[anshumankmr]

The mass-energy equivalence and how it led to the discovery of nuclear fission/fusion and how to control/cause explosive atomic chain reactions was probably one of the most impactful technologies of all time, in a literal sense.

[kragen]

maybe, but it's not yet in the same league as math, writing, cooking, sewing, and electricity, in terms of its effects on human life

i mean all five of those were probably prerequisites for it?

maybe if the humans build torchships or nuclear-powered starships, or convert the electric grid to mostly nuclear, i'd agree, but those all seem far in the future

[akkartik]

I'm curious: why sewing in particular? As opposed to say spinning or weaving or knitting?

[kragen]

it's surely debatable, but my thought was that sewing seems to have predated weaving (of cloth), nålbinding, especially knit and crochet, and probably even spinning, and it was sewing that enabled the humans to live outside the tropics

sewing without spinning or weaving still gives you tents and jackets (of hide or felt, at least). i think weaving without sewing only gives you floor mats. spinning without sewing gives you rope, which makes longer fibers than natural sinews, and thus lassos and lashing, but i think these are less transformative technologies than tents and jackets

i think the humans probably could have developed the fission chain reaction without spinning but probably not without sewing

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sewing_needle#Prehistoric_sewi... sewing: 50–61 kya or possibly https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_clothing_and_textil... 170 kya

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hand_spinning#History spinning: 41–52 kya

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Weaving#Archaeology weaving: 27 kya (cloth doesn't survive but its clay impressions do)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/N%C3%A5lebinding#History nålbinding: 8 kya

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_knitting knitting: .9 kya

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crochet#Origins crochet: .2 kya

[anshumankmr]

Yes, I did mention "one of"