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

[dead0man]

It's got to be something other animals can't do.... so emotional things like love or empathy are out as I believe other mammals can have those things.  Language is good and we're likely much better at communicating with each other than other mammals, but still not something unique to humans.  My first thought was making it to the moon and back, but the more I think about it the more I think the answer should be something more "basic".

Domestication of plants and animals gets my vote.

[Sol]

It's got to be something other animals can't do.... so emotional things like love or empathy are out as I believe other mammals can have those things.  Language is good and we're likely much better at communicating with each other than other mammals, but still not something unique to humans.  My first thought was making it to the moon and back, but the more I think about it the more I think the answer should be something more "basic".

Domestication of plants and animals gets my vote.

Actually, language is pretty much a human-exclusive thing- If I recall the apes who use ASL are able to acquire vocabulary, but aren't able to use grammar in any meaningful way.

[beaver2.0]

I would say writing.  Now, you dont need to remember every story, etc., just remember the code that can tell you what all these marks say.

[Blue3]

Any new thoughts?

[Why]

Obedience to God

[/]

Obedience to God

D:

[NeverAgain]

I'd say invent such a phenominon as "Sliced Bread". Not only can you now make toast and other sliced bread wears; you don't have to have two whole loafs of bread for your sandwich!

[Why]

Obedience to God

D:

What does that mean?

[Enderman]

Obedience to God

The creation of the above post, juxtapositioned with the poster's name.

[Leinad]

It can't be anything that corrected prior wrongs, like abolition of slavery. Slavery wouldn't have been a problem if humans weren't such HPs to begin with. I mean, it's like saying my greatest achievement is sweeping up the mess after I broke someone's window (neither of those things happened, but you can tell that it's a bit silly).

Also, I think it should be something that has affected a large number of people--that kind of rules out anything modern. The moon landing was meaningless to anyone who died before 1969, and Ron Paul's runs for the presidency would be irrelevant to anyone before that as well.

I'd say writing, considering how much it's affected basically everything else. I mean, we wouldn't have the Atlas Forum if it wasn't for writing!

[All Along The Watchtower]

Language, writing, music.

[Blue3]

Any new thoughts?


I'm thinking it's... creating, sustaining, and occasionally improving, a civilization based on reason and compassion.

Obviously that's broad, and human civilization could be a lot more reasonable and compassionate in many areas, but I think civilization itself is the answer. I think a lot of the answers here all point out certain parts of civilization and why civilization is important.

[SingingAnalyst]

D-day, eradication of polio and smallpox, Apollo missions come to mind. Ditto for educating girls and women.

[Del Tachi]

The most important thing on the face of the earth is civilization.

The fact that groups of two or more people can come together and make decisions without killing each other is quite remarkable. 

[hurricanehink]

Develop beer. I watched a program (How Beer Saved the World) and it argued that beer was the impetus for agriculture and thus our earliest societies that weren't hunter-gatherers. Beer was also responsible for pasteurization, as Louis Pasteur observed that heating beer/wine stopped it from being spoiled. Plus, let's not forget the early sailing expeditions, which used beer (because it could be stored properly) more than water.