I think this is the seventh year in a row that I've worked on this project. It's the first year we actually ranked the inventions, 1 through 50, so now it's ... rankier. I also tried to push the selections a little bit away from an all-tech line-up this year, so we could talk about other kinds of innovation -- you have your usual weird vehicles and fancy computers, but you also get things like the Global Seed Vault, and Dr. Horrible, and Obama's merchandising strategy, and the newest Mersenne Prime. (That last one is more of a discovery than an invention, I know.) Oh, and the Vatican came up with some new Deadly Sins this year.
The overall effect we wanted to achieve was a kind of re-telling of the history of 2008, a counter-history, told through technological innovations and new ideas rather than through elections and stock market numbers and stuff. Also we wanted to run some pretty pictures and sell some ads.
Oh, and we picked an Invention of the Year. Not an easy thing this year -- last year was a gimme, what with the iPhone and all, but this year: not obvious. So we went with the invention that we think will, down the line if not immediately, have the most massively transformative effect on the world. See what you think.
One item per page. It's like y'all are trying to drive down what's left of our economy...
churchhtucker
Oct. 30, 2008 22:08:pm
at 22:08:pm
A retail DNA test at # 1? Does this mean that Americans secretly want to be doctors or just that all those CSI shows have had a profound influence?
Kemper
Oct. 31, 2008 13:48:pm
at 13:48:pm
The DNA tester is definintly an interesting choice, I think you are probably right, down the road it may have a greater impact on the world than we think right now. You could also say Pope's new 7 deadly sins "invention" is a pre-emptive response to everyone knowing their DNA and potential knowledge that comes with it.
yogi
Oct. 31, 2008 22:45:pm
at 22:45:pm
The Germans are the bigest murderers.
Aleksandra
Nov. 1, 2008 03:30:am
at 03:30:am