Undervalued most of humanity's technology: soap Before soap, humans smelled wonderfully, infections wiped out constantly, plagues swept continents. Someone discovered that combining fat with ash produced something that attracted oil and water, hence moving earth away as amicable negotiation between conflicting components.
Today we treat soap lightly, hundreds of kinds claiming different wonders. Antibacterial soap generates superbugs. Luxury soap more expensive than dinners You take hotel soap since it's free. Eternal bar soap versus vanishingly quick liquid soap. During pandemics, washing your hands became a cultural slogan, therefore exposing how few people ostensibly never acquired basic hygiene. Twenty seconds of soap changes hands from safe tools to vectors of sickness.
Sponsors marketing cleaning supplies to housewives, drama intended to move products, gave rise to soap operas' namesake. Even our amusement smells like business. In prison, dropping the soap carries a more sinister implication. But soap mostly represents a fresh beginning, wiping away yesterday and assuming clean skin somehow makes you new.