| Author |
Topic:
The JC's Top 20 People Of the Last 100 Years: Now Discussing Number One...
|
Gonk
Registered:
Jul '98
|
Date Posted:
3/20/07 9:22am
Subject:
RE: The JC's Top 20 People Of the Last 100 Years: Now Discussing Number One...
|
|
That's debatable when looking at day to day life, sure (although I suppose Tesla would curse you and all your descendants for saying that), but I think everyone mostly went with Edison being a 19th century man. Most of his feats were in the late 1800s and I think Edison died in the 1910s, didn't he?
-----signature-----
What shall we do to fill the empty spaces
Where waves of hunger gnaw?
Shall we set out upon this sea of faces
In search of more and more and more?
|
Locked Topic |
Active Topic Notification |
Private Message |
Post History
|
Darth Mischievous
Registered:
Oct '99
|
Date Posted:
3/20/07 9:40am
Subject:
RE: The JC's Top 20 People Of the Last 100 Years: Now Discussing Number One...
- Date Edited:
3/20/07 9:46am (1 edits total)
Edited By:
Darth Mischievous
|
Technically, he lived in the last 100 years, until 1931. 
We can thank him for 'copiers, radio, movies, TV, phones', stock tickers, telegraphs, and the incandescent light. These things have made more of an impact on human existence than anything else in the last millenium, IMHO and according to Life.
Essentially his life - that transcended the 19th into the 20th Century - ushered in a new age.
|
Locked Topic |
Active Topic Notification |
Private Message |
Post History
|
Beowulf
Registered:
May '99
|
Date Posted:
3/20/07 10:07am
Subject:
RE: The JC's Top 20 People Of the Last 100 Years: Now Discussing Number One...
|
Edison made most of his discoveries in the 1800's though.
Einstein changed how we look at the universe, and the universe is a dadgum big place. Definetely the best choice for #1.
-----signature-----
"Beer is proof that God loves us and wants us to be happy."
Benjamin Franklin
|
Locked Topic |
Active Topic Notification |
Private Message |
Post History
|
Gonk
Registered:
Jul '98
|
Date Posted:
3/20/07 10:18am
Subject:
RE: The JC's Top 20 People Of the Last 100 Years: Now Discussing Number One...
|
It's a close call though.
Ultimately I'd give it to Einstein because I'd be apt to say that Edison is more 19th century... although DM has corrected me in that he lived further into the 20th century than my memory was informing me.
That, and losing the "war of the currents" to Tesla is always gonna be a bit of a harrying factor.
That said though, Einstein's primary importance is in things we don't see in our lives. His work in black holes and atmoic weaponry... they've funadementally changed the universe and how we understand it, but until the coming of the internet and computers full-on, at least, we were still largely living in the "analog age" that Edison and Tesla created.
Here's something I'm predicting you guys are gonna start seeing when you're older, although perhaps you've all already thought of it: there's going to be more of a major "break" in historical terms, a divisional line, of around 1991-1995 than we see right now. Mostly for the end of the cold war and the coming of the internet. This is in terms of history, and in terms of popular culture too. Just as people think in terms of the Victorian era, people are probably going to think of 1945-1991... or even 1918-1991 (because the 30s weren't SO much different from the 50s) as something of an "analog age", another stepping stone to modern society. A time when technology might have seemed mechanical to the people living in it, but seemed downright organic compared to what happened with the internet and the "information revolution".
That, or maybe I don't know a damned thing...
-----signature-----
What shall we do to fill the empty spaces
Where waves of hunger gnaw?
Shall we set out upon this sea of faces
In search of more and more and more?
|
Locked Topic |
Active Topic Notification |
Private Message |
Post History
|
Darth Mischievous
Registered:
Oct '99
|
Date Posted:
3/20/07 10:21am
Subject:
RE: The JC's Top 20 People Of the Last 100 Years: Now Discussing Number One...
|
|
I'm not relativizing Einstein's importance, but I simply think that Edison's life was far more significant to humanity in a real sense over the last 100 years than Einstein's.
|
Locked Topic |
Active Topic Notification |
Private Message |
Post History
|
Lowbacca_1977
Title: Senate Moderator
Registered:
Jun '06
|
Date Posted:
3/20/07 11:03am
Subject:
RE: The JC's Top 20 People Of the Last 100 Years: Now Discussing Number One...
|
Ender_Sai posted:
Einstein's many contributions to physics include his special theory of relativity, which reconciled mechanics with electromagnetism,
Not sure what that means, other than that it sounds wrong. Is that intending to be reaching for equating matter and energy?
Re: Edison... he really was heavily tied to the 1800s, not the 1900s though, in my opinion. And I've got to disagree with him being most significant of the millennium. I agree more with....I think it was Biography that gave that to Gutenberg for most influential.
|
Locked Topic |
Active Topic Notification |
Private Message |
Post History
|
Erk
Registered:
Aug '01
|
Date Posted:
3/20/07 12:35pm
Subject:
RE: The JC's Top 20 People Of the Last 100 Years: Now Discussing Number One...
|
Einstein was one of the first of the new type of scientists that paved the way for anything goes way of thinking that came after the industrial revolution of 18 and 19 th century.
Before, the things discovered where kind of reasonable, objects are drawn to each other, why not, the earth is round (well, anyone who's been to sea wouldn't argue very stubbornly against it), we can "create" electricity, well that's not much bigger than making fire. But light moves at the absolute speed, there is enough power in a piece of stone to disintigrate a city, if we accelarate a mass to the absolute speed it will be infinite in size. Come on, who really believes that?
In this way I think he inspired people of the 20th century up to our "Google" generation
You can get a map of the whole world so detailed you can spot your own house, you can fit a billion books in your home, get outta here.
All this said I don't consider him great.
Wars make one great!
brains doesn't.
-----signature-----
"One man can change the world with a bullet in the right place." Mick Travis, If.... Blast. They've removed my icon.  U S A ! U S A ! U S A !
|
Locked Topic |
Active Topic Notification |
Private Message |
Post History
|
Gonk
Registered:
Jul '98
|
Date Posted:
3/20/07 1:14pm
Subject:
RE: The JC's Top 20 People Of the Last 100 Years: Now Discussing Number One...
|
|
Yoda hereby bans you from everything Star Wars. Forever.
-----signature-----
What shall we do to fill the empty spaces
Where waves of hunger gnaw?
Shall we set out upon this sea of faces
In search of more and more and more?
|
Locked Topic |
Active Topic Notification |
Private Message |
Post History
|
Raven
Title:
SFF: Books and Comics Mangler
Registered:
Oct '98
|
Date Posted:
3/20/07 1:52pm
Subject:
RE: The JC's Top 20 People Of the Last 100 Years: Now Discussing Number One...
|
For better or for worse, choosing Einstein over Churchill is like choosing Aristotle over Alexander.
-----signature-----
1. Seek enlightenment.
2. ???
3. Prophet.
|
Locked Topic |
Active Topic Notification |
Private Message |
Post History
|
ShaneP
Registered:
Mar '01
|
Date Posted:
3/20/07 4:05pm
Subject:
RE: The JC's Top 20 People Of the Last 100 Years: Now Discussing Number One...
|
Einstein was one of the first of the new type of scientists that paved the way for anything goes way of thinking that came after the industrial revolution of 18 and 19 th century.
Yes, he was a bridge to the classical era and the new physics. Some of his own observations and their implications made him feel uncomfortable enough that he left it for a new generation to pick them up and run with it.
-----signature-----
It was as if a million middle-aged virgins just farted with rage and were suddenly silenced.
|
Locked Topic |
Active Topic Notification |
Private Message |
Post History
|
Ender_Sai
Title: Manager Emeritus
Registered:
Feb '01
|
Date Posted:
3/20/07 6:54pm
Subject:
RE: The JC's Top 20 People Of the Last 100 Years: Now Discussing Number One...
|
Lowbacca_1977 posted:
Ender_Sai posted:
Einstein's many contributions to physics include his special theory of relativity, which reconciled mechanics with electromagnetism,
Not sure what that means, other than that it sounds wrong. Is that intending to be reaching for equating matter and energy?
Re: Edison... he really was heavily tied to the 1800s, not the 1900s though, in my opinion. And I've got to disagree with him being most significant of the millennium. I agree more with....I think it was Biography that gave that to Gutenberg for most influential.
Read the first post in this thread; all the backgrounds come from Wiki unless otherwise sourced.
E_S
-----signature-----
In this truth he knew himself to be.
From sinking sands he stepped into light's embrace.
|
Locked Topic |
Active Topic Notification |
Private Message |
Post History
|
Lowbacca_1977
Title: Senate Moderator
Registered:
Jun '06
|
Date Posted:
3/20/07 8:03pm
Subject:
RE: The JC's Top 20 People Of the Last 100 Years: Now Discussing Number One...
|
|
Ok, then I think the wiki is most likely junk
|
Locked Topic |
Active Topic Notification |
Private Message |
Post History
|
Quixotic-Sith
Title: Manager Emeritus
Registered:
Jun '01
|
Date Posted:
3/20/07 8:19pm
Subject:
RE: The JC's Top 20 People Of the Last 100 Years: Now Discussing Number One...
|
Lowbacca_1977 posted:
Ok, then I think the wiki is most likely junk
QFT. It's fine as a springboard for further research, but otherwise it's unreliable.
-----signature-----
A Pennsylvania Yankee in Queen Ida's Court
Ostrich_Stapler = Bling-Bling Thunder
|
Locked Topic |
Active Topic Notification |
Private Message |
Post History
|
Jediflyer
Registered:
Dec '01
|
Date Posted:
3/20/07 8:35pm
Subject:
RE: The JC's Top 20 People Of the Last 100 Years: Now Discussing Number One...
|
QFT. It's fine as a springboard for further research, but otherwise it's unreliable.
But not that unreliable.
Maybe we should conduct the following investigation: randomely pick 10 historical figures (say, before 1850) and see if wikipedia has reliable entries on them.
I would bet that every single entry contains no major flaws and is far more in depth than anything other non-academic resource available on the internet.
-----signature-----
As long as the differences and diversities of mankind exist, democracy must allow for compromise, for accommodation, and for the recognition of differences. -Eugene McCarthy
There are no dialogues, only intersecting monologues -Mark Twain
|
Locked Topic |
Active Topic Notification |
Private Message |
Post History
|
Darth Mischievous
Registered:
Oct '99
|
Date Posted:
3/20/07 8:43pm
Subject:
RE: The JC's Top 20 People Of the Last 100 Years: Now Discussing Number One...
|
I agree with Quix in the official research department. It shouldn't be used for citations in official work, but a directory for obtaining valid source material.
It's fine for internet conversation such as this, I think.
|
Locked Topic |
Active Topic Notification |
Private Message |
Post History
|
