Innovators

[Hipmonlee]

A normal day on #smogon, and rodan was linking to things, as he tends to do.

Anyway, he linked to this image:

And the general reaction was that this list is ridiculous.

So we had a little discussion about who we thought actually were the greatest innovators of all time, and came up with names like Leonardo, Socrates and Newton.

Anyway, I didnt really think about it again, until last night when I was discussing Oliver Sacks with my Mum, and she mentioned Temple Grandin. So I told her the story of this image, and how it included Amelia Earhart, but not the Wright brothers etc.

Anyway, this lead to a long conversation where we discussed who we thought actually were the greatest innovators of all time, which included my Dad making a pretty compelling case for Darwin and me showing them Askaninjask's maths thread. Anyway, one thing we came up with was we had limited fields of interest, and there were probably a bunch of Chinese people who none of us had ever heard of, but we kinda agreed it was an interesting topic of conversation.

So, since you guys are all such nerds, and since you have broad areas of interest and some of you are Chinese, and since, provided we can mostly avoid getting mired in the semantics of innovation, this seems to be a pretty interesting topic of conversation generally, I am curious to see what kind of a list we can build out of the combined knowledge of a forum.

 

[shade]

the guy who invented pockets

 

[Princess Bubblegum]

Uh... Amelia didn't actually make or think of anything new, did she? If she did please explain.

 

[Jebus McAzn]

the guy who invented pockets

the guy who invented hot pockets

 

[CommanderTow]

I think the guy who invented the wheel deserves to be pretty high up there too. Same with the dude who decided to start eating what was left of dead animals.

 

[BattleStar]

Who invented sliced bread?

Anyways I also think the Wright Brothers were pretty big innovators.

 

[Shiny Mew2]

How the hell is jobs there? He did nothing except make pre-existing technology "cool".


Gunpowder inventor.

 

[iDunno]

Well the obvious problem with this list is that they interviewed people aged 16-25

To be honest I think this list is less about "who invented the best thing" and more about "who introduced technology that completely changed society". Based on that, premise, I actually tend to agree with the list. People like Socrates and Leonardo may have been great inventors (Socrates and his Socratic Method and Leonardo of various things), but neither of their inventions were really ever discovered until later and neither of them really influenced our modern society in any obvious way. Thomas Edison basically revolutionized our entire world, Steve Jobs used his amazing cunning and knowledge of business to streamline our technology and greatly raise the accessibility of previously lesser known, but greatly innovative inventions, Alexander Bell let you speak to someone miles away as if they were right next to you within moments, Marie Curie discovered the extreme dangers that belie certain types of matter, Mark Zuckerberg created an easy to use, catch-all information network that united a world and has already provided the common man with a weapon far greater than any army, as evidenced by the Arab Spring, Amelia Earhart...., and Temple Grandin revolutionized the livestock industry, reducing the price of meat and popularizing the idea of ethical slaughter. Plus, she rose awareness to the fact that autistics are not inferior to "normal" people and in many cases exceed them in potential.


Innovation is different from invention because innovation involves using and spreading the use of an invention that already was invented whether it was by the innovator or some other guy.

I'm not saying the list is fine as it is, Im just saying it's not thaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaat bad... (it still is pretty bad though)


Before anyone says Bill Gates should be on the list, he definitely should not. If Bill Gates never existed, the world would be exactly the same if not farther along. The only difference would be that Bill Gates would not have stolen the GUI from Steve Jobs (who stole it from Xerox, of course :P) and would therefore would not have stunted the growth of personal computing for years by crippling Apple and mass marketing the same retooled antiquated products time and time again until Steve Jobs got back on his feet and started innovating his ass off, thereby finally making a semblance of competition for Bill.

 

[MegaKick]

the guy who invented microwaves trumps the guy who invented hot pockets. Microwaves > everything

 

[CommanderTow]

Well the obvious problem with this list is that they interviewed people aged 16-25

How would that have been a problem? I thought that the most ****ed generation was the one before this one or the one after this one. Or maybe they are all.

 

[vonFiedler]

I dunno, Mark Zuckerberg was in a movie and I do use facebook. Seems legit.

 

[GlassAbsol]

But Isaac Newton invented Gravity. Or was that Galileo?

 

[CommanderTow]

But Isaac Newton invented Gravity. Or was that Galileo?

He didn't invent gravity, he discovered it. And it's Newton :/

 

[Shinryu]

I'm more amused people in the 16-25 demographic know who Marie Curie was...but really, Mark Zuckberg? All he did was come up with the more popular of the social network sites out there, the concept had been around before he came along...Amelia Earhart, meh I dunno, sure she was a pioneer for women's aviation, but how's that really innovative? Just about everyone remembers her more for disappearing into thin air during her around the world attempt I'd think...I had to look up who Temple Grandin was, never heard of her. Jobs I'm divided on, I like the guy, but he didn't do shit in terms of invention with Apple, that was all Woz back in the beginning, Jobs was Mr. Marketing for the most part (and still was in a basic sense), but at the same time he came up with some really solid ideals that then got turned into stuff by others, and he could sure sell them.

But at the same time, sure Da Vinci was a tremendous innovator, but like someone mentioned, their ideals largely were more of the conceptual design and didn't have much impact in society at that time; sure it looked like he designed a tank and plane, but they never got built, tested or anything besides being a drawing and maybe notes in a book, so who knows what their intent was.

So yeah, list could be better, but they have a couple of the major ones at least like Edison and Bell.

 

[CommanderTow]

I'm more amused people in the 16-25 demographic know who Marie Curie was...but really, Mark Zuckberg? All he did was come up with the more popular of the social network sites out there, the concept had been around before he came along...Amelia Earhart, meh I dunno, sure she was a pioneer for women's aviation, but how's that really innovative? Just about everyone remembers her more for disappearing into thin air during her around the world attempt I'd think...I had to look up who Temple Grandin was, never heard of her. Jobs I'm divided on, I like the guy, but he didn't do shit in terms of invention with Apple, that was all Woz back in the beginning, Jobs was Mr. Marketing for the most part (and still was in a basic sense), but at the same time he came up with some really solid ideals that then got turned into stuff by others, and he could sure sell them.

But at the same time, sure Da Vinci was a tremendous innovator, but like someone mentioned, their ideals largely were more of the conceptual design and didn't have much impact in society at that time; sure it looked like he designed a tank and plane, but they never got built, tested or anything besides being a drawing and maybe notes in a book, so who knows what their intent was.

So yeah, list could be better, but they have a couple of the major ones at least like Edison and Bell.

Marie Curie is fairly well known. I would be more surprised if people did not know who she was. Also, Bell didn't invent anything; he copied works of others.

 

[Zacchaeus]

the guy who invented pockets

YES my sentiments exactly. Whenever someone talks about a cool invention I always make a point on how pockets are much better. If only we knew who that exact person was, I would eagerly await shaking his hand in the afterlife

 

[Iceydude168]

What did Amelia Earhart invent?

THE WOMAN FLOWN PLANE.

Seriously though, she shouldn't be up there at all. She was a pilot, not an innovator.

Marie Curie should not be up there either. She discovered 2 very important elements, but did not invent something.

We should put Donald Trump up there: he invented rich-assholeism

 

[Hipmonlee]

I think we can all agree the list is shitty, what is much more interesting is who would be on it if it werent..

 

[iDunno]

I think what you guys are looking for is the "Greatest INVENTORS of all Time"

 

[Agammemnon]

Newton anyone ? -_-

 

[Stratos]

he innovated uh

no

we're not looking for the greatest technological minds of all time, guys, it's the greatest INNOVATORS. still, there should be things like the person who put nylon in a toothbrush (hog's hair ughhh) but people suggesting newton and socrates and stuff need to look up innovator

 

[DM]

well "innovator" is a pretty nebulous term, you can't say it doesn't include inventors

in which case I'm ashamed and disappointed to be the first person to mention Nikola Tesla, the man history forgot (thanks in large part to Thomas "Douchenozzle" Edison)

 

[Stratos]

more like thomas "gimmeallyourpatents" edison amirite???

 

[Umbreon Dan]

i actually started laughing at mark zuckerberg, genius innovator

steve jobs actually was an innovator, in the sense that he was a ceo who really understood how to run a company. arguably, he was the most successful ceo of all time. (keep in mind i personally have no respect for him whatsoever.)

my top innovators list would (probably) include the previously mentioned socrates, da vinci, galileo, and newton, as well as newcomers dennis ritchie, johann sebastian bach, nikola tesla, richard stallman, albert einstein, benjamin franklin, robert carter iii, mohandas gandhi, karl marx, and ludwig van beethoven.

man FUCK dm

oh and linus torvalds

 

[DHR-107]

Surprised only ONE person has mentioned the Wright Brothers! And before them, Otto Lilienthal. They basically created "heavier than air" travel. Lilienthal created gliders which were then the basis for the Wright Brothers foray into powered flight. Otto died a few years before the Wright Brothers finally got Flyer 1 working.

In terms of changing the world, they *have* to be up there. As well as people like Charles Babbage (The computer in a basic sense) or Richard Trevithick (The steam engine). I still can't place why Amelia Earhart is on this list. I guess some of the people just went "Old cool person is an innovator right?"