• This forum is for posting news stories or links from rumor sites. When you start a thread, please include a link to the site you're referencing.

    THIS IS NOT A FORUM TO ASK "WHAT IF?" TYPE QUESTIONS.

    THIS IS NOT A FORUM FOR ASKING QUESTIONS ABOUT HOW TO USE YOUR MAC OR SOFTWARE.

    This is a NEWS and RUMORS forum as the name implies. If your thread is neither of those things, then please find the appropriate forum to ask your question.

    If you don't have a link to a news story, do not post the thread here.

    If you don't follow these rules, then your post may be deleted.

Britons vote Apple iPhone as history’s 8th most important invention

Joined
Jan 27, 2007
Messages
5,658
Reaction score
159
Points
63
Location
*Brisvegas*
Your Mac's Specs
17 inch 2 GHz C2D imac (5,1) with 3GB DDR2 RAM, X1600 (128MB memory) GPU - OSX 10.6.3
Britons vote Apple iPhone as history’s 8th most important invention
Britons vote for the iPhone as most important invention ahead of flushing loo and space travel - Telegraph

And if you include the PC at number number 5 (basically the Apple 1) Apple had a hand in making 2 out of the top 10 inventions there. That's pretty amazing if you ask me. Ad in the ipod at 56 and woot for Apple.

iphone = 8 but mobile phone = 21 :).


************

Totally unrelated some Australian inventions are listed there too.
7. Penicillin
47. Wi-Fi
 
Joined
May 1, 2008
Messages
269
Reaction score
5
Points
18
Location
Montreal
Dear god, I don't have the words to express just how ridiculous I think this is
 

vansmith

Senior Member
Joined
Oct 19, 2008
Messages
19,924
Reaction score
559
Points
113
Location
Queensland
Your Mac's Specs
Mini (2014, 2018, 2020), MBA (2020), iPad Pro (2018), iPhone 13 Pro Max, Watch (S6)
8th? Seriously? How could the iPhone be more important than the combustion engine (10), steam engine (16), the car (19), the train (24), the compass (31) and paper (38)?
 

bobtomay

,
Retired Staff
Joined
Dec 22, 2006
Messages
26,561
Reaction score
677
Points
113
Location
Texas, where else?
Your Mac's Specs
15" MBP '06 2.33 C2D 4GB 10.7; 13" MBA '14 1.8 i7 8GB 10.11; 21" iMac '13 2.9 i5 8GB 10.11; 6S
Wouldn't even call the iPhone an invention.

To me, that'd be like calling a Ford the invention instead of the car.
 
Joined
Mar 20, 2008
Messages
115
Reaction score
3
Points
18
Your Mac's Specs
2010 MBP | 15" 2.4 GHz i5, 4GB
Agreed with the past 3 posts.

"1. Wheel 2. Aeroplane 3. Light bulb 4. Internet 5. PCs 6. Telephone 7. Penicillin 8. iPhone 9. Flushing toilet 10. Combustion engine"

One of these things is not like the other...
 
OP
the8thark
Joined
Jan 27, 2007
Messages
5,658
Reaction score
159
Points
63
Location
*Brisvegas*
Your Mac's Specs
17 inch 2 GHz C2D imac (5,1) with 3GB DDR2 RAM, X1600 (128MB memory) GPU - OSX 10.6.3
Personally I think the iphone OS is a great invention, as is the total integration of hardware/OS/software that Apple has with the iphone. Sure it took ideas from other things (like most inventions do) but in my mind it deserves to be in the top 10.

One of these things is not like the other...
All 10 are unique compare to each other so any one of them can be not like the other. it all depends on how you word it.

Mind you my top 10 would be like this:

1. The art of making fire
2. Wheel
3. The concept of air conditioning
4. Penicillin
5. Internet
5. iphone
6. Apple 1
7. Steel cable
8. Money
9. Flushing toilet
10. Snap (or near-instantly) freezing. (Without which the whole frozen food industry and all the frozen food products you buy at the supermarket would not exist).
 
Joined
Feb 21, 2007
Messages
230
Reaction score
2
Points
18
Location
Glasgow, Scotland
Your Mac's Specs
Aluminium Macbook 13.3"
If you read the article they only surveyed 4000 consumers, and it was a supermarkets mobile phone division that done this "national" survey.
4000 out of the population of the UK is a VERY small sample size.
 

bobtomay

,
Retired Staff
Joined
Dec 22, 2006
Messages
26,561
Reaction score
677
Points
113
Location
Texas, where else?
Your Mac's Specs
15" MBP '06 2.33 C2D 4GB 10.7; 13" MBA '14 1.8 i7 8GB 10.11; 21" iMac '13 2.9 i5 8GB 10.11; 6S
Try looking in the very first post.
 

vansmith

Senior Member
Joined
Oct 19, 2008
Messages
19,924
Reaction score
559
Points
113
Location
Queensland
Your Mac's Specs
Mini (2014, 2018, 2020), MBA (2020), iPad Pro (2018), iPhone 13 Pro Max, Watch (S6)
Personally I think the iphone OS is a great invention, as is the total integration of hardware/OS/software that Apple has with the iphone. Sure it took ideas from other things (like most inventions do) but in my mind it deserves to be in the top 10.
The iPhone OS is an adaptation of OS X which owes much of its existence to Mach and BSD so if anything, the Mach kernel and BSD deserve the credit. ;)

I find it hard to justify the iPhone as deserving of this list at all. Going back to my first post, the train has proven itself much more important to human history and social/economic development than the iPhone ever will. Seeing as how the train was the basis of economic and social growth in some countries illustrates my point. The iPhone will never be able to do this. Now, this argument is contingent on a definition of invention based on development and progress for the greater good. The train and penicillin are but the iPhone sure isn't. The world would not be what it is today without the train but it wouldn't be very different if the iPhone hadn't existed. Ultimately then, inventions on this list should be ones that changed the face of human history.
 
Joined
Aug 5, 2009
Messages
24
Reaction score
0
Points
1
Location
Berkshire
Your Mac's Specs
imac 21in 2.5 GHz Core i5-ipad Air-iphone 32gb
iphone in the top 10.

All statistics and surveys are open to interpretation,i wouldn't think this one is anymore reliable than others.I live in England and haven't heard anything about this survey.
 
Joined
Mar 20, 2008
Messages
115
Reaction score
3
Points
18
Your Mac's Specs
2010 MBP | 15" 2.4 GHz i5, 4GB
All 10 are unique compare to each other so any one of them can be not like the other. it all depends on how you word it.

"One of these things is not like the other" is a line from a children's song, which is why I said it. Reworded, I would have said:

One of these things doesn't belong in the top 10.

If that makes things more clear.
 
Joined
Mar 15, 2010
Messages
118
Reaction score
1
Points
18
Location
Metro Detroit
did i miss Diet Coke? Beer? i'd put those higher on the list. lol.
 
Joined
Oct 22, 2007
Messages
8,967
Reaction score
287
Points
83
Location
London
Your Mac's Specs
Mac Mini Core i7 2012 | White 2009 MacBook 2 Ghz | 733 Mhz G4 Quicksilver
While I don't think the iPhone is that significant, its has certainly redefined the smartphone idea.

That said if you are going to list the most significant human inventions here's my top ten list (in order of history)

1. Control of fire

2. Language

3. Society

4. Metallurgy (bronze, Iron steel etc.)

5. Writing (I will include paper in this one)

6. Coinage (including paper money - our whole system is based on it - even in communist countries)

7. Science (without this all our current technology and progress would never have happened - without the scientific method ideas would never be improved upon)

8. Gunpowder (including firearms - this made the west so powerful that all other civilizations were literally blown away)

9. Computers ( who knows where this invention is going to go. AI, and much more - maybe they will replace us some day - or just be our co-species for the first time since the ice age. Either way, computers are everywhere - at the moment they are as dumb as buckets, but they are the biggest invention we have created so far)

10. The internet. An obvious choice I am sure but take a moment to think. Some young people on here will barely remember a time before the Internet, and now it is a fundamental part of our lives. As well as the freedom to criticize oppressive regimes there is a darker underbelly of the Internet - a price of freedom but worth taking out of any central government control. ( child abuse should still be dealt with by all means by the way). The Internet has opened the world up, and closed regimes are scared.

The Internet will change everything. Its are biggest invention ever. Its open, uncontrolled and democratic. Despots beware, it maybe full of crap, but its also full of information you don't want your people to hear.
 
Joined
Feb 24, 2010
Messages
318
Reaction score
8
Points
18
Location
Australia
Your Mac's Specs
15" MBP i5 4GB DDR3, 500GB HDD 7200 + iPhone 4 32GB iOS4.1
Personally I think the iphone OS is a great invention, as is the total integration of hardware/OS/software that Apple has with the iphone. Sure it took ideas from other things (like most inventions do) but in my mind it deserves to be in the top 10.


All 10 are unique compare to each other so any one of them can be not like the other. it all depends on how you word it.

Mind you my top 10 would be like this:

1. The art of making fire
2. Wheel
3. The concept of air conditioning
4. Penicillin
5. Internet
5. iphone
6. Apple 1
7. Steel cable
8. Money
9. Flushing toilet
10. Snap (or near-instantly) freezing. (Without which the whole frozen food industry and all the frozen food products you buy at the supermarket would not exist).

iPhone above Money and Flushing toilet haha. I'd rather a flushable toilet and have some cash rather than an iPhone. ;)

-Ben
 
Joined
May 28, 2010
Messages
3
Reaction score
0
Points
1
All statistics and surveys are open to interpretation,i wouldn't think this one is anymore reliable than others.I live in England and haven't heard anything about this survey.

I think that Mark Twain (not sure) said that the good thing about statistics is that you can torture the numbers until they tell you what you want to hear... or something along this lines...
 
Joined
Jan 12, 2005
Messages
670
Reaction score
23
Points
18
Location
Ceres, Ca
Your Mac's Specs
iPad 32 GB 3G
Dear god, I don't have the words to express just how ridiculous I think this is

Seriously. Some things that really should be on the list probably aren't. I remember a while back I was reading about important inventions that have hugely effected human civilization that people really have no idea how much of an impact they had had. One of them was cheap cotton underwear-- with an historical epidemiologist saying that the widespread distribution and use of cotton undies in the last 100 or so years has saved more human lives than just about any other invention known to man.
 
OP
the8thark
Joined
Jan 27, 2007
Messages
5,658
Reaction score
159
Points
63
Location
*Brisvegas*
Your Mac's Specs
17 inch 2 GHz C2D imac (5,1) with 3GB DDR2 RAM, X1600 (128MB memory) GPU - OSX 10.6.3
Seriously. Some things that really should be on the list probably aren't. I remember a while back I was reading about important inventions that have hugely effected human civilization that people really have no idea how much of an impact they had had. One of them was cheap cotton underwear-- with an historical epidemiologist saying that the widespread distribution and use of cotton undies in the last 100 or so years has saved more human lives than just about any other invention known to man.

Pat Rafter would be proud of you.
(I'm sure that's a joke only an Aussie woul get).
 

Shop Amazon


Shop for your Apple, Mac, iPhone and other computer products on Amazon.
We are a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate program designed to provide a means for us to earn fees by linking to Amazon and affiliated sites.
Top