George Bonser wrote: > 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.
If I was going to vote for anyone from a technological field, my vote would go to Tesla. Edison was an exploiter of other people's work and in invetrate political game-player when it came to suppressing other technologies than the ones that he had the rights to. But I, myself, am going to vote for Gandhi. The world is larger than the United States, and his example is the one that has impressed me most. If we're talking pure *impact* value, of course, it's hard to go past Lenin/Stalin, Mao and Hitler.... ali.