Who is the most important person who ever existed

machiavellianme · 08-06-2021 2:47pm

Badly fukt wrote: »

She had 2 sons, think about that!

Three. At least that many are named in the bible. Presumably others too, that weren't named.

the_pen_turner · 08-06-2021 2:49pm

machiavellianme wrote: »

Three. At least that many are named in the bible. Presumably others too, that weren't named.

is brother /sister better or worse than mother /son incest

silliussoddius · 08-06-2021 2:58pm

FuzzyThinking wrote: »

Tbh you could go through every major breakthrough scientist. All the developments in communication technology from writing, to the printing press, to telegraph, to telephone, radio, tv, and ultimately the internet, every artist, every political leader and everyone else and you still would struggle to find that one human, because they didn’t exist in isolation.

It’s very hard to define a single person in humanity who changed everything or who was the most important in history.

Like it or not, we’re a huge collective of some sort, and one idea plays into the next.

My view of it is as population and connectivity increases, so does idea generation, creative bandwidth and ability to process new ideas.

We’re a network that’s much greater than the sum of its parts.

If I see further than you, it's by standing on the shoulders of giants.

machiavellianme · 08-06-2021 2:58pm

the_pen_turner wrote: »

is brother /sister better or worse than mother /son incest

The Bible is riddled with insinuations. Ultimately, we all devolved from the same primordial soup so no point in worrying about the rights and wrongs of it now.

Larbre34 · 08-06-2021 3:01pm

Excellent thread.

It's a great conversation really. Are we talking about the person with the greatest influence on human history? If so how, and could and would another person have made the same contribution eventually anyway?

Shortlist of:

King John Plantagenet of England for the Magna Carta, though he was under external pressure to create it.

Da Vinci for his far sighted engineering and unmatched artistry, though other people were almost as revolutionary in the Renaissance.

Isaac Newton, the father of modern physics

James Watt for steam power, though he wasn't alone in exploring it.

Joseph Henry for remote communication, long before Samuel Morse or Thomas Edison.

Karl Benz (cars), Stephenson (trains), Brunel (massive engineering), Logie Baird, AG Bell, Marconi, Galileo, Shakespeare, Moses, Mozart, Fleming, Pasteur, Boyle, Mohammed, the Curies, Jesus, Chuck Berry, Wordsworth, Mark Twain, the Mesopotamians, Aeneas of Troy (the real founder of Rome) etc etc.

All worthy nominees. However, for original thought and inspiration, for unique influential genius, for the degree of advancement and contribution to Mankind in terms of sheer knowledge and power, my winner is Albert Einstein.

08-06-2021 6:12pm

machiavellianme wrote: »

Three. At least that many are named in the bible. Presumably others too, that weren't named.

Or, actually none. Yeah I'll go with none.

08-06-2021 6:20pm

Interesting fact about Da Vinci he created amazing anatomical drawings but because they were lost and developed elsewhere before being refound he doesn't get 'credit' for them.

Although, somewhat contradictory can sometimes still be referenced or were up to relatively recently.

Tell me how · 08-06-2021 6:30pm

Norman Borlaug - Credited with saving a Billion people from starvation with his understanding and adaptation of wheat strains.

A billion is probably an exaggeration given it was a claim in a book about him but think there's no question he had a massive influence.

iamstop · 08-06-2021 6:33pm

Tesla.

PhilOssophy · 08-06-2021 6:41pm

Marty Morrissey?

Either him or Johnny Logan for me.

Kaybaykwah · 08-06-2021 7:50pm

Deleted User wrote: »

He never once sneezed into his elbow or washed his hands after taking a pee. So, there's that.

Yes, and the thing about herd immunity never once crossed his mind.

Kaybaykwah · 08-06-2021 8:20pm

Jeff Bezos.

The future of retail.

Also, he could have chosen from a whole
lot of women for a mate, but he was selfless enough to choose one with obvious fake boobz and fishlipz.

Capt'n Midnight · 08-06-2021 8:22pm

Tell me how wrote: »

Norman Borlaug - Credited with saving a Billion people from starvation with his understanding and adaptation of wheat strains.

A billion is probably an exaggeration given it was a claim in a book about him but think there's no question he had a massive influence.

Fritz Haber developed a process to make ammonia.

This can be used to make fertilizer and nowadays we use a lot of energy to fix more nitrogen than nature does. So saving perhaps several billion lives.

Fritz then went on to develop and use chemical weapons which is most likely why his wife committed suicide.

08-06-2021 8:30pm

Capt'n Midnight wrote: »

Fritz Haber developed a process to make ammonia.

This can be used to make fertilizer and nowadays we use a lot of energy to fix more nitrogen than nature does. So saving perhaps several billion lives.

Fritz then went on to develop and use chemical weapons which is most likely why his wife committed suicide.

He featured in the recent Genius tv series that covered Einstein's life.

Church on Tuesday · 08-06-2021 9:10pm

Layne Staley.

the purple tin · 08-06-2021 10:16pm

Mimon wrote: »

The Russians ran with his ideas, maybe somewhere a bit less mental might have made a better go of it.

It has been tried in almost 50 countries and the end result was always the same, a complete balls up. Even Lenin said that communism cannot survive without capitalism.
As for Marx himself, he was a total hypocrite and a selfish arsehole. Came from a wealthy family. Workers champion who never did a days work in his life. Sponged off his parents their entire life, left his widowed mother penniless after scrounging her entire life savings off her. After she died he began scrounging off Engels.

Cheated on his wife. Didn't bother going to his wife's or father's funeral because he had 'other things to do'.

Racist and anti-semite despite being Jewish, called black people gorillas and cavemen.
It is amazing that this spoofer ever managed to have such a big influence on the 20th century.

08-06-2021 10:25pm

Phil Mitchell

branie2 · 08-06-2021 10:26pm

Jesus Christ

completedit · 08-06-2021 10:41pm

the purple tin wrote: »

It has been tried in almost 50 countries and the end result was always the same, a complete balls up. Even Lenin said that communism cannot survive without capitalism.
As for Marx himself, he was a total hypocrite and a selfish arsehole. Came from a wealthy family. Workers champion who never did a days work in his life. Sponged off his parents their entire life, left his widowed mother penniless after scrounging her entire life savings off her. After she died he began scrounging off Engels.

Cheated on his wife. Didn't bother going to his wife's or father's funeral because he had 'other things to do'.

Racist and anti-semite despite being Jewish, called black people gorillas and cavemen.
It is amazing that this spoofer ever managed to have such a big influence on the 20th century.

It might be, I dunno, because he was one of the smartest thinkers of the era.

FarmerBrowne · 08-06-2021 10:47pm

Chris Finch......bloody good rep.

banie01 · 08-06-2021 10:51pm

EmmetSpiceland wrote: »

On topic, Edward Jenner, Alexander Fleming or Jonas Salk would be worthy of a mention.

Fleming and Salk are good shouts.

Not discounting Jenner completely but he was rather the face of the establishment on the long established home remedy of inoculation.
Long history of his method in Ottoman Turkey and throughout Europe.

I'd add the team of Banting, Best and MacCleod to the list for similar reasons as the above.

Larbre34 · 08-06-2021 11:12pm

Bezos is nobody without Tim Berners Lee, Edison, Faraday, Tesla, Marconi et al.

We have to think more fundamentally. Bezos is just today's John de Lorean or Robert Maxwell. In fifty years nobody will know him.