The Greatest Disasters in Human History

Each of these drove us closer to the moment of extinction we now face

And yet we stupidly celebrate these innovations as if they represent great accomplishments. We refer to them as progress. They are indeed progress - progress towards the edge of a steep cliff with no stopping or going back and a cauldron of boiling oil at the bottom.

Why do we celebrate these great ‘accomplishments?’ Of course that is because we are the stupidest species to ever walk the Earth. Referring to humans as barnyard and circus animals is an insult to barnyard and circus animals. My apologies to the chickens and elephants of the world.

Humans believe we are special - superior to all other species - when in fact we are far inferior to all other species on this planet. We are so stupid that we need to redefine the term intelligent - which I have done:

intelligent

adjective

having or showing a great lack of intelligence or common sense.

If you disagree then feel free to explain how each of the innovations listed below has not lead us to the precipice of extinction. Please apply your stupendous intelligence to that task. I dare you.

I’ve run this by a number of highly educated circus animals including a brilliant mathematician and every single one of them was stumped. I suspect they may have thought I was an idiot for even asking such a stupid question. Either way, I did not get an answer from any of them. And I won’t get an answer from anyone who reads this.

This is all culminating in The Greatest Invention in the History of Mankind - the Covid Vaccine. We are saving ourselves - from ourselves.

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FIRE It can be argued that fire was discovered rather than invented. Certainly, early humans observed incidents of fire, but it wasn’t until they figured out how to control it and produce it themselves that humans could really make use of everything this new tool had to offer. The earliest use of fire goes back as far as two million years ago, while a widespread way to utilize this technology has been dated to about 125,000 years ago. Fire gave us warmth, protection, and led to a host of other key inventions and skills like cooking. The ability to cook helped us get the nutrients to support our expanding brains, giving us an indisputable advantage over other primates.

WHEEL The wheel was invented by Mesopotamians around 3500 B.C., to be used in the creation of pottery. About 300 years after that, the wheel was put on a chariot and the rest is history. Wheels are ubiquitous in our everyday life, facilitating our transportation and commerce.

NAIL The earliest known use of this very simple but super-useful metal fastener dates back to Ancient Egypt, about 3400 B.C. If you are more partial to screws, they’ve been around since Ancient Greeks (1st or 2nd century B.C.).

OPTICAL LENSES From glasses to microscopes and telescopes, optical lenses have greatly expanded the possibilities of our vision. They have a long history, first developed by ancient Egyptians and Mesopotamians, with key theories of light and vision contributed by Ancient Greeks. Optical lenses were also instrumental components in the creation of media technologies involved in photography, film and television.

COMPASS This navigational device has been a major force in human exploration. The earliest compasses were made of lodestone in China between 300 and 200 B.C.

PAPER Invented about 100 BC in China, paper has been indispensible in allowing us to write down and share our ideas.

MATHEMATICS Mathematics didn't emerge from a single invention, but rather developed gradually from practical needs and discoveries across various ancient civilizations. The earliest evidence suggests that counting and basic arithmetic were used around 18,000 BC by humans, possibly with the Ishango bone. More formalized mathematical systems emerged in Mesopotamia (Sumerians and Babylonians) around 3000 BC, with the Sumerians developing a metrology system and writing multiplication tables, while the Babylonians used arithmetic, algebra, and geometry for various tasks. Ancient Egypt, Greece, and China also made significant contributions to the development of mathematics.

PRIVATE PROPERY AND CAPITALISM The concept of private property emerged gradually alongside societal development, starting with early forms of individual appropriation and evolving into more complex legal frameworks. While evidence of property boundaries can be traced back to the Babylonians in 1800 BC, written discussions and formalized legal definitions of private property emerged later, particularly in the Persian Empire and then in the Western tradition with Plato and Aristotle. The development of property rights is intertwined with the rise of civilization, urbanization, and economic systems like capitalism.

BANKING The concept of banking originated in ancient times with proto-banks like merchants lending grain or storing valuables. Later, temples and later private depositories in ancient Greece and Rome provided lending and currency exchange services. Modern banking evolved in the Renaissance in Italy, particularly in cities like Florence and Venice, with powerful merchant families like the Medici establishing banks.

DEBT The concept of debt emerged long before the widespread use of money or coinage, with evidence of debt systems found in the Sumerian civilization around 3500 BCE. Anthropologist David Graeber's work, "Debt: The First 5000 Years," argues that debt and credit were used as early forms of exchange and account-keeping before the advent of coinage.

THE STOCK MARKET The first stock exchange in the world was created in Amsterdam when the Dutch East India Company was the first publicly traded company. To raise capital, the company decided to sell stock and pay dividends of the shares to investors. Then in 1611, the Amsterdam stock exchange was created.

THE PRINTING PRESS Invented by Johannes Gutenberg in 1450, the printing press enabled the mass production of books and instigated a new age of enlightenment, as the ability to reproduce knowledge whilst reducing the cost of producing text, provided the basis for substantial improvements in education and literacy rates. Without it, many of the other innovations on this list would have never existed, as those inventors probably wouldn’t have been able to access the knowledge that enabled them to devise their concepts and develop their ideas.

GUNPOWDER This chemical explosive, invented in China in the 9th century, has been a major factor in military technology (and, by extension, in wars that changed the course of human history).

STEAM ENGINE Invented between 1763 and 1775 by Scottish inventor James Watt (who built upon the ideas of previous steam engine attempts like the 1712 Newcomen engine), the steam engine powered trains, ships, factories and the Industrial Revolution as a whole.

RULE OF LAW The rule of law, the principle that everyone, including those in government, is subject to and accountable under the law, has a history rooted in ancient legal traditions and evolved over centuries. While specific codified "rule of law" documents emerged later, the core idea of applying the law to all equally can be traced to ancient legal systems and philosophical debates.

ELECTRICITY It was famously the catalyst in the film Back To The Future, but without it, we would be back to the dark ages, quite literally. From lighting to life support, this commodity is an essential requirement for the vast majority of modern human activity, including for utilizing previous innovations on this list.

Admittedly one could argue that given the concept of “electricity” was first documented in 600 BCE by Thales, that it doesn’t qualify for the timescale here. However, I would argue Stephen Gray discovering conductivity in 1729 or Ewald Georg von Kleist and Pieter van Musschenbroeks invention of the Leyden Jar that was able to store the energy in 1745 really mark the first tangible developments towards real world utilization. (No doubt some readers are wondering about Benjamin Franklin, but he effectively only proved that lightning was electrically charged.)

THE INTERNAL COMBUSTION ENGINE This innovation was effectively created over a series of incremental improvements by many innovators following its first documented creation by François Isaac de Rivaz in 1807, which may have been based on the theoretical 1680 design of Christiaan Huygens. Since it was refined, most famously by Karl Benz, it has spawned many world changing developments like the the automobile, as well as innovations stemming from this initial concept, like the jet engine.

TELEPHONE Although he was not the only one working on this kind of tech, Scottish-born inventor Alexander Graham Bell got the first patent for an electric telephone in 1876. Certainly, this instrument has revolutionized our ability to communicate.

FRACTIONAL DISTILLATION OF CRUDE OIL Whilst fractional distillation in various guises has likely been utilized throughout history, no implementation of this process compares with the impact of applying it to crude oil, as many of the inventions on this list would be infinitely harder to manufacture or impossible to operate without it. The fractional distillation of crude oil provides the raw materials that allow the modern world to function, as it literally fuels it, alongside providing the building blocks for a multitude of products, including plastics, solvents, and lubricants. Generally, its thought that this innovation originated in the 1820s, however there is evidence that the first “modern” refinery was established in Baku, Azerbaijan around 1000 CE, although obviously unsophisticated compared with those that emerged many centuries later.

AUTOMOBILES Cars completely changed the way we travel, as well as the design of our cities, and thrust the concept of the assembly line into the mainstream. They were invented in their modern form in the late 19th century by a number of individuals, with special credit going to the German Karl Benz for creating what’s considered the first practical motorcar in 1885.

ANTIBIOTICS This monumental shift in medicine was arguably only discovered because Dr. Alexander Fleming decided to go on holiday in 1928. Upon his return he noticed that the mold on his petri dish appeared to prevent bacteria growth; this mold was effectively what we now call penicillin. It enabled previously serious or fatal conditions to be easily treated and is credited with saving over 200 million lives since its discovery, as well as contributing to almost doubling human life expectancy.

THE HABER BOSCH PROCESS This is the industrial method for producing ammonia (NH3) by reacting nitrogen (N2) from the air with hydrogen (H2) under high pressure and temperature, using an iron-based catalyst. This process is a crucial step in fertilizer production, which has significantly increased global food supply. The Haber-Bosch process, developed by Fritz Haber and Carl Bosch, is a key industrial chemical process that has had a profound impact on global food production.

AIRPLANE Invented in 1903 by the American Wright brothers, planes brought the world closer together, allowing us to travel quickly over great distances. This technology has broadened minds through enormous cultural exchanges—but it also escalated the reach of the world wars that would soon break out, and the severity of every war thereafter.

PENICILLIN Discovered by the Scottish scientist Alexander Fleming in 1928, this drug transformed medicine by its ability to cure infectious bacterial diseases. It began the era of antibiotics.

ROCKETS While the invention of early rockets is credited to the Ancient Chinese, the modern rocket is a 20th century contribution to humanity, responsible for transforming military capabilities and allowing human space exploration.

COMPUTERS Bill Gates and his Windows software opened up home computers to the world, as the usability of his software provided an intuitive interface that proved a catalyst for the adoption of PCs and the worlds digital transformation. When Charles Babbage debuted his “mechanical calculating machine” in 1833 (that he continued to refine until his death in 1871), it’s unlikely he realized how important his concept would become over the next 177 years. Interestingly, Babbage also invented the printer (that was likely more reliable than the average modern one!), as his “mechanical calculator” printed its answers on paper. Presumably because he hadn’t got round to inventing the monitor yet!

NUCLEAR ENERGY Enrico Fermi developed the first nuclear reactor and on December 2, 1942 created the world’s first controlled, nuclear chain reaction, with the results proving the potential of harnessing the immense power of radioactive materials that led to a host of different uses for them, primarily for military and energy purposes.

GENETIC MODIFICATION Biochemists Herbert Boyer and Stanley Cohen introduced this game changing healthcare technology to the world in 1972, when they successfully altered DNA. It’s arguable that genetic modification pre-dates this. Following the invention of #10 and increased interest in the effects of radioactive materials, Atomic Gardens were popular in the 1950s and we can thank the irradiated crop for the sweetcorn and ruby red grapefruits that we enjoy today.

MICROWAVES From cooking to communication, GPS, and MRI, the modern world simply wouldn’t be possible without the discovery of microwaves and understanding how to utilize them. The volume of inventions that were, knowingly or unknowingly, reliant on microwaves makes it difficult to define an inventor or when discovered.

SEMICONDUCTORS – they are at the foundation of electronic devices and the modern Digital Age. Mostly made of silicon, semiconductor devices are behind the nickname of “Silicon Valley”, home to today’s major U.S. computing companies. The first device containing semiconductor material was demonstrated in 1947 by America’s John Bardeen, Walter Brattain and William Shockley of Bell Labs.

THE INTERNET While the worldwide network of computers (which you used to find this article) has been in development since the 1960s, when it took the shape of U.S. Defense Department’s ARPANET, the Internet as we know it today is an even more modern invention. 1990s creation of the World Wide Web by England’s Tim Berners-Lee is responsible for transforming our communication, commerce, entertainment, politics, you name it.