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1999 : WHAT IS THE MOST IMPORTANT INVENTION IN THE PAST TWO THOUSAND YEARS? [1]

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Michael Nesmith [5]
Existence is Non-Time, Non-Sequential, and Non-Objective
an artist, writer, and business man

After reading the various answers to the question, I'm going to sneak through the door opened by Philip Anderson and nominate a discovery instead of an invention. And it is the Copernican Theory. Generally it was a counter-intuitive idea, and it ran opposite to the interpretation of senses (not to mention the Church) I mean, one could "see" the sun going across the sky. What could be more obvious than that? A nice move. It took a lot of intellectual courage, and taught us more than just what it said.

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[1] https://stage.edge.org/annual-question/what-is-the-most-important-invention-in-the-past-two-thousand-years
[2] https://stage.edge.org/inthenews/what-is-the-most-important-invention-in-the-past-two-thousand-years
[3] https://stage.edge.org/contributors/what-is-the-most-important-invention-in-the-past-two-thousand-years
[4] https://stage.edge.org/responses/what-is-the-most-important-invention-in-the-past-two-thousand-years
[5] https://stage.edge.org/memberbio/michael_nesmith