Re: Vote Linus for Person of the Century
True, it could be argued that all this did stem from Edison, but there
have been a lot of other 'great' people inbetween. I don't think that
Edison had any great concept of semiconductors, etc. However, I do
agree that there are a lot of people who have had a much greater effect
on this century than Linus - we've had two World Wars this century, and
survived. I suspect that most people who are involved in this vote
aren't going to remember anything much before Elvis!
Rich
George Bonser wrote:
>
> On Sat, 6 Mar 1999, Richard Lyon wrote:
>
> >
> > Nope I don't think I will vote for any person on the basis of scientific or
> > technical merit. A more global view is required.
> >
> >
>
> I was thinking more along cultural lines. If you look at the differences
> between 19th century culture and life and that of the 20th century, I
> think Edison's experiments are the difference. Forget the lightbulb, think
> headlights ... movies, mp3, the entire entertainment industry (except for
> theatre) of today and how that impacts our culture. It is who we are.
> Without thermionic emission (the Edison effect) you would not have that
> CRT you are staring at, a radio, an amplifier. All of these things
> contribute to the daily life of all citizens in the developed and
> developing world to a greater or lesser extent.
>
> I can think of no single individual that had as great an impact on the
> daily life of the entire world. Whatever we were to become in the 20th
> century, we would get there in the company of Edison.
>
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