# Who, in all of human history, has had the greatest impact upon modern society? **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [May 17, 2012, 11:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-in-all-of-human-history-has-had-the-greatest-impact-upon-modern-society/622264 "2012-05-17T23:09:09Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 13\ **Page:** 7
**Author:** ![Damuri\_Ajashi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/898d66/32.png) [@Damuri\_Ajashi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Damuri_Ajashi)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2012, 9:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-in-all-of-human-history-has-had-the-greatest-impact-upon-modern-society/622264/121 "2012-05-22T21:34:05Z")
> [@bdgr](#): > > Cecil Adams. Trying to eradicate ignorance is not the same thing as actually doing so, and the last time I checked ignorance is still running pretty rampant. > [@BlinkingDuck](#): > > The spirit of the question is not how you are answering. > > The spirit of the OP’s question is, I think, if you reran history without that single person in it…which person’s rerun would come out with a present time the most different from the original history? > > If Uggh hadn’t invented fire, OOOgghh would have a little later so Uggh had little effect on history. In that context you would probably get rid of anything before WWII. Printing press? The fact that it was developed independently in multiple places shows that this was as inevitable as the discovery of archery. (BTW, you know Gutenberg’s printing press came more than 4 centuries after some Chinese guy and 150 years after some korean guy right?). Galileo and Copernicus? Inevitable with the invention of the telescope. Newton’s laws of thermodynamics? Probably inevitable. The biggest event that molds everything about the modern world was WWII. It was a watershed moment in history so in my mind it would have to be the person who drove the events surrounding that war. Hitler. Somebody had to say it. ---
**Author:** ![florez](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/b9e5f3/32.png) [@florez](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/florez)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2012, 10:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-in-all-of-human-history-has-had-the-greatest-impact-upon-modern-society/622264/122 "2012-05-22T22:32:13Z")
Abraham, and all his family drama. ---
**Author:** ![PrettyVacant](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/49beb7/32.png) [@PrettyVacant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PrettyVacant)\ **Post date:** [May 23, 2012, 6:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-in-all-of-human-history-has-had-the-greatest-impact-upon-modern-society/622264/123 "2012-05-23T06:07:00Z")
How many people have now suggested fire was “invented”? ---
**Author:** ![E-Sabbath](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/e19adc/32.png) [@E-Sabbath](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/E-Sabbath)\ **Post date:** [May 23, 2012, 10:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-in-all-of-human-history-has-had-the-greatest-impact-upon-modern-society/622264/124 "2012-05-23T10:28:33Z")
Technically, I suppose I should have said discovery, but I was being a bit tongue in cheek and it flowed better. ---
**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:** [May 23, 2012, 5:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-in-all-of-human-history-has-had-the-greatest-impact-upon-modern-society/622264/125 "2012-05-23T17:40:01Z")
> [@Damuri\_Ajashi](#): > > Galileo and Copernicus? Inevitable with the invention of the telescope. While it’s true that scientists and inventors built on the work of their predecessors, some were especially important. If the invention of the telescope is particularly important let me commend to your attention Galileo himself who developed the best telescope of his day, among many other great accomplishments. The suggestion that Copernicus’ discovery followed from the invention of the telescope will need quite a cite, I’m afraid. Copernicus did not use a telescope – it hadn’t yet been invented in his time. > [@Chronos](#): > > On the other hand, what Mendel did _could_ have been done by any farmer at all, all the way back to the dawn of agriculture… And yet, it wasn’t. That, to me, seems to suggest that Mendel _did_ make a major breakthrough. A key question is: _How long would a discovery have been delayed if its discoverer hadn’t lived?_ In the case of Mendel, we know the answer: 35 years. A rather long delay, I think, given the simplicity and importance of Mendel’s discovery to the understanding of genetics and evolution. For this reason, Mendel could be called a great discoverer. Unfortunately, the fact that we know the delay would have been 35 years argues against Mendel’s influence. The only reason we know exactly how long the delay would have been is that … there _was_ such a delay. Though published in a scientific journal, Mendel’s discovery was completely ignored for 35 years. :smack: Mendel’s Laws _were_ an “idea whose time had come” … 35 years _after_ Mendel’s discovery … when four separate researchers independently discovered the Laws and/or stumbled on Mendel’s paper. ---
**Author:** ![Johanna](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johanna/32/8318_2.png) [@Johanna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johanna)\ **Post date:** [May 23, 2012, 6:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-in-all-of-human-history-has-had-the-greatest-impact-upon-modern-society/622264/126 "2012-05-23T18:28:57Z")
The impetus for Columbus sailing was to avoid going through the Muslim world to trade with east Asia. The Muslim world transmitted ancient and medieval works of philosophy, science, technology, etc. to Europe forming the basis for the Renaissance. The use of human reason over received religious dogma. Based on ancient Greek models, the Muslim philosophers analyzed and developed such issues in the context of monotheistic Abrahamic religion, much of which was palatable to Christians also. Then upon internal conflict in the Muslim world, religious dogma reasserted itself over science. The idea, once transferred to Europe, was at first opposed by the power of religious dogma and then eventually won success producing modern science. Other cultural transfers to medieval Europe came about because of the Crusades, including trade with Asia which led to European exploration of America. Anyhow, all of the above is because the Muslim world was there, and it was such only because of this one hepcat called Muhammad. That’s from a Western point of view. The internal Muslim view is that a Prophet had long been foretold by Jewish sages and Christian gospels to appear in Arabia, and there were other prophets who arose in Arabia contemporaneous with Muhammad (their cults got squashed flat PDQ), so the idea was heavily anticipated in that place and time, and somebody or other would have to have been eventually produced to answer the expectation. We don’t know how some other individual’s prophethood would have affected history. They might have fizzled. All we know is that Muhammad put together a winning program. ---
**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:** [May 23, 2012, 6:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-in-all-of-human-history-has-had-the-greatest-impact-upon-modern-society/622264/127 "2012-05-23T18:53:32Z")
I agree that Muhammad is the clear choice for #1. He was the single man key to Islam, while Christianity may not have had a single key founder (many would rank St. Paul as more influential than Jesus; some even consider Jesus semi-mythical). Moreover, was not Islam more important to the development of the Arab world, than Christianity was to the European world? And finally, as Johanna implies, Islamic science was key to the development of medieval European science. (Indeed it is now widely agreed, I think, that Copernicus borrowed most of his own theory from [Nasir al-Din al-Tusi](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nasir_al-Din_al-Tusi).) ---
**Author:** ![BlinkingDuck](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/eada6e/32.png) [@BlinkingDuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BlinkingDuck)\ **Post date:** [May 23, 2012, 7:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-in-all-of-human-history-has-had-the-greatest-impact-upon-modern-society/622264/128 "2012-05-23T19:42:29Z")
> [@Damuri\_Ajashi](#): > > In that context you would probably get rid of anything before WWII. > > Printing press? The fact that it was developed independently in multiple places shows that this was as inevitable as the discovery of archery. (BTW, you know Gutenberg’s printing press came more than 4 centuries after some Chinese guy and 150 years after some korean guy right?). > > Galileo and Copernicus? Inevitable with the invention of the telescope. > > Newton’s laws of thermodynamics? Probably inevitable. > > The biggest event that molds everything about the modern world was WWII. It was a watershed moment in history so in my mind it would have to be the person who drove the events surrounding that war. Hitler. Somebody had to say it. Mostly true…but not so sure about WWII. People mentioned Jesus or Muhammad…I don’t think history would have come along with what they did and so the world would look different if they didn’t exist. I do think it applies to inventions, discoveries, scientific theories much more so as someone esle would probably have come along quickly to come up with them. Military commanders as well could have an impact. If Napoleon hadn’t existed, maybe France wouldn’t have went for all the marbles in the early 1800’s…and so not gave a push to German unification…so no WWI and WWII…and the world could look much different. I don’t know. ---
**Author:** ![gamerunknown](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/6bbea6/32.png) [@gamerunknown](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gamerunknown)\ **Post date:** [May 23, 2012, 10:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-in-all-of-human-history-has-had-the-greatest-impact-upon-modern-society/622264/129 "2012-05-23T22:20:58Z")
Well, while the Quran has ultimate authority for every Muslim, Ali was hugely influential on Sunni Islam and the associated hadith that form their religious practices. Perhaps not to the degree Paul was on Christianity. Perhaps the correlate to the ecumenical councils would be determining the order of the Surahs in the Quran. ---
**Author:** ![casdave](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/c6cbf5/32.png) [@casdave](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/casdave)\ **Post date:** [May 24, 2012, 9:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-in-all-of-human-history-has-had-the-greatest-impact-upon-modern-society/622264/130 "2012-05-24T21:04:47Z")
Harold Black. This is the chap who made modern electronics useful. It is very hard indeed to overestimate the imnpact of his work. Would someone else have discovered it? Not in time to make a huge differance to WW2 thats for sure. Just about everything you own has been made by machines that uses his principles.This principle is the one single thing that transformed control theory into something workable. > **[Harold Stephen Black](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harold_Stephen_Black)** > > Harold Stephen Black (April 14, 1898 – December 11, 1983) was an American electrical engineer, who revolutionized the field of applied electronics by inventing the negative feedback amplifier in 1927. To some, his invention is considered the most important breakthrough of the twentieth century in the field of electronics, since it has a wide area of application. This is because all electronic devices (vacuum tubes, bipolar transistors and MOS transistors) are inherently nonlinear, but they can be... ---
**Author:** ![Damuri\_Ajashi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/898d66/32.png) [@Damuri\_Ajashi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Damuri_Ajashi)\ **Post date:** [May 24, 2012, 9:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-in-all-of-human-history-has-had-the-greatest-impact-upon-modern-society/622264/131 "2012-05-24T21:35:56Z")
> [@septimus](#): > > While it’s true that scientists and inventors built on the work of their predecessors, some were especially important. If the invention of the telescope is particularly important let me commend to your attention Galileo himself who developed the best telescope of his day, among many other great accomplishments. > > The suggestion that Copernicus’ discovery followed from the invention of the telescope will need quite a cite, I’m afraid. Copernicus did not use a telescope – it hadn’t yet been invented in his time. I wasn’t saying that Copernicus’ discovery was due to the telescope, I was saying that once the telescope was developed Copernicus’ discoveries would have become inevitable just as improvements in the telescope were inevitable. And the inevitable discovery would have occurred long enough ago that it would make little to no difference in today’s society. > [@BlinkingDuck](#): > > Mostly true…but not so sure about WWII. People mentioned Jesus or Muhammad…I don’t think history would have come along with what they did and so the world would look different if they didn’t exist. A lot of the specifics of Christianity might have been different but there were a lot of Asian philosophies and religions that had carried similar themes for centuries before Jesus espoused loving thy neighbor. A lot of folks suspect that Jesus might have spent some time studying eastern religion and philosophies. > [@](#): > > Military commanders as well could have an impact. If Napoleon hadn’t existed, maybe France wouldn’t have went for all the marbles in the early 1800’s…and so not gave a push to German unification…so no WWI and WWII…and the world could look much different. I don’t know. I thought we were abandoning the notion that Adam begat everything otherwise some historian will point out that Napolean was also a product of other historical forces. I still think the answer is Hitler. ---
**Author:** ![ttxceo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/c6cbf5/32.png) [@ttxceo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ttxceo)\ **Post date:** [February 1, 2014, 2:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-in-all-of-human-history-has-had-the-greatest-impact-upon-modern-society/622264/132 "2014-02-01T02:07:46Z")
So all threads seem to look toward Ontology, Epistemology, Theology …I would vote for science as belief systems only affect a percentage…science has affected nearly 100% of population. If we look at the population set from the inception of science forward it is exponentially greater. ---
**Author:** ![Stringbean](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d6d6ee/32.png) [@Stringbean](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stringbean)\ **Post date:** [February 1, 2014, 3:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-in-all-of-human-history-has-had-the-greatest-impact-upon-modern-society/622264/133 "2014-02-01T03:43:36Z")
Gutenberg or Newton probably. Or, taking a more “modern” understanding, Einstein. Relativity was a new paradigm that persists to this day. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-in-all-of-human-history-has-had-the-greatest-impact-upon-modern-society/622264.md?page=6)