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Who in history (either present or in the past) do you think has had the biggest positive impact on humanity? (lemmy.world)

submitted 8 months ago by Aurelius@lemmy.world to c/asklemmy@lemmy.ml

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[–] ReakDuck@lemmy.ml 21 points 8 months ago (2 children)

Linus Torvalds or Richard Stallman

[–] ZeroHora@lemmy.ml 8 points 8 months ago (2 children)

I'll have to argue that Santos Dumont and others inventors did Open Source in the XIX.

[–] ReakDuck@lemmy.ml 2 points 8 months ago (2 children)

But compared to one of those. Who did the biggest impact?

I dont know them and maybe they made a much greater impact.

[–] Gabu@lemmy.ml 1 points 8 months ago

Dumont was a prolific Brazilian-French inventor. Among his most famous achievements are several lighter-than-air flights and flying machines (blimps), as well as a potential claim as the inventor of the first airplane.

[–] arthur@lemmy.zip 1 points 8 months ago

Santos-Dumont was a pioneer of aviation, would say that that's a big deal.

[+] Inui@lemmy.ml 3 points 8 months ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (2 children)

[deleted]

[–] OsrsNeedsF2P@lemmy.ml 6 points 8 months ago

Yes. That Stallman is arguably one of the top few people why we have the internet as it is, at all today.

Most other people could be "replaced". If it wasn't X, it would be Y. But only Stallman pushed the copyleft license onto Linux. Only Stallman's organization popularized it.

So yes, that sexist, neurodivergent, bigoted Stallman, is one of the most positively influential people of our time.

[–] Gabu@lemmy.ml 2 points 8 months ago (1 children)

A person needn't be good in order to do good things, just as a good person doesn't necessarily impact the world positively simply by existing.