I came in contact with at the beginning of my time at Steemit was @steembasicincome. As a author starting out on your fresh new Steemit account, Steemit can be a daunting and lonely place to be. OFten, it can feel like you are posting into an abyss with no one listening and with no ability to grow out of the situation. A share of Steem Basic Income gives you a guaranteed vote on one post a day, thus giving you a small but over time cumulative support to your account to help grow you out of your initial wilderness!

With this post, I want to help sponsor people who might not even have the spare 1 STEEM that is required for registration. So, when this post pays out, I will sponsor people depending on the payout of this post. Basically, I will round up the SBD payout from this post and then that will be the number of people I will sponsor. (So, if the payout is 2.3 SBD, I will sponsor 3 people). OF course, this is not simply an altruistic move, as the sponsor of a Steem Basic Income share also gets a share, so it is a great way to help others whilst helping yourself!

Last week's winners

The last post paid out 0.000 SBD and 1.851 STEEM in liquid earnings. So, that would make 2 shares, but people did put in very thoughtful replies, so I will make it a total 3 shares.

The winners by random draw are:

@headchange
@dollarsandsense
@fromage