The Nominees for Best Invention Of the Last Two Millennia Are...

By David Bank

John Brockman is the premier literary agent of the digerati, so when he asked 1,000 scientists and other techno-thinkers to suggest the most important invention of the past 2,000 years, the responses sounded a lot like proposals for yet another millennial book.

Indeed, the printing press received multiple mentions ("led directly to mass literacy, democracy, the scientific revolution, cyber-this and cyber-that," one participant wrote). But then, so did the contraceptive pill ("the erosion of conventional family structure in Western society is perhaps the most significant modification in human behavior since the invention of shamanism").

Mr. Brockman, who says "new technologies equal new perceptions," plans to publish the responses on the Web today at www.edge.org. A sampling:

Hay—"without grass in winter you could not have horses, and without horses you could not have urban civilization."

Classical music—"more pleasure to more individuals with less negative fallout than any other human artifact."

Mirror—"viewing oneself through the eyes of others rather than just from the inside or through the eyes of God."

Space travel—"it may be centuries before we know the full consequences."

The city—"from the density of human interaction all else flows."

Atomic bomb—"we were forced to examine our rules of war and seek new means of engagement to work out our differences."

Zero—"essential for all science."

Calculus—"a fresh look at infinity."

Paper—"today's Internet evolved from the tiny seed planted by Ts'ai Lun."

Electricity—"bringing us light and heat and power on tap."

Steam engine—"freed man and beast from physical labor."

Skepticism—"driving force behind science and technology, modern conceptions of faith, the soul and the other."

Reading glasses—"prevented the world from being ruled by people under forty."

Television—"the single most powerful and manipulative tool ever invented."

Eraser—"all the tools that let us go back and fix our mistakes."

Board games—"a simple set of rules generating a complex network of possibilities."

Double entry accounting—"it is the DOS of money."

Distillation—"the transformation of human beings brought on by the imbibing of distilled spirits."