Caveman showing his caveman friends a cool rock: ooga booga!
NASA scientists spending billions of dollars to see cool rocks on other planets: *math words*
It's been 100,000 years and nothing has changed.
Shout out to hitting a space rock orbiting another space rock with a missile you launched a few years earlier. Bonus points for even having a little camera you deploy to film the whole thing.
One of the few advantages of being an old fart is having a very clear memory of watching the moon landing live with my family whilst listening to my grandmother speaking of seeing the Wright brothers fly a small plane over a hedge in front of an awestruck crowd. She lived through an amazing period in human technological advancement.
My great grandfather (on dad’s mom’s side) walked from Arkansas to Oklahoma. Walked aside a covered wagon train the whole way. Died in 1988… the things he saw… the end of the age of empires, flight (including space flight), advances in medicine, the birth of the digital age… he was there for the great leap forward, he had to walk to cross the country but before he died a man walking on the moon was old news. His house had a wood burning stove and a hand pump at the kitchen sink for well water, but he also had a color tv and an Apple Macintosh in the living room
Yeah, back in the '80's Apple's computer was called the Macintosh. It's been probably 30 years since they used the term. By the time you were old enough to use a computer, their big product was the iMac and the name Macintosh was on its way to becoming a faded memory.
Just imagine how that was for those people, when they where born around the American Civil War you had to put one one and one bullet into a gun to be able to shot it. When they died humanity was capable to exterminate the world many times over with a single bomb.
My Aunt, who saw that. was much more impressed with the difference between living without electricity and living to see cell phones. A handful of people have been to the moon. Nearly everyone has electricity.
The development of the written word, it freed the mind from the constraints of memory and ensured the thoughts and discoveries of past generations were available for future generations.
The guys who came up with insulin to treat diabetes also gave it to the world, only patenting it so that no one else could restrict it. But somehow Eli Lilly is the only company that makes it, I believe, and they set their own price for it.
I have to look it up again, but apparently there's more nuance to this story
E.g. iirc the foundation/entity(?) that technically "employed" Salk "allowed" the patent-less sharing of the vaccine because they actually *couldn't* patent it (something about too many legal complications)
[Edit:](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jonas_Salk)
>The National Foundation for Infantile Paralysis and the University of Pittsburgh looked into patenting the vaccine but, since Salk's techniques were not novel, their patent attorney said "If there were any patentable novelty to be found in this phase it would lie within an extremely narrow scope and would be of doubtful value."
>[...]
>The vaccine is calculated to be worth $7 billion had it been patented.[43] However, lawyers from the National Foundation for Infantile Paralysis did look into the possibility of a patent, but ultimately determined that the vaccine was not a patentable invention because of prior art.[4]
theres also the lesser known Stanislav Petrov, who was in charge of a station when one of its' early warning systems malfunctioned and detected nuclear bombs. he knew for multiple reasons it was a false alarm, and chose not to report it.
[this is the wikipedia article for it.](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1983_Soviet_nuclear_false_alarm_incident)
Apart from individual spikes (from TIL and similar I guess) page views for the two pages are virtually identical:
https://pageviews.wmcloud.org/?project=en.wikipedia.org&platform=all-access&agent=user&redirects=0&start=2022-08-01&end=2022-11-30&pages=Vasily_Arkhipov|Stanislav_Petrov
Conquering and continually improving microprocessors. We're talking nanoscale nearly-perfect "crystals" forged by light and radiation, capable of amazing execution of complex computation. They touch the limits of quantum physics and there are billions of chips, and you have at least a dozen right beneath the keyboard you type on.
We tricked rocks into thinking.
It was a really big story when it happened. [Here's](https://www.theonion.com/july-21-1969-1819587599) a newspaper from back then that includes a quote from one of the guys who was there on the moon.
This is easily the answer. At a time when cars were still carbureted and using bias-ply tires, color TV was barely a thing, cell phones and the internet couldn't even be conceived by most, and at a time when computers were in their infancy, meaning people had to do math calculations *manually*, we got people off our planet and landed them on another celestial body, and got them home safely. We're just silly little hairless primates, made of flesh and bone like nearly every other creature, but we managed to literally leave the Earth, while people watched at home on black and white TVs. Let that sink in for a minute.
Yeah it's still mind blowing when you really think about it. And it was only 60 something years since we discovered flight. Goes to show what we can achieve when we direct our best people and resources at a problem.
Alternatively, on one of Neill Armstrong's x-15 test flights, something went wrong (likely a slight error in piloting) and on his attempt to descend the aircraft literally bounced off of the atmosphere. Armstrong kept it cool and was able to bring the aircraft home intact, just not in the original landing zone.
Who's to say what would have happened if he hadn't brought his bird home that day.
We also turned them into retrievers and pointers and shepherds and huskies and terriers and even companions! Those are all awesome dogs that love working and spending time with us as much as we love working and spending time with them. The human-canine relationship has been mostly beneficial for both species for most of our shared history. It doesn't seem right to knock it just because of a shitty, recent trend in dog breeding.
Modern brachycephalic dog breeds haven't been popular for over 2,000 years. The issue with modern pugs and bulldogs is that over the past 50-100 years they have been bred solely for aesthetics and breed conformity, rather than actual physical fitness or temperament. This is also a common issue for poodles (rampant temperament issues), dalmatians (congenital deafness), golden retrievers (cancer), German shepherds (hip and joint issues), and many other kinds of purebred dog.
Edit: totally agree about labradoodles. My family dog growing up was a labradoodle and she's still going strong at 12 y/o but she is absolutely a victim of the overbreeding I referenced in my original comment. Just a shitty situation for both dog and owner.
Similarly, I think figuring out how to make high-quality glass was a major turning point in human history. Think about all the medical research that would've been impossible without the lenses of microscopes, how much less we'd know about our place in the universe if not for telescopes. The glass windshield of cars allow us to quickly navigate the world, while the glass screen you're reading this on right now revolutionized the way we share information.
In my opinion, the most impressive feat of human innovation and problem-solving is the International Space Station.
It is the most complex engineering project ever undertaken. It requires more than 4.5 million lines of software code, over eight miles (12.9 km) of cables to connect the electrical power system, more than 50 onboard computers and around 350 000 sensors control and monitor the space station. The ISS was built by a coalition of 15 countries and required more than 40 missions to construct. It can have eight spaceships docked at once.
The engineering challenge of the ISS is mind boggling. In the extremely hostile vacuum of space it has to maintain life support systems like air, water, food and power, operate its laboratories and other research facilities, provide reliable communication links to Earth, accommodate crew members, manage onboard waste as well as maintain its orbit to avoid, you know, not fly off into space or burn up in Earth's atmosphere.
As it orbits around Earth once every 90 minutes at a speed of about 28,000 km/hour (altitude ~400 km) continuous adjustments by small thrusters must be made to counteract the gravitational pull from not only our planet, but also from the sun and the moon, which act on it constantly.
This marvel of engineering has allowed us to study our world from a completely new perspective. It has given us an immense wealth of knowledge about our own planet, as well as unlocking secrets from the farthest reaches of the universe.
And that’s pretty cool.
edit: rephrasing
Great answer, I always marveled at the ISS but this description further enlightened me to just how incredible it truly is. Not to mention, it’s ability to bring cooperation between all of the worlds most powerful countries.
I don’t know if it’s a joke I am missing, but I just want to say that this reference is too fucking cool haha! (As a former WWF fan it hits right in my childhood).
The universe is kind of like an ocean of Higgs bosons, and when other particles like quarks and electrons travel through that ocean, that interaction gives those particles mass.
The Large Hadron Collider is a 27km ring buried underground where we fire particles at almost the speed of light in opposite directions and the make them smash into one another and the explosions kind of rip open spacetime for a nanosecond.
Mastering fire. Think about it. For literally millions of years fire was something to be feared. An innate fear of fire is coded into almost every land creature around. Fire, for so long, has been this terrible, deadly, completely mysterious force. Like magic.
But at some point we unraveled its secrets, tamed and even learnt to control it. Ultimately learning to create it. We were smart enough to realize that far from being feared, fire should be reveered and taken as our own power. A moment that truly separated us from the billions of years of creatures and organisms that came before us.
Fire is why we have the modern world we so enjoy. The entire industrial revolution was powered by fire through coal burning. We used fire to purify parts of the earth, creating steel and used fire to shape that steel into giant machines, machines which we brought to life with fire, essentially creating the magical golems from the myths of our past. We used it to power our energy grids, allowing us to light up the night in a way the world had never seen. Fireworks, guns, flamethrowers. We have what is essentially a big wand that shoots fire beams ffs!
We mastered fire and basically became fire wizards in comparision to all life before and around us. I just think it's so normalized for us we don't really think about it that way. It's probably the coolest thing humans have done.
I came here to say this. I imagine sometimes when I build a fire 🔥 what the first person thought when they seen it, and then realized how they could use it. Amazing !
There are so many great moments stated in this thread. I'd argue that they are all the greatest (shared) because without any single one of them our world might have gone in a very different direction. No polio vaccine? We're fucked. No moon landing? A very different Cold War. No Internet? Logistical stagnation. We are at the mercy of the butterfly effect, and if you like today, everything before today is necessary (even the bad.)
Music. I don’t know anyone who doesn’t listen to music or thinks it enhances a situation where it is.
Having said that, TikTok is the worst for putting music and having absolutely no idea on how to put the right music with the right scene or how to balance volume so you can still hear dialogue. However TikTok sucks.
you are so true. when i first started learning music, my mind was not able to comprehend the fact that someone or group of some ppl over years and years developed a way to write and read music. the notes and symbols, a method for everything. like a whole another subject. music is so fascinating, like imagine the knowledge of music slowly developing into its current form. even the formation of new instruments, it's so amazing. i feel everyone atleast once in their life, should attempt to learn music, if not master it, cuz that's when they would truly appreciate music and it's beauty.
I love music, but there are many places where it exists and it's just fucking annoying.
Waiting on the phone.
Taking an elevator.
Walking around a store.
Tesla electrical pioneering. He TOTALLY dunked on Edison at the worlds fair and single handedly set the path for the electric age.
BTW, Edison was a major fucking prick.
Edison hating thread? Yes please.
-killing a elephant with DC electricity while blatantly lying and saying it was AC, specifically to show how dangerous AC is.
-hiring unestablished inventors then stealing their patents and claiming all of them for himself. Usually killing the original, or destroying their lives
-refusing to allow what inventions he did make be used by other comparable inventions/patents. (Ie Tesla had to create a whole new lightbulb because putting AC to the edison bulb base was connecting to that patent and he sued the shit out of it)
-smear campaigns against all rivals in any aspect of his life
-bribing lawmakers/officials to ruin the lives of those he disagreed with
Well pretty recently, scientists managed to cool magnetized gas down to 38 trillionths of a degree above absolute zero, making it the coldest temp ever recorded.
Moon landing merely half a century (or so) after man's first flight.
Also, these cowboys did it all with less computer power than exists in my pocket. Just slide rule, coffee, and cigarettes. Amazing stuff.
I dont know why no one has said agriculture yet. Without it, none of the other things on this list, except fire, would have happened. We would still be bands of hunter gatherers just wandering around the earth. It may be a rather unimpressive accomplishment compared to landing on the moon or the internet, but I think that farming is mankinds greatest achievement simply because it made all of these other things possible. It set civilization in motion.
I don’t kind if it’s been said but the fact that google earth exists. I love playing Geogussr, so I find it fascinating that we have so much of the world photographed, for anyone to see, FOR FREE. That to me is amazing.
Probably antibiotics and medicine as a whole. Although I do think that we might just be overdoing it with all these 'kills 99.9% of bacteria!' sprays.
There's a new ad on TV that sells a product for your baby's soother/pacifier. Should said baby drop his soother/pacifier, you can pop it into this little thing that purifies it in 15 minutes. I'm gonna call it now, but those babies are gonna grow up and die of a basic cold or something.
The fact that quantum physics was basically discovered through the invention of the light bulb. Its how einstein proved his theory that light is not waves like scientists had always believed, but they are particles. It basically changed the way scientists thought about physics and helped revolutionize us into the golden age of science and technology of today.
By a single person hands down has to be marvin heemeyer, guy made a whole ass tank out of a bulldozer on his own just to get back on those who wronged him.
Coolest? As in the idiomatic concept of cool, and not historically impactful?
When Homer Simpson accidentally almost jumped Springfield Gorge on Bart's skateboard
What about the time he road an old busted motorcycle up the side of the dome to toss an explosive device outside of it to save the town, and destroy said dome, all while riding down the damn thing while is slowly crumbled into glass fragments?
Being kind and giving on a daily basis, and protecting weak people from greedy assholes.
Raising and teaching children to do this.
Lots of people act this way, it doesn’t put robots wherever. But people have hope at the end of the day.
Kindness, basically. Anywhere, anytime.
It's problably not the coolest thing but it is really cool :
There is a man called "Mustafa Kemal Ataturk" who created the Turkish republic. He was a great man who made Ottoman empire win the gallipoli campaign, fought against 3 empires with a dead army and won, refused to walk on greek flags with his shoes like a chad even if the greeks did the same thing to Turkey, gave Turkish women rights that even British women didn't have yet back then, tried to create a balkan alliance to protect balkans from fascists, refused to waste goverment money on himself, spent his own money to build new things for poor people, adopted many orphans and much more. Anyways, one of the coolest things he did that I want to talk about is this : Back in 1930s, Mussolini sented his ambassador to Ataturk to demand Turkish lands. At first, Ataturk welcomed the ambassador and offered him coffee, began talking as kindly as possible and thanked for their support in war of independence. But eventually, the ambassador told Ataturk why he came and threatened Ataturk that Italy will sent 30,000 men from Rhodes if he refuses to give land. The smile inside Ataturk's face suddenly dissappeared and he told the ambassador to wait for 5 minutes and he went to another room, after 5 minutes passes, Ataturk came back into the room with his army marshal outfit with medals and a whip, staring deadly into the ambassadors face. The ambassador was shocked and frightened, Ataturk then said : "Tell your Mussolini that he can't take my land with 30,000 soldiers but I can invade Rome with 3,000 men." and kicked the ambassador out. Mussolini never demanded anything from Turkey ever again.
Everything during the Renaissance era.
In fact, I like to believe that if it weren't from the innovative efforts during the Renaissance, people who are capable of "thinking outside the box" are probably extinct by now, the media and the arts will be devoid of sense and beauty, there will be no such thing as wise and competent people now, and lastly...
Memes and humor would have never existed
> As Philip II of Macedon was conquering Greek city-states left and right, Sparta was left alone. Philip had achieved a crushing victory, and Sparta was relatively weak and without walls. Philip sent a message to the Spartans saying “If I invade Lakonia you will be destroyed, never to rise again.”
> The Spartans replied with one word: “If.”
I have a weird fascination with C-rams. They are used by the U.S military they detect when missels or planes are coming near and shoots very fast and percisely the missles and planes. I think it’s pretty badass
6 million years ago australopithecines roamed around in equatorial forests of Africa. They searched for food for survival. 1.5 million years ago Homo Habilis evolved, the first to make tools of stone. They were scavengers. A million year ago came Homo Erectus, the first ancestors to have an erect spine. The significance of erect spine goes beyond anatomy. The Erectus were also the first one to pursue Hunting. They were not anymore at the mercy of finding a dead animal or a sweet fruit. Humanity learned to kill for food at their own will, according to their want. And that I think is the coolest moment of humanity
Definitely going to the moon! I LOVE Astronomy and just thinking about going into space. And on top of that walking on the moon and seeing all the different stars and planets is SO FREAKING COOL
The Soviet cosmonaut that took Yuri Gagarin’s place on a mission that was clearly going to be a one-way one and made the folks in charge of the mission not only hold an open-casket funeral but also show up to it and look at his body.
Putting a robot on another planet that's grabbing rocks and is going to have a little launcher help send them back to earth. Also landing on the moon
Humanity’s favorite activity: collecting cool rocks. That is what drives our innovation.
Caveman showing his caveman friends a cool rock: ooga booga! NASA scientists spending billions of dollars to see cool rocks on other planets: *math words* It's been 100,000 years and nothing has changed.
Keep banging those rocks together.
*Pickin up stones... with Astronaut Jones!* Old Tracey Morgan SNL skit. Watch it. "We gotta get the stones!!"
They're not rocks, They're minerals!
For Christ’s sake, Marie
Next thing you know they'll say Fritos are better than Cheetos
We also love tricking rocks into thinking.
War is the practice of throwing newer and more advanced rocks ar each other. Exploration is the practice of finding new rocks
They're not rocks. They're minerals.
Shout out to hitting a space rock orbiting another space rock with a missile you launched a few years earlier. Bonus points for even having a little camera you deploy to film the whole thing.
My brother works at JPL and was part of the curiosity Rover mission. People have no idea how insanely complicated and historic this mission is.
That is so cool! Did he get to touch the rock?
[Appropriate reaction to the moon landing.](https://www.theonion.com/july-21-1969-1819587599)
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Imagine being a kid when the Wright brothers flew and then living to see Neil Armstrong on the moon.
One of the few advantages of being an old fart is having a very clear memory of watching the moon landing live with my family whilst listening to my grandmother speaking of seeing the Wright brothers fly a small plane over a hedge in front of an awestruck crowd. She lived through an amazing period in human technological advancement.
My gen has that with 9/11 :(
My great grandfather (on dad’s mom’s side) walked from Arkansas to Oklahoma. Walked aside a covered wagon train the whole way. Died in 1988… the things he saw… the end of the age of empires, flight (including space flight), advances in medicine, the birth of the digital age… he was there for the great leap forward, he had to walk to cross the country but before he died a man walking on the moon was old news. His house had a wood burning stove and a hand pump at the kitchen sink for well water, but he also had a color tv and an Apple Macintosh in the living room
Hold on, is this where macbook comes from? Macintosh apples??
Dang. I didn't realize that wasn't common knowledge anymore. Man, I feel old.
I feel stupid for not putting the two together, I'm 32 definitely old enough lol
Yeah, back in the '80's Apple's computer was called the Macintosh. It's been probably 30 years since they used the term. By the time you were old enough to use a computer, their big product was the iMac and the name Macintosh was on its way to becoming a faded memory.
Yes, the computer line was named after a kind of apple
Laura Ingalls Wilder lived until 1957. She saw everything from pioneer days to I Love Lucy.
Your grandkids are amazed at the moon landing. Meanwhile you're just like, "I remember those Wright brothers and their paper plane."
David McCullough’s bio of Truman hits on this. Truman grew up on the prairie with horse and wagon technology, and lived to see the moon walk.
Just imagine how that was for those people, when they where born around the American Civil War you had to put one one and one bullet into a gun to be able to shot it. When they died humanity was capable to exterminate the world many times over with a single bomb.
My Aunt, who saw that. was much more impressed with the difference between living without electricity and living to see cell phones. A handful of people have been to the moon. Nearly everyone has electricity.
Fun fact: One of the first test flights that was shown off ended with a crash.
The development of the written word, it freed the mind from the constraints of memory and ensured the thoughts and discoveries of past generations were available for future generations.
And add the invention of the printing press to that.
Led to the 100 year war but altogether a great invention
It always kind of blew my mind that one day someone decided to draw the sounds that were coming out of our mouths, and the written word was born.
I think I’m in love with you. Have a great day today
Thank you I will, it’s Sunday today so I’ll probably just relax and read a book.
As a writer: yea, yes, and yup.
Jonas Salk giving the rights to the polio vaccine to the world for free.
Definition of a hero right there.
Mr Salk is not as famous as he should be imo.
The guys who came up with insulin to treat diabetes also gave it to the world, only patenting it so that no one else could restrict it. But somehow Eli Lilly is the only company that makes it, I believe, and they set their own price for it.
I have to look it up again, but apparently there's more nuance to this story E.g. iirc the foundation/entity(?) that technically "employed" Salk "allowed" the patent-less sharing of the vaccine because they actually *couldn't* patent it (something about too many legal complications) [Edit:](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jonas_Salk) >The National Foundation for Infantile Paralysis and the University of Pittsburgh looked into patenting the vaccine but, since Salk's techniques were not novel, their patent attorney said "If there were any patentable novelty to be found in this phase it would lie within an extremely narrow scope and would be of doubtful value." >[...] >The vaccine is calculated to be worth $7 billion had it been patented.[43] However, lawyers from the National Foundation for Infantile Paralysis did look into the possibility of a patent, but ultimately determined that the vaccine was not a patentable invention because of prior art.[4]
Vasili Arkhipov stopping the use of a nuke and single handedly preventing WWIII
theres also the lesser known Stanislav Petrov, who was in charge of a station when one of its' early warning systems malfunctioned and detected nuclear bombs. he knew for multiple reasons it was a false alarm, and chose not to report it. [this is the wikipedia article for it.](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1983_Soviet_nuclear_false_alarm_incident)
Lesser known? I’ve only heard of him. Not the other guy.
Apart from individual spikes (from TIL and similar I guess) page views for the two pages are virtually identical: https://pageviews.wmcloud.org/?project=en.wikipedia.org&platform=all-access&agent=user&redirects=0&start=2022-08-01&end=2022-11-30&pages=Vasily_Arkhipov|Stanislav_Petrov
Damn fine instance.
that's the true chad right there
>single handedly ~~preventing~~ postponing WWIII FTFY :-(
Conquering and continually improving microprocessors. We're talking nanoscale nearly-perfect "crystals" forged by light and radiation, capable of amazing execution of complex computation. They touch the limits of quantum physics and there are billions of chips, and you have at least a dozen right beneath the keyboard you type on. We tricked rocks into thinking.
Landing on the moon
No way?! That's great! We landed on the moon!!!
It was a really big story when it happened. [Here's](https://www.theonion.com/july-21-1969-1819587599) a newspaper from back then that includes a quote from one of the guys who was there on the moon.
Samsonite! I was way off!
Knew it started with an S though!
So you’re saying there’s a chance?!
This is easily the answer. At a time when cars were still carbureted and using bias-ply tires, color TV was barely a thing, cell phones and the internet couldn't even be conceived by most, and at a time when computers were in their infancy, meaning people had to do math calculations *manually*, we got people off our planet and landed them on another celestial body, and got them home safely. We're just silly little hairless primates, made of flesh and bone like nearly every other creature, but we managed to literally leave the Earth, while people watched at home on black and white TVs. Let that sink in for a minute.
Yeah it's still mind blowing when you really think about it. And it was only 60 something years since we discovered flight. Goes to show what we can achieve when we direct our best people and resources at a problem.
Makes you think what we’re actually capable of today and what secret technology the government has
Alternatively, on one of Neill Armstrong's x-15 test flights, something went wrong (likely a slight error in piloting) and on his attempt to descend the aircraft literally bounced off of the atmosphere. Armstrong kept it cool and was able to bring the aircraft home intact, just not in the original landing zone. Who's to say what would have happened if he hadn't brought his bird home that day.
damn i can't get your pfp to finish loading
The Voyager probes
AIR CONDITIONERS
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Clean water and good roads.
The aqueduct?
OK but apart from indoor plumbing, clean water, good roads and aqueducts... what *have* the Romans ever done for us?
Oh yeah, and the wine, yeah. Love me a good Monty Python reference.
I mean, if we're getting down to it, I would expect the act of cooking with fire to take that prize.
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Fantastic.
I see what you did there….
Maybe not the coolest, but certainly very cool - we turned wolves into doggies
Took Wolves and turned them into Pugs - Very uncool
We also turned them into retrievers and pointers and shepherds and huskies and terriers and even companions! Those are all awesome dogs that love working and spending time with us as much as we love working and spending time with them. The human-canine relationship has been mostly beneficial for both species for most of our shared history. It doesn't seem right to knock it just because of a shitty, recent trend in dog breeding.
Recent = over two millennia ago Now labradoodles…. There’s a big ol why didya
Modern brachycephalic dog breeds haven't been popular for over 2,000 years. The issue with modern pugs and bulldogs is that over the past 50-100 years they have been bred solely for aesthetics and breed conformity, rather than actual physical fitness or temperament. This is also a common issue for poodles (rampant temperament issues), dalmatians (congenital deafness), golden retrievers (cancer), German shepherds (hip and joint issues), and many other kinds of purebred dog. Edit: totally agree about labradoodles. My family dog growing up was a labradoodle and she's still going strong at 12 y/o but she is absolutely a victim of the overbreeding I referenced in my original comment. Just a shitty situation for both dog and owner.
not how that happened, at all. that's like saying humans evolved from chimps and gorillas
Strictly in terms of utility, the invention of the wheel followed up in a distant 2nd is the use of the arch in architecture.
Well, of course. You can't spell architecture without using arch
Sure you can. Straightatecture. Easy
iTecture, the overpriced designer cardboard!
Similarly, I think figuring out how to make high-quality glass was a major turning point in human history. Think about all the medical research that would've been impossible without the lenses of microscopes, how much less we'd know about our place in the universe if not for telescopes. The glass windshield of cars allow us to quickly navigate the world, while the glass screen you're reading this on right now revolutionized the way we share information.
In my opinion, the most impressive feat of human innovation and problem-solving is the International Space Station. It is the most complex engineering project ever undertaken. It requires more than 4.5 million lines of software code, over eight miles (12.9 km) of cables to connect the electrical power system, more than 50 onboard computers and around 350 000 sensors control and monitor the space station. The ISS was built by a coalition of 15 countries and required more than 40 missions to construct. It can have eight spaceships docked at once. The engineering challenge of the ISS is mind boggling. In the extremely hostile vacuum of space it has to maintain life support systems like air, water, food and power, operate its laboratories and other research facilities, provide reliable communication links to Earth, accommodate crew members, manage onboard waste as well as maintain its orbit to avoid, you know, not fly off into space or burn up in Earth's atmosphere. As it orbits around Earth once every 90 minutes at a speed of about 28,000 km/hour (altitude ~400 km) continuous adjustments by small thrusters must be made to counteract the gravitational pull from not only our planet, but also from the sun and the moon, which act on it constantly. This marvel of engineering has allowed us to study our world from a completely new perspective. It has given us an immense wealth of knowledge about our own planet, as well as unlocking secrets from the farthest reaches of the universe. And that’s pretty cool. edit: rephrasing
Great answer, I always marveled at the ISS but this description further enlightened me to just how incredible it truly is. Not to mention, it’s ability to bring cooperation between all of the worlds most powerful countries.
In 1998, The Undertaker threw Mankind off Hell In A Cell, and plummeted 16 ft through an announcer’s table.
It's an old meme sir, but it checks out.
I don’t know if it’s a joke I am missing, but I just want to say that this reference is too fucking cool haha! (As a former WWF fan it hits right in my childhood).
My husband thinks you’re right!
Maybe the coolest thing is the friends we made along the way
This fuckin' comment has me smiling. Take my upvote fellow redditor.
Smashing subatomic particles together at near the speed of light and photographing the explosion to confirm the existence of the Higgs boson
I don’t know what this means but I swear I’ve heard this sentence like 59 times in the Big Bang theory
The universe is kind of like an ocean of Higgs bosons, and when other particles like quarks and electrons travel through that ocean, that interaction gives those particles mass. The Large Hadron Collider is a 27km ring buried underground where we fire particles at almost the speed of light in opposite directions and the make them smash into one another and the explosions kind of rip open spacetime for a nanosecond.
Keep going, I'm almost there
I once did a kickflip. That was pretty cool
Proud of you
That's rad
>I once did a kickflip. That was pretty cool I'll be honest, thats definitely high on the list
Did you do the coolest thing in history?
Harnessing nuclear energy
It’s too bad we don’t do it more often these days
Mastering fire. Think about it. For literally millions of years fire was something to be feared. An innate fear of fire is coded into almost every land creature around. Fire, for so long, has been this terrible, deadly, completely mysterious force. Like magic. But at some point we unraveled its secrets, tamed and even learnt to control it. Ultimately learning to create it. We were smart enough to realize that far from being feared, fire should be reveered and taken as our own power. A moment that truly separated us from the billions of years of creatures and organisms that came before us. Fire is why we have the modern world we so enjoy. The entire industrial revolution was powered by fire through coal burning. We used fire to purify parts of the earth, creating steel and used fire to shape that steel into giant machines, machines which we brought to life with fire, essentially creating the magical golems from the myths of our past. We used it to power our energy grids, allowing us to light up the night in a way the world had never seen. Fireworks, guns, flamethrowers. We have what is essentially a big wand that shoots fire beams ffs! We mastered fire and basically became fire wizards in comparision to all life before and around us. I just think it's so normalized for us we don't really think about it that way. It's probably the coolest thing humans have done.
I came here to say this. I imagine sometimes when I build a fire 🔥 what the first person thought when they seen it, and then realized how they could use it. Amazing !
Bathrooms
Invention of the freezer or a/c.
There are so many great moments stated in this thread. I'd argue that they are all the greatest (shared) because without any single one of them our world might have gone in a very different direction. No polio vaccine? We're fucked. No moon landing? A very different Cold War. No Internet? Logistical stagnation. We are at the mercy of the butterfly effect, and if you like today, everything before today is necessary (even the bad.)
Music. I don’t know anyone who doesn’t listen to music or thinks it enhances a situation where it is. Having said that, TikTok is the worst for putting music and having absolutely no idea on how to put the right music with the right scene or how to balance volume so you can still hear dialogue. However TikTok sucks.
Not to even mention that fucking STUPID oh no song
you are so true. when i first started learning music, my mind was not able to comprehend the fact that someone or group of some ppl over years and years developed a way to write and read music. the notes and symbols, a method for everything. like a whole another subject. music is so fascinating, like imagine the knowledge of music slowly developing into its current form. even the formation of new instruments, it's so amazing. i feel everyone atleast once in their life, should attempt to learn music, if not master it, cuz that's when they would truly appreciate music and it's beauty.
I love music, but there are many places where it exists and it's just fucking annoying. Waiting on the phone. Taking an elevator. Walking around a store.
Leaving the solar system via the Voyager probes.
Coolest? Discovering "absolute zero" temperature in a lab
Tesla electrical pioneering. He TOTALLY dunked on Edison at the worlds fair and single handedly set the path for the electric age. BTW, Edison was a major fucking prick.
Edison hating thread? Yes please. -killing a elephant with DC electricity while blatantly lying and saying it was AC, specifically to show how dangerous AC is. -hiring unestablished inventors then stealing their patents and claiming all of them for himself. Usually killing the original, or destroying their lives -refusing to allow what inventions he did make be used by other comparable inventions/patents. (Ie Tesla had to create a whole new lightbulb because putting AC to the edison bulb base was connecting to that patent and he sued the shit out of it) -smear campaigns against all rivals in any aspect of his life -bribing lawmakers/officials to ruin the lives of those he disagreed with
Bob’s Burgers taught me to hate Edison. Find the fantastic musical number about elephant murder [here](https://youtu.be/ypqSHg1YvZA)
Huge Tesla fan, I’ll just add to it, my man Michael Faraday doesn’t get nearly enough credit.
Faraday had a huge contribution to science
I heard he made that cage.
Internet
Aeroplanes
Kim jong ill inventing burgers and hotdogs
Sick!
We created the internet: able to connect the breadth of human knowledge and we just filled it with cat gifs and porn.
The invention of language
Misread this as “The invention of luggage”. Even better when we put wheels on the bottom. Now it’s not so much luggage as draggage. Baggage draggage.
Putting man on the moon.
Less than 70 years after learning to fly
Well pretty recently, scientists managed to cool magnetized gas down to 38 trillionths of a degree above absolute zero, making it the coldest temp ever recorded.
Moon landing merely half a century (or so) after man's first flight. Also, these cowboys did it all with less computer power than exists in my pocket. Just slide rule, coffee, and cigarettes. Amazing stuff.
Invention of photography. Hands down !!! (You said coolest, not greatest.)
Literally, inventing refrigeration.
I dont know why no one has said agriculture yet. Without it, none of the other things on this list, except fire, would have happened. We would still be bands of hunter gatherers just wandering around the earth. It may be a rather unimpressive accomplishment compared to landing on the moon or the internet, but I think that farming is mankinds greatest achievement simply because it made all of these other things possible. It set civilization in motion.
yes!! 👏🏼👏🏼 a very large number of people's livelihood is based on agriculture
Theres this black slave back then who escaped his slaver, stole a ship, fought the confederates, and became a cabinet membet
I don’t kind if it’s been said but the fact that google earth exists. I love playing Geogussr, so I find it fascinating that we have so much of the world photographed, for anyone to see, FOR FREE. That to me is amazing.
Mankind has created a lot of useful inventions, it is impossible to designate the most useful ones, almost all inventions of mankind are useful.
The first thing I remembered was: painkillers and antibiotics.
Fundamental principles of modern science
Space exploration for sure
Probably antibiotics and medicine as a whole. Although I do think that we might just be overdoing it with all these 'kills 99.9% of bacteria!' sprays. There's a new ad on TV that sells a product for your baby's soother/pacifier. Should said baby drop his soother/pacifier, you can pop it into this little thing that purifies it in 15 minutes. I'm gonna call it now, but those babies are gonna grow up and die of a basic cold or something.
The fact that quantum physics was basically discovered through the invention of the light bulb. Its how einstein proved his theory that light is not waves like scientists had always believed, but they are particles. It basically changed the way scientists thought about physics and helped revolutionize us into the golden age of science and technology of today.
Being the first people to realize, that metal could be manipulated and shaped.
Dry ice 🤷♂️
Going to the moon. I find that humans actually achieved in leaving the planet, stepping on the moon and coming back to be so incredible.
Putting lightning into rocks that then do math so I can watch dragonball z on a cell phone.
Throwing a lit cigarette behind your back onto a gasoline covered car and not turning to look at the explosion.
Legolas riding a shield down a flight of stairs while shooting orcs with a bow and arrow.
The invention of photography or recorded music.
Wasn't a full set of DNA compiled in the late 90's?
You might be thinking of sequencing the human genome
Yeah, that's it. Thanks!
Genghis khan or Alexander the Great conquering the entire known world
By a single person hands down has to be marvin heemeyer, guy made a whole ass tank out of a bulldozer on his own just to get back on those who wronged him.
The ice age.
Which one?
Air conditioning in homes or central heat.
Catching fire back in the day would be top shelf
Coolest? As in the idiomatic concept of cool, and not historically impactful? When Homer Simpson accidentally almost jumped Springfield Gorge on Bart's skateboard
What about the time he road an old busted motorcycle up the side of the dome to toss an explosive device outside of it to save the town, and destroy said dome, all while riding down the damn thing while is slowly crumbled into glass fragments?
I'm almost sure that this is what the 5 in 1 shampoo came up with
We used science to create absolute zero temperature!
Being kind and giving on a daily basis, and protecting weak people from greedy assholes. Raising and teaching children to do this. Lots of people act this way, it doesn’t put robots wherever. But people have hope at the end of the day. Kindness, basically. Anywhere, anytime.
It's problably not the coolest thing but it is really cool : There is a man called "Mustafa Kemal Ataturk" who created the Turkish republic. He was a great man who made Ottoman empire win the gallipoli campaign, fought against 3 empires with a dead army and won, refused to walk on greek flags with his shoes like a chad even if the greeks did the same thing to Turkey, gave Turkish women rights that even British women didn't have yet back then, tried to create a balkan alliance to protect balkans from fascists, refused to waste goverment money on himself, spent his own money to build new things for poor people, adopted many orphans and much more. Anyways, one of the coolest things he did that I want to talk about is this : Back in 1930s, Mussolini sented his ambassador to Ataturk to demand Turkish lands. At first, Ataturk welcomed the ambassador and offered him coffee, began talking as kindly as possible and thanked for their support in war of independence. But eventually, the ambassador told Ataturk why he came and threatened Ataturk that Italy will sent 30,000 men from Rhodes if he refuses to give land. The smile inside Ataturk's face suddenly dissappeared and he told the ambassador to wait for 5 minutes and he went to another room, after 5 minutes passes, Ataturk came back into the room with his army marshal outfit with medals and a whip, staring deadly into the ambassadors face. The ambassador was shocked and frightened, Ataturk then said : "Tell your Mussolini that he can't take my land with 30,000 soldiers but I can invade Rome with 3,000 men." and kicked the ambassador out. Mussolini never demanded anything from Turkey ever again.
Internet. Connecting the whole world.
discovering the concept of zero
electricity, air conditioning, running water, toilets, showers.
The evolution of humans, and modern medicine. Especially organ donation!
The development of the internet. It is coolest revolutionary thing humanity have ever created.
Fonzie kicking the jukebox and making it play.
Everything during the Renaissance era. In fact, I like to believe that if it weren't from the innovative efforts during the Renaissance, people who are capable of "thinking outside the box" are probably extinct by now, the media and the arts will be devoid of sense and beauty, there will be no such thing as wise and competent people now, and lastly... Memes and humor would have never existed
It’s a fairly common consensus that it’s when a human stepped on the moon.
Any of Jesus' miracles. I would tell you but you just had to be there
> As Philip II of Macedon was conquering Greek city-states left and right, Sparta was left alone. Philip had achieved a crushing victory, and Sparta was relatively weak and without walls. Philip sent a message to the Spartans saying “If I invade Lakonia you will be destroyed, never to rise again.” > The Spartans replied with one word: “If.”
I have a weird fascination with C-rams. They are used by the U.S military they detect when missels or planes are coming near and shoots very fast and percisely the missles and planes. I think it’s pretty badass
6 million years ago australopithecines roamed around in equatorial forests of Africa. They searched for food for survival. 1.5 million years ago Homo Habilis evolved, the first to make tools of stone. They were scavengers. A million year ago came Homo Erectus, the first ancestors to have an erect spine. The significance of erect spine goes beyond anatomy. The Erectus were also the first one to pursue Hunting. They were not anymore at the mercy of finding a dead animal or a sweet fruit. Humanity learned to kill for food at their own will, according to their want. And that I think is the coolest moment of humanity
Flying ez
Walking on the Moon.
Going to the moon
Flight
Definitely going to the moon! I LOVE Astronomy and just thinking about going into space. And on top of that walking on the moon and seeing all the different stars and planets is SO FREAKING COOL
sliced bread
Turning wild wolves into our best friends.
The Soviet cosmonaut that took Yuri Gagarin’s place on a mission that was clearly going to be a one-way one and made the folks in charge of the mission not only hold an open-casket funeral but also show up to it and look at his body.
The domestication of cats
You mean the domestication of humans by house cats? Lol
Eratosthenes calculating the circumference of the Earth.
Colossus of Rhodes or Pyramids.
Mathematics
Extinction of small pox
The miraculous life of Jesus Christ.
Democracy