What are the smartest ideas on the planet?

Responsibility, Respect, Equality, Tolerance, Love

Remembering to breathe is quite a good one.

Soap. Toilet paper. Electricity. Mints.

jobs.

Air bags, seat belts, car seats.

I have a feeling the stupid thread is going to be more fun!

Skepticism, reason, logic.
But above all, the superiority of the German race species.

lol!

Microcredit.

Universal healthcare
Equal rights
Public financing of political campaigns

Free Internet
Same Sex Marriage
Sham-WOW!

Music.

Money, no matter how much some will argue against it.

Imagine, “money” forms no part of any building, no art, no crops, no mined or refined products or inventions… yet look what we can accomplish for it. (And watch what happens to a society when “currency systems” fail.)

Oh, and contraception.

Sliced bread, Baby!

Oh, and anesthesia. And vaccines.

Playboy magazine.

Divided government.

Math

Fluther. :)

Zero is pretty cool.
Soap.
I’m a big fan of sexual dimorphism. Does that count?

DVR
Tampons
Airplanes
Air conditioning
Refrigeration
Penicillin

Walk softly and carry a big stick.

Joy, happiness, hope, dreams, love

MAD

Magazine.

Soap, Deordorant, toothpaste, consideration, tolerance, lingerie, and love.

The wheel. We could not live without it.

Viagra

recycling PEACE
and air conditioning

Nuclear weapons have been a pretty good idea. We haven’t had another World War since their invention.

Capitalism, the stock market and profit taking.

I like the support for soap! Also, I will add birth control, solar power, the scientific method.

Clean water and…. cheeeeeeese!!! Yum.

Peace, empathy, love, compassion, kindness… or else, I truly believe we will kill ourselves, annihilate our species by our own actions, one of these days, sooner or later.

Surprising: No one mentioned “computers” or “microcomputers”, the kind that we’re all using to make this list.

And right behind that, coming up fast, “software”, with “cell phones” threatening to take the lead..

@CWOTUS First of all, I’m not even sure what @Blackberry is going for here, exactly, when he is asking about “ideas,” and secondly, perhaps I shouldn’t quibble since the things I listed fall more into the values, character traits and emotions category, maybe, but I think of computers, of any sort, more as being tools and technology, like stone axes, irrigation systems or moveable type and the printing press, rather than as being “ideas.”

Okay… “argument” is a great idea, then.

;)

So vacuum cleaners are out @lillycoyote? :)

Indoor plumbing with running hot water; Heating and air-conditioning;
Refrigeration and indoor cooking appliances;
Corrective devices for sensory impairments (glasses and hearing aids);
Grind and brew coffeemaker with a timer so it’s fresh and ready when I get up;
Sunroof and Heated seats in the car;

All inventions started as ideas, so that’s what I interpreted the question as; as opposed to abstract concepts such as peace and love.

@CWOTUS Again, I hate to quibble, but I was quibbling, not arguing.

quib·ble (kwbl)
intr.v. quib·bled, quib·bling, quib·bles
1. To evade the truth or importance of an issue by raising trivial distinctions and objections.
2. To find fault or criticize for petty reasons; cavil.
n.
1. A petty distinction or an irrelevant objection.

:-)

and

@Dutchess_III

Not necessarily out, not if it’s an idea about a vacuum cleaner. Like my idea for a riding vacuum cleaner, with on-board tool. You ride it around your house and you’re vacuuming the main areas and at the same time can take the wand with the crevice attachment and get into the corners. Also there are available accessories like a little forklift attachment for lifting up the furniture so you can get underneath, a front loader attachment for cleaning up the rooms of particularly messy children and teenagers, and a little trailer/cart that you can tow behind it that you can throw anything anyone’s left lying around…. while you vacuum!

Words. Words are a great idea. I don’t think we’d have many of the others without words.

friendships old and new, understanding, mobility, resilience, traveling, stories, poetry, art, creativity, learning, discovery, all kinds of love… I could go on and on….

BLT’s.

Floors. Ceilings. Doors, Windows.

Sissors. And you realize what an especially good invention those were when you need some and realize you don’t have any! I took one pair out the The Land, to keep in the camper there, and another pair to work. I NEED SISSORS!!!

Proper spelling. For example, it makes you realise that it is spelt “scissors”.

Sissors Scissors. Well crap! I missed the flag! : )

school