Oddbean new post about login | logout Who, in your view, has had the most significant positive impact on the world, and why?
Idk. It would be cool if it's some nameless person who nobody knows how much good they did.
The first caveman to discover fire. 🔥 because all else comes from that.
I think we also have to give credit to the magic mushrooms he ingested first
So many of significance through the millennia! In scientific endeavour, few had an impact as directly quantifiable as Norman Borlaug, who likely liberated over a billion humans from the threat of starvation during the last century. That his agricultural revolution drove a stake through the heart of misanthropic Malthusianism is, of course, an added bonus. Entertaining read on this topic: Charles Mann’s “The Wizard and The Prophet”.
Vasili Alexandrovich Arkhipov In 1962 the USSR sent a nuclear armed submarine to the international waters off Cuba. The sub was located by the US Navy and depth charges were dropped to force the sub to surface. At depth the crew had been out of communication with Moscow for days and feared that war had broken out. The captain wanted to launch a nuclear torpedo. Launch required a 3 of 3 signoff from the captain, the political officer and Arkhipov (the executive officer, who was chief of staff of the brigade). Arkhipov refused to authorise the attack, and persuaded the captain to surface and await orders. Had Arkhipov not refused, there is a high probability that the USSR would have made a nuclear strike against the US Navy, which could quickly have led to thermonuclear war which would have killed billions.
Jesus Christ
Because he show us the only way to real meaningful life and salvation