the greatest invention

The greatest invention of all

While some think that modern inventions have greatly changed people’s life, I still believe that the greatest invention of all time is the Alphabet.

These simple marks and signs made man able to document his daily life experiences, emotions of fear and delight and his dreams since the rise of civilizations thousands of years ago till now. I agree that cars, planes, space shuttles, computers …and so on use highly advanced technology but man only applied theseinventions during the last century while writing was there millennia ago.

On the other hand, let us ask ourselves whether if the alphabet was not discovered wwould our life be the same. Here I am not only talking about physics, mathematics, chemistry and all the sciences that the Alphabet has opened the door to, but I am also referring to the masterpieces that highly talented men left us in the form of poems, novels, music and so on.. Till now billions of people enjoy this legacy and new generations in the future are expected to do so as well.

So, if we are talking about the pro and cons of the Alphabet we can only see the advantages but what about disadvantages - could anyone think of at least a single one? For me, I could not find any, apart from that it had given teachers a great tool to make students' lives more miserable! But this is still a very small debt that we have to pay in order to enjoy all greatness of this invention.

So if you still think that the alphabet is a very primitive invention just remember what Neil Armstrong once said when he walked on the moon, ” One small step for a man, one giant leap for mankind.”

He actually said "a" man - but it came across as if he messed up the most famous line in history - it makes a huge difference grammatically speaking, don't you think?

As for Mutaz's noble essay on the greatness of the alphabet, who invented it? When? Was there a patent for it? Huge numbers of the world are populated by people with no written alphabet. So, as I would expect from a son of Babel, the Hanging Gardens of Babylon and the glories of Nineveh, he champions the written word.

Alas the greatest invention according to 10,000 British scientists and members of the public is: ________________ (tell you tonight - I promise on Princess Zeena's lovely head!)

Tony the Teaser