I've taken the idea of this question from a reader at amazon.
He wrote "human nature" and I'm not keen on this phrasing of the question, so I've written "human life" "human society".
I'm not thinking in terms of medical discoveries such as vaccinations or cures that have actually saved millions of lives, though this could be one of the answers.
I'll quote this reader at amazon:
These are some of the ideas I like best: the printed press, and farming, using domesticated animals."I still lean towards the printing press , but I may be biased because of my passion for reading to try to gain understanding. I always feel that my distant ancestors were so handicapped by their inability to have so many different views available, that it is my personal preference. (...)
Was farming or agriculture was perhaps the greatest development that ultimately set us apart from the rest of the animal kingdom?
"I still lean towards the printing press , but I may be biased because of my passion for reading to try to gain understanding. I always feel that my distant ancestors were so handicapped by their inability to have so many different views available, that it is my personal preference. (...)
Was farming or agriculture was perhaps the greatest development that ultimately set us apart from the rest of the animal kingdom?
At the moment I am reading a book by Swiss writer Anne Cuneo The Master of Garamond, which hasn't been translated into English as far as I can see. It's about a French printer, Antoine Augureau, a humanist who quarelled with the theologists of the Sorbonne and was therefore executed in 1534 in Paris.
The book brings alive the world of printing and the incredible enthusiasm of the sixteenth century for sharing knowledge and the printed world.