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.

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[–] 29 points 3 months ago* (9 children)

Sputnik, Vostok, the artificial heart, the math behind modern multi-stage rocketry, and space rovers were all invented by the Soviets.

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  • [–] [S] -5 points 3 months ago (8 children)

    First satellite! Yes! Great one!

    As for the rest, they don't meet the criteria. I don't know what vostok is and a web search doesn't show anything. And the others aren't on the same level of world-changing, even though they're extremely important and impressive

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  • [–] 14 points 3 months ago (7 children)

    Vostok 1 was the capsule that contained Yuri Gagarin, the first man in space. All of these were critical advancements in space flight and science. What is the criterion for "world changing" that doesn't include the numerous critical advancements in space?

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  • [+] [S] -6 points 3 months ago (6 children)

    Again, first satellite! Great example! And an absolute first achievement in rocketry!

    First man in space is close, but it's not as world changing, more of a synthetic goal post that was reached. There's no actual border between space vs not space, it's just a synthetic line we drew arbitrarily at exactly 100 km.

    But a satellite is an altogether different thing. That's the first thing humans ever pushed up that didn't immediately fall back to earth after it stopped being pushed upward. A true and massive achievement, and that achievement created brand new world-changing technologies in communications, created breakthroughs in almost all branches of sciences, changed how we humans live through gps, and all the zillion other world-changing advanced that flowed as a direct immediate consequence

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  • [–] 6 points 3 months ago (5 children)

    Surviving in space and successfully returning from orbit is absolutely an incredible achievement that spurred on the space race.

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  • [–] [S] 3 points 3 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) (4 children)

    I agree, but it's not a world-changing breakthrough. There had previously been humans extremely high up, but they just didn't cross above the synthetic threshold we randomly drew

    EDIT

    Nope, i was totally wrong. I did some reading and it's clear that Yuri's flight was absolutely world-changing

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  • [–] 4 points 3 months ago (2 children)

    That's why I am asking what counts as "world-changing," as most people would consider the first man in space to be world-changing.

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  • [–] 3 points 3 months ago

    Especially considering that Yuri Gagarin's flight inspired generations of people all over the world after him to a probably immeasurable extent. If the OP wanted "global society-altering", then that certainly qualifies.

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  • [–] [S] 3 points 3 months ago

    I did some reading and learned a bunch of stuff, and now i see that you're right and I'm wrong. Yuri's first spaceflight does in fact totally qualify, completely. I was under the misunderstanding thinking that he was the first to cross the synthetic goal line into space but i assumed that previous attempts were close-ish but not quite to the same altitude. Nope. I just learned that he DEMOLISHED the previous altitude record by an order of magnitude, 32 km vs 320 km, and that all previous flights were using atmosphere conditions to power their flight. You're totally right, Vostok1 was a totally world-changing achievement

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  • [–] 25 points 3 months ago (1 child)

    The Web was invented by an Englishman working in Switzerland.

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  • [–] 10 points 3 months ago (1 child)

    Somewhat small, but I'd say one of the most useful inventions that is used by literally everyone...the ballpoint pen was invented in Argentina.

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  • [–] 9 points 3 months ago (2 children)

    High speed rail is usually credited to Japan.

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  • [+] [S] -7 points 3 months ago (1 child)

    Even if so, that's not on the same level. That's just a continuously advancing technology, not a particular creation. The level I'm talking about would be the creation of rail road technology altogether.

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  • [–] 17 points 3 months ago

    It does begin to feel a bit like you're moving the goal posts for what you consider "world-changing" as you comment more on this post. If the first man in space and high speed rail are "just incremental progress", then why do rock music and AI count for you? Everything humans have ever done is accomplished incrementally using the accomplishments of prior human ingenuity.

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  • [–] 16 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago) (2 children)

    Gun Powder and Paper were invented/discovered in China.

    While no one person or entity invented Algebra, the first time it was ever conceived as an independent organized science was in Bagdad, when it was a Persian city.

    The battery was invented in Italy.

    Again while it evolved over time a scientist in China is credited as discovering the cure for Malaria.

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  • [–] 8 points 3 months ago* (1 child)

    LEDs - Japan

    Quantum physics - international but Germany is fair attribution early on

    As you indicated, most recent advances in manufacturing - Japan, China, Taiwan, Korea. This is the biggest imho.

    China’s recent battery tech I think could be amazing, and I wouldn’t lump that under manufacturing.

    GLP-1 (we'll see where this goes) - Denmark but also USA

    We’re definitely still missing so many :)

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  • [–] 6 points 2 months ago (1 child)

    Universal free health care.

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  • [–] 6 points 3 months ago (2 children)

    There's a Brazilian saying, "Catapulta não é motor" ("catapult isn't an engine"). While the Wright brothers surely contributed with substantial knowledge to the field of aviation, airplanes are a Brazilian invention, invented by Alberto Santos-Dumont. There's even a joke only Brazilians (or non-Brazilian people very knowledgeable of the cultural uniqueness across Brazilian regions) could readily understand: one of the major proofs that airplanes are Brazilian is the naming "TREM de pouso" (landing gear). For context: Santos-Dumont was born in the Brazilian state of Minas Gerais, a state very known for its unique accent and dialects such as using "trem" (train) for "thing", as in "pode pegá ess-trem fazenfavô?" being "Mineirês" for "Posso pegar essa coisa, por gentileza?" ("can I have this thing, please?"), so whenever something lacks a proper name/definition, Mineiros (those born and/or living in the state of Minas Gerais) are very likely to call it a "trem" (e.g. "eita trem bão", "oh, what a nice/good thing!"). Source: I'm Brazilian and also been residing in the state of Minas Gerais.!asklemmy@lemmy.ml

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  • [–] [S] -3 points 3 months ago (1 child)

    The wright brothers absolutely were "standing on the shoulders of giants", but they were the first to create heavier-than-air flight.

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  • [–] 2 points 2 months ago

    The main contribution of the Wright brothers is the controls used on aviation (pitch, yaw and roll). About being the first, Santos-Dumont is recognized by Fédération Aéronautique Internationale as the first flight with witnesses. Splitting hairs here, the english word "airplane" is less specific than the french word "avion". All avion are airplanes, but to be an avion the machine needs to be able to take off and land by its own means, and that's the point where the first flight of the Wright brothers are missing. And as they kept secrecy on what they were doing, we don't know exactly when they introduced each innovation on their machines. But to me, that doesn't matter much actually. Heavier-than-air flights are more like a collective effort IMHO with the Wright brothers, Santos-Dumont and many others contributing to create the aviation.

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  • [–] 6 points 3 months ago (1 child)

    Since many other comments have focused heavily on technological inventions, I think it makes sense to add some notable cultural impacts on society as well. As with most of the technological inventions mentioned, cultural forces also don't come out of nowhere and arguably have been around for a lot longer than 100 years, but I think it's pretty obvious that society within the past 100 years has been and still is being massively affected by the following concepts that did not originate in the USA:

    • feminism
    • civil rights movement (usually seen through a US-focused lens, but is happening everywhere)
    • gay rights movement (esp. in the 1990's and beyond)
    • gender-spectrum concepts
    • widespread influence of evolutionary theory (even the word "meme" came from a British biologist's book about evolution)
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  • [–] 6 points 2 months ago (4 children)

    Here are some.

    • Antibiotics (Germany)
    • Bluetooth (Denmark)
    • C++ (Denmark)
    • DVD (Japan)
    • Electric clock (UK)
    • Graphene (Canada)
    • Helicopter (Russia)
    • Linux (Finland)
    • Penicillin (Scotland)
    • TNT (Sweden)
    • Wegovy (Denmark)
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  • [–] [S] 0 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) (3 children)

    Penicillin IS an antibiotic. They aren't two different things. But yes, that's a fantastic one.

    Bluetooth, although not quite on the same level as i was asking about, still is a decent one to list.

    C++ was created by a dane, but was created by an American company in America - https://techhistorylab.com/complete-history-of-cpp-from-1979-to-today/

    Dvd was a multi-national creation - see history section https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DVD

    Electric clock is over 100 years

    Graphene is a cool material with a lot of potential but so far isn't close to changing the world - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Graphene

    Helicopter is a good one. Interestingly it was a step-wise multinational evolution, but which doesn't seem to include the US. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Helicopter

    Linux is made by an American as a personal project for himself while he was in Finland for a few years. Definitely not a Finnish creation. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Linux

    TNT is over 100 years

    Wegovy wasn't created by a Dane, but glp-1 was first discovered by a dane. Discovering it is obviously a crucial first step, but that's an entirely different thing than turning it into a medication which happened decades later by other people. See history sections https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jens_Juul_Holst and https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glucagon-like_peptide-1 and https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Semaglutide

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  • [–] 4 points 2 months ago

    Linux (the Kernel) was started by Linus Torvalds. He is still Finnish citizen and holds the US citizenship since 2010. So I would clearly say it's a Finnish invention. Or citing your source: "Linux began in 1991 as a personal project by Finnish student Linus Torvalds to create a new free operating system kernel."

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  • [–] 3 points 2 months ago* (1 child)

    If you nitpick your own suggestions the same way, you'll find that nuclear weapons were made by Germans in America and that rock music is a rip off of blues which is from Africa, and so on.

    All inventions are based on knowledge that comes from somewhere else. It's the exchange of knowledge that pushes inventions forward. It is very rarely the country of where that person had his or her ass situated at the time of the patent application that caused the invention.

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  • [–] [S] 1 point 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago)

    What? No. Nuclear weapons were made directly by the American government (The Manhattan Project), lead by an American scientist (Oppenheimer), directed by an American general of the US army corps of Engineers (Leslie Groves), and assisted by top level scientists that included some immigrant American citizens (such as Enrico Fermi and Albert Einstein).

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manhattan_Project

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/J._Robert_Oppenheimer

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leslie_Groves

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enrico_Fermi

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Albert_Einstein

    And omg, blues is not from Africa. It is FAMOUSLY a creation that originated in America.

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blues

    Obviously everything that's created builds on things that already exist, but that doesn't mean nothing is a new creation. That's a silly argument.

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  • [–] 5 points 3 months ago (1 child)

    origins of wifi started in australia... the centre differential , black box recorders, cochlear implants, the pacemaker, rotary clotheslines, spray on skin

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  • [–] 5 points 2 months ago

    Invented in Japan in 1999, i-mode is a remarkable technology for connecting mobile devices to a wide range of web services.

    It's well-known in Japan that this invention, not the iPhone, was the first to enable games, email, emojis, and selfies on mobile devices.

    I believe that the Japanese girls of the early 2000s who created this culture are the greatest hackers who shaped the smartphone era.

    Super Galapagos - Matt Alt's Pure Invention https://blog.pureinventionbook.com/p/super-galapagos

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  • [+] 3 points 3 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) (1 child)
  • [–] 4 points 3 months ago (3 children)
  • [–] [S] -5 points 3 months ago (2 children)

    That's not nearly on the same level. The first commercially successful cell phone was the dynatac 8000, a phone made by an American and in the American market

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  • [–] 4 points 3 months ago*

    RCDs, the first patents were from the 1900s from Germany and the US, but the first usable designs were build in the 1950s in South Africa and Germany.

    Probably the device that has saved the most lives while working tinkering on the residential electrical system.

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  • [–] 7 points 2 months ago (2 children)

    All of them? The fuck is this American exceptionalist bullshit, lol.

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  • [–] [S] 2 points 2 months ago* (1 child)

    I don't understand how a few of you are so completely misunderstanding this post. I'm literally asking for specific examples that are counter to my current understanding which i assumed was wrong, specifically so that i could learn a LESS biased us-centric view.

    But frankly, overall y'all didn't do a great job, and I'm somewhat disappointed. There were a small number of HUGE ones people listed which were fantastic examples, but a lot of people listed a TON of incorrect items that when i looked it up turned out not to be from the country they claimed, or obviously weren't on the same world-changing level as the topic was about, or were over 100 years old.

    I'm literally asking for information to learn to be LESS us-centric

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  • [–] 2 points 3 months ago

    The wheelie bin

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  • [–] 1 point 2 months ago

    The CT scan: South Africa The MRAP: South Africa Electronic Ticketing: South Africa Camera phone: Japan QR code: Japan Tactile Paving: Japan The modern Lithium-ion Battery: Japan E-Cigarette: China Touch Screen phone: South Korea 5G: South Korea The PCB: Germany Sim Card: Germany MP3: Germany Bluetooth: Sweden

    There's so much and it's not difficult to find...

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  • [–] 1 point 2 months ago (1 child)

    Mexico: first oral contraceptive

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