Almost all the global society-altering creations i can think of FROM THE PAST 100 YEARS are from America. I highly doubt that’s true, so I’m looking for counter-examples.

To clarify, I’m looking for items on the level of:

  • the internet
  • rock music
  • nuclear weapons
  • ai
  • airplane flight (older than 100 years)

And clearly I’m not just including things that improved the world.

The best ones i can think of are (I think):

  • Rocketry (Germany)?
  • Cheap tech manufacturing (Asian countries)?

EDIT:

Actually rocketry has been around much longer than 100 years. Even the category of “modern rocketry” begins in the late 1800s. Source: https://www.grc.nasa.gov/www/k-12/TRC/Rockets/history_of_rockets.html

EDIT 2:

A further explanation of what level I’m talking about.

There has to be a clear before and after, and it has to directly and quickly effect most of the world. For example the Internet. There’s life before the internet, and there’s life after the internet, which are both very different.

As opposed to for example if someone makes a groundbreaking foundational research discovery that effects the entire realm of their field of study, but doesn’t quickly and directly create a difference in most people’s lives, then it doesn’t fit the category.

  • Trebuchet@europe.pub
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    3 days ago

    Piggybacking on @GMac’s excellent comment, here’s some additional detail:

    Alexander Fleming (Scottish) - penicillin

    John Shepherd-Barron (English) - ATM (although this was a synthesis of many previous inventions/ concepts from other countries)

    James Clerk Maxwell (Scot) - colour photography

    Da Vinci (modern day Italy) - contact lenses

    Alexander Cumming (scot) - S-bend

    Various nationalities helped develop the internal combustion engine

    Robert William Thomson (scot) - pneumatic tyre

    • Glowstick@lemmy.worldOP
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      2 days ago

      Penicillin - fantastic one!

      Atm - sure, i suppose it meets the criteria. Its not quite to the same level of societal change i was talking about, but it certainly did significantly change how people go about their day around the world. So it totally counts.

      All the rest - are over 100 years old

      But the penicillin one is ultra life-changing all around the world