> (That being said, i can see that some other "inventions" might be very
> deserving also)

I'd give you just one, without vaccines many of us would be 6 feet
under, there are many "inventions", not all of them that great like
the atomic bomb ...

As you said the printing press has been a great achievement to
increase the efficiency to distribute the written word, but perhaps
more important has been the invention of the written word.

The Internet today is a conglomerate of many things that you can call
"inventions" or "achievements in technology", Internet without HTML
and the DNS would not be the same, etc. It would be hard to imagine a
high performance router made out of vacuum tubes.

Without the invention of packet switching there would be no Internet
and you would probably be complaining to the PTT for the price of the
kilo-octet and dealing with many different interpretations and
implementations (being there, done that) of ITU-T formerly CCITT X.abc
recommendations.

IMHO the best and more notorious side effect of the Internet is that
since its conception we learned to work in a cooperative manner across
borders, to "freely" share information and experiences, regardless of
nationality, color, religion, sexual orientation, educational
background, etc. What makes Internet unique and so relevant is the
"spirit" of the people which (excuse my french) with all this shit
about governance, IP & commercial interests, yada, yada, we are
loosing.

We have an old proverb in spanish that says "La culpa no es del
chancho, sino del que le da de comer", in english would be something
like "Don't blame the pig, blame those who feed it."

My .02
Jorge