# In future "Greatest People Ever" lists, who alive today will rank in the top 100? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [January 16, 2019, 3:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-future-greatest-people-ever-lists-who-alive-today-will-rank-in-the-top-100/827870 "2019-01-16T15:50:26Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![kenobi\_65](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kenobi_65/32/13178_2.png) [@kenobi\_65](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kenobi_65)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2019, 6:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-future-greatest-people-ever-lists-who-alive-today-will-rank-in-the-top-100/827870/21 "2019-01-16T18:03:11Z")
> [@puddleglum](#): > > Bill Gates, Elon Musk, or James Watson probably have the best chance but probably no one. Watson has [a history of making crank comments about genetics and race](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Watson#Comments_on_race), and he was just stripped of the honorary titles that Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory had given him due to a recent interview in which he apparently reiterated those views. His work on the discovery of DNA was, of course, a huge milestone in science, but I suspect that history may not treat him kindly. Musk is brilliant, but also apparently deeply weird. I think I wouldn’t be surprised if he spirals into full-blown mental illness sooner rather than later. I agree on Gates, as you and others have noted. I’m not sure that I can think of anyone else currently alive whose body of contributions to humanity would get them onto the list. Edit: Jobs might stand a chance, but he doesn’t qualify under the OP’s premise, having died in 2011. ---
**Author:** ![JohnT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnt/32/15048_2.png) [@JohnT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JohnT)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2019, 6:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-future-greatest-people-ever-lists-who-alive-today-will-rank-in-the-top-100/827870/22 "2019-01-16T18:08:19Z")
> [@JohnGalt](#): > > Along the lines of Bill Gates, I’d nominate Steve Jobs for reinvigorating the use of the internet for streaming purposes, putting a truly portable device (whether iPhone or iPad) into people’s hands to listen to music or watch video. His solution to illegal downloading of music by creating iTunes and getting studios and musicians on board revolutionized media distribution and probably saved the music industry. The iPod alone will probably show up in museums as an example of newly “discovered” streamlined devices that started showing up in the late 20th Century. #38 (or #438 if the list includes pre-1900 people.) Steve Jobs is disqualified. Unless you know something we don’t! 😉 ---
**Author:** ![dorvann](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/df705f/32.png) [@dorvann](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dorvann)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2019, 6:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-future-greatest-people-ever-lists-who-alive-today-will-rank-in-the-top-100/827870/23 "2019-01-16T18:12:56Z")
Can someone please explain to me what Elon Musk has **actually** accomplished to deserve such acclaim? Maybe I live in a bubble, but I just don’t see why everyone heaps such praise on him. ---
**Author:** ![JohnT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnt/32/15048_2.png) [@JohnT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JohnT)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2019, 6:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-future-greatest-people-ever-lists-who-alive-today-will-rank-in-the-top-100/827870/24 "2019-01-16T18:15:06Z")
In case anyone cares… Michael Hart’s list (around 1980): [http://www.allempires.com/forum/forum\_posts.asp?TID=3843](http://www.allempires.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=3843) The SDMB’s re-ranking of Hart’s list: [https://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showpost.php?p=12625376&postcount=696](https://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showpost.php?p=12625376&postcount=696) ---
**Author:** ![kenobi\_65](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kenobi_65/32/13178_2.png) [@kenobi\_65](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kenobi_65)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2019, 6:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-future-greatest-people-ever-lists-who-alive-today-will-rank-in-the-top-100/827870/25 "2019-01-16T18:21:56Z")
> [@dorvann](#): > > Can someone please explain to me what Elon Musk has **actually** accomplished to deserve such acclaim? Maybe I live in a bubble, but I just don’t see why everyone heaps such praise on him. Things that he’s actually done / led, not including vaporware things like the Hyperloop: - Led the growth of PayPal (though he did not found it) - Founded and led SpaceX, which has been the most successful private rocket / space exploration company to date - Led the growth of Tesla (though, again, he wasn’t the founder), and oversaw improvements in electric drivetrain technology What he mostly gets press for are those futurist visions, like sending humans to Mars, the Hyperloop, and artificial intelligence. ---
**Author:** ![HurricaneDitka](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/96bed5/32.png) [@HurricaneDitka](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HurricaneDitka)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2019, 6:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-future-greatest-people-ever-lists-who-alive-today-will-rank-in-the-top-100/827870/26 "2019-01-16T18:23:13Z")
> [@dorvann](#): > > Can someone please explain to me what Elon Musk has **actually** accomplished to deserve such acclaim? Maybe I live in a bubble, but I just don’t see why everyone heaps such praise on him. I suggested his inclusion based on anticipation of future accomplishments, but SpaceX has actually accomplished some pretty remarkable things that had previously only been accomplished by nation-states, or in some cases hadn’t been done at all before. ---
**Author:** ![dorvann](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/df705f/32.png) [@dorvann](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dorvann)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2019, 6:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-future-greatest-people-ever-lists-who-alive-today-will-rank-in-the-top-100/827870/27 "2019-01-16T18:30:16Z")
Kenobi 65 and HurricaneDitka, I appreciate explaining what Elon Musk has done because most of the press I’ve read about him seems to focus on his tabloid exploits and not his actual accomplishments. I still don’t see anything you mentioned that would warrant him as one of the “Greatest People Ever.” Though to be fair to him we will probably have to wait see how the private space travel and electric car industries turn out before either praising or dismissing him completely as being one of the greatest ever. ---
**Author:** ![adaher](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/dec6dc/32.png) [@adaher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/adaher)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2019, 6:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-future-greatest-people-ever-lists-who-alive-today-will-rank-in-the-top-100/827870/28 "2019-01-16T18:32:32Z")
> [@Velocity](#): > > Zuckerberg and Bezos probably on that list, Obama, too. I’m going to say definitely on Bezos, MAYBE on Zuckerburg but probably not, and definitely not on Obama. Or any President os this century. The people of 2118 aren’t going to see 20th and early 21st century Presidents as interesting at all, much like Garfield and Polk and Cleveland don’t evoke much of anything out of people today. But inventions, those can stand the test of time, even if they’ve been supplanted. ---
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2019, 6:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-future-greatest-people-ever-lists-who-alive-today-will-rank-in-the-top-100/827870/29 "2019-01-16T18:37:56Z")
> [@Dewey\_Finn](#): > > Perhaps Tim Berners-Lee? Along the same lines, perhaps Vinton Cerf. ---
**Author:** ![adaher](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/dec6dc/32.png) [@adaher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/adaher)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2019, 6:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-future-greatest-people-ever-lists-who-alive-today-will-rank-in-the-top-100/827870/30 "2019-01-16T18:39:32Z")
I’m going to give some guesses here, since it’s impossible to know what people in 2218 will care about: The Beatles. Significant music matters to people even centuries later. Elvis too probably, as well as some people we can’t predict depending on what people like in 2218. You never know, they may worship Firehouse’s 3 album for some reason. Steve Jobs and Wozniak. They’ll be as important as Edison and Graham Bell. Yes, I know Jobs is dead(as well as two Beatles), but it’s recent, so I’m using them. But truth be told, as significant as this time seems to us, I just can’t think of much going on in the last two decades politically or historically that anyone even 100 years from now will care about beyond history buffs. I think the pop culture of the last two decades has a better chance of being popularized, especially in movies and TV in 2218. Maybe they’ll love Clint Eastwood and George Clooney as much as film buffs today love Bogart and Rita Hayworth? ---
**Author:** ![JohnT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnt/32/15048_2.png) [@JohnT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JohnT)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2019, 6:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-future-greatest-people-ever-lists-who-alive-today-will-rank-in-the-top-100/827870/31 "2019-01-16T18:39:59Z")
Here’s my list: 1. Vladimir Putin - #10 (assuming my hypothesis in post 6 bears out) 2. Tim Berners-Lee - #24 (unlike the printing press, the internet/computers have no true single inventor. I do think the global network will have a greater chance of being around than MS Office 2.2k18, which will erode Gates’s memory and, possibly, enhance Berners-Lee.) 3. JohnT - WAIT AND SEE, BEYATCHES! ---
**Author:** ![Snarky\_Kong](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a183cd/32.png) [@Snarky\_Kong](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snarky_Kong)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2019, 6:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-future-greatest-people-ever-lists-who-alive-today-will-rank-in-the-top-100/827870/32 "2019-01-16T18:40:18Z")
> [@adaher](#): > > I’m going to say definitely on Bezos, MAYBE on Zuckerburg but probably not, and definitely not on Obama. Or any President os this century. The people of 2118 aren’t going to see 20th and early 21st century Presidents as interesting at all, much like Garfield and Polk and Cleveland don’t evoke much of anything out of people today. > > But inventions, those can stand the test of time, even if they’ve been supplanted. Counterpoint to your cherry picked examples: Lincoln. Agreed that Obama won’t be on the list, but it’s not because old presidents are inherently uninteresting. If a president in the near future has a massive green energy commitment, that lasting and global impact could be very well remembered by the people of 2219. ---
**Author:** ![adaher](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/dec6dc/32.png) [@adaher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/adaher)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2019, 6:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-future-greatest-people-ever-lists-who-alive-today-will-rank-in-the-top-100/827870/33 "2019-01-16T18:56:01Z")
Civil War. No President since FDR has faced a challenge of that magnitude. All of the Cold War Presidents, as well as the Presidents of the 9/11 era are likely to be unknown to most people once everyone who lived through those eras as gone. History buffs might find Boomers’ Kennedy obsession to be an oddity of this era. I think I’m going to be around long enough for most people to hear “Kennedy” and go “Who?” ---
**Author:** ![Buck\_Godot](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/buck_godot/32/6573_2.png) [@Buck\_Godot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Buck_Godot)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2019, 7:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-future-greatest-people-ever-lists-who-alive-today-will-rank-in-the-top-100/827870/34 "2019-01-16T19:26:23Z")
Although much his inclusion is based on possible future speculation, I would would give a relatively high probability for inclusion of Xi Jinping, the president of China. He’s recently opened the path to his being president for life and is trying to expand China’s influence on the world stage. If he succeeds and China becomes the dominant world power of the 21st century he will have been at the center of it. Particularly when compared to Putin who IMHO has probably seen his best days behind him and is just struggling to hold on to power over an increasingly frustrated population. ---
**Author:** ![bump](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7c8e57/32.png) [@bump](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bump)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2019, 7:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-future-greatest-people-ever-lists-who-alive-today-will-rank-in-the-top-100/827870/35 "2019-01-16T19:36:29Z")
> [@JohnGalt](#): > > I’d nominate Steve Jobs for reinvigorating the use of the internet for streaming purposes RE-invigorated? We’re talking what… 2001-ish here. The web was barely 10 years old at that point, and a lot of technologies were just \*starting \* to be realized with the advent of more local computing power and better network connections. Jobs didn’t ‘reinvigorate’ anything. What Apple did was make a successful media player (of which there were many predecessors) AND a successful management program that allowed for DRM in ways that say… Napster didn’t. If Jobs is remembered for anything outside of esoteric computing and business school circles, it’ll be for introducing the modern smartphone form factor in the iPhone. (note- he didn’t introduce the smartphone, just the modern keyboardless layout). ---
**Author:** ![dorvann](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/df705f/32.png) [@dorvann](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dorvann)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2019, 7:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-future-greatest-people-ever-lists-who-alive-today-will-rank-in-the-top-100/827870/36 "2019-01-16T19:46:44Z")
> [@bump](#): > > RE-invigorated? We’re talking what… 2001-ish here. The web was barely 10 years old at that point, and a lot of technologies were just \*starting \* to be realized with the advent of more local computing power and better network connections. > > Jobs didn’t ‘reinvigorate’ anything. What Apple did was make a successful media player (of which there were many predecessors) AND a successful management program that allowed for DRM in ways that say… Napster didn’t. > > If Jobs is remembered for anything outside of esoteric computing and business school circles, it’ll be for introducing the modern smartphone form factor in the iPhone. (note- he didn’t introduce the smartphone, just the modern keyboardless layout). I think Jobs will probably remembered for the iPhone in the same way Henry Ford is remembered for the Ford Model T; they didn’t invent the smartphone and automobile respectively bu they did popularize them among the masses and made them part of American culture. ---
**Author:** ![Chefguy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chefguy/32/138_2.png) [@Chefguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chefguy)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2019, 8:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-future-greatest-people-ever-lists-who-alive-today-will-rank-in-the-top-100/827870/37 "2019-01-16T20:23:39Z")
I’d say Stephen Hawking; he just died last year, so I’m including him. ---
**Author:** ![JohnT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnt/32/15048_2.png) [@JohnT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JohnT)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2019, 8:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-future-greatest-people-ever-lists-who-alive-today-will-rank-in-the-top-100/827870/38 "2019-01-16T20:33:10Z")
WTF? This thread isn’t close to being dead, yet it’s already getting zombied. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![adaher](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/dec6dc/32.png) [@adaher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/adaher)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2019, 10:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-future-greatest-people-ever-lists-who-alive-today-will-rank-in-the-top-100/827870/39 "2019-01-16T22:44:50Z")
> [@Chefguy](#): > > I’d say Stephen Hawking; he just died last year, so I’m including him. Science and culture will survive in people’s memories for a long time. Politics and government, not so much. ---
**Author:** ![Snarky\_Kong](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a183cd/32.png) [@Snarky\_Kong](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snarky_Kong)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2019, 11:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-future-greatest-people-ever-lists-who-alive-today-will-rank-in-the-top-100/827870/40 "2019-01-16T23:00:34Z")
> [@adaher](#): > > Civil War. No President since FDR has faced a challenge of that magnitude. All of the Cold War Presidents, as well as the Presidents of the 9/11 era are likely to be unknown to most people once everyone who lived through those eras as gone. History buffs might find Boomers’ Kennedy obsession to be an oddity of this era. I think I’m going to be around long enough for most people to hear “Kennedy” and go “Who?” Ah, goalpost moving! FDR and Truman will be very well known in 100 years. You think nothing difficult will happen to the US ever again? [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-future-greatest-people-ever-lists-who-alive-today-will-rank-in-the-top-100/827870.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-future-greatest-people-ever-lists-who-alive-today-will-rank-in-the-top-100/827870.md?page=3)