4 ms·

That should depend on population size. I can’t think of any geniuses 100 years after Imhotep. Galen is roughly a century after Heron. And in the 20th century, w

That should depend on population size. I can’t think of any geniuses 100 years after Imhotep. Galen is roughly a century after Heron. And in the 20th century, we had Einstein, Heisenberg, Curie, Lorenz, Planck, Schrödinger, and Feynman in physics alone.

detourdog 3y ago
The question should be in 4,000 year what names do we still have from the last 100 years.
- BirAdam 3y ago
  The answer is: “those whose name was everywhere” which unfortunately will mean Louis Vuitton, Donald Trump, George Washington, and maybe Queen Elizabeth II? 4000 years is a long time, and our civilization will likely be gone, nothing but ruins.
  - Retric 3y ago
    100 years isn’t that long we still remember Henry Ford etc. But even 1,000 years is going to erase everyone on that list outside of serious history nerds. Quick who was the first kind of England, and who started or ran the east India trading company?
    - BirAdam 3y ago
      My thought is more just the ubiquity of the names. If even a few objects are well preserved with those names on them, then the names will be remembered. What the people did may not be remembered, but the name may be. The ubiquity of Louis Vuitton and knock off products, Trump putting his name on… everything, etc.
      - Retric 3y ago
        If you just mean the actual names, I think most of our names will be recorded somewhere in 4,000 years. Genealogy doesn’t take up much space and people have been keeping widespread records for hundreds of years in many areas. The extreme is the Lurie Family which can “trace” part of it’s lineage back 3,000 years and that was with paper records. (700 years of that is well documented, prior to that is less certain.)
      - bombcar 3y ago
        There were some very famous names from the 1800s that are almost entirely forgotten now - the Brunswick bar, various patent medicines, etc. you can find some references in popular songs from the time, but they’re already fading from collective memory. Things may fade even faster even if we have written record of it.
kryptiskt 3y ago
We'll never know about the people who made big breakthroughs in metallurgy and textiles and other areas, sources are scant and literary people largely didn't respect the people who worked on practical matters well into the modern era. For example, the existence of the Antikythera mechanism means that there must have been a community of people doing precision engineering back in classical times. None is mentioned in any surviving sources.
ajuc 3y ago
It's like Drake equation, there's multiple filters. Population size, access to education, access to tools and resources, demand for new ideas, probability of preserving the memory of a genius to modern day.

detourdog 3y ago

The question should be in 4,000 year what names do we still have from the last 100 years.

BirAdam 3y ago
The answer is: “those whose name was everywhere” which unfortunately will mean Louis Vuitton, Donald Trump, George Washington, and maybe Queen Elizabeth II? 4000 years is a long time, and our civilization will likely be gone, nothing but ruins.
- Retric 3y ago
  100 years isn’t that long we still remember Henry Ford etc. But even 1,000 years is going to erase everyone on that list outside of serious history nerds. Quick who was the first kind of England, and who started or ran the east India trading company?
  - BirAdam 3y ago
    My thought is more just the ubiquity of the names. If even a few objects are well preserved with those names on them, then the names will be remembered. What the people did may not be remembered, but the name may be. The ubiquity of Louis Vuitton and knock off products, Trump putting his name on… everything, etc.
    - Retric 3y ago
      If you just mean the actual names, I think most of our names will be recorded somewhere in 4,000 years. Genealogy doesn’t take up much space and people have been keeping widespread records for hundreds of years in many areas. The extreme is the Lurie Family which can “trace” part of it’s lineage back 3,000 years and that was with paper records. (700 years of that is well documented, prior to that is less certain.)
    - bombcar 3y ago
      There were some very famous names from the 1800s that are almost entirely forgotten now - the Brunswick bar, various patent medicines, etc. you can find some references in popular songs from the time, but they’re already fading from collective memory. Things may fade even faster even if we have written record of it.

kryptiskt 3y ago

We'll never know about the people who made big breakthroughs in metallurgy and textiles and other areas, sources are scant and literary people largely didn't respect the people who worked on practical matters well into the modern era. For example, the existence of the Antikythera mechanism means that there must have been a community of people doing precision engineering back in classical times. None is mentioned in any surviving sources.

ajuc 3y ago

It's like Drake equation, there's multiple filters. Population size, access to education, access to tools and resources, demand for new ideas, probability of preserving the memory of a genius to modern day.