I’m doing research for a story, and would love to hear whom everyone picks, and what they could contribute to an approximation of present-day (+/-20 years) society.
My personal list
-Ramses II
-Leonardo DaVinci
-Alexander the Great
-Sir Isaac Newton
-Sun Tzu
-Adam Smith
-Johannes Kepler
-Benjamin Franklin
-Misamoto Musashi(?)
-Cicero(?)
etc.
I could not imagine resurrecting any of those persons to make positive developments in the next 20+ years, except Newton, who come back and say, “Shut the Fuck up and Learn Basic Physics!”
just my opinon.
A the Great might be kind of cool as the bass player in a punk rock band, if he had the patience.
According to Cecil, at any rate, physics was far from Newton’s main pursuit. On the other hand, I’m not sure he’d be happy about that much of his stuff has been discarded.
Malcom X
Jesus
Siddhartha Gautama
Muhammad
Gandhi
MLK jr
(maybe you see where I’m going with this)
Malcolm X, rather… I can’t be expected to spell properly at 3:30 am
Miles Davis
Jerry Garcia
Ludwig von Beethoven
Charlie Parker
Robert Johnson
Art Blakey
Scott LaFaro
…
Make greatest music of all time. Sweet.
I suppose my default answer to the OP would always be Abe Lincoln. Not because he was a good wood chopper 
What, no Einstein?
Eurocentric, but that’s what I know best:
Aristotle (codified logic/rational thinking)
Galileo (scientific method/astronomy/basic physics)
DaVinci (greatest renaisance inventor/artist)
Newton (classical physics)
Adam Smith (explained why free markets work best)
George Washington (statesman/leader)
Jefferson (statesman/political philsopher)
Pasteur (medicine)
Einstein (modern physics)
Edison (greatest modern inventor)
Albert Einstein
Mahatma Gandhi
Martin Luther Kind Jr
Charles Darwin (I wouldn’t know what more he’d contribute, though)
:smack: Martin Luther King…
Why would you clone any of these people? Cloning doesn’t impart memories, and I don’t think that genetics alone would insure that the cloned baby would grow up to be anybody special. Probably an Einstein look-a-like flipping burgers at McBurgerslut.
That’s besides the point; cloned, brought back to life, it doesn’t matter. The idea is which historical figures would have the most impact on our world today.
If we are talking about a direct and immediate impact, I offer the following. In no particular order:
Alexander the Great
Napoleon
Hitler
Mohamed
Theodore Roosevelt
Diocletian
Charlemagne
Genghis Khan
Nebuchednezzar
Stalin
I think Fox News would stay very busy.
My own personal list:
The other 9:
MLK
St. Anthony
Gandhi
Mother Theresa
David
Solomon
Benjamin Franklin
Leonardo da Vinci
Mozart
But I could probably name a thousand more figures who deserve to be on such a list.
Jesus and Mohammed, to give them a chance to set the record straight on a few issues. In doing so, they could **really **save the world this time (or hasten its demise).
Hmmmm, if we can do that, can we “bring back” Osama bin Laden from, say, a nanosecond ago, and make an immediate capture? (And what would happen to the original?)
Isambard Kingdom Brunel
Isaac Newton
Albert Einstein
Alan Turing
Aristotle
Charles Dickens
Leonardo da Vinci
He would love to discuss his unfinished unification theory with Stephen Hawking and Michio Kaku, among others.
Telescopes, high powered telescopes.
The father of electromagnetism, would love to introduce him to reality shows
Greatest inventor of all time, in my opinion.
Just to ask him whats up with the mona lisa.
Then 5 random peasants.
Tesla - Give him a research team, and some grant money, and then get some working 1920’s style “Death Rays.” 
Newton
Einstein
Hesienberg
Dirac
I would gets these guys to work on a grand unification theory, with some modern physicst to bring them up to speed.
politicians: Golda Meir, Konrad Adenauer
scientists : Tesla, Turing, von Neumann, Gauss, Newton
inventors: Edison, da Vinci
musicians: Bach (curious to see what he’d do with a much greater range of musical instruments and technology)
writers : none required
I had a tough choice between Meir and Yitzhak Rabin. The sole purpose is to get someone to fix Israel’s Palestinian policy.
I don’t know enough about Imhotep, but I’m intrigued by the suggestion.
I chose Newton over Einstein since the former looked at data more, which is far more likely to make progress with science today.
I apologize for having left out economists, biologists and chemists, but I don’t know those areas.
Whoops, throw out Bach (leave Adenauer, need him to head the EU) and put in Malcolm X instead. Musical curiosity can be sacrificed for a leader like MX.