Who was the most influential person in human history?

Who was the most influential person in history?

  • Sir Isaac Newton

    Votes: 1 9.1%

  • Jesus Christ

    Votes: 6 54.5%

  • Muhammad

    Votes: 1 9.1%

  • Johanas Guttenburg

    Votes: 3 27.3%

  • Tsai Lun

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • Total voters
    11
  • Poll closed .
Solitary said:
Prior to the printing press, books were written by hand. So the bulk of the information passed on from one generation to the next was done so verbally.

Can you imagine trying to verbally explain everything?

One scientist or researcher does so much. The next generation of scientist, researcher, or medical person would have to duplicate much of the same steps to continue. With the printed word, they build on the previous work to a much greater degree.

Its not that it is one part of the system, its that the system exists because the written word meant less duplication of efforts.

It was also the first step in putting information to the masses.



Knowledge is power. No other single person has had a more profound effect on spreading knowledge to more people.
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You make a good argument of why I chose the 5 that I did. They all had profound impact on history of a fundamental nature to greatly influence those who came after. Like I said, you can make an argument that any of the five listed were the most influential.
 
Obfuscate said:
The world economy would not be what it is without his influence. He's easily the most influential economist in westurn history and the economy is the most important thing for mankind and living standards. Just because the average idiot doesn't understand these things that's fine, doesn't mean in real influence he's not towards the top.
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Well for one you could argue that economics is a social/psuedo science of very limited influence. Merchants, capitalist and businessman of all stripes have probably had more influence than economist. In the grand scheme of things, I think psuedoscientist like economist, sociologist and psychologist have had very little influence on human history. Also, as economist go, Smith isn't the most influential. Even though he was mostly wrong, Karl Marx is the most influential economist. My list of economist would be;

Karl Marx
John Locke
Adam Smith
Milton Friedman
John Maynard Keynes
Arthur Laffer

Though Marx was mostly wrong and his influence negative, his influence has been huge and profound. No other economist comes close. Locke's influence was greater because he also had a huge influence as a religeous and political philosopher, therefore he edges out Smith.
 
Mottleydude said:
Well for one you could argue that economics is a social/psuedo science of very limited influence.

Karl Marx
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LOL, I'll stick to who had positive influences.

Smith had a bigger influence on the economy than Locke it's a no brainer. Don't even remember Lockes name ever brought up in an econ class. If you don't think being the modern inventer of Capitialism is one of the biggest influences on human history you're a complete tool..

Plus I thought this was an opinion question...
 
Obfuscate said:
LOL, I'll stick to who had positive influences.

Smith had a bigger influence on the economy than Locke it's a no brainer. Don't even remember Lockes name ever brought up in an econ class. If you don't think being the modern inventer of Capitialism is one of the biggest influences on human history you're a complete tool..

Plus I thought this was an opinion question...
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And without the printing press these economists would have had to relearn all that those before them had learned.


No contest, Gutenberg beats Smith or Locke.
 
if you are a Christian or Jew, It would have to be Adam.

Or perhaps Eve , she did get their asses kicked out of Eden. And men still have not learned no to listen to women.
 
not the ones that i would have selected - especially the religious/philosophical
ones

although guttenburg would be on my list

what about einstein and buddha
 
Human history? Or modern history? The most influentual person in human history would likely be the first guy to walk standing up!
 
Solitary said:
Prior to the printing press, books were written by hand. So the bulk of the information passed on from one generation to the next was done so verbally.

Can you imagine trying to verbally explain everything?

One scientist or researcher does so much. The next generation of scientist, researcher, or medical person would have to duplicate much of the same steps to continue. With the printed word, they build on the previous work to a much greater degree.

Its not that it is one part of the system, its that the system exists because the written word meant less duplication of efforts.

It was also the first step in putting information to the masses.



Knowledge is power. No other single person has had a more profound effect on spreading knowledge to more people.
Click to expand...


I agree absolutely!

I was disappointed to note that Leonardo da Vinci wasn't considered either. A number of other people whose creativity and thought contributed were mentioned, e.g. Darwin, Einstein, to name a couple, but each of these three, as well as other philosophers named, had a specific influence in a specific arena. Making it possible for the written word to be accessible to the greater populace has to have been the most profound comprehensive influence.

In my own work I just can't imagine having to start from scratch; we'd never, ever know what we do now. All creative thought is based on something that is observed firsthand or learned in another way. The right conditions have to be in place for just the right individuals to perceive the right relationships, to produce the "aha!". That "aha" provides the first rung on the new ladder. Without dissemination of that information and those ideas, the pool of individuals who might have access to those elements would be extremely limited, and progress of any sort would be extremely hampered.
 
Obfuscate said:
LOL, I'll stick to who had positive influences.

Smith had a bigger influence on the economy than Locke it's a no brainer. Don't even remember Lockes name ever brought up in an econ class. If you don't think being the modern inventer of Capitialism is one of the biggest influences on human history you're a complete tool..

Plus I thought this was an opinion question...
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Well certainly that's significant, and for good or ill Karl Marx was more influential that Adam Smith. But that aside economist are way down the list. For example, Adam Smith's influence pales compared to Newtons.
 
Obfuscate said:
I change my vote to cave man guy who invented fire....
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Ahhh, as with the inventor of writing, if we only had his/her name. Another very influential person who's invention shook the world that history did not record their name is the inventor of the plow. Unfortunately the discoverer of fire, writing and the inventor of the plow can't be included simply because we don't know their names.
 
uscitizen said:
if you are a Christian or Jew, It would have to be Adam.

Or perhaps Eve , she did get their asses kicked out of Eden. And men still have not learned no to listen to women.
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Well it's not. If it's most influential to Christians then Jesus would be at the top of the list and as you can see, he's only third and with out St. Pete's influence, Jesus wouldn't even be a foot note in history.
 
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DonQuixote said:
not the ones that i would have selected - especially the religious/philosophical
ones

although guttenburg would be on my list

what about einstein and buddha
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If I expanded the list Buddha would make the top ten though he did not have the influence of the first five listed. Einstien would make the top five scientist;

Isaac Newton (Founded modern physics and invented calculus).
Charles Darwin, (Founded modern biology, pissed off the clergy)
John Dalton (Founded modern chemistry)
Niles Bohr (Founded quantum theory)
Albert Einstein (Founded relativistic physics)

The first three are clear cut. They are the most influential scientist in history.
 
Thorn said:
I agree absolutely!

I was disappointed to note that Leonardo da Vinci wasn't considered either. A number of other people whose creativity and thought contributed were mentioned, e.g. Darwin, Einstein, to name a couple, but each of these three, as well as other philosophers named, had a specific influence in a specific arena. Making it possible for the written word to be accessible to the greater populace has to have been the most profound comprehensive influence.

In my own work I just can't imagine having to start from scratch; we'd never, ever know what we do now. All creative thought is based on something that is observed firsthand or learned in another way. The right conditions have to be in place for just the right individuals to perceive the right relationships, to produce the "aha!". That "aha" provides the first rung on the new ladder. Without dissemination of that information and those ideas, the pool of individuals who might have access to those elements would be extremely limited, and progress of any sort would be extremely hampered.
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Well I had three main criteria for selecting my top 5. First, they have to be known so that excludes the inventor of writing, the plow, language, fire, etc.

Second, I judged their quantitative influence, that is how many people did they influence.

Thirdly, I judged their qualitative influence, that is, how did their influence impact change.

Balancing those three criteria it became very obvious that Muhammad was the most influential person who ever lived due to both his influence in religion and politics. To use an analogy his influence was like combining the influence of both Jesus and Augustus Ceaser. So Muhammad walks away with #1.

Newton was a fairly easy decision too. From the time of Jesus to the 17th century (1700 years) there was little change in how people had lived. 300 years later, thanks to Newton, our world has been profoundly changed by modern science and technology. If this was a list of the greatest geniuses of all time, Newton would be number one on that list.

Jesus makes number 3 as the most influential philosopher in human history.

Guttenburg and Tsai Lun complete the list because their inventions were so profound that they became the vehicles in which modern civilization was built. Only the invention of the plow and writing rank up with their inventions, unfortunately, those inventors are lost to history.
 
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