The World Would Be Totally Different Without These 5 Inventions

We all take a great deal for granted. Maybe too much. Every day, we use dozens, even hundreds of things that would dazzle our ancestors.

Things without which the world would be far, far different.

Ranking all these inventions is a difficult task indeed. Who’s to say whether it was the double-sided ax or the wheel that got humanity out of the proverbial dark ages, for instance?

Yet we can be sure that some innovations are truly indispensable. Like these five. Get rid of any one of them and the world would be a much different — and much darker — place.

The Smartphone

If you’re not reading this on your smartphone, you’re in a distinct minority. The majority of all web traffic, after all, now flows through mobile devices.

That’s an incredible achievement for a product category that basically didn’t exist 20 years ago. History credits the Apple iPhone with bringing smart mobiles to the masses, but the story actually began a few years earlier, with the likes of Blackberry and EarthLink founder Sky Dayton’s Helio.

No matter. The important thing is that, today, most of us carry around little supercomputers to do our bidding.

Indoor Plumbing

No one is quite sure “who” invented indoor plumbing. We know that the Romans had rudimentary indoor waste disposal systems and the French were among the first to integrate them into “modern” homes. The innovation arrived in North America in the late 19th century and, for obvious reasons, quickly spread across the land.

It’s no exaggeration to say that without indoor plumbing, modern metropolises couldn’t exist and humans would be far more miserable (and sick) no matter where they lived.

The Automobile

Cars don’t directly improve our health. If anything, they do the opposite, with tens of thousands of annual road deaths in the U.S. alone and hundreds of thousands attributable to tailpipe emissions.

But cars, trucks, and other internally powered vehicles also make our fast-paced world possible. They help ferry people and goods in minutes or hours across distances that previously took days or weeks to cross. And they contribute to a sense of freedom that our ancestors simply didn’t know.

The Microprocessor

The microprocessor is at the heart of every modern computer, including your smartphone. It’s amazing to think Federico Faggin and his team invented it just over 50 years ago.

Actually, it’s even more amazing when you realize that microprocessors power many devices we don’t think of as computers: household appliances and mechanical equipment, traffic control systems, basically any car built after 2010 (and before, in many cases). Microprocessors are everywhere, and they’re absolutely crucial to our shared prosperity.

The Turbine

Another “hidden” innovation that’s essential to our way of life is the turbine. Specifically, turbines used to generate electricity and perform other forms of useful work.

Every modern thermal power plant — gas, coal, and nuclear — has one or more turbines at its heart, spinning ceaselessly to generate the power we need to go about our lives. So do electricity-generating windmills. Jet airplanes use turbines too. And the technology, while simple enough to understand, gets better all the time.

Final Thoughts

Next time you check your email, text your significant other, or flush a toilet, give a little credit to the folks who made it possible. History has forgotten many of their names, but the world just wouldn’t be the same without their hard work.

And if history is any guide, there’s much more innovation to come. Who knows? Years from now, your name might cross your descendants’ lips as they complete some task that seems totally foreign to us now — but that they take for granted every day.