He/she might even be fictitious but his/her legend/existance and legacy has had the most impact on the greatest number of people in the history of the whole world.
I have a pretty clear idea who I would nominate.
I would like to hear from you first.
‘Eve’
“Mitochondrial Eve refers to the most recent common matrilineal ancestor from whom all living humans are descended. Passed down from mother to offspring, all mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) in every living person is directly descended from hers.”
Otara
my mum, without her i would not know of this world.
Nah I go with JC.
Jesus.
Or John Miller. 
I actually vote for St. Paul. I think he shaped and controlled the “message” of the life of Jesus Christ to such an extent, that the actual results have been nearly the opposite of what Joseph of Nazareth would have intended.
Without Paul, there would have been no Catholic church. Without the Catholic Church, Western society would look completely different than it does today.
Jesus might be very influential, but he wouldn’t be nearly so influential without the influence of a few men after his death (some powerful Romans who took a liking to Christianity). On top of that, JC’s influence is only directly felt in the Western World, which may have developed in much the same way as it did… Negating much of the influence.
On the other hand, the further back you go the more influential specific acts are. I’d nominate the Spartan King Leonidas and Athenean General Themistocles, jointly (or whatever unnamed individual helped them work together). Their stand against the Persians both paved the way for the unification of Greece (which of course led to Rome, and western civilization as we know it),and greatly influenced Persias relationship with the west for well over century to come – which greatly influenced it’s relationship with the East. That stand had a massive cascading effect.
Either or both of them well trump JC, IMO.
Didn’t we have a game for this in the Game Room?
Anyway, I’d say Jesus Christ, easily.
I’d say Muhammad would be up there.
Why JC and Muhammad when you could simplify it to just God? Don’t all monotheistic religions all recognize the same God.
I’ll mix it up a bit & say Abraham. No Abe>no Moses>no Jesus>no Mohammed.
The first guy to grow crops, whoever he was. We all owe Guy From Fertile Crescent Who Was Too Lazy To Hunt a big thank you.
Johannes Gutenberg.
I’m thinking the same thing. But who influenced Abraham?
Whoever invented the wheel.
2nd, the inventor of the forge and bronze making. (one person??)
3rd, the inventor of the steam engine.
4th, me.
I’ll go for Hammurabi. Codification of law is simply huge.
Religious icons of one sort of the other seem a puzzling choice, as their followers only comprise a small faction of the earth’s total population and are tightly hemmed in by cultural boundaries. On the other hand, vaccines.
This was done a few months ago. I think there were 3 attempts at the thread and they were done as polls.
It was started by someone with a Christian agenda so I found the poll options funny, they were like:
- Jesus (founder of Christianity, son of God, saviour of mankind who died for our sins)
- Mohammed (founder of Islam)
I believe the final winner was Newton.
Obnoxious nitpick: from what I read, hunting/gathering is a helluva lot less work than farming. The advantage of farming is that your food supply is bigger and more reliable, plus you can get drunk.
I figure the influential person needs to be one whose accomplishment probably wouldn’t have been repeated by someone else, or at least wouldn’t have been done anytime soon. Hammurabi is a great one.
For recent history, (So, the lifetimes of Dopers) I vote for one of the six people you’ve probably never heard of in this this Cracked article:
- The Russian guy who singlehandedly stopped the Cold war from escalating into a nuclear nightmare, by ignoring an direct military order;
- Henrietta Lacks, the woman whose cells have been used to test about every medicine you or your family have ever taken in your lifetime;
- Norman Borlaug, the guy who led the Green Revolution and managed to keep about a billion people" from starvation around the world. Over a billion. With a “B.”
Fair enough. I’m not sure that domesticating crops is something that would have been figured out if that one guy hadn’t, though.
Look at the Americas - most of the indigenous cultures never figured it out.