The Wheel or the Computer? Which one has done more for humans?

Wheel. It promote actually interacting physically with the world. It provides a way to efficient harvest, make things mobile, etc.
While the computer has helped, and continues to help in many ways. It promotes detached socializing which will eventually cause more social anxiety and interaction issues. Furthermore, should something ever happen to the electricity we have come to reply on, at least the wheel will still be there, even is we have to carve it the "old fashioned" way.
 
Faolan said:
Wheel. It promote actually interacting physically with the world. It provides a way to efficient harvest, make things mobile, etc.
While the computer has helped, and continues to help in many ways. It promotes detached socializing which will eventually cause more social anxiety and interaction issues. Furthermore, should something ever happen to the electricity we have come to reply on, at least the wheel will still be there, even is we have to carve it the "old fashioned" way.
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The wheel should be King. It isn't. It has been taken over by the computer with all its faults. Computers will exponentially insinuate itself into our lives.
 
Faolan said:
Wheel. ... Furthermore, should something ever happen to the electricity we have come to reply on, at least the wheel will still be there, even is we have to carve it the "old fashioned" way.
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Been reading too much SM Sterling, I see. What if something happens to all the grease?
 
Faolan said:
It promotes detached socializing which will eventually cause more social anxiety and interaction issues.
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Although I've been in the IT industry for less than a decade, I've noticed that the typical computer nerd is disappearing. With the "detached socializing" you get situations where people who would otherwise be isolated in their mother's basements get social training in non-threatening environments. The end result is more socialized geeks. It's popular to decry modern technology, but kids today socialize constantly and with a far wider social circle than their parents could ever hope.

ETA: That being said, everything the computer has ever done for us has the wheel as a prerequisite, so the wheel is absolutely the king.
 
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In that the computer would have been impossible without the wheel, but the wheel does not rely on computers at all, the wheel wins hands down.
 
gdnp said:
In that the computer would have been impossible without the wheel, but the wheel does not rely on computers at all, the wheel wins hands down.
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Well, in that case, the simple machines win (as argued in one point here, The Lever and the Inclined Plane :D)

Seriously. This isn't a question that can be reasonably asked. The full development of neither computer nor wheel has occurred. Perhaps computers enable the invention of the grogznoxaplorx. What would civilization ever have done without that?
 
Jimbo07 said:
Well, in that case, the simple machines win (as argued in one point here, The Lever and the Inclined Plane :D)

Seriously. This isn't a question that can be reasonably asked. The full development of neither computer nor wheel has occurred. Perhaps computers enable the invention of the grogznoxaplorx. What would civilization ever have done without that?
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irrelevant, since the development of the computer depended on the wheel, if the grogznoxaplorx could not have been developed without computers, it could not have been developed without wheels either.
 
gdnp said:
In that the computer would have been impossible without the wheel, but the wheel does not rely on computers at all, the wheel wins hands down.
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Without the evolution of the biological computer it would have been impossible to invent the wheel.
 
I'd have to read up on my simple machines to figure out if components of the motive apparatus of the flagellum qualify as wheels. I suspect nature has other examples, developed independently of human thought.
 
One could technically argue both...

The computer has probably done more overall... however without the wheel, the ability to carry large computer components from one location to the other and set them up and build the buildings that carried them back in the days when computers were still gigantic, they would probably not have gotten the start they needed.

I could be wrong...


INRM
 
gdnp said:
irrelevant, since the development of the computer depended on the wheel, if the grogznoxaplorx could not have been developed without computers, it could not have been developed without wheels either.
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... but I guess that's part of the somewhat glib point I was making. If you say the wheel underpins most modern technologies, and was invented by Oog, I'd say the invention of the wedge by Zod wins! :D

It's a silly question.
 
Definitely the wheel. Like most modern things, most really modern forklifts have computers in them to help them to work better; but it is entirely possible to build a forklift without a computer, and most older ones don't have them or need them. But it would be nearly impossible — if not entirely impossible — to build a usable forklift without wheels.
 
The wheel, hands down.

Not convinced? Take one away and see what it's like living without it?

No computers? Basically the 1970s.

No wheels? The Stone Age.
 
Without fire, you wouldn't have a graphics metaphor to emphasize how fast your wheel can go, nor a verbal metaphor for how much time and money your computer software project is consuming.

That proves fire is more important than the wheel or the computer.

Respectfully,
Myriad
 
Myriad said:
Without fire, you wouldn't have a graphics metaphor to emphasize how fast your wheel can go, nor a verbal metaphor for how much time and money your computer software project is consuming.

That proves fire is more important than the wheel or the computer.

Respectfully,
Myriad
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The computer is in its infancy. It won't be a question of who so much as how much.
 
Without computers, you couldn't engage in ridiculous and pointless philosophical arguments with people all over the planet. Therefore... Uh, what was the question again?
 
A portable computer. not a laptop, a big desktop, on wheels.

Both of them win!
 
Bob Blaylock said:
Definitely the wheel. Like most modern things, most really modern forklifts have computers in them to help them to work better; but it is entirely possible to build a forklift without a computer, and most older ones don't have them or need them. But it would be nearly impossible — if not entirely impossible — to build a usable forklift without wheels.
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You heard the man folks, no way to move without wheels.


FYI, I think computers will prove more important in the long run, in this little philosophical masturbation.
 
gdnp said:
In that the computer would have been impossible without the wheel, but the wheel does not rely on computers at all, the wheel wins hands down.
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Jimbo07 said:
Well, in that case, the simple machines win (as argued in one point here, The Lever and the Inclined Plane :D)

Seriously. This isn't a question that can be reasonably asked. The full development of neither computer nor wheel has occurred. Perhaps computers enable the invention of the grogznoxaplorx. What would civilization ever have done without that?
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Myriad said:
Without fire, you wouldn't have a graphics metaphor to emphasize how fast your wheel can go, nor a verbal metaphor for how much time and money your computer software project is consuming.

That proves fire is more important than the wheel or the computer.

Respectfully,
Myriad
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String rules with glue at it's side and fire underneath!

String is KING!

:D

(Look at that string and glue burn, maybe it should be
String rules with glue and fire at it's side, with fire at a safe distance)
 
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Rock....First tools. String....Used to tie rocks onto arrow shafts....Glue...used to keep the whole thing from unravelling when you shoot it into a mastodon.

Wheels certainly have longevity, difficult to imagine we could do without them. Even the computer has a few wheels inside. (that is, until solid-state storage becomes the norm, which won't be long.)
Maybe when we start manufacturing with nanotechnology, and operating cars that work with magnetic-lift fields. Likely, kids will still want bicycles.

Still, the computer has helped advance knowledge at an impressive and ever-increasing rate and in a very short time.
 
The wheel has done more for humans. But the computer will do more. There's time, and space, and the predisposition. But the wheel will remain important, as much as the fire.
 
Wait... you need wheels in conveyor belts right? Well without conveyor belts you couldn't run an assembly line which is needed for computer building currently...

As a result, without the wheel, there would be no computer most likely.


INRM
 
The wheel. Definitely. It’s everywhere. And gears, pulleys and motors are just expansions on the wheel concept.

Computers can be used to analyze or control almost anything, but wheels are used to move almost everything.
 
i must say this has proved to be most interesting to observe everyone's thoughts. that in the end, regardless of what people chose, it is easy to see that many people have decided that having one and not the other would be most unpleasant. in my opinion the wheel appears to be winning, yet it's a computer we are debating these thoughts on. is that irony???
 
Faolan said:
i must say this has proved to be most interesting to observe everyone's thoughts. that in the end, regardless of what people chose, it is easy to see that many people have decided that having one and not the other would be most unpleasant. in my opinion the wheel appears to be winning, yet it's a computer we are debating these thoughts on. is that irony???
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ka-ching!
 
Faolan said:
in my opinion the wheel appears to be winning, yet it's a computer we are debating these thoughts on. is that irony???
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Just to reiterate, in my opinion, choosing the wheel is absurd. If you're choosing any of the simple machines, I'd imagine the wedge came first. In fact, the first anything conscripted from its original purpose, like a bone or rock, is probably the single most important invention on the road towards more interesting machines. By the way, simple plows for agriculture have more in common with wedges than wheels.

Moreover we don't know much about the invention of the wheel, but we know an awful lot about the individual players in the invention of electromechanical and electronic computers!
 
Jimbo07 said:
Just to reiterate, in my opinion, choosing the wheel is absurd. If you're choosing any of the simple machines, I'd imagine the wedge came first. In fact, the first anything conscripted from its original purpose, like a bone or rock, is probably the single most important invention on the road towards more interesting machines. By the way, simple plows for agriculture have more in common with wedges than wheels.

Moreover we don't know much about the invention of the wheel, but we know an awful lot about the individual players in the invention of electromechanical and electronic computers!
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yes, but .. the question was wheel or computer... either, or... this or that.... not "which simple machine or more interesting machine has done more for humans"

so, your other opinions aside.. which is it? wheel or computer.. one or the other....
 
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