The 50 Greatest Breakthroughs Since the Wheel

In the November issue of The Atlantic is a fascinating article re invention and innovation. Here’s how writer James Fallow describes what they did.

The Atlantic recently assembled a panel of 12 scientists, entrepreneurs, engineers, historians of technology, and others to assess the innovations that have done the most to shape the nature of modern life. The main rule for this exercise was that the innovations should have come after widespread use of the wheel began, perhaps 6,000 years ago. That ruled out fire, which our forebears began to employ several hundred thousand years earlier. We asked each panelist to make 25 selections and to rank them, despite the impossibility of fairly comparing, say, the atomic bomb and the plow.  Click HERE to see the list and read the article:

Amazingly the #1 breakthrough was…the printing press. How would you decide your top 50 breakthroughs? What’s more important to you, the telephone or anesthesia… the cotton gin or the personal computer?

What has been a game-changer for you?

What top 25 innovations have changed the landscape of the church around the world?

• Roman roads
• Greek language
• Printing press
• Steam ships
• Multi-site church model
• Television
• Air conditioning
• Radio
• Internet
• Malaria vaccination
• Support-raising models
• Church architects
• House church model
• Small groups
• etc.