The most important invention in your lifetime is…
Last night I had a dream* that I had a 20-page essay on a theatre director due the next day. I had a thick book, a biography, about her (whoever it was) and planned to read that and supplement my paper with my review of the works I had seen that she had directed. That seemed to (falsely?) buy me some time, and for some reason I kept putting it off, even though I’m usually not a procrastinator.
But today, I dive right into the prompt, which asks for the most important invention in my lifetime. Since that encompasses a lot—there have been numerous technological strides in the past 66 years—let me pick out a couple of nominees.
- Hybrid car engines
- Solar power
- Home computers
- The Internet
- Smartphones
The first two could really assist with global climate change and repairing the environmental damage humans have caused to the planet. (I’m an advocate of hybrids rather than electric cars for several reasons; hold that for another time.) The last two have the capability of destroying humanity by allowing rogue elements to band together, bully and attack, and bring down democracy. (When I first heard about the internet, I thought, wow, a way to create a collective human consciousness and evolve! I got that wrong…)
So the winner, for me, is home computers. It placed the capability of doing so many things, such as graphics and self-publishing, into the hands of everyone. So many more people have been creative and productive because of these machines that occupy space in so many homes.
And yes, I’m aware of the irony that these computers, linked to smartphones and the Internet, can help destroy the world. But I like to think that bringing technology into the hands of the many can also lead to more innovation such as solar power and hybrid engines. Our home computers are like humans in the Medieval macrocosm:
- God
- Angels
- Humans
- Devils
- Animals
- Plants
- Rocks
Humans occupied a unique place in creation because they could aspire to better themselves like angels, or descend to a lower level, emulating devils and becoming “more bestial than any beast” (from Goethe’s Faust). The home computer also sits on that cusp. With them, we have to decide if they’re a tool for building or dismantling, for creation or destruction.
* I always hear that people hate to hear about others’ dreams, and I know I do, so I hate to include that, but it kinda fits my narrative here, you know?
MUSOFYR 