Some modern acheivements that affect day to day life in a big way
creation of Windows OS and invention of mouse in computers
internet
powered flight
standardized machine parts
A bit older
Repeating revolver
Steam engine
Knowledge of the chemical processes involved in cereal fermentation
First telescopes and the discovery of the 4 main Jovian moons by Galileo
Really old
Most of what the Romans did (excluding unfeasibly short tunics)
The Pyramids at Giza
[quote=TooTall ]Me
It was all building up to me. The rest of you were failed experiments.
Now it is downhill for the entire human race.
Sorry. I had to tell someone eventually.
I think that you're probably older than me. That makes me a little pointless 🙁
I think some folk are just listing inventions, which are really only a better kind of stick to hit things with.
The greatest achievement is the NHS.
The vision required to see a society that would contribute as they were able to develop and maintain a healthcare system that would last so long, treat so many in such a non-judgemental, we-don't-care-who-you-are-or-how-much-you-earn fashion is one of the greatest, most civilised concepts seen on the planet so far.
[i]"We are not here in this world to find elegant solutions, pregnant with initiative, or to serve the ways and modes of profitable progress. [b]No, we are here to provide for all those who are weaker and hungrier, more battered and crippled than ourselves. That is our only certain good and great purpose on earth[/b], and if you ask me about those insoluble economic problems that may arise if the top is deprived of their initiative, I would answer 'To hell with them.' The top is greedy and mean and will always find a way to take care of themselves. They always do"[/i]
A Michael Foot quote, btw.
Beer
The greatest achievement is the NHS.
Fair point. Not as glamorous as a moon landing, but socially a watershed moment.
Fire on demand.
Or, porn on demand. Can't decide.
Thank you crikey. That sums up everything that is so wonderfully right about humans.
But beer comes next.
The elimination of smallpox?
I reckon it goes in leaps and there are a few contenders that have really changed everything socially, economically and politically.
Language
Fire
Farming
Mass production
The Internet
Laughter - we are the only things on the planet that can do it. Lets not forget it.
The NHS is a great achievement, however only to countries with that sort of health care model.
The invention of the telescope to see Jupiters moons changed our perception of the order of the universe and mankinds place within it.
TooTall - Member
MeIt was all building up to me. The rest of you were failed experiments.
Now it is downhill for the entire human race.
Sorry. I had to tell someone eventually.
But by your own admission, they didn't even get you perfect as you are TooTall 😉
As for greatest acheivement, got to be surgery/medicine without many of us wouldn't be here.
IMO disease control & modern medicine - penicillin, vaccines, antibiotics, anaesthetics.
Or, Marmite.
Laughter - we are the only things on the planet that can do it.
Laughing is just an evolved form of panting, other species laugh/pant when they are playing, chimps certainly do, and they also screech when playing.
I don't think language is unique to our species either, we've just taken it further.
Fire is a good one imo.
Seriously, no-one has mentioned chips? Ok, I will.
Chips.
Furthermore...
Numerous species demonstrate vocalizations similar to human laughter. A significant proportion of these are mammals, including non-human primates, which suggests that the neurological functions involved in expressing cheer occurred early in the process of mammalian evolution
Radio 4 reported only the other morning that rats can laugh.
Edit - beaten to it, so I'll go with:
Geordie Shore
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Moon landing was basic physics
lol
Personally I think it's civilization as a whole.
The fact that we have this amazing system where we do sustained activities knowing the place you do it will still be there tomorrow. You can dig stuff up, work it and we have these systems in place to produce all this fanciful tat, complete with the logistics and fuel to ship stuff across the planet all so that Matey down the road, who is concerned with nothing but his own skin, self worth, appearance and shallow guff can swan around in something like this:
[img] 
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What the hell, mankind? What the hell?!
It is believed that homo erectus and neanderthalis were capable of some form of speech. Certainly different species from what we would call mankind.
Laughing is just an evolved form of panting, other species laugh/pant when they are playing, chimps certainly do, and they also screech when playing.
When you get a minute check this out, it was on the wireless the other week.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b03bdpl5
EDIT, I stand corrected - even rats laugh.
The ability to surf the net whilst on the bog.
Is right lar. Francis Bacon's ideas on the nature of scientific enquiry, which would form the scientific method, Newton's [i]principia[/i], Kepler and Gallileo's astronomy, Liebniz's calculus etc etc. Impact of this birth of science turned society upside down, reaching way past the immediate concerns of studying the natural world. Democracy, literacy, education and what we might think of as citizenship all stem from this time and the achievements of the enlightenment.Tom_W1987 - MemberOur greatest achievement judging by future consequences then, has to be the enlightenment surely?
It's difficult to quantify great achievements because they all mean different things to different people. But the moon landings highlight the human desire for exploration and progression in the face of grave danger. It goes on here on earth all the time too. I look at buildings and bridges and stuff like that, and to think some lunatic would happily swing about on a cable 400ft in the air to build that. Our whole infrastructure relies on these brave people, to come up with new innovative ideas, and to put their lives at risk making them work. It amazes me. So many great achievements in our everyday lives. The moon landings came about through a normal bunch of people doing normal things...just with the volume turned up to 11. It is the perfect example of how we've come so far as human beings.
When you think about what it allows you to do, and how efficiently, the bicycle's a pretty bloody amazing thing.
Written language.
Only humans can do it. Being able to accurately record information for reference at a later time made most of the things mentioned above possible. Societies without writing didn't advance very far.
Or bacon! 
We're nearly there.
Crikey +1 with the NHS. Having a society that cares for its infirm is a high point. Privatised care sees its clientele as cash cows to be bled for every test possible and discarded when dry of money.
Edlong +1 for the bicycle. Once we optimise our transport infrastructure for bicycles and make cars unnecessary we'll have made a major advance in looking after our planet and our health. Cars are chewing up the Earth's resources.
Now all we need is proper democracy...
But mankind's greatest achievement is we keep striving even though we get it wrong from time to time.
Agriculture
Prior to that, the human species was limited to that which was supplied by nature - reliant upon the wild plants and animals we could find - at that one point, when we began to cultivate the resources to secure our food supply, man truly became the master of his own destiny (for better or worse) and that makes it the most crucial event and achievement in the history of mankind.
Greggs cheese and onion pasties
First thought was farming.
Second thought was storytelling - ie the ability to think about things that are not literally true, may not happen and may have never happend. Though this may be more biological accident than an achievement.
It all hinges on your definition of "great" - I'm tempted to say the Welfare State.
However, I'm reminded of a quote from Freeman Dyson about what should be included on the Voyager discs - "We should just send Bach, but that would be showing off"
the toilet.
landing on the moon was impressive, chips are nice, but without toilets most of us would be dead, and those left would be stinking of shit - and destined for an early grave.
toilets allow humans to gather / live in large groups, without the inevitable outbreaks of cholera.
yay for toilets!
Surely its sliced bread, unless there was something better before that?
I'm late to the Paaaarrtaaayy...
I'd say it was Adam's intuition. If he hadn't looked around at Eve and thought "whats that stiring under my Fig leaf" we'd not be here to type on the Interbebz would we. 😉
Radio 4
Glass. Lots of things we take for granted would be impossible or impractical without it
And the Harber Bosch process. Its credited with keeping 1 in 3 of us from starving to death and the rest of us from fighting over food.
It showed us who we can be when we aim for the stars
That's just waffle. You may have enjoyed the moon landings, but to think this simple concept is more worthy in terms of self knowledge than the vast body of complex and deep philosophical thought is just daft.
It's just exploration. Not that different to the early global Europeans sailing around the world.
On a serious note agriculture and just as important trade.
Glass. Lots of things we take for granted would be impossible or impractical without it
True - we'd still be living in mud hovels without glass.
Dwarf wheat - Norman Borlaug saved over a billion lives with that one.
War. No other species does it, it urges huge technological and social upheaval, and gives us lots of content for films and video games. Achtung STW, for you the thread is over!
War. No other species does it
Chimps? Meerkats?
You don't know fear until you're face to face with a meerkat with a bazooka.
'Dwarf wheat - Norman Borlaug saved over a billion lives with that one.'
Yeah but a billion dwarves had to die
War. No other species does it
Ants too
Steel and Stainless Steel. Antibiotics. Silicon chips. Radio. Nuclear Power. Steam Engine.
The NHS isn't simply because without the drugs, computers and the like developed elsewhere it would be a useless social construct.
