Get Premium
Dark mode theme is available exclusively for premium users. Learn more about the benefits of subscribing.
No fees, cancel anytime.
Dark Mode 
No fees, cancel anytime 
Let’s face it, we’re far from perfect. As a species, we have certainly made remarkable advancements in science and technology, with inventions that changed the world for the better. But what happens when a creation — the very thing that was meant to make our lives easier, healthier, and happier — ends up doing the opposite?
Enter the world of the worst ideas ever, where the imagination of geniuses has run amok, and the results are sometimes amusing, sometimes horrifying. Considering things like landmines and chemical weapons exist, one wonders how the creators failed to anticipate the potential repercussions of their bad inventions. Was it a case of being blinded by the lure of profits? Or perhaps we are simply inept at foreseeing the consequences of our creations? Or worse, some people willingly pursued this kind of impact?
But since you clicked on this post, the real question on your mind is, “What’s the worst invention in human history?” You know, the one that, if you could go back in time, you’d kick its inventor and tell them to cut it out? We’re not alone in this quest — people from all walks of life shared their opinions in this Reddit thread, and the responses are a fascinating read. From planned obsolescence to nuclear weapons, there are many contenders for the title of the worst human invention.
While some are unanimously considered horrific, others are seen as nothing more than annoyances or are subjective in terms of whether they should be regarded as harmful or not. Keep scrolling to check out what people pointed out as inventions that have a negative impact on the world, and let us know what you think about the list in the comments section!
This post may include affiliate links.
#1
Piny1947aq1 wrote:
"Mobile Game Ads."
KeepCalmCarrion replied:
"Is anyone else a little concerned by all these ads on apps targeted to kids that are full of half naked anime girls and whatnot?"
Commenter No. 3 added:
"I haven’t seen those but the ones with a mother freezing to death with her child, after being kicked out by the cheating father, are pretty concerning. Pull the right pin and they won’t die! Totally normal."
RELATED:
#3
"Factory farms for animals. They are in hell and we are the devils."
Cuppa tea? 1 year ago
Just read about Chinese pig farm. Building is 26 stories high, it will accommodate thousands of animals. Apparently the waste will be reuse to produce electricity. Still cannot imagine it -the smel and noise and conditions.
#4
lethatsinkin wrote:
"Tiktok."
Commenter No. 2 replied:
"Nah man, all of social media. Everything predatory about tiktok exists in all social media, now that everything is run by algorithms. Tik Tok is particularly bad, though."
#6
"Well, since everyone else has already listed the big war crime ones, Conversion Therapy."
and_a_touch_of_the_’tism 1 year ago
1000x yes. So awful, it’s literally abuse and doesn’t work (not that it would be ok if it did).
#7
LobstahmeatwadWTF wrote:
"Flushable wipes. These companies should be destroyed."
Chasin_Papers replied:
"They still write flushable on the packaging despite the fact that they have destroyed probably billions of dollars in infrastructure and make the worst mess to clean up that I can possibly imagine."
Maebe Maeve 1 year ago
If only bidets were more common in the USA. They are life-changing! Get much cleaner without all of the toilet paper.
#8
"Casino slot machines that allow you to insert your credit/debit cards."
#9
ruineerxx wrote:
"Religion."
KentuckyFriedEel replied:
"Probably this! The immense amount of social conditioning through absurd restrictions has held us back immensely. Our art, science, food, sex lives, politics, culture, etc., etc., etc. have all been held back for thousands of years because controlling masses via religious ethics and dogma is an effective means of maintaining followers."
#10
"High fructose corn syrup."
RagDollLali 1 year ago
High fructose corn syrup and sugar are equally bad for you, they put too much of both in our foods.
#11
"There's one particular guy, Thomas Midgeley.
He was working as an engineer, looking for an additive for petrol which would stop engine knocking caused when the pistons misfire.
There was many possibilities but one was a novel and therefore patentable idea which made a fortune. Tetraethyl Lead.
He then went on to work in cooling and refrigeration to solve the problem of the gases being used also being toxic and flammable. He invented early chlorofluorocarbons, marketed as Freon.
Freon was later discovered to be highly damaging to the ozone layer. It took decades to uncover and there was huge opposition to the findings. If they hadn't been banned and phased out, their use would have resulted in the end of life in earth.
Leaded petrol was responsible for mass lead poisoning, a noticeable rise in brain damage and has been linked to the sharp rise in criminality and violence in the 1980s.
Two of the worst inventions of all time, both attributed to one man: probably the most dangerous and damaging man ever to have lived."
#12
"Reality TV."
#13
gonzoyak wrote:
"The gas-powered leaf blower."
Joliet_Jake_Blues replied:
"Running one for 30 minutes is the equivalent of driving a pickup truck 1500 miles. Those are terrible."
OkBookkeeper6854 added:
"Doesn’t have the same cleaners on the exhaust as the truck does. Largely unregulated pollutants too. Super super dirty."
#15
"I'll go with styrofoam. It's single use, takes 500 years to biodegrade, leaches carcinogens, and is f*cking everywhere."
kitten levels tokyo 1 year ago
Better than styrofoam: pack things in flour tortillas. They are also soft and can cushion things. And when your package is unpacked: snack time!
#16
"In the end, I think nuclear weapons will be at the top of this list.
We're only surviving currently because everyone has agreed that they wouldn't prefer to doom mankind to a fiery radioactive death.
Don't you think it's only a matter of time before someone irrational decides to take everyone down with them?"
#17
CreativeRip806 wrote:
"Planned obsolescence."
Cimmerian_Noctis replied:
"This is a problem with a multitude of other global/widespread negative implications that we haven't even begun to fully experience. It's an issue that pisses me off more than any other."
#18
LastLombaxIsTaken wrote:
"Chemical weapons, landmines that stay active even after the wars end, poisons, Google+, torture machines the list goes on."
reallybrokeboy replied:
"What did Google+ do to you?"
#19
Cosmoplasma wrote:
"Corporate lobbying."
im_the_real_dad replied:
"Just bad corporate lobbying by people we don't like. We want good corporate lobbying like unions being able to lobby for better workers' rights."
Feathered Dinosaur 1 year ago
Politicians having a second job as chairman of a lobbying corporation. Sadly the norm in Germany...
#20
iamnotdownwithopp wrote:
"Social media algorithms."
hippolover77 replied:
"Yes! And it can all be traced back to 2016 when it was changed from chronological to algorithm based, that’s when everything really started going to sh*t in the world."
#21
Whose_my_daddy wrote:
"Cigarettes."
fubo replied:
"The cigarette rolling machine caused the tobacco boom of the early 20th century... which, in turn, caused the anti-smoking movement of the mid-to-late 20th century.
Industrial rolling machines made pre-rolled cigarettes cheaper, making them a consumer product. Nicotine users didn't have to roll their own, pack a pipe, or deal with the mess of snuff or chaw. This made nicotine much more accessible to the masses.
In World War I, Gen. Pershing regarded tobacco as an essential element of American military readiness. Soldiers needed cigarettes to fight! Why? Because nicotine addiction had become commonplace, and because nicotine is a stimulant that makes it easier to work harder. Cigarettes were issued in US military rations through the Vietnam War.
But when soldiers returned from the war(s), it turned out that smoking was not so good for their families. Elders developed cancer; children developed asthma; and nice girls didn't want to kiss boys who tasted like an ashtray."
fair_weather_rose 1 year ago
Today at school I saw an hour and 15 minutes long presentation about vaping and why it is bad for you. Basically cigarette companies own most vaping products, and they are primarily targeting a teen audience. Theres not a lot of money in the vaping industry, definitely not as much as there is in cigarettes, so they want to get teens hooked on a type of nicotine that is considered to be "safer." Not that it is, it's just marketed that way. Studies show that most teens who vape regularly will become addicted to cigarettes. Typically one vape cartridge has the same amount of nicotine as 20 cigarettes.
#22
No-Albatross-8312 wrote:
"The first version of the chainsaw. If you know it's purpose, you know."
wakka55 replied:
"We don't tho."
No-Albatross-8312 elaborated:
"The first version of the chainsaw was used as a childbirth aid. This was before C-sections and the child had to go through the birth canal. It was to assist."
KeepCalmCarrion added:
"Scalpel...
Sponge...
Chainsaw..."
#23
"Plenty of horrible inventions were made in the 20th century. Leaded fuel was probably the worst.
However I’m not trying to exaggerate when I say that Twitter is way up there. I’ve never seen people so polarized. Now they can have a few drinks and spew mental diarrhea all over the planet."
Lyone Fein 1 year ago
The spewing of mental diarrhea has been going on since humans began talking.
#25
MochaJ95 wrote:
"Agent orange."
Bunnybunbons replied:
"Generations of families of people exposed to this are still struggling with the effects."
kitten levels tokyo 1 year ago
I knew an unnaturally short woman whose father had been exposed to agent orange before her birth. She passed the the condition on to her son.
#26
Theanonymousmemer1 wrote:
"Wood ice cream scoopers from Ikea."
Phl_worldwide replied:
"In terms of utensils, I feel like the paper straw is way worse lol."
#27
SmolWanderer_ wrote:
"The school system that we use today, why we don't renovate it?"
youritalianjob replied:
"Coming from a teacher myself, there are three main reasons. Standardized testing, older teachers, and parents.
For standardized testing we basically have to teach to the test. It removes a lot of freedom for innovation because if our numbers don’t look good as a school it becomes an issue.
Because of this, older teachers are kind of set in their ways and don’t see any good coming out of innovating. What works doesn’t need to be fixed in their mindset. Also, it opens them up to potentially not doing as well and see problem one again.
Lastly, you would be surprised how many parents want things to be taught exactly how they were taught. You can see this with common core. While not inherently bad, the resistance in the way of teaching it differently was insane.
This also doesn’t even touch the fact that there would need to be a lot of training and it would just get heaped on top of what we already have to do. If it was something that we could focus solely on, wouldn’t have to worry about standardized testing, and wouldn’t have to worry about the parents, then we could see some real change."
Hugh Cookson 1 year ago
The difference between teaching and educating is huge. Most western societies teach their children (mostly poor / middle class) to pass exams by teaching them to do so, whilst educating the wealthier / entitled class children to have ideas and think for themselves (ie, critical thinking) ; until this ridiculous, biased and outdated system is overhauled there will always be disparity and conflict which will only benefit the better off regardless of the latent talents of the children of the poorer in society, in other words, capitalism at it's worst and most stupid !!
#28
"The cotton gin. From what I understand slavery was in decline in the U.S. But the cotton gin dramatically increased slavery because while it made it easier to pick seeds out of cotton and increased its profitability, more land was needed to grow cotton and more slaves were brought over to grow and pick all that cotton."
#29
bread-of-time wrote:
"Mustard gas is pretty nasty stuff."
shruggletuggle replied:
"Its also interesting that Fritz Haber (the inventor of mustard gas) also invented the Haber-Bosch process which takes nitrogen from the air and turns it into fertilizer, which would be used to feed billions, and it'd estimated that half the protein in your body is a result of this process.
So in essence he killed millions and saved billions."
#30
Kquinn87 wrote:
"Single use plastics."
PossessionNew7080 replied:
"What about plastics used in medical scenarios? Like plastic drain tubes used after surgery?"
Shryxer added:
"There's so much trash associated with medicine. Sterile things need to be packaged in something that won't easily tear or soak through, a lot of things are single use, absolutely none of it can be recycled alongside nonmedical recyclables... Think about how many times a nurse has to change gloves in a shift, how many syringes and tube feeds and IV sets need to be changed, medication packs opened, specimen jars and vials sent to lab. Those don't just get rinsed and reused, at best they need to be sent off to another facility for full cleaning and sterilization. Most of it goes to medical recycling or just trash. And it's all out of necessity! You wouldn't want to be stuck with a needle that had just been freely rattling around in a drawer, you wouldn't want to flush a line with a dirty syringe, you wouldn't want to hook up a patient to an IV that had been used by someone else, you're not going to keep using a sterile field that's been contaminated. So for everyone's safety, all this trash gets produced.
Remember to take your empty pill bottles to the pharmacy for proper disposal, folks. If you toss them in your recycling, the entire lot goes into the landfill because of the risk of contamination."
#31
"CAPTCHA. By what right does the machine question our humanity?"
#32
"Motion sensor paper towel dispensers. A good 2 full second in between each towel, and they are only a couple inches long. WAS MANUALLY PULLING OUT THE TOWELS REALLY THAT HARD?!"
#33
"2 words. Plastic Shrapnel. Hard to find once its inside. Just brutal."
#34
"Paper straws."
Squirrelly Panda 1 year ago
Paper straws for a cold drink seems OK, lasts long enough. But the time I got a paper straw for my smoothie, it collapsed before I had 2 sips.
#35
"The Lobotomy Orbitoclast. A tool to wiggle holes in your brain."
kitten levels tokyo 1 year ago
When we were kids we joked about this (“You got a C on that test?! Did your parents take you in for a lobotomy last weekend?”) Now that I am an adult I know that lobotomies are no laughing matter.
#36
"Plastic clamshell packaging."
#37
"For a list of the worst inventions of all time, press 9."
Miles Mawyer 1 year ago
"For a list of the worst inventions, say 'worst inventions'.... I'm sorry I didn't understand you. say 'worst inventions'.... I heard 'burst extensions'... is that corrrect? say 'yes' or 'no'... I'm sorry that's an invalid response, please say 'yes' or no'" 000000000000000000000000000 'We're sorry, there are no representatives available right now. Please try back at a later time.'
#38
nat3245 wrote:
"That touchless hand soap dispenser. You're washing your hands after you touch a soap pump. You don't need to be so worried about the 'germs lurking on there.'"
3dmonkeyarray replied:
"You use the automatic flush, taps, soap dispenser, and hand dryer. Then you have to touch the door to get out."
#39
"The non-metric system."
Ace 1 year ago
Ancient measures were not in themselves bad, and still form the basis for many of our modern standardised measures. What's bad is continuing to use old systems that are often inconsistent in themselves (like a US pint being only 16/20ths of an international one) when there are better standardised universal alternatives.
#40
jj77985 wrote:
"That iron bull they used to burn people in. That was pretty bad."
Snoo72721 replied:
"At least the inventor of it got burned in an iron bull."
MustardTiger88 added:
"That's right, and it's called the Brazen Bull."
#41
"The word colonel it doesn’t even have an r it’s so stupid."
Hugh Cookson 1 year ago
Ah, it's an English vs American English thing. For instance, Lieutenant ; in real English, this is pronounced 'Leftenant' whereas in US English it is 'Lootenant' ..... Much easier in the German language which is much more precise - Leutnant, pronounced as it's written.
#42
that_random_eskimo wrote:
"Rose Art Crayons."
HanaNotBanana replied:
"They're just birthday candles without wicks."
#43
"The Cornballer - hands down JUST DON'T TOUCH THAT... NEVER TOUCH THAT."
#45
drunk98 wrote:
"As a large man, I got to go with wicker furniture. No thanks, ill just stand."
superultraelite replied:
"I was at a party on campus once and I was standing by a fence and I saw this piece of wicker poking through the fence. I looked over the fence and saw that it was a wicker chair. So I grabbed the piece of wicker and started pulling and pulling.
And that is how I stole a wicker chair."
#46
"Those shoes that are like socks with toe holes."
#47
"I was at the store and saw a marshmallow stick that automatically rotated the marshmallow for you for ten dollars or something. I just couldn't imagine someone so lazy that they would rather shell out ten dollars for a completely unnecessary device rather than simply turn a stick in their hands, but then I realized I live in America and I could imagine someone that lazy."
and_a_touch_of_the_’tism 1 year ago
But that ruins the experience! It’s more fun to do it yourself
#48
"That Facebook function where people can see when you've read the message or not (read receipts). I just wanna lurk around and ignore people godd*mnit."
#49
"The eject button on a dvd players remote control. you still have to get up to change the disc anyway."
#50
Commenter No. 1 wrote:
"Venetian Blind Sunglasses, the kind Kanye West used to wear all the time."
w9o replied:
"I remember wanting those in 5th grade because everyone else had them but my mom wouldn't buy it for me. Thanks mom!"
kitten levels tokyo 1 year ago
Fun fact: Venetian blind sunglasses don’t really come from Venice.
What do you think ?
James016 1 year ago
Voice activated menu systems when you call somewhere. Those things are the absolute worst.
Powerful Katrinka 1 year ago
I got caught in one yesterday trying to talk to someone at Xfinity. I ended up yelling, "I just want to talk to a person! A human being!"
Load More Replies...
Deborah Harris2 1 year ago
I gave up reading on item 5 , it's all just peoples' one line comments cut and pasted, no valid arguments for and against ..
James016 1 year ago
Voice activated menu systems when you call somewhere. Those things are the absolute worst.
Powerful Katrinka 1 year ago
I got caught in one yesterday trying to talk to someone at Xfinity. I ended up yelling, "I just want to talk to a person! A human being!"
Load More Replies... Deborah Harris2 1 year ago
I gave up reading on item 5 , it's all just peoples' one line comments cut and pasted, no valid arguments for and against ..
Related on Bored Panda
