# What person alive today, will be remembered 1000 years from now? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [August 12, 2011, 1:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-person-alive-today-will-be-remembered-1000-years-from-now/592402 "2011-08-12T01:04:57Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 9
**Author:** ![Illuminatiprimus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/illuminatiprimus/32/11520_2.png) [@Illuminatiprimus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Illuminatiprimus)\ **Post date:** [August 19, 2011, 11:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-person-alive-today-will-be-remembered-1000-years-from-now/592402/161 "2011-08-19T11:40:13Z")
> [@Imasquare](#): > > Is Obama not a real black president then? He suffers from the curse of the mixed race - too black for some, not black enough for others. ---
**Author:** ![Zebra](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/c0e974/32.png) [@Zebra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zebra)\ **Post date:** [August 19, 2011, 3:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-person-alive-today-will-be-remembered-1000-years-from-now/592402/162 "2011-08-19T15:09:15Z")
> [@Steophan](#): > > I may have a better winner, although I doubt most people are aware of when he was actually alive. The only problem is the exact year of his birth isn’t known. > > Macbeth. He isn’t well known. The stage play only uses the name. The real Macbeth was considered a wise and good king who ruled for many years. ---
**Author:** ![don\_t\_ask](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e68b1a/32.png) [@don\_t\_ask](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/don_t_ask)\ **Post date:** [August 19, 2011, 3:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-person-alive-today-will-be-remembered-1000-years-from-now/592402/163 "2011-08-19T15:18:17Z")
Isn’t the Anti-Christ meant to be doing his stuff nowadays? Surely he’ll be bigger than Elvis when he reveals himself. ---
**Author:** ![JBDivmstr](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/b4bc9f/32.png) [@JBDivmstr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JBDivmstr)\ **Post date:** [August 19, 2011, 6:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-person-alive-today-will-be-remembered-1000-years-from-now/592402/164 "2011-08-19T18:28:49Z")
> [@Two\_Many\_Cats](#): > > Cecil Adams, of course. Uh, hey… you got a little brown… something. Right there… on your nose. :rolleyes: 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Namkcalb](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/c89c15/32.png) [@Namkcalb](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Namkcalb)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2011, 5:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-person-alive-today-will-be-remembered-1000-years-from-now/592402/165 "2011-08-20T05:29:42Z")
> [@Imasquare](#): > > Is Obama not a real black president then? Well, he was raised by his white relatives in Asia and Hawaii. When a guy with two black parents and raised around other black people becomes President, then he’ll be counted as the first black president. ---
**Author:** ![Namkcalb](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/c89c15/32.png) [@Namkcalb](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Namkcalb)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2011, 5:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-person-alive-today-will-be-remembered-1000-years-from-now/592402/166 "2011-08-20T05:31:30Z")
> [@pancakes3](#): > > I was/am under the impression that Fawkes is still unilaterally reviled unless you count the use of his mask in V for Vendetta. He’s not too popular amongst some segments inthe UK, but his image, following and reputation has expanded beyond V for Vendetta ---
**Author:** ![Steophan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/steophan/32/9595_2.png) [@Steophan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Steophan)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2011, 2:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-person-alive-today-will-be-remembered-1000-years-from-now/592402/167 "2011-08-20T14:35:25Z")
> [@Namkcalb](#): > > Well, he was raised by his white relatives in Asia and Hawaii. When a guy with two black parents and raised around other black people becomes President, then he’ll be counted as the first black president. In 1000 years I doubt it will be his background that is remembered. It will be his skin colour, if anything. For that matter, looking at any black person and saying he’s not really black is racism, pure and simple. ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2011, 4:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-person-alive-today-will-be-remembered-1000-years-from-now/592402/168 "2011-08-20T16:45:03Z")
Please take the “Is Obama black?” debate elsewhere. Thank you. ---
**Author:** ![pancakes3](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ba9def/32.png) [@pancakes3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pancakes3)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2011, 4:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-person-alive-today-will-be-remembered-1000-years-from-now/592402/169 "2011-08-20T16:47:58Z")
> [@Namkcalb](#): > > He’s not too popular amongst some segments inthe UK, but his image, following and reputation has expanded beyond V for Vendetta i was commenting more on the positive connotations of his image and reputation. V4V is the only positive depiction of Guy Fawkes in any capacity that I know of. Well, now it’s V for V and some… anarchist groups in the UK? or are they fundamentalist groups? ---
**Author:** ![Namkcalb](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/c89c15/32.png) [@Namkcalb](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Namkcalb)\ **Post date:** [August 21, 2011, 1:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-person-alive-today-will-be-remembered-1000-years-from-now/592402/170 "2011-08-21T01:59:30Z")
> [@pancakes3](#): > > i was commenting more on the positive connotations of his image and reputation. V4V is the only positive depiction of Guy Fawkes in any capacity that I know of. Well, now it’s V for V and some… anarchist groups in the UK? or are they fundamentalist groups? Well, they are definately not fundamentalists, they are anarchists and freedom-activists. ---
**Author:** ![Gorbag](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/ec9cab/32.png) [@Gorbag](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gorbag)\ **Post date:** [August 21, 2011, 11:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-person-alive-today-will-be-remembered-1000-years-from-now/592402/171 "2011-08-21T11:53:25Z")
In 1000 years everyone will have the moral equivalent of wikipaedia directly interfaced with their brain, thus giving them immediate access to everything about everything. Therefore, everyone alive today who shows up in some kind of electronic record will be within the common knowledge of everyone on the planet. And we will haunt them, forever. ---
**Author:** ![Siam\_Sam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d78d45/32.png) [@Siam\_Sam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Siam_Sam)\ **Post date:** [August 22, 2011, 3:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-person-alive-today-will-be-remembered-1000-years-from-now/592402/172 "2011-08-22T03:34:08Z")
Monty Python ---
**Author:** ![Docta\_G](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/2bfe46/32.png) [@Docta\_G](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Docta_G)\ **Post date:** [August 22, 2011, 3:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-person-alive-today-will-be-remembered-1000-years-from-now/592402/173 "2011-08-22T03:42:47Z")
Octomom ---
**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:** [August 22, 2011, 1:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-person-alive-today-will-be-remembered-1000-years-from-now/592402/174 "2011-08-22T13:54:20Z")
> [@RTFirefly](#): > > I’m dubious as to whether even mathematicians in the year 3000 will remember Wiles. How important was Fermat’s Last Theorem, anyway? Seems the absence of a proof wasn’t exactly an impediment to the development of modern mathematics during the centuries between Fermat’s death and Wiles’ proof. I don’t remember seeing footnotes to important results reading “conditional on the truth of Fermat’s Last Theorem” the way some results note that they depend on, say, the Axiom of Choice. > > FLT was very difficult to prove, but 1000 years from now, that will be a curiosity more than anything else. Didn’t he also prove, as part of the Fermat proof, the [Taniyama-Shimura Conjecture](http://mathworld.wolfram.com/Taniyama-ShimuraConjecture.html), which connects topology to number theory? I am not a mathematician, but I think this was the truly important part of Wiles’ work. ---
**Author:** ![pancakes3](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ba9def/32.png) [@pancakes3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pancakes3)\ **Post date:** [August 22, 2011, 2:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-person-alive-today-will-be-remembered-1000-years-from-now/592402/175 "2011-08-22T14:13:26Z")
i don’t mean to derail, and i’m not a mathematician either (far from it) but… that couldn’t have been fermat’s proof that he was too busy to scribble down right? do mathematicians believe a simpler proof still exists out there? ---
**Author:** ![NoCoolUserName](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/5fc32e/32.png) [@NoCoolUserName](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NoCoolUserName)\ **Post date:** [August 22, 2011, 5:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-person-alive-today-will-be-remembered-1000-years-from-now/592402/176 "2011-08-22T17:08:11Z")
> [@typoink](#): > > Ray Kurzweil. He’ll make sure he’s remembered, since he’ll still be alive. As a digital analogue, of course. Or possibly as an analog analogue. ---
**Author:** ![Indistinguishable](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/90ced4/32.png) [@Indistinguishable](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Indistinguishable)\ **Post date:** [August 22, 2011, 5:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-person-alive-today-will-be-remembered-1000-years-from-now/592402/177 "2011-08-22T17:30:40Z")
> [@pancakes3](#): > > i don’t mean to derail, and i’m not a mathematician either (far from it) but… that couldn’t have been fermat’s proof that he was too busy to scribble down right? do mathematicians believe a simpler proof still exists out there? Mathematicians generally believe Fermat must have made a mistake, and probably even realized it at some point after his initial note (so he never bothered announcing what the mistaken proof was). As for whether a simpler proof exists, well, who knows? So far as I’m aware, there’s no reason to believe there is (except insofar as the techniques behind Wiles’ proof will surely become better known and streamlined in the future), but there’s no reason to believe it impossible either. ---
**Author:** ![ajdebosco](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecd19e/32.png) [@ajdebosco](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ajdebosco)\ **Post date:** [August 22, 2011, 7:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-person-alive-today-will-be-remembered-1000-years-from-now/592402/178 "2011-08-22T19:14:35Z")
> [@Sevastopol](#): > > Muhammad Ali He is, by his own admission, THE GREATEST! ---
**Author:** ![ajdebosco](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecd19e/32.png) [@ajdebosco](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ajdebosco)\ **Post date:** [August 22, 2011, 7:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-person-alive-today-will-be-remembered-1000-years-from-now/592402/179 "2011-08-22T19:43:01Z")
> [@Two\_Many\_Cats](#): > > Cecil Adams, of course. Quite surprised this didn’t pop up sooner.:smack: ---
**Author:** ![aceplace57](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aceplace57/32/3500_2.png) [@aceplace57](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aceplace57)\ **Post date:** [August 22, 2011, 7:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-person-alive-today-will-be-remembered-1000-years-from-now/592402/180 "2011-08-22T19:55:30Z")
I’d have to say almost no one today would be remembered a thousand years from now. I can’t think of anyone alive today that important. Perhaps historical figures like George Washington, Lincoln, Churchill, Hitler, Stalin people like that. Consider all the Pharaohs and other big shots in Egypt. Or the emperors of Rome. The average person knows King Tut , Julius Caeser, Nero and that’s about it. Scholars know most of the Pharaohs and Emperors. But even they don’t know many of the Roman senators or other leaders. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-person-alive-today-will-be-remembered-1000-years-from-now/592402.md?page=8) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-person-alive-today-will-be-remembered-1000-years-from-now/592402.md?page=10)