Been giving some thought to humanity's greatest inventions. Depending on who you ask, i suppose you'll get different answers. Some will tell you that the plane, the train or the automobile is our greatest invention. Some will argue inventing the microchip is probably our greatest feat. Others still, in true altruistic fashion, will proclaim the pen and the languages of the world our most famous invention.
Don't be confused: an invention and a discovery can be the same thing, but are very often very different. We discovered the existence of electricity but we invented the light bulb to take advantage of that discovery.
In my own mind, i believe money is our most valuable invention. The greenback, the peso, the ringgit, the British pound, or the Japanese yen - currency. The stuff that makes the world go around, the stuff that builds empires and destroys families. The ultimate double edged sword, proof positive that the saying, "you can't live with it or without it" is the undisputed oxymoron that just happens to be true.
It sucks big time the way humanity's existence revolves around money and its pursuit. But its also a source of enjoyment and comfort. Have too little of it, and you wonder how you can have more. Have too much of it, and you begin to wonder whether your life is just about money.
Can you ever have enough money? Is there such a thing as too much? Or, conversely, too little? Perhaps. To each his/her own. We all have our thresholds of needs, desires and wants.
Never has a human invention done so much by being so little - money has always just been either a piece of precious metal or, recently, coloured pieces of paper. Curse it, or love it, its here to stay, an immemorial, indecent, yet oh so spectacular invention of the human mind.
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