Re: Vote Linus for Person of the Century
Frankie wrote:
>
> George Bonser wrote:
> >
> > On Fri, 5 Mar 1999 matthschulz@gmx.net wrote:
> >
> > > just did, but is this list not moderated, Jesus Christ is so far I now,
> > > from a different century and he is on top?
> > >
> > > Matth
> >
> > Don't even think Linus should BE the person of the century. That honor
> > probably goes to Thomas Edison. We owe our current culture and style of
> > living to that guy. His experiments with his lightbulb led to the
> > discovery of the "Edison effect" which led DeForest to do some more
> > experiments which led to the Vacuum Tube which led to the Transistor,
> > which lead to the IC Chip. Not only was Edison's work responsible for
> > laying the ground work for radio and television, he also played vital
> > roles in bringing motion pictures and recorded music to the public.
> >
>
> True. I agree with you about electricity. It has made a HUGE impact on
> our lives. So, I nominate gallileo, because (if I'm wrong, subsitute
> some ridiculously ancient bod that experimented with electricity) he
> messed about with electricity and frogs legs. This directly led to
> further experimentation by a variety of scientists, (including Edison)
> which ultimately led to a complete change in our [the western world's]
> lifestyles.
>
That doesn't sound right. Wasn't it Galvani, perhaps?
WRT Linus, let's save him or Stallman for the 21st Century. They'll
still be around, God willing, and I suspect their impact will be far
greater then. In fact, I suspect it will be the century in which issues
of information propagation/replication/ownership become recognized as
overridingly serious (like fightin'-and-dyin' serious).
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