What was the most important thing ever invented?
It was—language! With language, people can explain ideas and trade
thoughts. Communication— being able to share information—is what
made civilization possible.
Long after people learned to speak, they began to write. They had no
alphabet, so they drew pictures that stood for ideas and words. The
early Egyptians had hundreds of signs for words or parts of words.
Like other ancient people, the Egyptians often wrote on clay tablets or
stones. It was from one such stone, the Rosetta Stone, that we learned
their language.
Later inventions gave us new ways to communicate. The printing press
gave us books. With the telegraph, we could send messages over long
distances. Then came the telephone, phonograph, radio, motion pictures,
and television. Now we can talk to someone who is far away. We can watch
pictures of men walking on the moon. But sitting down and talking with a
friend is still the best kind of communication.