Throughout history, human civilization has gone through massive growth periods, thanks to major technological advances.
The earliest — and perhaps most notable — was the discovery and mastery of fire, which is estimated to have happened around 700,000 years ago. The American Council of Science and Health cites archaeological evidence for these figures[1].
Fire provided the impetus for Homo Sapiens to evolve, creating ‘revolutionary’ changes for early man, which may have led to the establishment of bigger settlements and the development of more intricate tools and a better quality of life.This very distant discovery marks the start of man’s intellectual development.
While the list of technological discoveries that have changed history are numerous, let’s narrow down our list to five of the biggest innovations in communications technology that have changed the way people access and consume information and data.
For a more comprehensive list of man’s greatest inventions, The Atlantic[2] has put together a fantastic catalogue compiled and ranked by some of the world’s most notable historians, scientists, engineers and entrepreneurs.
The printing press
Hailed as one of the most important inventions in history, the printing press[3] precedes the rest of our list by almost 400 years. Johannes Gutenberg is credited with the creation of what is known as the Gutenberg press.
The German, who was a goldsmith by trade, created a hand-held metal matrice that essentially created the first type-based printing press system.
It allowed the rapid and cheap printing of documents and books in short print runs. As the printing press spread around the world, more and more people had access to information — which led to an intellectual revolution and
