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What are world-changing creations made by a country other than the US? (lemmy.world)

submitted 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) by Glowstick@lemmy.world to c/asklemmy@lemmy.ml

67 comments fedilink hide all child comments

Almost all the global society-altering creations i can think of FROM THE PAST 100 YEARS are from America. I highly doubt that's true, so I'm looking for counter-examples.

To clarify, I'm looking for items on the level of:

the internet
rock music
nuclear weapons
ai
~~airplane flight~~ (older than 100 years)

And clearly I'm not just including things that improved the world.

The best ones i can think of are (I think):

~~Rocketry (Germany)?~~
Cheap tech manufacturing (Asian countries)?

EDIT:

Actually rocketry has been around much longer than 100 years. Even the category of "modern rocketry" begins in the late 1800s. Source: https://www.grc.nasa.gov/www/k-12/TRC/Rockets/history_of_rockets.html

EDIT 2:

A further explanation of what level I'm talking about.

There has to be a clear before and after, and it has to directly and quickly effect most of the world. For example the Internet. There's life before the internet, and there's life after the internet, which are both very different.

As opposed to for example if someone makes a groundbreaking foundational research discovery that effects the entire realm of their field of study, but doesn't quickly and directly create a difference in most people's lives, then it doesn't fit the category.

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[–] dsilverz@catodon.rocks 7 points 1 week ago (1 children)

There's a Brazilian saying, "Catapulta não é motor" ("catapult isn't an engine"). While the Wright brothers surely contributed with substantial knowledge to the field of aviation, airplanes are a Brazilian invention, invented by Alberto Santos-Dumont.

There's even a joke only Brazilians (or non-Brazilian people very knowledgeable of the cultural uniqueness across Brazilian regions) could readily understand: one of the major proofs that airplanes are Brazilian is the naming "TREM de pouso" (landing gear). For context: Santos-Dumont was born in the Brazilian state of Minas Gerais, a state very known for its unique accent and dialects such as using "trem" (train) for "thing", as in "pode pegá ess-trem fazenfavô?" being "Mineirês" for "Posso pegar essa coisa, por gentileza?" ("can I have this thing, please?"), so whenever something lacks a proper name/definition, Mineiros (those born and/or living in the state of Minas Gerais) are very likely to call it a "trem" (e.g. "eita trem bão", "oh, what a nice/good thing!"). Source: I'm Brazilian and also been residing in the state of Minas Gerais.

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[–] Glowstick@lemmy.world -5 points 1 week ago (1 children)

The wright brothers absolutely were "standing on the shoulders of giants", but they were the first to create heavier-than-air flight.

[–] arthur@lemmy.zip 2 points 1 week ago

The main contribution of the Wright brothers is the controls used on aviation (pitch, yaw and roll). About being the first, Santos-Dumont is recognized by Fédération Aéronautique Internationale as the first flight with witnesses. Splitting hairs here, the english word "airplane" is less specific than the french word "avion". All avion are airplanes, but to be an avion the machine needs to be able to take off and land by its own means, and that's the point where the first flight of the Wright brothers are missing. And as they kept secrecy on what they were doing, we don't know exactly when they introduced each innovation on their machines. But to me, that doesn't matter much actually. Heavier-than-air flights are more like a collective effort IMHO with the Wright brothers, Santos-Dumont and many others contributing to create the aviation.