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

[Blue3]

Looking at all of our history, what is the "best thing" that humans have ever done?

Nothing speculative, nothing about our hopes for the future... out of all the things we have certainly already done (or are doing), what has been our "best" moment, achievement, idea, process, action, etc.?

Is a particular person responsible for it, or are many different individuals all responsible for this same thing, or is a particular group or civilization responsible for it, or is all of humanity responsible for this "best thing"?




Some ideas...
~ Communication, Language, Writing, Art, Music, Photography, the Internet
~ Plant & Animal Domestication, Cities, the Green Revolution in the 20th century
~ the Scientific Method, Abstract Thought
~ Modern Medicine, Antibiotics/Penicillin, Genetics
~ Landing on the Moon
~ harnessing Fire, the Wheel, the Industrial Revolution, harnessing Electricity, Plumbing, the Washing Machine
~ Compassion, Cooperation, Humanism, recognizing Slavery as abhorrent
~ Religion, Christianity
~ the Enlightenment
~ creation of the modern state, creation of the United States, the defeat of the Axis Powers, the United Nations
~ survival since Nuclear Weapons

[traininthedistance]

I'd put in a nomination for either a) the printing press, b) the germ theory of disease, c) indoor plumbing, or d) Bela Bartok's Concerto for Orchestra.

Okay, maybe that last one isn't entirely serious.  

...Actually, if you want to be general rather than specific, "writing" probably wins out- it's just too foundational to so many other things we've done as a species.

[FEMA Camp Administrator]

We're not qualified to discuss it, and we'll likely never know.

[MASHED POTATOES. VOTE!]

Sex, obviously.

[Lincoln Republican]

We're not qualified to discuss it, and we'll likely never know.

Qualified to discuss it or not, it can still be discussed.

Something that belongs on the list is women granted the right to vote and recognized as persons.

[Sol]

Writing is huge, but I think even more huge is agriculture.

You can basically divide human history into two periods- before agriculture and after.

[homelycooking]

d) Bela Bartok's Concerto for Orchestra.

Okay, maybe that last one isn't entirely serious.  

Why not? It's a real triumph of artistic and intellectual achievement (excluding the Shostakovich parody, of course...). After all, why wouldn't humanity's greatest creation manifest itself in an outstanding piece of artistry?

I would be inclined to nominate Bach's Well-Tempered Clavier in its stead, though.

[The Dowager Mod]

The invention of Coca-Cola.

[traininthedistance]

d) Bela Bartok's Concerto for Orchestra.

Okay, maybe that last one isn't entirely serious.  

Why not? It's a real triumph of artistic and intellectual achievement (excluding the Shostakovich parody, of course...). After all, why wouldn't humanity's greatest creation manifest itself in an outstanding piece of artistry?

I would be inclined to nominate Bach's Well-Tempered Clavier in its stead, though.

It wasn't entirely unserious, either.

[Filuwaúrdjan]

Think I would instead go with Das Lied von der Erde.

[Mopsus]

I don't think that anyone here is qualified to answer that question. However, classical music made before 1950 generally isn't worth listening to, so we can eliminate at least three suggestions...

[CatoMinor]

However, classical music made before 1950 generally isn't worth listening to...

... please tell me this is a typo.

[Mopsus]

However, classical music made before 1950 generally isn't worth listening to...

... please tell me this is a typo.

#sorrynotsorry

[Filuwaúrdjan]

Oh, a poser.

[Mordecai]

The idea of human rights that are inalienable and universal.

Freedom of speech and expression.

Presumption of innocence and the right to jury trial.

[FEMA Camp Administrator]

The idea of human rights that are inalienable and universal.

Freedom of speech and expression.

Presumption of innocence and the right to jury trial.

I can see the first one, though only in terms of discovery or reasoning to it. We didn't really "invent" our rights, and if we did, they'd be worth very little. The second one already existed in the state of nature, and the third one covers a small part of human life.

However, classical music made before 1950 generally isn't worth listening to...

... please tell me this is a typo.

#sorrynotsorry

This is the worst. I would say "utterly ridiculous", but even that fails to cover it.

[Mopsus]

However, classical music made before 1950 generally isn't worth listening to...

... please tell me this is a typo.

#sorrynotsorry

This is the worst. I would say "utterly ridiculous", but even that fails to cover it.

I never thought of you as a Classical fan, Cathcon.

[FEMA Camp Administrator]

However, classical music made before 1950 generally isn't worth listening to...

... please tell me this is a typo.

#sorrynotsorry

This is the worst. I would say "utterly ridiculous", but even that fails to cover it.

I never thought of you as a Classical fan, Cathcon.

You don't have to be a fan to denounce broad blanket statements such as the one above.

[Mopsus]

However, classical music made before 1950 generally isn't worth listening to...

... please tell me this is a typo.

#sorrynotsorry

This is the worst. I would say "utterly ridiculous", but even that fails to cover it.

I never thought of you as a Classical fan, Cathcon.

You don't have to be a fan to denounce broad blanket statements such as the one above.

I admit that I was goading responses with that one.

I don't have a problem with classical music on principle. I think that composers have always been limited to the instruments that technology has made available to them, and I find that sometimes the instruments that they chose have a sound that makes the work unlistenable to me, regardless of its other merits. That's why I can tolerate Impressionism or Baroque-era classical, but whenever I hear a horn or string section from a work from the Classical or Romantic period, I can't help but cringe.

[Filuwaúrdjan]

Perhaps you need better ears.

[Mopsus]

Nah, Beethoven just needed better instruments.

That does make me wonder how quick contemporary composers are to pick up electric/electronic instruments. Are there any examples of composers (besides Glenn Branca, I guess) employing them in ways that don't sound... "novel", for want of a better term (sorry, that excludes Rainbow in Curved Air and Switched-On Bach)?

[Rooney]

The answer is New Coke.

[Bacon King]

the pizza bagel

[Mordecai]

Making bottled water a commercial product.

[H.E. VOLODYMYR ZELENKSYY]

Making bottled water a commercial product.

This is best, not worst.