scrape_r_rational/data/cache/2xeqoj.md

What are the most significant milestones/feats of human progress so far? (in particular social/cultural/ethical/technological/scientific/etc advancements)

Post:

I need this info for a song I'm writing. I looked on the internet but couldn't find it. It seems to be buried under a ton of other useless trivia. Please just list them and don't point me to a link to a timeline if that timeline uses flash or anything that would slow my computer down. For some reason my computer is lagging right now and I don't know why.

So far the milestones/feats I've thought of:

• Irrigation
• written language
• mathematics
• the invention of currency
• the scientific method
• sanitation
• antibiotics and vaccinations
• global exploration, improvements in map-making
• the discoveries of biological evolution by natural selection, the periodic properties of the elements, and the fundamental forces/interactions (gravity, electromagnetism, weak nuclear force, strong nuclear force), the beginnings of astronomy/cosmology, meteorology/climatology, quantum mechanics, the cognitive sciences, and the social sciences
• the beginnings of legal acknowledgment of human rights and the implementation of legal protections for human rights (i.e., bills of rights)
• abolition of slavery
• civil rights movements
• Geneva Conventions
• aviation, global transportation
• environmentalism
• moon landing, launching of satellites and probes
• computers
• internet/global communications

anything else I'm missing that should be added to the list?

also, the most significant accomplishments/feats of human progress still left to make (that I know of):

• cure for aging
• end of global poverty, hunger and sickness
• end of war
• end of organized religion
• improvements to education and rationality/critical thinking
• end of institutional discrimination
• friendly AI

Thanks!

Comments:

• u/therearetoomanydaves:

  I'm thinking that the list should be things that radically change human society, as opposed to incremental improvements).  Probably most things that can be described as "The end of the monopoly of x" qualify. Here are some ideas:
  
  * Cooking, food preservation
  * Agriculture
  * Cooperation and trading (no longer need to make everything you need yourself)
  * Writing (no longer need to depend on personal memory)
  * Money (replacing barter)
  * The printing press (wide dissemination of written material)
  * Efficient information storage, searching, and retrieval (this seems very much like computers, but I think the library card catalog counts)
  * Industry (replace muscle power with machine power)
  * The scientific method
  * Recursion, or iterative improvement
  * Individuals having the right to their own life (constitutionally limited democracy)
  * Blogs / Facebook / etc (the end of the monopoly of publishers and broadcasters)
  
  Future:
  
  * Practical near-immortality
  * Virtually all needs/wants provided by automated production
  * Self-optimizing AI that doesn't kill or enslave everyone
  * A solution to the problem of "I need really high energy density to do useful stuff, but it's also useful for making bombs"
  

• u/xamueljones:

  I'm surprised that no one has said space flight. Even if we haven't actually sent more than a handful of people to space, just achieving it was a huge marker in our technological development. Plus all of these satellites up there were pretty revolutionary for our communications.
  

  • u/eaglejarl:

    OP used it in the initial list:
    
    > moon landing, launching of satellites and probes
    
    But, yeah, that was my first thought too.
    

• u/i_dont_know:

  The eradication of smallpox.
  

• u/Farmerbob1:

  Well, depends on how far you want to go back.  To me, before irrigation there would be:
  
  simple tools
  
  control of fire
  
  preserved food
  
  the concept of history
  
  *EDIT* Oh, and let's not forget animal domestication.
  

• u/eaglejarl:

  * Religion.  Whether you love it or hate it, it made an enormous impact on history.
  * Refrigeration
  * Industrial farming
  * Gunpowder
  * The wheel
  * Domestication of animals
  

• u/Cariyaga:

  How about we just look at the Civilization tech tree and go with that?
  

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