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enthusiast
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OP
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In another thread, we've commenting that some rather silly, lightweight names were included on the list of "most influential people of the millenium" as published at http://www.falls.igs.net/~dphillips/biography3.htmBut it might be interesting to consider what names were foolishly excluded, and should arguably should have made the list. Who, omitted, do we feel was of striking importance? And why?
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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Dear AR: Any such list is obviously a Procrustean bed. I can't see any satisfactory way of evaluating candidates.
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old hand
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Any such list is obviously a Procrustean bed. I can't see any satisfactory way of evaluating candidates. - wwh
I agree Bill, but we, the jaded, do need amusement.
Let me go first...
Guglielmo Marconi 1874 - 1937
to replace
Steven Spielberg 1947 -
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old hand
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Guglielmo Marconi 1874 - 1937
Bah, humbug! Marconi's most famous "invertion" used eight of Nicola Tesla's patents! It was Tesla who invented radio, but got no credit; it was Tesla who invented practical A/C generators, radio control, etc.....
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veteran
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I agree. Part of the list seems strange.
Charlie Chaplin over Alan Turing?
Enrico Caruso?
Princess Diana?
Immanuel Kant over Karl Friedrich Gauss?
Does this list reflect what the people really think or were they trying fill it with quotas?
k
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My, my, Geoff, such carrying on. Surely a list that includes Adolf Hitler could overlook a little idea thievery by Marconi. You probably won't like my next one either. _____Queen Victoria
_____to replace
_________~  >>>//**THE BEATLES**\\<<< ~ ____Postedit: Wassamattau, K, you like a lotta mathematicians but you don't like Kant?
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veteran
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I've heard he was a real pissant who was very rarely stable.
k
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FF, I agree with you that Gauss should be included.
(That's without regard to the question of who should be dumped to make room for him. I certainly could learn much more from hearing discussions of the infulence of various omitted names.)
The omitted name that strikes me of particular importance is the pope (Urban II?) who kicked off the Crusades. As I understand it:
a) the Crusades were tremendously important to European history (though more modern scholars have somewhat down-graded their importance).
b) Also, the Crusades and the resulting Latin Kingdom of Jerusalem, a viciously-run state, quite justifiably triggered intense anti-european attitudes among the peoples native to the middle east -- attitudes still being played out today as a major undercurrent of modern middle-east political tensions.
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Also, the Crusades and the resulting Latin Kingdom of Jerusalem, a viciously-run state, quite justifiably triggered intense anti-european attitudes among the peoples native to the middle east -- attitudes still being played out today as a major undercurrent of modern middle-east political tensions.
To say nothing of the European nations' having divvied up Africa and established political boundaries that cut across established native boundaries. I also find it interesting that the height of classical Spanish culture was under the Moors, who tolerated the Spanish Jews. Then Catholic Aragon and Castille united, and, well, there went the neighborhood!
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Gauss is reputed to have said that everything Kant wrote was either trivial or false. In any case, I think either Gauss or R. A. Fisher should be on the list. One of Turing, Weiner, or Von Neumann. And one of Goddard or Von Braun. Possibly Fibonacci, not because he invented anything, but for introducing Hindu-Arabic numerals into the west. I'm tempted to believe that he (along with a few others whose names I can't recall, but all of whom prodded europeans) may have been very responsible (in a James Burke connections kinda way) of laying the groundwork for the later scientific revolutions. Also at least one of the inventors of the transistor should be on the list (or listed collectively as was done for The Beatles). And if this is a popularity contest which is what I think it is, then I vote for Charles Steinmetz, mostly because his was the first scientific biography I ever read (sixth grade, thanks to Mrs Clark letting me use my spare time as I wished), but also because he was cool guy. There's a great anecdote (probably apocryphal) about him at http://makeashorterlink.com/?D67814AD. (Hope this works. It's my first time using it. I'm really a stubborn cuss about not wanting to learn new-fangled stuff.) k
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