tombi123 said:
Kasz216 said:
tombi123 said:
Kasz216 said:
To put it another way, Einsteins discoveries were HUGE, however they were also inevitable.
Not only inevitable but the pieces of what he said were likely already being put together by others.
Had Einstein not existed, chances are people would be arguing that "Silverman" deserves to be on this list, or whoever else shortly made the discovery afterwords.
Not to say such things aren't important, but when it comes to the most important achievements and people of all time, I think the inevitability of such a discovery should weigh heavily. |
I actually don't think anyone up to this day would have discovered General Relativity (maybe special) had Einstein not existed. He basically cut himself off from the rest of the scientific community for 10 years to come up with GR. It isn't a small step, it is a giant leap in logic, intuition and imagination that has never been rivalled before or after.
I find it hard to put politicians in the list because their work isn't everlasting.
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You don't think so? You don't think we still aren't effected by the Roman Empire? Or Ghengis Khan's reign? Even long after their empires have crumbled, the effects their kingdoms had have giant effects in our lives.
You'd be surprised just how much cultural history effects people... even hundreds of years after.
The effects of people like the Roman's will outlast the memory of the Romans. (assuming we don't just... well die.)
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I do, its just I think Greek mathematicians have had a bigger effect than Greek Politicians on the world. We are probably going to have to agree to disagree on this one.
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I would agree that Greek Mathemticians had a bigger effect than Greek Politicians.
I disagree that any greek mathemitician had a bigger effect than any Greek Politician.
Take away all the greek mathematicians and it's a great tradgedy. Take away one Greek mathmatician... it's not so big a deal.
It's not that their discoveries weren't huge... it's that their discoveries were inevitable. If your discovery was inevitable, you deserve credit for getting their first, but you discovering it isn't groundbreaking. It's that SOMEONE discovered it, and it someone is else was going to discover it a week or two later...
Only, as if Einsteins case, can you show that such a discovery would lead to a large gap in discovery is it a big deal.
Otherwise a few days is nothing compaired to outcomes of entire wars or countries.
Espiecally considering it often lead to the survival or destruction of such knowledge.
