The wheel? No big deal

We often hear people refer to the wheel as one of the important inventions of all time. But think about it: what good is a wheel? What can one do with it? Stand on top of it and try to roll it along?

Actually, the truly significant invention was not the wheel, but rather the axle - or more accurately, the concept of the wheel and axle as a system. This must have been a profound realization for the early humans. The wheel & axle system was probably discovered - or invented - simultaneously by many humans, but for each of them the experience of perceiving a systematic relationship between two completely different objects may have been hugely exhilarating.

They could immediately make grinding wheels, wagons and carts, waterwheels, windmills, pulleys, pottery wheels - a vast number of energy-transducing systems. But the wheel all by itself? No big deal.