I’d be surprised if many people who care about film as an art don’t know who John Ford is…
I also doubt any directors will be household names in 1000 years, but I suspect that the few film buffs who are still around will talk more about the pioneers than the directors of blockbusters.
Not unreasonable, put that way. I guess I’ll just say I feel Spielberg’s memorability is not nearly as high as Hitler’s. Indeed, I don’t consider it very high to begin with. I can easily imagine few outside of historical film studies caring about Spielberg in 150 years.
Basically, I guess I’m with Steophan.
I’ve actually asked this identical question on more than one occasion, including I would have said here on the dope, although I couldn’t find it via a search.
I agree that Neil Armstrong is the best answer (or perhaps Gagarin, but obviously for basically the same reasons).
Bill Gates has an outside chance, but not because Microsoft will still exist and people will remember him for it; but because something might well end up named after him… although not many things-named-after-people have lasted a millenium.
Quantitative Easing, round 2?
I’d hoped we’d all forget that within a decade or two.
Either Obama or Armstrong. Both significant enough to be taught to schoolchildren as long as we still have schools.
Yes, he’ld definately be remembered, The same with Gagarin, if you count people who died young as alive for purposes of this thread.
Ditto for the first person on Mars.
He’ll be eclipsed by the first non-biracial Black president, and this is assuming people will even be consious of the concept of race in 3011. The healthcare thing was done in Europe decades ago so that’s not special. As for the Nobel prize, though he didn’t do anything to signficantly deserve it, he is far from the most ridicolous laurate, he wasn’t a bloodthirsty warmonger like some of the others.
Chairman Deng will be remembered as the starter of the reforms. I’m not sure the average American can remember Hu’s predecesor even today.
Watson? maybe, but he won’t be a household name.
Would Walt Disney count? By some definitions, he’s not dead, and he certainly has done a lot for film and animation.
“Watson” of “Watson and Crick” sounds plausible. By 3011, we’ll have our current racial problems sorted out, so Obama or even Mandela won’t be that big. We shouldn’t count out longshots of foreign lands for reasons we’d consider baffling like Anno Hideaki. I’ll plonk for animal rights activist and philosopher Peter Singer. Neil Armstrong is probably the best choice, since lunar inhabitants will want to remember who first set foot on their home: he’ll have statues dedicated to him.
Indistinguishable of course will be remembered for his legendary posts. 
In 1011, I can ID Lief Erikson and MacBeth. I’ve never heard of Avicenna, King Cnut or Edward the Confessor.
Without a doubt. We just don’t know their name yet.
That sounds like a kinda lame dodge but I absolutely think it’s true. Basically what I’m saying is—someone alive today (perhaps an infant or other young person) will make history in an unprecedented, monumental way that will be so important and/or so memorable that almost everyone in 3011 will have heard of him or her.
It’s really just a matter of statistics. You could look at it like this:
Will something occur in the next 80-100 years (a lifetime) that will eclipse anything we could name that has occurred in the last 80-100 years?
I believe the answer to that is clearly ‘yes’. All that’s left to consider is: will a person’s name be linked closely enough with the ‘event’ that it will be as memorable as the ‘event’ itself. I think the answer to that is ‘yes’ as well.
I think that some names already put forward (especially Neil Armstrong) are likely enough candidates, so given my assumption that something far more memorable than the first moon landing will happen in the next 100 years I conclude that:
A) Someone alive today will be remembered in 1000 years.
B) We might not have any idea yet which person that is.
isaac asimov.
As long as information is not lost, a lot of people will be remembered… ? I don’t think remembered is a good term but I understand what the OP means…
If basketball is still around (it will be), then Michael Jordan…
Anyone with a statue?
Let’s not forget, people can be remembered for the wrong reasons.
If I take a time machine to 3011, maybe I’ll be able to see a statue of internet inventor Albert Arnold Gore
Caption: “Took the initiative in creating the internet, during his service in the United State Congress, along with a whole range of initiatives that proved important to the US’s economic growth and environmental protection, improvements in the educational system”. I trust it will be a wildly popular tourist attraction in 3011.
Depending on how well Falun Gong thrives after he dies, its founder Li Hongzhi may have a chance. I doubt very much Sun Myung Moon will be remembered very long beyond his dead.
Not really, there’ll be too many angry sore-armed engravers swarming around to be safe to visit
Also I think you miss my point
Names of people who were the first to do/invent something, or names of rulers/ societal reformers, will be only remembered by those (forced to) study the subject.
People will remember names if they symbolize something we still want to hear or read or see or invoke. That is why we still know the names of medieval/classical writers and philosophers and componists today. We still want to read them and listen to their music.
I assume that people a thousand years from now might still like the songs of the Beatles and the Stones. So they will remember the bands names, and perhaps the name of the singers. The songs are so widely known, and so “hummable” and widely repeated that I think morphogenic fieldswill keep them alive.
Muhammad Ali
I think the founder of Pakistan is dead
Agree Neil Armstrong is the best candidate. Good call by pancakes3 on James D. Watson, DNA isn’t going to go out of fashion. Tim Berners-Lee also has an outside chance. I hope none of our politicians are remembered. If they are, it’s unlikely to be for a good reason.
Expanding it out a bit to people alive in the last hundred years or so, I’d add, in descending order of confidence, Yuri Gagarin, The Wright Brothers, Hitler, and Gandhi. I think 1,000 is much too long to make any meaningful prediction on writers, musicians, film-makers or sportspeople.
Looking at some of the past ‘common knowledge’ people it seems there are mainly 3 classes that will put you forward to be remembered.
Military success – i.e. William the Conqueror
Political success – i.e. Caesar
Brutal leadership – i.e. Attila The Hun
So who would you say would meet any of these points.
Military success – i.e. No idea – could not name any military leader alive at the present
Political success – i.e. Margaret Thatcher – but who knows
Brutal leadership – i.e. Saddam Hussein (not alive today but the most recent that I can think of)