I would like to take the opportunity to ask everyone that was previously pissed at microsoft and currently at apple, to abstract a pattern. All companies that are not the #1 company/organization will kiss your a$$ and do good things to be the #1 company. Once the #1 company, they will eliminate competition and then raise prices, and build products the LOCK YOU IN to their brand, filetype (*cough* microsoft and apple), or service. So I propose an social invention to everyone. Let's stop buying the #1 companies stuff. Let's help the competitors, and do the same to the competitor when they become #1. REAL competition will always be present, and maybe someday, new and good things will result from this change.

The day the above inventions are disregarded as inventions is the day I consider humanity to have a 'break-through'. These affect our lives as much as the new LCD billboards on the highway help me to find my way around. As another person mentioned, the internet is even suspect as is now becoming regulated beyond use of uploading your personal information. Smart phones are an overpriced phone with GPS, conveniently now uploading your location when you use it. Autonomous car??? You mean a train, bus, or taxi? Speech recognition if there were anything useful to come out of it, aside from possible military and/or surveillance use. I should maybe restate that these might be useful, but not really to anyone but large organizations that can profit from you. As far as user functionality, I'd say the internet is maybe the best invention, but then again we don't go out dancing anymore or meet people other than online. Maybe the best invention has to do with the societal behavior change having to do with our recycling of all of the above producs. We are at least screwing up the earth less or maybe reusing the materials of our products more than once. But then again, we are drinking tap water out of plastic bottles in many places that don't need it.