Today I’m using a prompt from WordPress. Usually, I write a 50-word story for these prompts. Not this time. It’s just too much for me to contain. (I could write a book…)
The most important invention in your lifetime is…
OMGoodness! I’ve been around a while. Credit cards, hula hoops, computers, vaccines, microchips, Dorito chips, WWW and https, Beanie Babies, Barbie dolls, artificial hearts, doppler radar, MRIs, Walkmans, cell phones, disposable diapers, birth control pills, Viagra, modems (remember the psshhh, beee, boooo, beep-beep-beep,) satellites, Google, and so much more.
There’s too much to choose from and so many that would only be possible because of those that came before. I mean, would we have a playlist without the Walkman first?
The most important? Or the most influential? Whoa! Howdo I tell the difference.
Without a doubt, the most important invention in my lifetime is vaccines for childhood diseases. Vaccines save the lives millions of lives and prevent debilitating side effects from diseases like Rheumatic heart disease, deafness, and paralyzed muscles. I’ve been around long enough to remember classmates with all of those conditions; part of the aftermath of “childhood diseases.”
I’ll say the microchip is probably the most influential invention is probably the microchip. Maybe I should change that to satellites. From credit cards to automobiles, microchips change the way we interact with the world and those around us. From personal navigation to weather prediction, to live programming around the globe, satellites make it possible.
On the other hand, I’m never more than a few feet away from my cell phone. Then again, that wouldn’t be the case if it didn’t use a microchip and I couldn’t navigate using all those satellites. I mean, who wants to carry around one of those bag phones on a belt loop?
I hope you didn’t miss my 50-word story this week. I’ll be back with it next week. This WordPress-generated prompt got me going well beyond my self-imposed limits.
What’s the most important invention in your lifetime?