The toaster oven. Post-It notes. And, uh, plumbing.
That’s what people said when asked their pick for the greatest invention of all time, as we checked in with visitors to Seattle Center for our Geek on the Street question.
A bit less basic were responses to the follow-up question: If you could invent anything, no matter how outrageous, what would it be?
“Probably a way to make the traffic in Seattle a lot easier,” said one. “I mean, flying cars would be cool, but I feel like that would have its own issues.”
Jet packs and rockets and the Star Trek transporter were also high on some lists. Fast transportation, it seemed, was a theme.
This episode of Geek on the Street was part of the 2018 GeekWire Summit. This year, GeekWire was excited to welcome to the main stage three inventors, showing off haptic technology for virtual reality, processes for creating clothing with less textile waste, and a way to ensure that self-driving automobiles can see more clearly.
Learn more about those inventions here, or view the entire GeekWire Summit session below to see how the inventors shared their work in real time, on stage.
Watch the video at the top for all of the Geek on the Street responses.
