Freedom and technology

The Independent Magazine has published a list - '101 gadgets that changed the world'. The question I'd like to pose is this: which of the 101 inventions featured in the Independent (they include everything from medicines to labour-saving devices) have genuinely given us greater freedom?

For example: the debit/credit card has made it very much easier to get our hands on cash (no more queuing in high street banks for a start), but is this a good thing? Likewise, the digital camera may be a neat piece of equipment, but do we enjoy significantly greater freedom as a result?

My top freedom-related inventions (in chronological order) include:

• The wheel (3500BC)
• Plough (AD100)
• Paper (AD105)
• Gun (14th century)
• Spectacles (1451)
• Printing press (1454)
• Flushing toilet (1597)
• Fridge (1834)
• Hyperdermic syringe (1844)
• Light bulb (1848)
• Safety match (1850s)
• Internal cumbustion engine (1859)
• Telephone (1876)
• Radio (1895)
• Aspirin (1899)
• Vacuum cleaner (1901)
• Microchip (1958)
• Consumer PC (1977)

You could, of course, make a very different list - gadgets that, in some people's opinion, have enslaved rather than liberated us. (The mobile phone!!) Likewise, I wouldn't say that life is any better (in the UK, at least) as a result of the computer or the internet, but (it could be argued) it is easier.

For the full list of '101 gadgets that changed the world', click HERE.