Inventors&Explorers Who Changed the World

[Denizhan Nacar]

[Martin Weiss]

So... where's the discussion?

(Just had to ask.)

[Gavin Greenwalt]

Shoe in for Leonardo Da Vinci in my opinion.

I feel though like a number of scientists should be included just because they laid so much groundwork for inventors to make practical. For instance without General Relativity we wouldn't have accurate GPS (alternately though you could have said that we would have very quickly discovered relativity if we ever tried to deploy and calibrate GPS).

On the opposite end of the scale I think the futurists like H.G. Wells, Arthur C Clarke and many others deserve recognition for inventing things and worlds before the technology was even there.

I think though that while all brilliant inventors, there is also an element of chance that is often forgotten in these discussions. What would Davinci be if he was born in Tesla's time and vice versa? There were many other brilliant contemporaries and everyone stands on the backs of giants. To glorify and deify our idols too much we risk elevating them beyond mortal achievement. There are lots of Leonardo Da Vincis alive and doing really amazing things today (the film industry is particularly full of them).

[Filip Orlandic]

Don't forget about this one. Just look at the years!

Wardenclyffe Tower (1901–1917) also known as the Tesla Tower, was an early wireless telecommunications tower designed by Nikola Tesla and intended for commercial trans-Atlantic wireless telephony, broadcasting, and to demonstrate the transmission of power without interconnecting wires. The core facility was not completed due to financial problems and was never fully operational.

[KETCH ROSSi]

Has to be Leonardo, one has to visit the Museum in Rome of of some of his work, reinstated and built in Wood as best they could, its just crazy... The rest of his theories proven correct, are just as insane!!

So... LEONARDO DA VINCI is for me, and not because is Italian... ;)

[Francesco Bonomo]

Has to be Leonardo, one has to visit the Museum in Rome of of some of his work, reinstated and built in Wood as best they could, its just crazy... The rest of his theories proven correct, are just as insane!!

Not to mention the fact that he probably was one of the first to mention a process to "fix" images obtained via camera obscura on surfaces...i.e. photography

[KETCH ROSSi]

Not to mention the fact that he probably was one of the first to mention a process to "fix" images obtained via camera obscura on surfaces...i.e. photography

Of course.... ;)

[Nick Wernham]

For me it's Da Vinci. He's the human embodiment of the perfect intersection between art and science.

[Eston Diaz]

I could write a Novel on Tesla. A Huge Inspiration to me. HUGE!

[Michael McLaughlin]

Socrates

Little bit of a departure from the normal thought of "Inventor".

But for me Socrates and his creation/invention of the Socratic method, and his exploring and contributions to the fields of epistemology and logic really fired a lot of thinkers to come after.

He really questioned the status quo of thought, better then anybody up until that time, and paid the ultimate price for it with his murder/suicide.

He really invented a form of disciplined debate that was revolutionary.

side credit to Plato for writing and archiving it all.