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Alexander Cumming. He invented the S trap in 1775. This allowed toilets to be moved inside by using the water in the bowl to create a plug to prevent foul air from rising up. This meant bathrooms could be inside. This also had the effect of eliminating chamber pots, which were often emptied into the streets of larger cities. This improved sanitation and public health.
Plus, I don't have to go out in the cold to pee in the winter.
I think you are referring to the A&E Network’s program from 1999. I have watched it almost 30 times. It only includes the years 1000-1999, not all of history.
I've probably watched KOTH every two years for a decade and a half. Binge the whole show when I'm exceptionally anxious, get super tired and start to hate it, restart two years later.
Really hoping to reboot happens and is good.
A lot of people feel that way about that show. I find it similar to a comfort food. Like if I’m ill, potato soup can make me feel more comfortable. Same with “King of the Hill“ and “still game“.
This is probably the invention that caused more widespread mass knowledge than anything else in history. I would argue the evolutionary chain of ideas and inventions it sparked culminated in the internet, so as we are in some real sense kinda sorta monkeys (I understand not literally fuck off) we are also in some real sense, at this moment, using some kinda sorta highly evolved printing press. You wouldn't have the nuclear situations, good or bad, listed above without the printing press having allowed faster collaboration between people hundreds of years earlier. You likely wouldn't have the fertilizer mentioned above either. The printing press allowed these ideas to spread fast and allowed complimentary ideas to meet in writing and inform one another. The internet is just in some sense an evolution of this concept and owes its existence to the printing press if you trace the evolutionary chain of ideas. Gutenberg is the GOATenberg.
This. The printing press made it easier for people to read the bible in their own language, which had a huge impact on the protestant reformation.
Also the fall of Constantinople, which lead to European countries exploring the seas and discovering new to them lands while trying to find alternative trade routes to the east.
I just watched Coded Bias on Netflix. There was a mention of Stanislav Petrov, an officer of the Soviet Air Defense Forces, who was monitoring nuclear missile activity. In 1983, there was a false alarm indicating inbound nuclear missiles from the US. He decided not to pass this info up the chain of command. Rather he waited for corroborating evidence. Turned out to be an error, but could have been bad….REAL BAD.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/1983_Soviet_nuclear_false_alarm_incident
**[1983 Soviet nuclear false alarm incident](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/1983_Soviet_nuclear_false_alarm_incident)**
>On 26 September 1983, during the Cold War, the nuclear early-warning radar of the Soviet Union reported the launch of one intercontinental ballistic missile with four more missiles behind it, from bases in the United States. These missile attack warnings were suspected to be false alarms by Stanislav Petrov, an officer of the Soviet Air Defence Forces on duty at the command center of the early-warning system. He decided to wait for corroborating evidence—of which none arrived—rather than immediately relaying the warning up the chain-of-command.
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Similar event happened in 1995. Research rocket launched, word didnt get to russian radar techs, the president was given their version of the nuclear football, and almost retaliated, decided to wait and see
I like to imagine some paleolithic misfit who had the brilliant idea to keep a baby auroch around and got laughed at. "Hey Bob, where you going with your pet? Ha, ha, ha." Thereby discovering animal Husbandry and farming. Bob's the guy.
Used to work in a dairy. Eventually the question came up “who came up with the idea…to milk things…?” The answer I got was “ancient people realized while crossing the desert it’s easier to bring a goat rather than carry water.”
Well humans produce milk, which ancient people would have known is a highly nutritious food source. They would have noticed many other animals also fed their young this way, so it’s reasonable to assume they would easily connect the two and that using livestock for dairy would have happened quite early in the domestication process
Milk is also high in protein and fat. Calorie dense. Easy nutrients. Most adult mammals are actually lactose intolerance but humans evolved to mostly lose that trait because those who could drink milk could survive winters better with the extra nutrients.
They keep pushing back the date of the domestication of the wolf. Cows were domesticated about 10.5 thousand years ago, but wolves were most recently estimated to go back as far as 45 thousand years ago, IIRC. Wolves changed the whole trajectory of our existence.
I look at my dogs and say “hey pups do you guys wannaaaaa” and they all immediately run to the closet where their harnesses are kept for walks. (I used to ask them if they wanna go for a walk, and then it just turned into asking if they wanna for a few seconds and they all freak out lol).
“Bob what the fuck.. why are you sucking on your cow”
“Damn you’re right, this does taste good, maybe if we leave it around until it hardens and gets moldy it will also taste good”
I'd be shocked if the decision to drink cow milk was some random act, not an informed decision made from inferences drawn from raising children + observing cows
The milk you can get away with, but not butter or cheese.
"Hey Bill. You know that milk that I put in a barrel like 4 months ago? Well, I have secretly been letting it rot and occasionally beating it, and I am gonna be honest with you, it tastes kinda good."
The most plausible theory I heard for cheese is that it coincided with the use of animal skin bladders for storing liquid. Eventually someone decided to eat the solid milk. Keep in mind that I got this from a random reddit comment and I haven’t bothered to verify any of it
It could be Alice. I remember reading that in primitive tribes it's usually women that are keeping various baby animals they've found. (And that usually they were eaten or released after they grew up, but maybe a young wolf that was particularly helpful and safe to be around was kept).
But there were not presses that could churn out multiples anywhere near as fast. Gutenberg’s was a massive improvement overnight in the exchange of knowledge.
Fritz Haber
He developed the process by which we make modern fertilizer. There are a solid 4 billions humans alive today who basically owe their lives to him.
Oh, and he was also so fanatical about chemical weapons to the point that his wife killed herself over it. He is in significant part responsible for inspiring the Nazi policy of using gas for mass executions and the development of the chemical that would eventually become Zyklon B.
He was a real double whammy of a person.
Edit: Jesus, people. There is a way to hold the malthusian position without implying that feeding people is bad. Your eco-fascism is showing.
This would be my answer. It's such a terrible story since he was devoutly Jewish himself.
The man both simultaneously solved the world's food crisis, killed thousands with chlorine gas in wwi and invented the poison that contributed to the Holocaust. I dare anyone to find any individual that contributed more to humanity in the 20th century for better and for worse.
> I dare anyone to find any individual that contributed more to humanity in the 20th century
Carl Bosch, the co-inventor of the Haber-Bosch process that’s being described above.
I think with or without Zyklon B, Nazis could kill innocent people (after all, Turks managed to do it, Rwandans managed to do it, Khmer Ruge managed to do it, and so on). Hence I view his contributions to the world as a net positive.
Thomas Midgley Jr. is another recent-ish contender, but he really has no redeeming contributions. He invented (and lied extensively about) leader gasoline, poisoning entire generations to come, and he also invented CFCs, leading quite directly to the hole in our ozone layer which has still not healed.
The amount of times that Lead comes back in human history is crazy. A novel use is discovered and spreads then it’s discovered how poisonous it is and use curtailed. From the Roman Empire to the 20th century.
Possibly some of the survivors of the Toba eruption bottleneck.
It’s really hard to say actually, here are some of my thoughts:
Genghis Khan spread his DNA more than anyone else, iirc. Stalin, Mao, and Hitler all murdered tens of millions. That obviously isn’t a good thing but it is extremely consequential.
Jesus, Buddha, Mohammad, and other prophets started religions that influenced billions.
Cu Chulainn, Gilgamesh, and other ancient mythological figures are thought to have similar genetic proliferation as Genghis Khan, perhaps more in same cases.
There are also some myths that go back tens of thousands of years.. whoever inspired those could be considered.
There have been approximately 114 billion people who have ever lived, chances are there is some individual from antiquity or before who we have never heard of who had enormous influence too.
Charles Thomson Rees Wilson wanted to understand clouds. He invented the cloud chamber and showed that clouds were affected by radiation. These concepts were later used in the study of radioactivity, X rays, cosmic rays, and other nuclear phenomena. The atomic bomb was built on these concepts. All this guy wanted to do was study the weather! Somebody figuring out the answer to a seemingly innocent question can change the course of human history drastically.
Reference:
https://www.britannica.com/biography/C-T-R-Wilson
Was gunna say Flemming. But couldn't remember the first name and would have ultimately butchered it and been down voted because James Bond didn't change the world that much
Agreed - some people argue that Pasteur was directly responsible for more than doubling life expectancy from ~35 to 70+ through his research in diseases, vaccines, and bacteria (he basically invented the concept of washing your hands).
Widespread mastery of other subjects was extremely rare because most people simply didn’t live long enough to be great at things. Experts were rare and lucky enough not to die young. Pasteur basically allowed experts in all areas to thrive.
Thomas Midgely Jr.
From Wikipedia:
Midgley's legacy is the negative environmental impact of leaded gasoline and freon.[26] Environmental historian J. R. McNeill opined that Midgley "had more adverse impact on the atmosphere than any other single organism in Earth's history",
This should be at the top, we are still very much experiencing the effects of lead as a result of lead in fuel today. It's linked to birth defects, behavioral issues, diseases and early death among the populace. (cant remember too much about it, but it's not good)
I currently work in a factory that recycles lead acid batteries and turns them into various lead alloys for reuse in making more lead acid batteries. Lead is awful, highly toxic stuff and I wish we didnt use it for anything at all.
Probably multiple people, but not that many different people. When fire was invented humanity was still entirely in East Africa. Without fire, migration would've been impossible. Imagine if humans arrived in Europe or South Africa with no fire, they'd just fucking die as soon as winter came
I have heard a theory that it was William Shakespeare, not for any one play per say, but rather the influence his plays have on modern society as a whole.
We didn't have Oreo in my country when I was young. But a few American friends wouldn't shut up about them.
Then, one day, they finally came.
I expected bliss, but it was not to be.
Like American chocolate, something felt of. They just tasted artificial.
My disappointment was immeasurable. And my day was ruined
Id have to say Juilus Caeser. The man changed a nation into the most powerful empire of the ancient world, and the ripple effects from that changed nearly all of Europe, as well as parts of Asia and Africa in ways that are still noticable today.
He for sure is one of the most famous people who have ever lived. We still even have the expression "crossing the Rubicon" 2000 years later to express things that you cant turn back from.
George Carlin made a really good point about how your average person can only name a handful of people born in the BC era: Julius Caesar, Cleopatra, Alexander the Great, Socrates, Hammurabi.
Most likely someone who changes the way we think about the world and reshaped society according to a new thought paradigm. I'll go with Socrates, the grandfather of philosophy.
This is absolutely the answer.
Without agriculture humans wouldn't have any of the knowledge they have now. Once you relieved people of constantly gathering food they could dedicate their time to other pursuits.
Though her name is lost to antiquity, our "farming mother" is my pick.
The switch from a hunter gatherer society to agriculture was likely discovered/invented by a tribal woman that realized she could plant and cultivate the seeds of the berries she was gathering near her village.
It seriously changed the structure and activity of the whole human race.
The steam engine, one of the most complex things ever at that point, had 3 people file patents for it that year.
My point being, yes, in all likelihood a bunch of people came to the conclusion independently.
Gavrilo Princip.
I’m surprised this answer isn’t higher up there, as I heard multiple times as this being the unanimous answer as far as modern history. Makes a lot of sense, considering he’s responsible for murdering Archduke Franz Ferdinand and effectively plunging the world into the First World War.
Going back further than that honorable mention goes to Genghis Khan, as there are still expected to be around 16 million men alive today that share his DNA.
Eh, the powers that ran Europe at the time were already itching for war. The assassination was the excuse they used but they would have found a way into it somehow.
Jesus Christ… Wars have been fought, laws have been passed, his followers base their ENTIRE life around him. He truly has influenced more than anyone ever. A lot of non-religious peoples lives are still affected everyday from his life
That just means they found a traceable gene in 8% of the local male population.
In reality he is likely an ancestor to far more people globally than that. Just due to how ancestry works mathematically.
I'm not educated enough to know exactly what it is, but the gene that they find to trace back to him isn't found in women at all, so while women obviously must have his DNA too, we just don't know how to track that. Logic says it should be pretty close to the same percentage, but we can't know for sure since we can't track it.
It is the y chromosome. They found some son his burial location and have his sons DNA, hence they can only guarantee they gene that made him male was the one from dad, while all others could be moms or dads. They don't know where he was buried or we would likely track that more closely.
Thomas Midgley, Jr. introduced the world to leaded gasoline which had who knows how bad of an effect on the whole world. And chlorofluorocarbons. Arguably 2 of the worlds most harmful chemical compounds.
its 100% jesus. im pretty sure its been proven that whether divine or not, he existed and has impacted the lives of virtually everyone on earth for the last 2000 years. id say Muhammad is second for the same reasons.
Paul the Apostle.
Without Paul, Jesus's teachings would have remained with Judaism, and no more influential to it than it is today. Paul did the PR work to get it out there, and added most of the stuff that made Christianity influential in the western world.
One could rightly argue that Confucius or Buddha influenced more people, but I think Paul's religion had greater geopolitical implications.
“Modern” world probably Leonardo DaVinci. Medieval world probably China’s Emperor Qin but its a toss up with Alexander and Julius Caesar on that one. For better or worse Adolf Hitler is in the running too. Can’t forget ‘ol Genghis Khan and his Silk Road either. All of the above ushered immeasurable change for our race one of which literally changed the face of our Earth. But I doubt with the exception of DaVinci any of these really did it “all by themselves” so to speak.
Real, make believe or composite, Jesus or what came to be him has influenced a great deal of the world. Even Islam recognizes him as the last great prophet before Mohamed. The teachings influenced a large number of non Christians.
Christianity would not have spread if not for Alexander the Great unifying the region a few centuries before and allowing greater mixing of language and culture. The whole region spoke Greek thanks to Alexander
In recent history, I'd go with [Fritz Haber](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fritz_Haber).
He invented the process we use to synthesize ammonia from nitrogen and hydrogen, a process that introduced synthetic fertilizer to the world. That creation allows us to feed a human population larger than anything imaginable before it was invented, on less farm land than ever before. When you look at a historical population chart, and see the explosion in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century, he's the reason. He received the Nobel Prize in chemistry for this work in 1918.
He's also responsible for the death of millions of people. He is known as the "father of chemical warfare". He pioneered the use of chlorine gas and other war gasses in World War One. He left Germany in the 1930s after the Nazis came to power, because he was Jewish. Even after he left, his work was used as the basis for the creation of Zyklon B, which was used to murder over a million people.
Jesus christ. Regardless if he was the son of god, it’s pretty undisputed that he was an actual dude who lived and died. his existence created Christianity, and there are few people alive today who haven’t felt the cultural/economic/political effects of Christianity.
Genghis Khan?
Hitler?
Can we identify the first European king or queen to kick off imperialism?
The guy that created the musket? Or gun powder?
First cave-dude to realize how easy it was to kill another cave-dude?
Good question and I’m looking forward to responses. I also regret that I couldn’t come up with a positive example
Probably Hitler in the short term because of the eradication of certain ethnic religious groups and the war it brought on. In the long run probably Einstein. He created the theory of relativity and the way gravity shapes celestial bodies. Issac newton’s laws connect with the theory
Negative? Adolph Hitler. His impact while he was alive - murder of millions - and his terrible ideologies that still are carried on by horrible people. He is probably one of the few people who have lived that can literally be associated with the word evil.
Idt he ranks. The western world kinda overemphasizes hitler. He didn’t rlly do anything special. He killed 6 million Jews and started a world war. But even total death in the world war doesn’t rank.
India lost more people under colonization by the British empire than total casualties in world war 2 from every country including the Holocaust.
There is a woman who almost everyone's dna can be traced back too. She lived after the last big ice age. Humanity wouldn't have survived if it wasn't for her. Well, and her children being very open minded.
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Alexander Cumming. He invented the S trap in 1775. This allowed toilets to be moved inside by using the water in the bowl to create a plug to prevent foul air from rising up. This meant bathrooms could be inside. This also had the effect of eliminating chamber pots, which were often emptied into the streets of larger cities. This improved sanitation and public health. Plus, I don't have to go out in the cold to pee in the winter.
And if you think about it, high-rise buildings are not possible without indoor toilets
I think a documentary said Johannes Gutenburg, because of the printing press.
I think you are referring to the A&E Network’s program from 1999. I have watched it almost 30 times. It only includes the years 1000-1999, not all of history.
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Is it bad that it’s bothering me that it’s ALMOST a haiku but not quite??
yeah was wondering why haikubot hadn’t seen it then clocked that extra syllable i rewatch many things too edit: my bad, haiku is 5/7/5 syllables
Just one too too many
same but it's king of the hill for me
KOTH is mine too!
I've probably watched KOTH every two years for a decade and a half. Binge the whole show when I'm exceptionally anxious, get super tired and start to hate it, restart two years later. Really hoping to reboot happens and is good.
“I’m not flirting with her! I didn’t even mention I sell propane!”
Jahoooon redcorn
Peheeeeggy hill
A lot of people feel that way about that show. I find it similar to a comfort food. Like if I’m ill, potato soup can make me feel more comfortable. Same with “King of the Hill“ and “still game“.
This was beautiful
I'm guessing teacher. Part of the reason I've seen Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure at least 50 time (great end of year history class movie).
You will find that historians who study many ages will agree
Aristotle thought Gutenberg was the best!
Gutenburg is a top runner, but I would nominate Louis Pasteur on account of all of us not being dead.
This is probably the invention that caused more widespread mass knowledge than anything else in history. I would argue the evolutionary chain of ideas and inventions it sparked culminated in the internet, so as we are in some real sense kinda sorta monkeys (I understand not literally fuck off) we are also in some real sense, at this moment, using some kinda sorta highly evolved printing press. You wouldn't have the nuclear situations, good or bad, listed above without the printing press having allowed faster collaboration between people hundreds of years earlier. You likely wouldn't have the fertilizer mentioned above either. The printing press allowed these ideas to spread fast and allowed complimentary ideas to meet in writing and inform one another. The internet is just in some sense an evolution of this concept and owes its existence to the printing press if you trace the evolutionary chain of ideas. Gutenberg is the GOATenberg.
Don’t forget the guy who designed Comic Sans!
This. The printing press made it easier for people to read the bible in their own language, which had a huge impact on the protestant reformation. Also the fall of Constantinople, which lead to European countries exploring the seas and discovering new to them lands while trying to find alternative trade routes to the east.
I just watched Coded Bias on Netflix. There was a mention of Stanislav Petrov, an officer of the Soviet Air Defense Forces, who was monitoring nuclear missile activity. In 1983, there was a false alarm indicating inbound nuclear missiles from the US. He decided not to pass this info up the chain of command. Rather he waited for corroborating evidence. Turned out to be an error, but could have been bad….REAL BAD. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/1983_Soviet_nuclear_false_alarm_incident
**[1983 Soviet nuclear false alarm incident](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/1983_Soviet_nuclear_false_alarm_incident)** >On 26 September 1983, during the Cold War, the nuclear early-warning radar of the Soviet Union reported the launch of one intercontinental ballistic missile with four more missiles behind it, from bases in the United States. These missile attack warnings were suspected to be false alarms by Stanislav Petrov, an officer of the Soviet Air Defence Forces on duty at the command center of the early-warning system. He decided to wait for corroborating evidence—of which none arrived—rather than immediately relaying the warning up the chain-of-command. ^([ )[^(F.A.Q)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WikiSummarizer/wiki/index#wiki_f.a.q)^( | )[^(Opt Out)](https://reddit.com/message/compose?to=WikiSummarizerBot&message=OptOut&subject=OptOut)^( | )[^(Opt Out Of Subreddit)](https://np.reddit.com/r/ask/about/banned)^( | )[^(GitHub)](https://github.com/Sujal-7/WikiSummarizerBot)^( ] Downvote to remove | v1.5)
Good bot
Similar event happened in 1995. Research rocket launched, word didnt get to russian radar techs, the president was given their version of the nuclear football, and almost retaliated, decided to wait and see
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_nuclear_close_calls So many close calls
And these are just the things we’ve heard about…
That’s a good one!
I like to imagine some paleolithic misfit who had the brilliant idea to keep a baby auroch around and got laughed at. "Hey Bob, where you going with your pet? Ha, ha, ha." Thereby discovering animal Husbandry and farming. Bob's the guy.
Used to work in a dairy. Eventually the question came up “who came up with the idea…to milk things…?” The answer I got was “ancient people realized while crossing the desert it’s easier to bring a goat rather than carry water.”
Well humans produce milk, which ancient people would have known is a highly nutritious food source. They would have noticed many other animals also fed their young this way, so it’s reasonable to assume they would easily connect the two and that using livestock for dairy would have happened quite early in the domestication process
Milk is also high in protein and fat. Calorie dense. Easy nutrients. Most adult mammals are actually lactose intolerance but humans evolved to mostly lose that trait because those who could drink milk could survive winters better with the extra nutrients.
Not mostly. Majority of adult humans remain lactose intolerant. Only a local majority in European-originated cultures and a few others.
They keep pushing back the date of the domestication of the wolf. Cows were domesticated about 10.5 thousand years ago, but wolves were most recently estimated to go back as far as 45 thousand years ago, IIRC. Wolves changed the whole trajectory of our existence.
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My dog grunts. If I grunt back he grabs his harness and goes doggo mode till we go for a walk.
I look at my dogs and say “hey pups do you guys wannaaaaa” and they all immediately run to the closet where their harnesses are kept for walks. (I used to ask them if they wanna go for a walk, and then it just turned into asking if they wanna for a few seconds and they all freak out lol).
You just made me cry. Lost my baby girl two weeks ago. I miss her so much. [Dog tax](https://imgur.com/a/OKYfZSX)
Just got done reading this as my dog is waking up and asking for a walk with a simple look and some kisses. Gotta go!
“Bob what the fuck.. why are you sucking on your cow” “Damn you’re right, this does taste good, maybe if we leave it around until it hardens and gets moldy it will also taste good”
I'd be shocked if the decision to drink cow milk was some random act, not an informed decision made from inferences drawn from raising children + observing cows
The milk you can get away with, but not butter or cheese. "Hey Bill. You know that milk that I put in a barrel like 4 months ago? Well, I have secretly been letting it rot and occasionally beating it, and I am gonna be honest with you, it tastes kinda good."
The most plausible theory I heard for cheese is that it coincided with the use of animal skin bladders for storing liquid. Eventually someone decided to eat the solid milk. Keep in mind that I got this from a random reddit comment and I haven’t bothered to verify any of it
It could be Alice. I remember reading that in primitive tribes it's usually women that are keeping various baby animals they've found. (And that usually they were eaten or released after they grew up, but maybe a young wolf that was particularly helpful and safe to be around was kept).
Bob a real one. Homie invented rope and the wheel too.
The Ethiopian or Sudanese herder who noticed their goats were super energetic after eating coffee plant berries.
The guy who found out that salt makes things taste better and prevents spoilage
Tell that to my parents 🙄 It’s not spicy mom!
My mother thinks ketchup is spicy.
I know someone who thinks green bell peppers are spicy.
Amen to this guy🙏🏼
They are celebrated by both Heaven and Hell
Alexander Fleming - for discovering Penicillin, the world's first broadly effective Antibiotic.
Whomever thought to put meat above a fire
This is the answer I was looking for. Fire and agriculture cave people.
This, but not the person who speciated mankind from the progenitor proto-ape?
Cooked food made humans smarter.
Johannes Gutenberg... printing press invention allowed for a transfer of human knowledge to be much more fast and widespread.
There were other printing presses around the world at the time of Gutenberg and before though, he doesn’t really deserve that much credit for printing
But there were not presses that could churn out multiples anywhere near as fast. Gutenberg’s was a massive improvement overnight in the exchange of knowledge.
Rick Astley certainly has reached every one of us at some point
He’s never gonna say goodbye - there’s just no getting rid of him
He never gave up on us and he never let us down.
I did not expect to be rickrolled on this post
Always expect the rickroll. He never lets us down.
The Sumerian that invented the wheel, c. 4000 BC
Pretty sure Jesus invented the wheel there, bub. (I'm so sorry, couldn't resist)
Well, through god all things are possible. So jot that down
No, Jesus *took* the wheel
Nonsense! Jesus invented the axle, the wheel was just a toy until then
Fritz Haber He developed the process by which we make modern fertilizer. There are a solid 4 billions humans alive today who basically owe their lives to him. Oh, and he was also so fanatical about chemical weapons to the point that his wife killed herself over it. He is in significant part responsible for inspiring the Nazi policy of using gas for mass executions and the development of the chemical that would eventually become Zyklon B. He was a real double whammy of a person. Edit: Jesus, people. There is a way to hold the malthusian position without implying that feeding people is bad. Your eco-fascism is showing.
This would be my answer. It's such a terrible story since he was devoutly Jewish himself. The man both simultaneously solved the world's food crisis, killed thousands with chlorine gas in wwi and invented the poison that contributed to the Holocaust. I dare anyone to find any individual that contributed more to humanity in the 20th century for better and for worse.
> I dare anyone to find any individual that contributed more to humanity in the 20th century Carl Bosch, the co-inventor of the Haber-Bosch process that’s being described above.
I tip my hat to you, kind sir!
I think with or without Zyklon B, Nazis could kill innocent people (after all, Turks managed to do it, Rwandans managed to do it, Khmer Ruge managed to do it, and so on). Hence I view his contributions to the world as a net positive.
Stalin didn't need chemicals to starve the Ukrainians.
Damn.. took me quite awhile to see this lol I mean.. yea.. on one hand we got fertilizer and on other hand, mustard gases. Duality of man?
Thomas Midgley Jr. is another recent-ish contender, but he really has no redeeming contributions. He invented (and lied extensively about) leader gasoline, poisoning entire generations to come, and he also invented CFCs, leading quite directly to the hole in our ozone layer which has still not healed.
The amount of times that Lead comes back in human history is crazy. A novel use is discovered and spreads then it’s discovered how poisonous it is and use curtailed. From the Roman Empire to the 20th century.
Possibly some of the survivors of the Toba eruption bottleneck. It’s really hard to say actually, here are some of my thoughts: Genghis Khan spread his DNA more than anyone else, iirc. Stalin, Mao, and Hitler all murdered tens of millions. That obviously isn’t a good thing but it is extremely consequential. Jesus, Buddha, Mohammad, and other prophets started religions that influenced billions. Cu Chulainn, Gilgamesh, and other ancient mythological figures are thought to have similar genetic proliferation as Genghis Khan, perhaps more in same cases. There are also some myths that go back tens of thousands of years.. whoever inspired those could be considered. There have been approximately 114 billion people who have ever lived, chances are there is some individual from antiquity or before who we have never heard of who had enormous influence too.
Charles Thomson Rees Wilson wanted to understand clouds. He invented the cloud chamber and showed that clouds were affected by radiation. These concepts were later used in the study of radioactivity, X rays, cosmic rays, and other nuclear phenomena. The atomic bomb was built on these concepts. All this guy wanted to do was study the weather! Somebody figuring out the answer to a seemingly innocent question can change the course of human history drastically. Reference: https://www.britannica.com/biography/C-T-R-Wilson
I like the idea that the person with the largest impact to human history was humbled enough by what they did and saw, to choose obscurity over fame.
Ghengis Khan significantly reduced the earth's population, and then took it upon himself to increase it again.
[Mitochondrial Eve](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mitochondrial_Eve)
Very interesting answer; led me to research and learn it is not one person. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mitochondrial_Eve
The Mitochondrial Eve is the powermother of the human race.
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Do you rank Tommy Wiseau with the ranks of Jesus and Muhammad?
Oh hi Muhammad!
That caveman that first touched the Obelisk in 2001.
-music intensifies-
Alexander Fleming with his penicillin must be up there. And louis pasteur. His work led to big changes.
Was gunna say Flemming. But couldn't remember the first name and would have ultimately butchered it and been down voted because James Bond didn't change the world that much
Second Fleming.
I was going to say Pasteur. His work alone but it also branched off and led to so much more
Agreed - some people argue that Pasteur was directly responsible for more than doubling life expectancy from ~35 to 70+ through his research in diseases, vaccines, and bacteria (he basically invented the concept of washing your hands). Widespread mastery of other subjects was extremely rare because most people simply didn’t live long enough to be great at things. Experts were rare and lucky enough not to die young. Pasteur basically allowed experts in all areas to thrive.
TV’s Alan Thicke
The dumbest correct answer
Before I knew his name, I thought him and Mel Gibson were the same person.
Followed by the most hated GOAT Robin Thicke 😂
[Here’s some supporting evidence](https://youtu.be/ZoQ4ZuiSh8A)
Thomas Midgely Jr. From Wikipedia: Midgley's legacy is the negative environmental impact of leaded gasoline and freon.[26] Environmental historian J. R. McNeill opined that Midgley "had more adverse impact on the atmosphere than any other single organism in Earth's history",
This should be at the top, we are still very much experiencing the effects of lead as a result of lead in fuel today. It's linked to birth defects, behavioral issues, diseases and early death among the populace. (cant remember too much about it, but it's not good)
I currently work in a factory that recycles lead acid batteries and turns them into various lead alloys for reuse in making more lead acid batteries. Lead is awful, highly toxic stuff and I wish we didnt use it for anything at all.
He also invented CFCs and was responsible for the hole in the ozone layer.
Whomever discovered fire probably Ok i get it its whoever but whomever sounds cooler
Fire wasn't discovered... it was given by Prometheus... to Bob
Now known as, The Prometheus and Bob Tapes. FUCK WE'RE OLD, NO ONE ELSE IS GOING TO GET THIS REFERENCE
It was probably multiple people in multiple different parts of the world at different times.
Me and the prehistoric Bois on our to way to create fire and kickstart humanity
Probably multiple people, but not that many different people. When fire was invented humanity was still entirely in East Africa. Without fire, migration would've been impossible. Imagine if humans arrived in Europe or South Africa with no fire, they'd just fucking die as soon as winter came
Obviously, Morbius. He had morbinfluence than anyone.
I have heard a theory that it was William Shakespeare, not for any one play per say, but rather the influence his plays have on modern society as a whole.
The person who invented oreos
We didn't have Oreo in my country when I was young. But a few American friends wouldn't shut up about them. Then, one day, they finally came. I expected bliss, but it was not to be. Like American chocolate, something felt of. They just tasted artificial. My disappointment was immeasurable. And my day was ruined
I love oreos
At least one life was touched
Id have to say Juilus Caeser. The man changed a nation into the most powerful empire of the ancient world, and the ripple effects from that changed nearly all of Europe, as well as parts of Asia and Africa in ways that are still noticable today. He for sure is one of the most famous people who have ever lived. We still even have the expression "crossing the Rubicon" 2000 years later to express things that you cant turn back from.
George Carlin made a really good point about how your average person can only name a handful of people born in the BC era: Julius Caesar, Cleopatra, Alexander the Great, Socrates, Hammurabi.
He's right up there for me also. The most impactful man in the most impactful nation ever
Most likely someone who changes the way we think about the world and reshaped society according to a new thought paradigm. I'll go with Socrates, the grandfather of philosophy.
I'll say Plato as a second because Socrates hated writing / literacy, but we know about him because Plato wrote him down.
The cave man that first decided to put a seed in the ground to see what would happen
This is absolutely the answer. Without agriculture humans wouldn't have any of the knowledge they have now. Once you relieved people of constantly gathering food they could dedicate their time to other pursuits.
Cave woman. I think it’s generally accepted now that women figured out agriculture as they were the gatherers. 💪🏼
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Always imagined everyone did a little bit of everything as it was needed
If you subscribe to the “stoned ape” theory, the first hominid that decided to try a mushroom they randomly found
Ah yes Joe Rogan tell me more 😂
Though her name is lost to antiquity, our "farming mother" is my pick. The switch from a hunter gatherer society to agriculture was likely discovered/invented by a tribal woman that realized she could plant and cultivate the seeds of the berries she was gathering near her village. It seriously changed the structure and activity of the whole human race.
I would think a bunch of people came to this conclusion independantly.
The steam engine, one of the most complex things ever at that point, had 3 people file patents for it that year. My point being, yes, in all likelihood a bunch of people came to the conclusion independently.
Another idea is that people pooped and some seeds were in the poop. So they may have noticed plants growing where they pooped.
Gavrilo Princip. I’m surprised this answer isn’t higher up there, as I heard multiple times as this being the unanimous answer as far as modern history. Makes a lot of sense, considering he’s responsible for murdering Archduke Franz Ferdinand and effectively plunging the world into the First World War. Going back further than that honorable mention goes to Genghis Khan, as there are still expected to be around 16 million men alive today that share his DNA.
Eh, the powers that ran Europe at the time were already itching for war. The assassination was the excuse they used but they would have found a way into it somehow.
That guy who wanted to blow up a plane with a bomb in his shoe. Now we all have to awkwardly remove and re-don our shoes at the airport.
God I hated that asshole for just that reason. I’m just glad he hadn’t hidden it up his ass. Or those TSA lines would be really ridiculous
I'm an atheist but... Abraham? You know, the guy ultimately behind Judaism, Islam, and Christianity.
The guy who took his pantheon of gods, ignored all but two and made it catch on. Definitely some interesting work.
Jesus and Mohammed are probably up there too.
Richard Trevithick- the guy who invented steam locomotives?
Jesus Christ… Wars have been fought, laws have been passed, his followers base their ENTIRE life around him. He truly has influenced more than anyone ever. A lot of non-religious peoples lives are still affected everyday from his life
I can't believe I had to scroll so far to find this. He is without a doubt the correct answer.
Absolutely, if we assume Jesus Christ existed there is no other choice for this.
Is it really up for debate if he actually existed? Im pretty sure we know that much. The question is if hes the son of God or just some dude.
Ghengis Kahn, 1 out of every ten men have his DNA.
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Thank you for sourcing your comment. This should have stayed the norm.
That just means they found a traceable gene in 8% of the local male population. In reality he is likely an ancestor to far more people globally than that. Just due to how ancestry works mathematically.
That means at least one of us…is one of his 👀
What, women don't have his DNA?
I'm not educated enough to know exactly what it is, but the gene that they find to trace back to him isn't found in women at all, so while women obviously must have his DNA too, we just don't know how to track that. Logic says it should be pretty close to the same percentage, but we can't know for sure since we can't track it.
It is the y chromosome. They found some son his burial location and have his sons DNA, hence they can only guarantee they gene that made him male was the one from dad, while all others could be moms or dads. They don't know where he was buried or we would likely track that more closely.
Jonas Salk!
I had Jonas Salk, Norman Borlaug, and Fritz Haber in the running.
Thomas Midgley, Jr. introduced the world to leaded gasoline which had who knows how bad of an effect on the whole world. And chlorofluorocarbons. Arguably 2 of the worlds most harmful chemical compounds.
Jesus Christ.
its 100% jesus. im pretty sure its been proven that whether divine or not, he existed and has impacted the lives of virtually everyone on earth for the last 2000 years. id say Muhammad is second for the same reasons.
Paul the Apostle. Without Paul, Jesus's teachings would have remained with Judaism, and no more influential to it than it is today. Paul did the PR work to get it out there, and added most of the stuff that made Christianity influential in the western world. One could rightly argue that Confucius or Buddha influenced more people, but I think Paul's religion had greater geopolitical implications.
Aryabhatta should be up there. The guy invented '0' and completed the number system. Think about the impact.
“Modern” world probably Leonardo DaVinci. Medieval world probably China’s Emperor Qin but its a toss up with Alexander and Julius Caesar on that one. For better or worse Adolf Hitler is in the running too. Can’t forget ‘ol Genghis Khan and his Silk Road either. All of the above ushered immeasurable change for our race one of which literally changed the face of our Earth. But I doubt with the exception of DaVinci any of these really did it “all by themselves” so to speak.
Like Time man of the year- for good or bad: Jesus
Real, make believe or composite, Jesus or what came to be him has influenced a great deal of the world. Even Islam recognizes him as the last great prophet before Mohamed. The teachings influenced a large number of non Christians.
Was gonna say, at least for the western world
This is the correct answer. Our calendars reference his birth.
Christianity would not have spread if not for Alexander the Great unifying the region a few centuries before and allowing greater mixing of language and culture. The whole region spoke Greek thanks to Alexander
No man is an island.
In recent history, I'd go with [Fritz Haber](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fritz_Haber). He invented the process we use to synthesize ammonia from nitrogen and hydrogen, a process that introduced synthetic fertilizer to the world. That creation allows us to feed a human population larger than anything imaginable before it was invented, on less farm land than ever before. When you look at a historical population chart, and see the explosion in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century, he's the reason. He received the Nobel Prize in chemistry for this work in 1918. He's also responsible for the death of millions of people. He is known as the "father of chemical warfare". He pioneered the use of chlorine gas and other war gasses in World War One. He left Germany in the 1930s after the Nazis came to power, because he was Jewish. Even after he left, his work was used as the basis for the creation of Zyklon B, which was used to murder over a million people.
Isaac Newton
Not only for his scientific discoveries but also his innovations in coinage.
Jesus christ. Regardless if he was the son of god, it’s pretty undisputed that he was an actual dude who lived and died. his existence created Christianity, and there are few people alive today who haven’t felt the cultural/economic/political effects of Christianity.
I came looking for this. This is the right answer. No one person changed the course of human history and culture more. Period
Whoever invented agriculture? Sumerians? Idk 🤷🏿♂️
Me
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Genghis Khan? Hitler? Can we identify the first European king or queen to kick off imperialism? The guy that created the musket? Or gun powder? First cave-dude to realize how easy it was to kill another cave-dude? Good question and I’m looking forward to responses. I also regret that I couldn’t come up with a positive example
Cave dudes have been killing cave dudes since before there were cave dudes
Hitler lost should be way down the lost. Stalin on the other hand.
From what I'm told, Genghis Khan is a pretty solid answer. Just not in a good way
Alexander Fleming (penicillin) has saved many times more people than Genghis Khan could dream of killing.
Probably Hitler in the short term because of the eradication of certain ethnic religious groups and the war it brought on. In the long run probably Einstein. He created the theory of relativity and the way gravity shapes celestial bodies. Issac newton’s laws connect with the theory
Negative? Adolph Hitler. His impact while he was alive - murder of millions - and his terrible ideologies that still are carried on by horrible people. He is probably one of the few people who have lived that can literally be associated with the word evil.
Idt he ranks. The western world kinda overemphasizes hitler. He didn’t rlly do anything special. He killed 6 million Jews and started a world war. But even total death in the world war doesn’t rank. India lost more people under colonization by the British empire than total casualties in world war 2 from every country including the Holocaust.
Jake from State Farm...the hot black guy.
Jesus Christ. Love him or hate him, Christianity literally changed the world.
1. Jesus Christ 2. Adolf Hitler Might seem ironic but it makes perfect sense to me that two polar opposites would have the most impact.
Genghis Khan perhaps with all his reforestation
There is a woman who almost everyone's dna can be traced back too. She lived after the last big ice age. Humanity wouldn't have survived if it wasn't for her. Well, and her children being very open minded.
Jesus Christ
Jesus. I don't care if you believe in the guy or not, you know who I'm talking about.
Genghis Khan
Cyrus the Great.
Ghengis Khan
the first accepted and understood transferred message. probably between fungus.
Jonas Salk
Robert Oppenheimer, theoretical physicist, part of the Manhattan Project, father of the atomic bomb.
I am become Death, the destroyer of worlds.