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Post by tipiwalter on Feb 23, 2020 9:35:51 GMT -8
To me there's a big dividing line for human culture---the Age of Plastics and the time before plastics. We are living in the golden age of Plastics---as the oceans are clogged with plastics and our human bodies and bloodstreams contain these plastics.
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ErnieW
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Post by ErnieW on Feb 23, 2020 9:58:35 GMT -8
To me there's a big dividing line for human culture---the Age of Plastics and the time before plastics. We are living in the golden age of Plastics---as the oceans are clogged with plastics and our human bodies and bloodstreams contain these plastics. Lots of industrial products also meet that description. Things like mercury, pesticides and pharmaceuticals. Plastics is just one of many to me.
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reuben
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Post by reuben on Feb 23, 2020 12:43:05 GMT -8
Some would vote for fermentation.
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desert dweller
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Post by desert dweller on Feb 23, 2020 13:25:20 GMT -8
Some would vote for fermentation. Already suggested. Well, I would say that date-known inventions would be the critical marker for the transistor being the greatest. However, in the category of unknown important inventions, then the fermentation process would be uber alles. The pursuit of a good beer buzz would motive the invention of the wheel to get the beer from one place to another. And, the invention of sliced bread would be a natural mate to consume with the freshly delivered beer.
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Post by johntpenca on Feb 23, 2020 14:15:32 GMT -8
Fermentation has been around for thousands of years.
First power generation and transmission began around the 1880s.
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reuben
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Post by reuben on Feb 23, 2020 14:21:10 GMT -8
Fermentation has been around for thousands of years. First power generation and transmission began around the 1880s. Therefore fermentation is more important. Using the faulty logic so popular these days, power generation would never have happened without it.
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gabby
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Post by gabby on Feb 23, 2020 15:53:04 GMT -8
Therefore fermentation is more important. Using the faulty logic so popular these days, power generation would never have happened without it. And, going back even further - given that no invention occurred in a vacuum (though it could be said that the transistor replaced a vacuum of sorts), the greatest invention of all time was the "tribe": the social arrangement that succeeded the family unit, requiring a much more intensive use of structured social interaction in order to maintain the "social unit". And here we are today, living in a fractured (and refractured) version of the original, still engaging in an extended debate about what is most important: "individual freedom" or "social cooperation".
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reuben
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Post by reuben on Feb 23, 2020 16:10:02 GMT -8
Without fermentation, I could never have held the beer of a visionary eccentric iconoclast who was doomed to die by his own invention yet propel mankind to unimaginable heights.
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BigLoad
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Post by BigLoad on Feb 23, 2020 16:14:46 GMT -8
I was thinking yesterday that the cup and its relatives were critical inventions.
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reuben
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Post by reuben on Feb 23, 2020 16:16:06 GMT -8
Truth. Where would we put our coffee? I guess we could just chew the beans.
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gabby
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Post by gabby on Feb 23, 2020 16:24:11 GMT -8
I guess we could just chew the beans. Didn't ancient Peruvians do just that? I mean, "coca leaves" are probably a close equivalent to at least some versions of coffee.
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reuben
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Post by reuben on Feb 23, 2020 16:32:42 GMT -8
Some cultures still do.
I'm surprised that you asked a question rather than posting a 17 page rambling discourse touching on Paul Erdos, avocados, the history of country and western music, and the Horsehead Nebula.
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BigLoad
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Post by BigLoad on Feb 23, 2020 16:43:08 GMT -8
If it weren't for cups, we'd be like animals, having to approach water sources in groups for our own protection. We wouldn't be able to live very far from those sources.
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Post by johntpenca on Feb 23, 2020 16:56:50 GMT -8
Without cups contact sports would be more "interesting".
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gabby
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Post by gabby on Feb 23, 2020 17:06:17 GMT -8
I'm surprised that you asked a question rather than posting a 17 page rambling discourse touching on Paul Erdos, avocados, the history of country and western music, and the Horsehead Nebula. Your commentary seems a wee bit "hostile". :^D
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