Good choice, but I'd think of him more as a 19th century person, despite the almost half his lifespan lived into the 20th. It's quite an accomplishment just having inspired John Galt. Nevermind the enduring mystery of whether he really succeeded in some of his more "far out" ideas.
Well these things are always necessarily a bit slippery, since about half the population of "interesting people" lived part of their lives in two different centuries. Nevertheless, Tesla was dubbed within his lifetime as "the man who invented the 20th century," and most of his inventions came into widespread use during that century. And some of his most radical, wizard-like inventions were unveiled after 1901--including his infamous "death ray" (he is the originator of that term). He was also, after years of dispute, finally granted a patent on radio in the early 20th century--effectively at that point, the US Patent office recognized him as the father of radio, not Marconi. And as I say, while some of his most important innovations were in the late 19th century, most came into widespread prominence in the 20th. Alternating current, x-ray machines, RADAR, remote controlled devices, vertical take-off and landing aircraft, tesla coils, radio itself, RADAR.... the list is rather stunning.
The fact that to this day no one's ever figured out how he intentionally triggered earthquakes simply boggles the mind. He might even be considered the father of the SETI project, as he seems to have been the first person to set up efforts to look for signals from aliens and to try to transmit to them.
But you don't say who *your* nominee would be I notice.... ;l-)
Well, I know this is expected but I must insist on Einstein. It has been said "that he peeked farther behind the curtain of nature than anyone since Newton." And I believe that is a very, very valid testimonial. He loved children and was a pacificst but his work was said to have been contributory to the development of the atomic bomb. And he did not believe that God "played dice" with the universe which may or may not have some importance in controversies hotly debated in biology today. I guess this is a choice you expected from someone, but I truly feel it's worth bringing up. My runners up would be Turing and Godel.
I'd have assumed that was Edison, unless the patents were in the name of his labl or company.
I couldn't think of anyone better to nominate offhand. Heck, I've had 4 cups of coffee now and I still can't. I'd tend to agree with you.
Sadly, people still name Marconi if asked the inventor of radio. Heck, I'd forgotten Tesla in that regard.
Anyway, it's not just depth of thought or discovery or even impact on the world that I think we are talking about by "fascinating." It's also, well, fascinatingness. Tesla was a unique character, on top of everything else.
For me, it's a tough call between Lenin, Hitler, and Woodrow Wilson.
The great 20th-century technological inventions were definitely world-changing, but so were the very 19th-century reactions to the changes in society forged by those technological inventions. Our reach was tremendously extended, but our understanding was not, and millions died while we struggled to update our thinking.
Lenin and Hitler represented opposite sides of a debate that should not have happened. Hitler was a blaze of sinister glory, the depth of whose character has tainted Western culture ever since. Lenin was far less flashy, but far more effective; the ideas he unleashed, as carried out by lesser acolytes, lasted nearly a century, and corroded their societies far more insidiously. Which has turned out to do the most damage? Perhaps Hitler was Lenin's unwitting ally, in that the Nazis provided ideological cover for Communist atrocity? These questions fascinate me.
History often rides on a knife's edge, and the actors usually have no idea at the time. That 1918 was such a time seems obvious now. Both sides in the Great War were working with forces far beyond their grasp; only one leader of the time seems to have had the vision to foresee what was coming. Had that leader, the President of the United States, had the strength and courage of a Teddy Roosevelt (or even of his cousin Franklin), how might the rest of the century have looked? But the world looked to a mild-mannered college professor instead, and in the moment of greatest need, he faltered. And thus did the gruesome debate between Lenin and Hitler commence.
The Wilson presidency is often looked at as a failure. Few world leaders, however, have failed in such a successful fashion. The ideas he tried to champion have been vindicated in the breach, and today claim an influence beyond even his own wildest dreams. When we debate the merits of the United Nations, and of transnational institutions in general, it is his "failure" we are still trying to grapple with. And, perhaps, it is truly his failure--the breaking of his will, and his health--that cripples the modern incarnations of his vision.
It can be argued that the technological changes wrought by people like Tesla, Marconi, Einstein, and Turing were inevitable; since they represent truths about the universe as it is, someone would have discovered them had those worthies not done so. Perhaps our progress would have been delayed, had not those geniuses stepped up to the plate.
But the political history of the 20th century did not have to happen as it did, and could have been avoided. As with the American Civil War of the 19th century, it seems that the actions of a few changed the course of history, whether for better (Lincoln) or worse (Wilson). If I could choose, I would hope for a Lincoln of the 21st century, and not a Wilson. How to find that person, and what the lessons of the past can teach us about our current search, seems both more fascinating and more important to me than the largely solved problem of encouraging beneficial technological change.
Tesla is definitely a good choice. He considered his greatest discovery to have been made in Colorado Springs, so he's an honorary Coloradan.
But I would have to disqualify him because almost all of his great work was done in the 19th century.
Einstein was the father of modern physics and his insights into the nature of the universe are all the more stunning when you realize that he was mentally visualizing general relativity while riding in horse-drawn carriages.
I'll nominate Einstein myself but because I have a physics background, I will try to find one person outside of science or technology to nominate.
And that man is Winston Churchill. Winston Churchill was a critical figure in the Allied victories over tyranny in both twentieth century world wars. It is conceivable that without Winston Churchill WWII could have had a much different outcome. His inspirational speeches at the height of the Blitz, under the shadow of imminent Nazi invasion still bring chills to my bones. "Let us therefore brace ourselves to our duties, and so bear ourselves that if the British Empire and Commonwealth last for a thousand years, men will still say, This was their finest hour." And men very well may say that, and a finer hour in all of history is harder to find.
One of the reasons Churchill fascinates me is his roller coaster political career. He went from hero to goat to hero to goat to hero more than any other figure I can think of. And through all of it he maintained a signature steadfastness, confidence and sense of humor. His wit was legendary.
Lady Astor: "Winston, if I were your wife I'd put poison in your coffee."
Winston: "Nancy, if I were your husband I'd drink it."
To answer one question above, Edison has more patents in his name, however, he was famous for putting patents in his name that employees had actually come up with. Not all of them of course--he really was a genius--but it's hards to know in many cases whether they were really his or someone in his employ; he was not good about giving credit or recognition to the people who worked for him. Indeed, he was quite a bastard according to most who knew him. (So was Isaac Newton for that matter).
Tesla's inventions in the 20th century by the way included the bladeless power turbine, RADAR, and VTOL aircraft. He also claimed late in life to have discovered a unified field theory, but it was never published before he died. I've always been curious what it was. ;-)
I like Tesla, but I've always been sort of an Everyman kinda guy, so I'll go with the American G.I. as my pick - not a singular person, no, but 'he' sure as Hell enabled the world as we now know it to exist, didn't he?
Tesla's more or less simultaneous developments of alternating current for long-distance transmission of electrical power and of AC two-phase induction motors, largely in the 1880s -- revolutionized the world in ways that some would consider as fundamental as the use of wheeled vehicles in prehistory.
I might note in passing that Tesla was neither Serbian nor Croatian, but came from a family of Vlachs. This little-known people, who have migrated around the Balkans over the centuries, were Serbianized and adopted the pravoslavic (orthodox) religion of the Serbs in one part of the Balkans as the catholic religion of the Croats in another part.
This is way many of the Croats of Hercegovina --among the staunchest of the Croats -- and many of the Serbs of the recently created Republika Srpska -- among the staunchest of the Serbs -- are ethnically related to a stronger degree than the slavic Croats and slavic Serbs.
(All this courtesy of Stefanija Prasnjak Harris, who ought to know, being both a Croat and a trained anthropologist.)
But seriously, I figured Tesla for 19th century also. Centuries don't jump around the way decades do. The '60s didn't start until '63 at the earliest.
As for the 20th Century, it was the century of the fascinating person. I can thing of dozens. R. Buckminster Dampclothstretcher, Robert Anson Heinlein, John Whiteside Parsons, Smokey Yunick...
For most women throughout most of the 20th century, the realities of childbearing simply made that prohibitive. That becomes less true as a society advances, although I suspect it will always be partly true.
However, Indira Gandhi, Margaret Thatcher, and Lynn Margulis all come to mind.
From the political side - Rasputin. (Though if you toss Tesla out for being too much in the 19th, you might have to toss him out for the same reason.)
Marie Curie, on the science side.
Your question is ultimately a subjective one, but it makes for some interesting possibilities. For one, consider the life of a man who spent most of his childhood in a religious reform school, and was considered "incorrigible" for most of that time. Yet, thirty years after he left that school to pursue his chosen career, the soldiers of the Japanese Empire could come up with nothing more insulting to throw back at American soldiers in response to insults to their Emperor than to shout back "Screw Babe Ruth!" It doesn't make the Babe the most fascinating figure of the 20th Century--but it is a fascinating aspect of our society that a man with such undistinguished beginnings could come to have such importance.
New York City's electric utility company, Consolidated Edison, continued to supply DC current to customers who had adopted it through the twentieth century, mainly for older elevators. In January, 2005, Consolidated Edison announced that it would cut off DC service to its remaining 1600 customers (all in Manhattan) by the end of the year.
The fact that to this day no one's ever figured out how he intentionally triggered earthquakes simply boggles the mind. He might even be considered the father of the SETI project, as he seems to have been the first person to set up efforts to look for signals from aliens and to try to transmit to them.
But you don't say who *your* nominee would be I notice.... ;l-)
I couldn't think of anyone better to nominate offhand. Heck, I've had 4 cups of coffee now and I still can't. I'd tend to agree with you.
Sadly, people still name Marconi if asked the inventor of radio. Heck, I'd forgotten Tesla in that regard.
Anyway, it's not just depth of thought or discovery or even impact on the world that I think we are talking about by "fascinating." It's also, well, fascinatingness. Tesla was a unique character, on top of everything else.
The great 20th-century technological inventions were definitely world-changing, but so were the very 19th-century reactions to the changes in society forged by those technological inventions. Our reach was tremendously extended, but our understanding was not, and millions died while we struggled to update our thinking.
Lenin and Hitler represented opposite sides of a debate that should not have happened. Hitler was a blaze of sinister glory, the depth of whose character has tainted Western culture ever since. Lenin was far less flashy, but far more effective; the ideas he unleashed, as carried out by lesser acolytes, lasted nearly a century, and corroded their societies far more insidiously. Which has turned out to do the most damage? Perhaps Hitler was Lenin's unwitting ally, in that the Nazis provided ideological cover for Communist atrocity? These questions fascinate me.
History often rides on a knife's edge, and the actors usually have no idea at the time. That 1918 was such a time seems obvious now. Both sides in the Great War were working with forces far beyond their grasp; only one leader of the time seems to have had the vision to foresee what was coming. Had that leader, the President of the United States, had the strength and courage of a Teddy Roosevelt (or even of his cousin Franklin), how might the rest of the century have looked? But the world looked to a mild-mannered college professor instead, and in the moment of greatest need, he faltered. And thus did the gruesome debate between Lenin and Hitler commence.
The Wilson presidency is often looked at as a failure. Few world leaders, however, have failed in such a successful fashion. The ideas he tried to champion have been vindicated in the breach, and today claim an influence beyond even his own wildest dreams. When we debate the merits of the United Nations, and of transnational institutions in general, it is his "failure" we are still trying to grapple with. And, perhaps, it is truly his failure--the breaking of his will, and his health--that cripples the modern incarnations of his vision.
It can be argued that the technological changes wrought by people like Tesla, Marconi, Einstein, and Turing were inevitable; since they represent truths about the universe as it is, someone would have discovered them had those worthies not done so. Perhaps our progress would have been delayed, had not those geniuses stepped up to the plate.
But the political history of the 20th century did not have to happen as it did, and could have been avoided. As with the American Civil War of the 19th century, it seems that the actions of a few changed the course of history, whether for better (Lincoln) or worse (Wilson). If I could choose, I would hope for a Lincoln of the 21st century, and not a Wilson. How to find that person, and what the lessons of the past can teach us about our current search, seems both more fascinating and more important to me than the largely solved problem of encouraging beneficial technological change.
But I would have to disqualify him because almost all of his great work was done in the 19th century.
Einstein was the father of modern physics and his insights into the nature of the universe are all the more stunning when you realize that he was mentally visualizing general relativity while riding in horse-drawn carriages.
I'll nominate Einstein myself but because I have a physics background, I will try to find one person outside of science or technology to nominate.
And that man is Winston Churchill. Winston Churchill was a critical figure in the Allied victories over tyranny in both twentieth century world wars. It is conceivable that without Winston Churchill WWII could have had a much different outcome. His inspirational speeches at the height of the Blitz, under the shadow of imminent Nazi invasion still bring chills to my bones. "Let us therefore brace ourselves to our duties, and so bear ourselves that if the British Empire and Commonwealth last for a thousand years, men will still say, This was their finest hour." And men very well may say that, and a finer hour in all of history is harder to find.
One of the reasons Churchill fascinates me is his roller coaster political career. He went from hero to goat to hero to goat to hero more than any other figure I can think of. And through all of it he maintained a signature steadfastness, confidence and sense of humor. His wit was legendary.
Lady Astor: "Winston, if I were your wife I'd put poison in your coffee."
Winston: "Nancy, if I were your husband I'd drink it."
Don't we all wish we could do as well.
Tesla's inventions in the 20th century by the way included the bladeless power turbine, RADAR, and VTOL aircraft. He also claimed late in life to have discovered a unified field theory, but it was never published before he died. I've always been curious what it was. ;-)
I like Tesla, but I've always been sort of an Everyman kinda guy, so I'll go with the American G.I. as my pick - not a singular person, no, but 'he' sure as Hell enabled the world as we now know it to exist, didn't he?
Mao Tse Tung and John Paul II
I might note in passing that Tesla was neither Serbian nor Croatian, but came from a family of Vlachs. This little-known people, who have migrated around the Balkans over the centuries, were Serbianized and adopted the pravoslavic (orthodox) religion of the Serbs in one part of the Balkans as the catholic religion of the Croats in another part.
This is way many of the Croats of Hercegovina --among the staunchest of the Croats -- and many of the Serbs of the recently created Republika Srpska -- among the staunchest of the Serbs -- are ethnically related to a stronger degree than the slavic Croats and slavic Serbs.
(All this courtesy of Stefanija Prasnjak Harris, who ought to know, being both a Croat and a trained anthropologist.)
Arnold Harris
Mount Horeb WI
Arnold Harris
Mount Horeb WI
Arnold Harris
Mount Horeb WI
But seriously, I figured Tesla for 19th century also. Centuries don't jump around the way decades do. The '60s didn't start until '63 at the earliest.
As for the 20th Century, it was the century of the fascinating person. I can thing of dozens. R. Buckminster Dampclothstretcher, Robert Anson Heinlein, John Whiteside Parsons, Smokey Yunick...
However, Indira Gandhi, Margaret Thatcher, and Lynn Margulis all come to mind.
Marie Curie, on the science side.
New York City's electric utility company, Consolidated Edison, continued to supply DC current to customers who had adopted it through the twentieth century, mainly for older elevators. In January, 2005, Consolidated Edison announced that it would cut off DC service to its remaining 1600 customers (all in Manhattan) by the end of the year.
Here
2nd Feynman
3rd Sergei Korolev tied with Chuck Yeager