Adolf Hitler... we as a planet have learned so much from him and his Empire or Reich.. they weren't all good, but ever since him, the world has all unified to take down dictatorships and any threat of a massive empire threatining a certain group of people. the world has learned so much from him and all the things he has done to the world, good and bad..

The guy who made the printing press in Europe was some German.

Really? We take down threats to peace and we take out dictatorships? oh I get it we invaded Iraq after saying "you have WMDs" they said they don't and we invaded anyways. Now when North Korea comes around showing nuclear weapons and saying what cities they'll bomb wheres the invasion of North Korea and us toppling the Kims?

Just a short list of highly influential people:

Jesus
Mohammed
Hammurabi
Moses

In more recent times:
Napoleon
Hitler
King George the III

Johanes Guttemberg was the one who invented the printing press, in 1450 or 1455

Also, the guy who invented the wheel is also important.Without that invention, we still mayebe wallked weeks of years in vacantions or anywhere i this world .

And about fire, i know a phrase about it's invention and after it : ''1 million years ago the man discovered the fire.5 minutes later he discovered grilling :) ''

Abraham. Yes, the biblical Abraham. From him sprouted perhaps the 3 largest religions in human history ( Judaism, Christianity, and Islam) and the whole concept of monotheism.

People over calculate religion's importance. Animal Husbandry existed in the fertile crescent 13,000 years ago, predating gobekli tepe and iniating pastoral societies. Just about every important character in religious stories is a Shepard. I'd say it's Score 2 for Mesopotamians on world influence and Score 1 for rest of the world.

Some influential figures :

Charles Darwin
Galileo Galilei
Nicolaus Copernicus
Genghis Khan
Victoria
Bismarck
Leonardo Da Vinci
Guy who invented Bessemer process
John Pierpont Morgan

Not charles darwin.

he didnt create evolution- he just popularized it.

and if he hadnt popularized it, someone else wouldve.

also, the guy who invented the bessemer process wasnt that important. 2 people invented the bessemer process seperately around the same time in the same year.

Henry Bessemer's being attibuted to creating is unfair, as he just one a legal battle and got the copyright to it.

Thus, his importance is nullified- if someone went back in time and killed him, there wouldnt be a great ripple effect, as the other guy would have simply gotten the copyright instead- assuming, of course, that henry bessemer's descendants didnt do anything important.

anyway, the most important person of all is the first homo sapien. without him, none of us would be here.

Nope. The first homo sapien was not alone. There were a bunch of homos starting to start their own club, and at some point they collectively crossed the border to sapien. How else would the first of them have been able to reproduce?

I'd say the most influential two people we know of are Adam and Eve. That is, the biological Adam and Eve, the closest common ancestor of all people through the male and female line, respectively. They lived some 150.000 years ago in Africa (though not at the same time), and without either of them, literally none of the people alive today would have existed.

Though I also have to give credit to the first proto-cellular organism that was the first to figure out self-replication.

But in terms of humans we know by name... Columbus may actually be a good candidate. Had he not sucked at maths so hard and underestimated the size of the earth, we would perhaps have remained unaware of the Americas for centuries, until someone would have listened to stories of the Vikings, and discovered the New World in an entirely different way. Perhaps this time the Inca's could have defended themselves, and there would be no Spanish Empire, no USA, and all of the guys they produced, etcetera.

Edited 7/8/2015 22:40:27

I must protest. In terms of exploration, Marco Polo is far more astounding.

but less important.

but your right, marco polo is much more interesting.

I would say Alan Turing.

Without him we wouldn't have the computers we're all currently on, and also the Germans would have won World War 2. That's a huge change in modern History if you ask me, all pinned on 1 guy.

Im surprised nobody has mentioned Zoroaster yet. He created the first major religion, which gave birth to Islam and Judaism and eventually Christianity. These religions have individually influenced humanity so much, without all three of them we would live in a totally different world.

and also the Germans would have won World War 2

No... They wouldnt have....

He created the first major religion, which gave birth to Islam and Judaism and eventually Christianity.

Christianity is older than the Islam ;)

Judging from his 2 posts he either doesn't know what he's talking about, or is a troll. I wouldn't worry too much...

Also I feel I should point out that overall Religion is known to have a positive influence on humanity, it got us out of the dark ages, and paved the way for the sciences to florish.

Modern atheists seem desperate to hide this inconvenient truth, but there you go. Yes it also has caused many wars too, but as discussed in another thread, wars generally always link to territory or resources, religion is usually the excuse. I wonder sometimes where you people get your information, or if you just make it up on the spot to support your conjecture.

If you are a troll, then congrats, you hooked me...

Edited 7/9/2015 19:56:09

God was and is most influential.

Edited 7/10/2015 01:21:13

Person, not deity.

i believe the real question is who is the most irrelevante, that is the really challenging one... and i believe i have a chance at winning it

Fleecemaster, do you honestly believe that the Germans lost because of Alan Turing? If you werent level 54, id say you were a troll.
The Germans lost because they had a lack of manpower, resources, and they also had many technological disadvantages. They were doomed from the start; something many people dont believe out of ignorance, like you. But you think ALAN TURING had anything to do with the outcome? Yes, his computer was a great thing and all, but to think that he turned the tide is just beyond me. Please explain to me how in the hell did the Germans have a chance at winning world war 2, as well as how Alan Turing managed to "turn the tide".