inventions

Life looks a lot different now than it did even twenty or thirty years ago. As recently as fifty years ago, even scientists had a hugely different idea of how the world worked. And a hundred years ago? Screw that, no one wants to live in a world without functioning toilet paper or high fives. On the flipside, there's also tons of stuff that's way older than people think.

Some inventions like escalators and seltzer have been around for hundreds of years longer than most people think. And other stuff, like sharks, are older than entire species. for more interesting history stuff, here's a thread about how mundane people are important to history as well as some history memes to feel smart about.

Sometimes someone comes up with a design so simple, elegant and effective that it becomes the de facto item for that use in perpetuity. It must feel good to have created something that does something the best. In the other direction, here are inventions that are now used for something other than their intended purpose.

People are pretty great at finding alternate uses for things. Sometimes it's some military invention that gets re-marketed as a household convenience, sometimes it's a reflection of changing times, and sometimes its people realizing it's fun to shoot at each other using a paint-launching logging device. Here are some cool and interesting inventions.

It's probably happened to you too. You were thinking to yourself something along the lines of, "what if they made like, a bicycle, but that you didn't have to pedal. Maybe powered by some sort of engine. Like some kind of motor..cycle. Oh I'm a moron." If you're interested in ideas you probably haven't thought of, here are some actually original ideas and inventions.

The world is changing quickly. While some of those changes are terrifying, some are pretty cool. Here are 24 things people are pretty sure won't be around in 10 years.