True, it could be argued that all this did stem from Edison, but there have been a lot of other 'great' people inbetween. I don't think that Edison had any great concept of semiconductors, etc. However, I do agree that there are a lot of people who have had a much greater effect on this century than Linus - we've had two World Wars this century, and survived. I suspect that most people who are involved in this vote aren't going to remember anything much before Elvis! Rich
George Bonser wrote: > > On Sat, 6 Mar 1999, Richard Lyon wrote: > > > > > Nope I don't think I will vote for any person on the basis of scientific or > > technical merit. A more global view is required. > > > > > > I was thinking more along cultural lines. If you look at the differences > between 19th century culture and life and that of the 20th century, I > think Edison's experiments are the difference. Forget the lightbulb, think > headlights ... movies, mp3, the entire entertainment industry (except for > theatre) of today and how that impacts our culture. It is who we are. > Without thermionic emission (the Edison effect) you would not have that > CRT you are staring at, a radio, an amplifier. All of these things > contribute to the daily life of all citizens in the developed and > developing world to a greater or lesser extent. > > I can think of no single individual that had as great an impact on the > daily life of the entire world. Whatever we were to become in the 20th > century, we would get there in the company of Edison. > > -- > Unsubscribe? mail -s unsubscribe [EMAIL PROTECTED] < /dev/null