# The One Hundred Most Influential People In History Elimination Game **URL:** \ **Category:** The Game Room\ **Created:** [April 6, 2010, 2:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-one-hundred-most-influential-people-in-history-elimination-game/535103 "2010-04-06T02:12:34Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![Qin\_Shi\_Huangdi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/f04885/32.png) [@Qin\_Shi\_Huangdi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Qin_Shi_Huangdi)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2010, 4:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-one-hundred-most-influential-people-in-history-elimination-game/535103/61 "2010-04-06T16:58:23Z")
Anyways wasn’t this the precedent for the previous elimination games? We always eliminated the person we thought was the worst or most mediocre not the greatest. Indeed all the previous games determined who was the greatest. ---
**Author:** ![Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e8c25b/32.png) [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Really_Not_All_That_Bright)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2010, 5:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-one-hundred-most-influential-people-in-history-elimination-game/535103/62 "2010-04-06T17:00:49Z")
> [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](#): > > Impertinent pedantry. Impertinent, certainly. 😃 I don’t think it really qualifies as pedantry to point out that somebody else entirely invented the automobile, though. However, between the assembly line, welfare capitalism and _The International Jew_, without which WWII might not have happened, Ford might be the most influential man of the 20th century. ---
**Author:** ![Attack\_from\_the\_3rd\_dimension](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/b38774/32.png) [@Attack\_from\_the\_3rd\_dimension](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Attack_from_the_3rd_dimension)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2010, 5:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-one-hundred-most-influential-people-in-history-elimination-game/535103/63 "2010-04-06T17:01:19Z")
> [@Knorf](#): > > By the way, is it really right that so few women are on this list? > > For example, women’s suffrage is unquestionably one of the major social changes in human history, and yet not a single woman leader of the suffrage movement is on the list. > > The patriarchal nature of most of human history necessarily would lead to more men being on the list, but it seems to me the list goes too far in ignoring the accomplishments of women that are comparable to those of many men who are on the list. Yup. Where is Marie Curie - She’s arguably more important to society than Roentgen, plus the two Nobel prizes and the development of an entire field of medicine (Nuclear Medicine) in addition to Diagnostic Radiology. ---
**Author:** ![MsWhatsit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/eb8c5e/32.png) [@MsWhatsit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MsWhatsit)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2010, 5:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-one-hundred-most-influential-people-in-history-elimination-game/535103/64 "2010-04-06T17:03:33Z")
So, are we now going by who is the greatest? Because originally, it was most influential. Then it became, most positive/least negative influence. Then it became, the person whose negative influence most canceled out their positive influence. (Which doesn’t even make that much sense to me.) And now you seem to be saying that it’s just, who’s greatest? Like I said, you need to decide what you want the rules to be and restart. **Left Hand of Dorkness** had some good ideas. I would also recommend eliminating more than one person per round, because even at two rounds per week, that’s going to take almost a year, which personally seems like an unreasonably long time for this sort of a game. Just my $.02, take it or leave it. ---
**Author:** ![Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e99b99/32.png) [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Diogenes_the_Cynic)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2010, 5:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-one-hundred-most-influential-people-in-history-elimination-game/535103/65 "2010-04-06T17:10:44Z")
> [@Curtis LeMay](#): > > Similarly someone had to create the Mosaic Law and develop the Jewish religion. Those things were developed over centuries, not by anything analogous to a single individual or even small group. ---
**Author:** ![Mean\_Mr.Mustard](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mean_mr.mustard/32/3865_2.png) [@Mean\_Mr.Mustard](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mean_Mr.Mustard)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2010, 5:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-one-hundred-most-influential-people-in-history-elimination-game/535103/66 "2010-04-06T17:14:43Z")
> [@](#): > > So, are we now going by who is the greatest? Muhammad Ali. Game over. ---
**Author:** ![Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/left_hand_of_dorkness/32/7156_2.png) [@Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Left_Hand_of_Dorkness)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2010, 5:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-one-hundred-most-influential-people-in-history-elimination-game/535103/67 "2010-04-06T17:17:54Z")
Suggested rules for the game: > [@suggested rules](#): > > Here are the 100 most important people in history! No, don’t tell me who to add: you’re wrong. No, don’t tell me that someone doesn’t belong on the list: you’re extra wrong with a side of wrong sauce. > > But there can be only one. Who’s the Mostest Importantest person in history? > > For your convenience, I’ve divided the 100 most important people into ten groups of ten. From each group of ten, choose one person to get rid of. You’re getting rid of the least important person in the group. Note that you get to decide what that means: I won’t tell you what “least important” means. > > I’ll calculate the votes every Monday and Thursday, and the top vote-getter in each group gets kicked off the island, so to speak. > > After five weeks of this nonsense, there will be only one person in each group. I’ll combine these ten finalists into a single group, and then every day we’ll vote another person out of the finalist group. Nine days later, we’ll know who is… > > THE MOSTEST IMPORTANTEST PERSON IN HISTORY!!!1!one!1!!! ---
**Author:** ![Attack\_from\_the\_3rd\_dimension](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/b38774/32.png) [@Attack\_from\_the\_3rd\_dimension](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Attack_from_the_3rd_dimension)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2010, 5:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-one-hundred-most-influential-people-in-history-elimination-game/535103/68 "2010-04-06T17:21:41Z")
> [@MsWhatsit](#): > > I would also recommend eliminating more than one person per round, because even at two rounds per week, that’s going to take almost a year, which personally seems like an unreasonably long time for this sort of a game. But the last 3 people playing next fall will be able to swing the vote around to something really unexpected: Emperor Asoka - FOR THE WIN! ---
**Author:** ![Qin\_Shi\_Huangdi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/f04885/32.png) [@Qin\_Shi\_Huangdi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Qin_Shi_Huangdi)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2010, 5:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-one-hundred-most-influential-people-in-history-elimination-game/535103/69 "2010-04-06T17:43:43Z")
> [@Attack\_from\_the\_3rd\_dimension](#): > > Yup. Where is Marie Curie - She’s arguably more important to society than Roentgen, plus the two Nobel prizes and the development of an entire field of medicine (Nuclear Medicine) in addition to Diagnostic Radiology. Hart actually gives an explanation on this too-Becquerel discovered radioactivity and thus deserves most of the credit regarding that field. ---
**Author:** ![septimus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/septimus/32/410_2.png) [@septimus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/septimus)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2010, 6:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-one-hundred-most-influential-people-in-history-elimination-game/535103/70 "2010-04-06T18:16:39Z")
> [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](#): > > The entire Exodus story is mythology. The Israelites were never enslaved in Egypt, never escaped or wandered in Sianai, never returned to Canaan and conquered it. None of that ever happened. The Israelites were an indigenous, Canaanite subculture, and they never left Canaan, never went to Egypt and never returned to conquer anything. You seem rather confident of all this! Instead, Hebrew prehistory is still a mystery; to prove they had no early contact with Egypt would obviously be harder than to prove they did! As just one example of circumstantial evidence suggesting early associations in the Nile River Basin, consider [Qemant, the “Pagan-Hebraic” religion in Ethiopia](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Qemant). > [@JohnT](#): > > (Btw, I read this book in its first edition, way back in the late 70s, early 80s, and I have a copy of the 1991 edition on my shelf.) I’d never heard of the book but stumbled across it (a foreign edition of 1st edition) in a used book store afew years ago, thumbed through it, and picked it up. I bought John Garner’s _Art of Fiction_ the same day - a wonderful book even for someone, like myself, with no intention of writing fiction. See why I’m no fan of buying books on-line? 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e99b99/32.png) [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Diogenes_the_Cynic)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2010, 7:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-one-hundred-most-influential-people-in-history-elimination-game/535103/71 "2010-04-06T19:35:43Z")
> [@septimus](#): > > You seem rather confident of all this! Instead, Hebrew prehistory is still a mystery; to prove they had no early contact with Egypt would obviously be harder than to prove they did! I didn’t say they had no contact with Egypt, I said they were never enslaved _in_ Egypt. As a matter of fact, Egypt _occupied_ Canaan during the time of the alleged Exodus, so obviously there was contact between Egypt and Canaan from pre-Israelite times. The earliest inscription mentioning “Israel” at all is from an Egyptian Pharaoh claiming to have destroyed it. What I’m saying is that the distinct Canannite people known as “Israelites” were never enslaved in Egypt, and never had a mass Exodus, a sojourn in Sinai or a “return” to and conquest of Canaan. They have no period of absence from Canaan, and no archaeological evidence of Israelites in Egypt has ever been discovered (even though they were purportedly enslaved there for 400 years), nor is there any trace of them in the Sinai Peninsula, even at the small oasis of Kadesh Barnea where 2 million people allegedly lived for 38 years. ---
**Author:** ![Attack\_from\_the\_3rd\_dimension](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/b38774/32.png) [@Attack\_from\_the\_3rd\_dimension](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Attack_from_the_3rd_dimension)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2010, 7:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-one-hundred-most-influential-people-in-history-elimination-game/535103/72 "2010-04-06T19:42:02Z")
> [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](#): > > . They have no period of absence from Canaan, and no archaeological evidence of Israelites in Egypt has ever been discovered (even though they were purportedly enslaved there for 400 years), nor is there any trace of them in the Sinai Peninsula, even at the small oasis of Kadesh Barnea where 2 million people allegedly lived for 38 years. You have to admire someone who thoroughly cleans up their campsite when they pack up. ---
**Author:** ![Skammer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/skammer/32/143_2.png) [@Skammer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skammer)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2010, 7:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-one-hundred-most-influential-people-in-history-elimination-game/535103/73 "2010-04-06T19:45:12Z")
> [@Attack\_from\_the\_3rd\_dimension](#): > > You have to admire someone who thoroughly cleans up their campsite when they pack up. It’s somewhere in the Mosaic Law: “Take only pictures; leave only footprints.” ---
**Author:** ![Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e8c25b/32.png) [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Really_Not_All_That_Bright)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2010, 8:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-one-hundred-most-influential-people-in-history-elimination-game/535103/74 "2010-04-06T20:05:44Z")
> [@Attack\_from\_the\_3rd\_dimension](#): > > You have to admire someone who thoroughly cleans up their campsite when they pack up. Only YOU can prevent forest fires, people of Israel. ---
**Author:** ![Mbossa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/73ab20/32.png) [@Mbossa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mbossa)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2010, 8:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-one-hundred-most-influential-people-in-history-elimination-game/535103/75 "2010-04-06T20:06:58Z")
Yeah anyway, I vote for Jesus. ---
**Author:** ![Knorf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/58956e/32.png) [@Knorf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Knorf)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2010, 8:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-one-hundred-most-influential-people-in-history-elimination-game/535103/76 "2010-04-06T20:09:16Z")
> [@Curtis LeMay](#): > > The author in his introduction mentioned this: he did not want to include token women just to be politically correct. He just ranked those who were important and nothing else. What crap. Sorry, but that’s ridiculous. Queen Elizabeth and Isabella, but not Catherine the Great? No Marie Curie? No Susan B. Anthony? No Harriet Beecher Stowe? No Joan of Arc? No Jane Austen? No Cleopatra? No Emily Dickinson? No Pocahontas? I could go on. All of those women had accomplishments as significant as many of the men on the list. ---
**Author:** ![Attack\_from\_the\_3rd\_dimension](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/b38774/32.png) [@Attack\_from\_the\_3rd\_dimension](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Attack_from_the_3rd_dimension)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2010, 8:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-one-hundred-most-influential-people-in-history-elimination-game/535103/77 "2010-04-06T20:24:38Z")
> [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](#): > > Only YOU can prevent forest fires, people of Israel. Hey, stopping putting out the bush, I’m trying to talk here. ---
**Author:** ![AClockworkMelon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aclockworkmelon/32/10803_2.png) [@AClockworkMelon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AClockworkMelon)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2010, 8:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-one-hundred-most-influential-people-in-history-elimination-game/535103/78 "2010-04-06T20:30:51Z")
> [@Knorf](#): > > What crap. Sorry, but that’s ridiculous. Queen Elizabeth and Isabella, but not Catherine the Great? No Marie Curie? No Susan B. Anthony? No Harriet Beecher Stowe? No Joan of Arc? No Jane Austen? No Cleopatra? No Emily Dickinson? No Pocahontas? > > I could go on. All of those women had accomplishments as significant as many of the men on the list. No Charles Dickins? No Richard Dawkins? No Ernest Hemingway? This list SUCKS! ---
**Author:** ![Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e8c25b/32.png) [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Really_Not_All_That_Bright)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2010, 8:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-one-hundred-most-influential-people-in-history-elimination-game/535103/79 "2010-04-06T20:31:55Z")
Writers of fiction (and Dawkins, for that matter) are just not that influential. It’s not like anybody ever invaded Poland because of a Dickens novel. ---
**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:** [April 6, 2010, 8:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-one-hundred-most-influential-people-in-history-elimination-game/535103/80 "2010-04-06T20:38:40Z")
Tell it to the Polish - they’re _still_ smarting from the Two Cities rebellion of 1898. 😉 [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-one-hundred-most-influential-people-in-history-elimination-game/535103.md?page=3) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-one-hundred-most-influential-people-in-history-elimination-game/535103.md?page=5)