The most influential person ever...

[Boerseun]

I've just read a book that claims to be a catalogue of the 100 most influential people ever. Very interesting, and some startling cases of people featuring from nowhere. Good reading!

The premise isn't the 100 greatest people, but the most influential. Thus, Hitler is rated above mother Theresa, for example. Now - the first 10 isn't at all what I would've thought, seeing as this guy took into account the eventual effect of all their actions, etc., and the global and current effect of their actions. Good/bad doesn't matter here; it's the total impact they had on the world that counts.

I'm not gonna say a word as to who this guy picked, I just want some feedback here as to what you guys think, who was the 10 most influential people in history, up till today?

And motivate your selection! This might be fun!

 

PS - anonymous people like the guy who invented the wheel (probably the most influential person ever) doesn't count! The dude must have a name!

[Iron4ever]

Hippocrates - the father of medicine and the study of the body

 

Johannes Gutenburg - the creator of the first mechanical printing device, which was the start of mass media.

 

Are a couple of the top of my head.

[rockytriton]

I would have to say that Jesus was probably the most influential person in history. Unfortunately, most people completely mix around the lessons he tried to teach.

[Boerseun]

How about Pontius Pilate? If he didn't crucify Jesus, thereby making a martyr of Him, the world would've looked completely different today. Pontius isn't in the guy's book, it's just a thought I had...

[rockytriton]

yea but nobody fought crusades over him or were influnced by him, they were influnced by someone else who he killed. Hitler influnces people (hateful people), not just because he killed jews but because of his ideas. I don't think anyone remembers anything about Pontius Pilate except for the fact that he had Jesus crucified.

[nkt]

Pilot was vital to the whole Christian religion thing, though. Had he simply had Jesus flogged, the whole movement would have died.

 

Sadly, George Bush the Lesser and his crony, Tony Blair, are going to be remembered for what they have done, and it won't be with kind words or thoughts. Should someone come to power in either the USA or UK who simply chooses to use the insane formerly emergency-only powers they have installed, to create a lawful dicatorship, then history, I hope, will not be kind on these two charlatons.

 

The world is now far less safe than before 9/11/01, and it is getting worse with every extra-judicial prison found, with every vaguely suspected building bombed from afar, with every law cutting freedom of press, speech and association, along with limiting freedom of movement, religion and even thought.

 

I care far more about the issues that occur every day - rapes, murders, continuous threats and acts of violence - than the once in a few years terrorist attack. I wrote the following to The Sun newspaper, the most widely read tabloid rag in the UK, who have been attacking mercilessly anyone who doesn't support 90 day internment without charge, even those who want 28 days (still double the current limit):-

 

Sir,

I have been reading your panicked, thoughtless headlines over the

terror laws (surely "Anti-terror laws"?) as you have tried, and,

thankfully, failed to remove the vast majority of the protections of

law from anyone a policeman doesn't like the look of. I'm sure that

were these powers to be used against the press for being "terrorist

mouthpieces" you would be the first to scream.

 

Besides, these "traitors" saw fit to DOUBLE the internment without

charge period to 28 days - more than long enough. 90 days is a

pathetic and dangerous joke - the British police are the best in the

world, and are used to framing people in just a few hours. 90 days

would make it far too easy for them to get a few more confessions

along the lines of the Birmingham Six, the Guildford Four, or the

travesties that are the recent prosecutions of Tony Martin and Barry

George.

 

Let us not forget the Tony BLiar has passed a Terror law every year

for the past five years now, each time hammering it through with

either scare tactics or a three-line party whip, or both. And what

difference has it made? Aside from, obviously, stripping dozens of

protections from those yet to be found guilty of anything more than

being a suspect? Removal of the right to silence had already gone,

along with the right to free speech, and so many others. As the Tory

MP shouted at Tony in the Commons, "Police State". It is telling that

not one MP dared speak when Tony then challenged, and nor did even one

MP back the PM. Perhaps they, and not you or he, have a better grasp

on this nation and what it needs.

 

So mark me down as a supporter of the freedoms the terrorists and your

paper are both trying so hard to remove.

 

Yours,

Nigel Tolley

[pgrmdave]

Marco Polo

Jesus

Charlemagne

Karl Marx

Gavrilo Princip

Shigero Miyamoto :hihi:

Linus Torvolds

Johann Sebastian Bach

Tormod Guldvog

Elvis

[Dark Mind]

Shigero Miyamoto :lol:

Wonder how many others know this name... :)

 

Almost to... level 7... ... YES! :hihi:

[GAHD]

My off the cuff top 5:

Gengis Khan

Hipatia

Hippocraties

Julius Ceasar

ShakeSpear

[Buffy]

My top 10:

 

The Beatles

The Grateful Dead

Michael Jackson

Dick Cheney

Madonna

Ronald McDonald

Stan Freberg

Thomas Edison

Alfred E. Neuman

Walter Cronkite

 

Pop culturally,

Buffy

[Erasmus00]

My list, no particular order

 

Tesla - father of most of the alternating current technology we now take for granted. More instrumental then even Edison in practical generation and distribution of electricity.

 

Newton and Leibniz- the calculus is arguably the most important step in the history of science. After the invention of the calculus, our understanding of the universe grew in leaps and bounds.

 

Jesus- None will argue that Christianity hasn't had a large effect in shaping history.

 

Otto Bismark- unifying Germany shaped modern history, leading to WWI and WWII.

 

Alexander the Great- his empire united West and East, so to speak. This helped ensure that Greek/Roman knowledge survived through the fall of Rome.

 

Aristotle- One of the most prominent philosophers of his day, when Christianity more or less officially adopted Aristotelian thought it went on to shape a great deal of Western thought.

 

The trio of John Bardeen, Walter Brattain, and Will Shockley - invention of the transistor might be the most important event of our century.

 

Karl Marx - self evident.

 

Gutenburg - self evident.

 

Oppenheimer - father of the atomic bomb, probably also self evident. Shaped the entire cold war, will obviously have continued influence.

-Will

[cwes99_03]

I haven't seen einstein mentioned once. Isn't he the father of e=mc^2? Didn't he create the whole nuclear age, making possible break-throughs in subatomic physics and cosmology, etc.?

I guess everyone already assumed that one.

Saying pontius pilate is like saying jack ruby. Ruby killed oswald, possibly to cover up some greater conspiracy on Kennedy's life by the CIA and Castro........ ahahahahahaha, but you get the point.

Had Jesus never walked the earth (some will say he didn't) no one would know who pilate is, therefore you can't count someone because someone else made him/her famous.

I think Josephus should be in there (top 100) as an extremely important early historian.

Which king was it that started WWII, by being assinated (or would this fall under the same category as pontius pilate)?

 

Do we include Satan? Or is that too religious for this thread?

[rockytriton]

Only people from histroy I'd say, so no, not Satan. I agree, everyone forgets Einstein, also, I guess we should mention Richard Feynman since he's pretty much the father of nanotechnology.

[cwes99_03]

Is nanotechnology going to be that influencial. I guess only time will tell, but I'd leave him off for the time being. Not saying the guy isn't a super-genious though. Has he had any other farflung effects on physics/math?

[rockytriton]

well, he worked on the atomic bomb at los alamos, he also has a nobel prize for his work in defining quantum dynamics.

[Boerseun]

Not only hasn't anybody mentioned Einstein, but Mohammed is also left out.

 

Forget about Mohammed being only a prophet, he was a big political figure in his own lifetime, and because of him, the Arab world invaded Europe via north Africa, crossing over in Gibraltar. They went all the way to France, and it took a couple of hundred years to get them out of there. The effects of their influence in the Iberian peninsula can be seen till today. Dark hair, dark eyes in Spain and Portugal, etc.

His teachings and actions caused Europe to launch a series of invasions with the Crusades to reclaim the holy land.

We certainly feel the effects of Mohammed's existence till today.

[cwes99_03]

Yes, very good one. I wonder if there are historical records to tell us who in the muslim world first began the use of the zero.