Who is/was the most important person ever?

[waltzingparrot]

Just listened to an interview and a 'name' was suggested as being the most important person ever in our planet's history.

If you had to name one person as being the most important, who would it be?

Presumably without what they invented/did/said, our life today would be unrecognisable.

I immediately have a list of a dozen or so really important people throughout history, but I don't know how to rank them and come up with a no 1.

Muslims recognise Jesus as a prophet and there are obviously very Christian countries that are not western ( Philippines for example). But it’s not so much about whether people believe in Jesus or not, as how the rise of Christianity shaped the world as we know it. It’s been hugely important from a geopolitical
perspective.

Lister
Jenner
Marie Curie

Somebody like that.

It's absolutely impossible to just choose one person.

The problem is that things that seem super important now might not seem so in 100 Years and we easily forget about stuff that’s now outdated even though it had massive impact. Arguably the steam engine was on a par with the internet in terms of driving societal change but most people probably don’t know who invented it ( I do because I just Googled it. Asked the kids. DS said “ dunno”. Dd said “ Elon Musk” 🤦‍♀️

Guthenberg

Although i have to say my first thought was also Jesus because of how the Church structured the Western world. Eastern religions are collective rather than individual - individualism is very Western - so would have to agree with the pp who said Jesus and Mohammed.

maybe Charlemagne? Forerunner of today’s Europe tool shape under his reign.

Agreed

Mikhail Gorbachev and Ronald Reagan. Weren't we at significant risk of blowing ourselves back into the dark ages before these two (in some ways very uninspiring characters) found a way out?

Attila the Hun did a good job of fathering children who have a lot of descendants so he as a big influence on the population alive today.

And genghis khan even more so

Maybe we could never know. I mean, who invented written language, agriculture or cooking? The invention of money is very interesting, and that is somewhat documented. Our whole modern prosperity relies on money existing.

I could go for these:

involuntary doer: Mitochondrial Eve

inventor & deliberate doer: George Washington for stepping down from power, "inventing" peaceful transition between elected leaders

said most important thing: how would we even measure that? Some ancient Chinese proverb might be the answer, maybe.

Tim Berners-Lee, and it's mindblowing that he is still alive, walking the earth when you think how he has transformed billions of people's lives.

An incredibly modest person.

Florence Nightingale wasn’t alone in what she did though - Mary Seacole was doing the same thing, just wasn’t white.

in a similar vein - if we’re having Fleming on the list we should probably have Pasteur and Lister?

James Harrison is fairly important - his blood saved 2.5 million babies in the last 60 years.

The patient zero for the plague and for HIV? They lead to the deaths of millions of people.

Sorry to disappoint you... We don't, well I didn't...

Declaration of Geneva

That's a really good shout....

True wether he actually existed or not

inventor & deliberate doer: George Washington for stepping down from power, "inventing" peaceful transition between elected leaders

'Rulers' elected for a set period of time stepping down peacefully is much older than that. The Roman republic had two consuls serving per year. They generally stepped down peacefully.

It's almost universally accepted now that there was a historical person whom we can call Jesus. About this person, little is known except that he had some followers who later created a religion. It's considered credible and reliable that he was actually crucified and we can accept that he was at some point in Jerusalem. None of the rest holds.

My 14 year old (according to her)

Mary Seacole was great at looking after individual patients, but AFAIK she didn't campaign effectively for hygiene and sanitary reform, the professionalisation of nursing and the use of proper medical statistics. There's much more to Florence Nightingale than swanning around with a lamp.

However, if Nightingale hadn't done it, someone else probably would have done. That's the thing about inventors and scientists: even if you look at towering geniuses like Newton, someone would have done all his work eventually.

There are some cases where the extra decade which it might have taken someone else to have made the discovery is crucial of course. If the Curies and Bequerel hadn't made their breakthroughs when they did then maybe the science wouldn't have been advanced enough to make and use the atom bomb by 1945 - and the Cold War could have been very different.

Enheduanna

He's a Muslim prophet, so he matters in Islam too.

But he's hugely influential, whether or not you have faith. Think of all the wars fought in his name. The empires colonising other civilisations in his name. He's the excuse for a lot of history.

Tim Berners-Lee has had a bigger impact on all life than anyone else I can think of, and yet most people probably wouldn't recognise him or be able to name him!

Me. You'll find out why in a bit.

Jesus. He spilt how we measure time in two. There is more historical evidence for him than there is julius ceasar. I find it hilarious that some people think he wasn't even real. You might not believe he was who he said he was but he definitely was a real historical person. Its such a western, intellectually ignorant view to doubt his existence.

Kim Kardashian

Shergar