Most inventive Civilization?

Actually, most people is inventive given a chance.

 

As an example, don't you know Spaniards invented the steam machine before the brits?

 

I agree, indeed.

 

Besides perhaps one thing that is even more important that the invention itself is how receptive is a given society to change. Brits of the industrial revolution had the mystic necesary for the invention to spread.

 

Pinguin

 

Leaving China out there is a major blunder, it could easily win this thing I believe. There is a book, released not long ago, titled "The Genius of China: 3000 Years of Science, Discovery and Invention". It's just this long chain of inventions that make them strong contenders. Granted, the Greeks were awfully creative during their classical age, but that's "just" a few hundred years. The same goes for America and to some extent post-Renaissance Europe, though it could be argued that the inventions made by these civilizations in modern times have had such a huge impact on nearly every living being on the Earth to justify them winning the contest. Then again, most of these inventions were built on previous inventions by classical Greeks and Chinese, so who takes precedence? The Arabs deserve a mention too, for their contributions to math and medicine; Avicenna's work was the standard textbook on medicine in Europe well into the Age of Enlightenment (of course, Avicenna built on the work of the Greek Hippocrates, father of medicine). Then there's the Persians and their damn postal system...

 

I don't know about the Romans, their civilisation was largely built on Greek inventions, apart from what concerned matters political, judicial and military. The Roman contribution to legislation might just justify them being on that list though. The Turks however, what did they ever invent apart from the sticking of spears up people's asses?  

Yeah, all inventions are done in relationship to previous inventions, and to claim that the son is more important than the mother or vice versa is preposterous.

 

Well, that is true for civilizations of Eurasia. In pre-contact Americas, however, all the inventions were done by Natives themselves, in complete isolation. And they invented quite a lot, including wind powered metalurgic furnaces and compressed air toys (hard to believe but is true)

 

I believe all people has about the same degree of inventiveness, and given the necessity they develop it. Spaniards, for instance, lot of times downplayed, invented quite a few things. And what about Australian aboriguines, that have been seen by some bigots as the most primitive people ever. Well, they invented the boomerang. The first aerodynamic object invented by mankind.

 

Pinguin