Who has done the most good to the human race?

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  • stoatiestoatie Posts: 78,106
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    Bruce Campbell.

    Seriously, that's obvious, right? What is WRONG with you people?
  • TakaeTakae Posts: 13,555
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    stoatie wrote: »
    Bruce Campbell.

    Seriously, that's obvious, right? What is WRONG with you people?

    Only to the feathered race.
  • OxygenatedOxygenated Posts: 1,431
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    If I remember an episode of QI correctly her memoirs on nursing helped clean up hospitals, but the hospitals she ran as a nurse had no better track record than any other and in some cases worse.

    On a different note, with your username, I'm surprised you haven't come up with the bright person who thought up/contributed to trigonometry! :D
  • [Deleted User][Deleted User] Posts: 342
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    I'm sorry, but electricity beats the wheel.
  • terry45terry45 Posts: 2,876
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    My Dad.

    He fought Hitler.
  • stoatiestoatie Posts: 78,106
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    Takae wrote: »

    That's a FAKE Bruce!!! Goddamit, that Bruce sounds quite cool, but he doesn't sound GROOVY at all.
  • SOHCAHTOA88SOHCAHTOA88 Posts: 2,314
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    Oxygenated wrote: »
    On a different note, with your username, I'm surprised you haven't come up with the bright person who thought up/contributed to trigonometry! :D

    According to another episode of QI (honestly, that's not where I get all of my facts) no on really knows who devised trigonometry.
    I guess that's why you said 'contributed to'.
  • [Deleted User][Deleted User] Posts: 342
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    Oxygenated wrote: »
    Benjamin Franklin is the main person credited for this. Yeah, he was fantastic.

    Led to Thomas Edison inventing the commercially available light bulb.

    I wonder if they knew just what they had done.
  • Jim_McIntoshJim_McIntosh Posts: 5,866
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    Oxygenated wrote: »
    That was Cecil Rhodes. Thank goodness these types of thoughts belong in the dim and distance past of well over a 100 years ago.

    Yes, very much a belief popular in it's time.

    I remembered eventually that it was Carnegie I was trying to think of. No idea about him personally or whether his steel empire was a bastion of fair play and great worker's rights, but he did believe in spreading his wealth so, on that, he scores highly.

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abdul_Rahman_Al-Sumait#Final_Months_and_Death
    This guy sounds as if he accomplished a lot too.

    Maybe Plato, Aristotle and Socrates (a great player in his day;)). From there, nearly everything scientific follows. But then there is Confucius too. And Pythagoras. Probably more outside my limited knowledge. And if earlier is better because there is more to be mapped out then they must have had pre-cursors too who were even more influential since they would be first and laying the ground work for everything scientific which follows. :confused::D
  • ArcanaArcana Posts: 37,521
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    Not necessarily my best answer but somebody should mention Sir Tim Berners-Lee.
  • [Deleted User][Deleted User] Posts: 8,916
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    Ebony magazine.
  • [Deleted User][Deleted User] Posts: 342
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    Ebony magazine.

    Colour racist.
  • ilarilar Posts: 415
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    Viruses and bacteria?
    They've made us stronger, motivated us in medical advances and up until recently kept the population from exploding, its bad enough now from the whole ecosystem's view, imagine what it would be like by now without any such natural controls.
  • Jim_McIntoshJim_McIntosh Posts: 5,866
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    ilar wrote: »
    Viruses and bacteria?
    They've made us stronger, motivated us in medical advances and up until recently kept the population from exploding, its bad enough now from the whole ecosystem's view, imagine what it would be like by now without any such natural controls.

    The Genghis Khan argument! :)
  • bazzaroobazzaroo Posts: 6,848
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    According to another episode of QI (honestly, that's not where I get all of my facts) no on really knows who devised trigonometry.
    I guess that's why you said 'contributed to'.

    Wasn't it Dels mate from Only Fools?
  • SOHCAHTOA88SOHCAHTOA88 Posts: 2,314
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    bazzaroo wrote: »
    Wasn't it Dels mate from Only Fools?

    You mean Dave?
  • MC_SatanMC_Satan Posts: 26,512
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    Joseph Lister should be up there.
  • NamiraNamira Posts: 3,099
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    Marie Stopes would be on my list.

    I dunno. Much like Margaret Sanger she did a lot for reproductive rights and sexual freedom but she was also a racist, eugenics enthusiast and a Nazi sympathizer. That's not so good.
  • An ThropologistAn Thropologist Posts: 39,844
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    King Menes Egypts first dynasty. First irrigation project. Nobody can do without clean water and organised agriculture. Shame we don't know the name of the person who sold him the idea.

    I would go along with that. I have mulled the question over all evening on and off and its difficult because almost everything one thinks of is only thanks to something that went before. Almost all great inventors were standing on the shoulders of giants as they say.

    My first thoughts were to Greco/Romano natural philosophers such as Aristotle. But they were already building on the knowledge of Egyptians, Babylonians, Mesopotamians etc.

    I agree though that whoever worked out how to cleanse and manage a water supply should get the crown. It really has to be the thing that underpins everything else doesn't it? Having reliable access to clean water must surely have transformed more lives than anything else. I didn't know there was an early name to attribute that to.
    I'm sorry, but electricity beats the wheel.

    Electricity wasn't so much invented as discovered and understood was it? If so I suspect that without the wheel that discovery may not have occurred.
  • [Deleted User][Deleted User] Posts: 1,567
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    I'm sure there are many names of famous scientists, authors and inventors who have given much to mankind from the free and forward thinking countries of the near and middle east.

    Trust me, they will be along in a minute, honest, they will.
    There are dozens, famous names that roll of the tongue , like..................?
  • coughthecatcoughthecat Posts: 6,876
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    I'll be forever indebted to whoever discovered that cooking a cow made it really tasty! :)

    So, on a wider scale, whoever discovered how to create fire would be up near the top.
  • St. AnthonySt. Anthony Posts: 1,122
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    Jeremy Clakson
  • [Deleted User][Deleted User] Posts: 342
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    I would go along with that. I have mulled the question over all evening on and off and its difficult because almost everything one thinks of is only thanks to something that went before. Almost all great inventors were standing on the shoulders of giants as they say.

    My first thoughts were to Greco/Romano natural philosophers such as Aristotle. But they were already building on the knowledge of Egyptians, Babylonians, Mesopotamians etc.

    I agree though that whoever worked out how to cleanse and manage a water supply should get the crown. It really has to be the thing that underpins everything else doesn't it? Having reliable access to clean water must surely have transformed more lives than anything else. I didn't know there was an early name to attribute that to.



    Electricity wasn't so much invented as discovered and understood was it? If so I suspect that without the wheel that discovery may not have occurred.

    Where have I stated it was 'invented?'
  • [Deleted User][Deleted User] Posts: 342
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    What a clown, I said found electric.
  • [Deleted User][Deleted User] Posts: 342
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    It's still electric, since you wouldn't be typing your shit on here without it.
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