Top 25 Innovations of the Past 25 Years

HarvardAce writes "CNN has just released a list of 24 of the top 25 innovations of the past 25 years. Most of them are things we use every day in life, such as cell phones (#2), PCs (#3), and e-mail (#5). CNN won't release the #1 innovation until Sunday, January 18 at 8pm EST (Monday, Jan 19 @ 1AM GMT), so I wanted to see if Slashdot users could come up with what they think the #1 innovation is and comment on the rest of the list."

#1 will be...

[waynegoode]

#1 will be The World Wide Web/The Internet.

Re:Linux Innovation Strategy

[Anonymous Coward]

Linus Tordvals innovation strategy:

1. See what Microsoft did (i.e. Start Menu)
2. Copy

Yeah, it's a little known fact that Linus Torvalds is adding a start menu to the next version of the Linux kernel. I can see you really know what you're talking about. Must have inside information.

Re:#1 will be...

[heller]

If they say the Web or the Internet then they'ld be wrong. The internet was started 35 years ago by DARPA and the Web, while ostensibly "invented" in the early 90's was actually just an application of the the hyptertext idea which was invented in the 1950s. The verification of this data is left as an excercise to the reader.

Re:Digital music.... no damn.

[ScentCone]

Digital music has changed the way the world thinks about property.

I suppose you mean that it has changed the way lots of people think about whether or not they can get away with stealing property?

#1 will be search engines

[tomhudson]

#1 will be search engines - google, yahoo, etc.

They make the web, newgroups, etc useful.

"Google it" :-)

What is wrong here

[canuck57]

... PCs (#3), and e-mail (#5). ...

Hm, in 1978 I remember using a Commodore PET PC. I believe Apple IIs also existed in 1978... BSD was there also with uuget and uuput and we bundled mail for nightly transmission. 2005 - 1978 == 27 years.

Re:#1 will be...

[STrinity]

One thing they didn't mention was microchips, from which most of this stuff, including the Internet, stems.

Microchips were invented after 1980?

Read the article

[Dean Edmonds]

They don't say that these innovations were created in the last 25 years, just that they "have become widely used since 1980".

The net most certainly falls into that category.

DVD's will be number one.

[loftwyr]

The DVD isn't on the list.

As HDTV made it and DVDs were invented in the past 25 years (and this is CNN, not Nature) it'll be #1.

Re:frogs post

[tomhudson]

Only if they're using a search engine like google.

Search engines will be #1. Without them, the signal-to-noise ratio of the net would be higher than here on slashdot.

Re:#1 will be...

[tomhudson]

No, #1 will be search engines. Without them, the net is a lot less useful.

Sure, the net has a lot of stuff, but try finding it without google, yahoo, etc.

20. Space shuttle ???

[gloth]

"have had a direct and perceptible impact on our everyday lives, and/or could dramatically affect our lives in the future..."

Ok, I have to call bullshit here. The space shuttle does not have much of an impact on our lives. Other than being a drain of tax money, of course.

It's old and obsolete technology, so it won't have much of an effect on our future either. These days, it doesn't inspire anyone anymore either. I can get excited about SpaceShip one, but about the next shuttle mission? Give me a break!

Re:IAWTP

[jessecurry]

How can PCs be #3 when they are the requirement for #1 (if #1 is indeed teh intarweb)
PCs are not required for the internet to function. Almost any consumer good that you purchase now has a version with internet connectivity; these range from the obvious, cellular telephones, to the not so obvious, washer/dryer, oven, refrigerator, etc...
PCs just happened to be the first such item that most individuals used to connect to the internet. The internet itself is far more valuable to society than just a forum to host hypertext documents.

Re:Duh!

[ludw]

Try use Google without the www.

Re:#1 will be...

[Anonymous Coward]

This may surprise you, but not everyone is looking for an irrelivant oneliner in some dumbasses blog. Search engine usefulness is crashing.

HDTV and Plasma Screens common place???

[Chanc_Gorkon]

I have to disagree with this statement in the article. HDTV is not yet common place. 90 percent of homes in my neighborhood have regular TV's. I don't see Hotels putting a plasma HDTV in thier room. When hotels start adding HDTV in form of a plasma screen, ONLY THEN will I consider them to be common place.

not by a chance

[Eric604]

Viagra ranks way above the Segway.

Re:RFID ....BARCODE

[vettemph]

Barcode is recognized. It's everywhere. Try shopping without it. Alot of crap these days has up to 5 barcodes hidden on around and in it. RFID is trying to replace barcode. Remove the battery from your cell phone and count the number of barcodes hidden underneath. don't forget to count the one on the battery itself. I'm not positive, but i think barcode fits just within the 25 year mark.

The Integrated Circuit

[adolfojp]

I will bet my left testicle on the Integrated Circuit. Without it there would be no internet, personal computers, calculators, modern home appliances, cell phones, satelite comunications...

Cheers,
Adolfo

Re:#1 will be...

[ElBorba]

Spelling aside, the sixty or so people at my company probably hit Google collectively 1000 times a day, which is a lot, I guess, and I probably "Google" twenty times a day. However, we also do $100,000 in online transactions every day without the help of a search engine, and our retail locations do an equal part in purely monetary transactions at credit card terminals that use the internet.

My point being that Google's utility doesn't compare to the functionality of the internet, the www, or even darpanet. When it comes to changing the world, my life is internet-centric, not search-centric.

The number one innovation will be the internet.