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  1. In Memory of LAJ_FETT: Please share your remembrances and condolences HERE

Senate What is the "best thing" that humans have ever done?

Discussion in 'Community' started by Ghost, Aug 14, 2011.

  1. Darth Somnambulous

    Darth Somnambulous Jedi Padawan star 1

    Registered:
    Sep 2, 2012
    Then I would agree that is much more specific and more of an accomplishment than science in general, though I still think language is a more important accomplishment due to all that it encompasses. If it were disqualified from consideration for that reason, I would then argue that literacy is our greatest achievement. Fewer than 20 countries worldwide have lower than 50% literacy and over 80% of all people in the world are literate.
     
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  2. RX_Sith

    RX_Sith Jedi Grand Master star 6

    Registered:
    Mar 13, 2006
    The "best thing" is still in the future, but probably not that far away. The ability to extend our lives and slow the aging process and stay young as long as possible will be the ultimate "best thing", but then overpopulation would cause this ability to slow the aging process to be something that only the rich would be able to afford.
     
  3. Lord Vivec

    Lord Vivec Chosen One star 9

    Registered:
    Apr 17, 2006
    Stupid double post.
     
  4. Lord Vivec

    Lord Vivec Chosen One star 9

    Registered:
    Apr 17, 2006
    Ghost specifically mentioned no speculation of the future in the OP.
     
  5. ZanderSolo

    ZanderSolo Jedi Grand Master star 4

    Registered:
    May 18, 2007
    Penicillin (and its leading to Antibiotics)
    or
    Structure of DNA (the few years before and the few years following that encompassed the entire finding, structure, and debate)


    A lot of modern medicine are direct results of these two discoveries and it's very easy to see how it's moving in even more of a microbiological/DNA route. Penicillin/AB's have allowed us to treat what would have been much higher death counts as diseases would have acted as population control from outbreaks. I'd probably go as far as saying both are direct contributors to longer life spans of today as well. Healthier individuals live longer.
     
  6. Lowbacca_1977

    Lowbacca_1977 Chosen One star 7

    Registered:
    Jun 28, 2006
    I will note here, spamming in this thread (and one line joke answers would fit that bill) will face penalties
     
  7. Blue_Jedi33

    Blue_Jedi33 Jedi Grand Master star 5

    Registered:
    Aug 12, 2003
    Built a very large boat and survived a very large flood thus allowing many species to survive, including us.
     
  8. Darth-Seldon

    Darth-Seldon Jedi Grand Master star 6

    Registered:
    May 17, 2003
    This is what I was going to say...can't believe it took 44 posts to get there. Two men walking across the lunar surface is by far are most enduring and monumental achievement.
     
  9. jp-30

    jp-30 Manager Emeritus star 10 VIP - Former Mod/RSA

    Registered:
    Dec 14, 2000
    Whatever it is, it happened before humans sliced bread, I guess.
     
  10. MistrX

    MistrX Jedi Master star 4

    Registered:
    Jun 20, 2006
    Walk on another world.
     
  11. DarthLowBudget

    DarthLowBudget Jedi Grand Master star 5

    Registered:
    Jan 17, 2004
    I think its entirely possible that the best thing that humans have ever done was not killing everyone. Think about it. For almost fifty years there was a silent war between two very powerful bullying nations with the combined capacity to destroy the world eleventy jillion times over. The fact that any of us are still alive at all is a miracle.
     
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  12. LostOnHoth

    LostOnHoth Chosen One star 5

    Registered:
    Feb 15, 2000
    The 'Enlightenment' aka the 'Age of Reason'. Nearly all of the 'best things' mentioned in this thread were possible because at some point in history human beings threw away their commitment to the idea that their lives could be determined by some 'divine' force represented on earth by kings and priests.
     
  13. Jabba-wocky

    Jabba-wocky Chosen One star 10

    Registered:
    May 4, 2003
    How is that true? Huge intellectual strides that rival and/or surpass the discoveries of that era were made prior to that point, without said philosophical underpinning.
     
  14. LostOnHoth

    LostOnHoth Chosen One star 5

    Registered:
    Feb 15, 2000
    So it wasn't really an enlightenment at all, more of a dim glow? More detailed reponse to follow.
     
  15. honeybadger

    honeybadger Jedi Knight star 1

    Registered:
    Nov 4, 2012
    Discovering how to light a fire. Since that day, mankind has been able to ignite his farts.
     
  16. rumsmuggler

    rumsmuggler Chosen One star 7

    Registered:
    Aug 31, 2000
    Mastering the fermentation process to create beer, wine, and spirits.
     
  17. Rogue_Ten

    Rogue_Ten Chosen One star 7

    Registered:
    Aug 18, 2002
    the struggle for humanism and the advancement of all peoples. the fight to overcome our differences and erase our borders. the grand project to unite humanity for the good of all its children. that's what it all comes down to. this is the only project there is or ever was for a sentient, social species with a capacity to Love
     
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  18. jp-30

    jp-30 Manager Emeritus star 10 VIP - Former Mod/RSA

    Registered:
    Dec 14, 2000
    Hippie.
     
  19. Juliet316

    Juliet316 Chosen One star 10

    Registered:
    Apr 27, 2005
    Archeologist

    (I'm sorry, I'm so sorry, had to do it)
     
  20. Ghost

    Ghost Chosen One star 8

    Registered:
    Oct 13, 2003
    I guess I should finally summarize everyone's suggestions in this thread soon, and then move completely into a debate between them. Would anybody like to offer any more suggestions first?
     
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  21. SuperWatto

    SuperWatto Chosen One star 7

    Registered:
    Sep 19, 2000
    I think I finally figured out what the best thing is that humans have done.
    They invented the toilet.

    Think about it. You just sit down, do your thing, press a button and whoosh! You don't have to think about it anymore.
    While this is the stuff that killed swaths of people through cholera just a couple of lifetimes ago, because they dumped it in the rivers in which they also washed their vegetables. A mere 150 years ago, central London experienced the Great Stink.

    [​IMG]

    So that's my vote: the toilet and our wonderful sewage system!
     
  22. Bib Fartuna

    Bib Fartuna Jedi Knight star 4

    Registered:
    Nov 4, 2012
    Not sure what you define as "best thing" ... however achievement wise ... IMHO, occurred July 20, 1969.
     
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  23. Lego Thrawn

    Lego Thrawn Jedi Knight star 1

    Registered:
    Aug 30, 2013
    IMO, New York City.

    And fake boobs.
     
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  24. Placeholder

    Placeholder Jedi Master star 4

    Registered:
    Jan 30, 2013
    Farming and the written word. I'm not sure you can count spoken language as an accomplishment, because I think that may have been more of a natural evolution. I think language is an innate human quality as opposed to an invention. The words may be invented, but I think spoken language was an inevitability for our species.
     
  25. sons_of_anakin_tatooine

    sons_of_anakin_tatooine Jedi Knight star 3

    Registered:
    Sep 28, 2005
    wow did nobody mention landing on the moon? thats one of the best things are species has done
     
  26. Volderon

    Volderon Jedi Grand Master star 4

    Registered:
    Jul 23, 2007
    Yes. About 3 posts up from yours.