What in your opinion is the discovery which is still in use, is the one you regret most? I suggest plastic even when I take into account all the useful things we use it for. If we aren't careful or find a way of getting rid of it, it will destroy the planet. Any advances on plastic?
New process makes ‘biodegradable’ plastics truly compostable https://news.berkeley.edu/2021/04/21/new-process-makes-biodegradable-plastics-truly-compostable/ 80% OF RIVER PLASTIC [which end up in the oceans] STEMS FROM 1000 RIVERS Interceptors have been designed and built to collect the plastic flowing from these 1000 rivers. https://theoceancleanup.com/rivers/#:~:text=80% of river plastic,roughly 80% of riverine pollution.
Plastic is a big one. Other regrets? Bliss Point Engineering Bliss point engineering is engineering foods to bypass your natural sense of satiation. With real food, we only want to eat so much. The desire to eat more is squelched by our natural sense of being full. We've had enough. But with engineered foods, "nobody can eat just one". The desire to eat more is never satisfied until we are stuffed and in pain. This is done by precisely adjusting the salt, sugar, and fat, in a product. The food industry engineers foods to maximize sales. This in turn drives consumer to consume far too many calories and get fat. Many or most food engineers will not allow their own children to consume the products they engineer. Engineered foods are a plague on the health of consumers. They play a major role in causing obesity, high blood pressure, adult onset diabetes, heart disease, and a plethora of other problems including premature death The first engineered food was Doritos.
Nuclear Weapons? Arguably, the threat of MAD - mutually assured destruction - has likely prevented WWIII to date. The risk of an all-out world war between nations possessing nuclear weapons is too great. So in spite of the imminent threat posed to all of humanity by the 15,000 nukes in reserve, so far it is easily argued that nuclear weapons have likely prevented millions of premature deaths due to war.
Yes but it only takes one, set off by some lunatic in say north korea, to even the score of lives saved.
Indeed. Have you ever seen the very old movie, Things to Come? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Things_to_Come Made in 1936, HG Wells imagined a world where the soon to come WWII lasts into the 1960s. It is possible that without the threat of nukes, the world would remain in a state of perpetual war. I am no fan of nuclear weapons but I do have to wonder. What would the world be like without them?
Since we are really talking about invention, and not discovery... Religion The damage it has done to humanity is immeasurable.
The good is has done to humanity is also immeasurable. Starting with its role in preserving human knowledge during medieval times.
But then we have the Religion of Non-Religion.....the secular state that has murdered millions upon millions!
Whats the thing where people delegate the responsibility for their own well being to others? Whatever that is has turned out to be pretty terrible.
If people were made Kings and Queens of their own planets they wouldn't have to live around one another to discover they don't like other people all that much.
Plus, since it has been discovered, it doesn't look like anybody is working too hard on a "new and improved" idea.
That's not listed as a criteria in your question. Unmitigated hatred fits that perfectly. It's a bigger threat than plastic.
Please note the title of the thread. The word "discovery " appears clearly. I suggest hatred is not a discovery.
Then again, it is also very possible that Western European civilization might have never sprung up without it. If you think the Roman Empire was a better place to live than modern Europe, you are mistaken. The Roman Empire is a good view of what civilization probably would have been like without religion. Like it or not, the modern idea of individual rights had its origins in Judeo-Christian religion. Even though today that has been transformed into atheistic humanism.
Most of the problem could be solved by simply replacing disposable items made of plastic with biodegradable plastic alternatives.
Perhaps. But from the establishment of such a concept, the West has spent inordinate amounts of time trying to put limits on indidual rights. BTW there was nothing in early roman religion to curtail individual rights. Caesars ruled as they did regardless of religion.
