What people currently living will be talked about most in 500 years?
What people currently living will be talked about in 500 years? We talk about people like Leonardo Da Vinci and Christopher Columbus and they lived 500 years ago.
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Well, it's mostly military figures, scientists or monarchs who are discussed in history class. As you point out, Da Vinci and Columbus were an artist/scientist and explorer, respectively.
I think an issue is that prior to industrial capitalism, most people lived in grinding poverty, so virtually everyone spent almost their entire lives trying to subsist. Since the rise of industrial capitalism, people have been afforded the time to explore other things besides subsistence, which means you've got endless scientists and mathematicians working together largely on incremental progression. There will be no one person who "cures cancer" or one person who "makes fusion power work"--this will happen via incremental progress and huge numbers of people. Artists and explorers today are a dime a dozen--there is no Mozart alive today because you've got literally millions of artists/musicians making works, and a true living Mozart isn't really appreciated by culture. Even Elvis and Michael Jackson will fade in history with 500 years separating them from modern society.
The world is in relative peace today, which means there are few--if any--great military figures alive today. Pretty much every head of state of import is an elected official who will cycle out via the democratic process to be forgotten by history.
Neil Armstrong died in 2012. I think his name will be immortal, remembered by history as the first person to walk on the moon. I think the first person to walk on Mars is alive today. That person's name will be immortal. I'm open-minded to names of people alive today whose name will be immortal, but I'm struggling to come up with anyone. Peace and prosperity do not allow for individuals to rise to be a figure of special cultural dominance and historical relevance.
There are SO many 20th century figures, on the other hand, who will be immortal in history--Neil Armstrong, Adolf Hitler, Henry Ford, Franklin Roosevelt, Albert Einstein, etc. The 20th century was the most consequential century in human history, but pretty much everyone of "immortal status" is dead.
Yet you can't remember his name off the top of your head, and neither can I....
I can't tell if this is a joke or not. I'm saying my guess is that the first person who will walk on Mars is probably already living, thus to the OP's question--who alive today will still be talked about in 500 years? My answer is the first person who walks on Mars will be talked about 500 years from now and he or she is currently living.
Bro, nobody has walked on Mars. He’s saying the person that WILL walk on Mars is most likely alive Today
Dick Fuld and the Accounting Major
My name is goldstein needs to be up there as well, unless he's already been forgotten.
Irrelevant thread. The world won’t be around in 500 years.
I think he means after we move to Mars, the chatter there and then...
We all know the Earth only has another 300 years max.
Won't be around in 12 years.
Einstein
Are you drunk?
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oprah
Putin 100%.
Me
Being talked about 500 years from now is a very high bar. One would need to be a truly historical figure with far reaching influence. Among those living, I can think of only a few: Obama (first black POTUS), Tim Berners Lee (father of the modern internet), Brin & Page (Google founders), Jeff Bezos, Bill Gates.
Don't know who "Tim Berners Lee" is, but everyone knows Al Gore invented the internet. ...neither Lee nor Gore will be remembered in 500 years.
Obama, Trump, Bezos, Buffett on top of my head.
Music is harder. People remember The Beatles, so they will last, but many pop singers don't last past their generation. Under that aspect, Katy Perry or similar will be nobodies. Sports? As long as the sport remains popular, the name will be remembered. Sciece is harder. Nobody knows Nobels outside their disciplines.
Then again, libs think that climate change will kill us all if we don't believe Greta Thunberg and start eating insects... or maybe they'll drag us into a nuclear war next time they lose an election.
In 500 years' time, I can't imagine any of those men being talked about by anyone other than the nerdiest of nerd historians, except Obama if the U.S. is still a thing (which I don't think it will be).
Let's compare with the Roman Empire for example. People remember Augustus, Constantine and a few others.
Under that logic, Trump could go down as a Pertinax and only nerds remember that, so you might be right and I might have overstated his relevance. We'll see how that ends. To be fair, Bush Jr. has more chances to be remembered than Trump has so far, because 9/11 can be compared to Rome burning under Nero.
Ultra rich people tend to be remembered. People remember Crassus and Mansa Musa to this day, however Bezos and Buffett are nowhere near those levels.
I'd argue that the single most famous person who will come to define the 21st Century likely hasn't been born yet.
Hmm that is unlikely. Lets say that person is born tomorrow. It's still going to be halfway through the century before we have even a slight chance of that person making a name for themselves. Someone who is in their teens right now has a solid half century of achievement in which to make their mark... they'll get the lions share of the century.
In general I think it would be easier to be remembered 500 years in the future now versus past eras just because of technology and the impact on information access and record keeping. Also don't forget holograms people, your great great grandkids are gonna go to Prince concerts on Mars.
My short list though: based on current accomplishments, Obama, Tiger Woods, Pele. Based on potential, I'd add Elon Musk and Trump in the mix (if he does something really really bad).
I'd also think fair to count Steve Jobs, Stephen Hawking, and Nelson Mandela as they all lived in "present times" if you were to look back 500 years from now.
No athlete will be remembered 500 years from now.
Hawking actually did not make truly groundbreaking discovery in physics that would make him be remembered 500 years from now. That belongs to people whose achievements are on par with Newton, Einstein, Maxwell, Bohr.
I think it's hard to say right now with sports as professional athletes are more common, make way more money, and overall play a bigger role in society and culture than they were at any other point in history thanks to media and mass marketing. Tiger in particular would have three things going for him: 1) Golf, at 500 years old already, is a sport where history is a big part of its culture. People haven't forgotten about Old Tom Morris 2) Golf is an individual sport, so the focus is on the person and not the team. 3) Tiger is already a once in a lifetime athlete as for his dominance, fame, wealth, and overall household notoriety across any sport. Other athletes that may have a shot might be remembered for political reasons (e.g. Mohammed Ali), or as 'old gods' or founders of a game that may still be popular 500 years from now and would be forever remembered as long as that game exists (e.g. Pele, or Old Tom Morris).
As for hawking, I think the iconic image of the smart guy in the wheel chair and that robowill be what helps carries his legacy forward more than his actual accomplishments.
Still living? - Barack Obama. First black president of the USA, that'll forever be remembered, no matter what one's opinion on his president-ship. - Potentially Musk if he achieves his dream of Mars colonization - Whoever starts WWIII
500 years from now, the concept of race will be completely foreign to what we know today. I think people are over-estimating how future generations will remember "black" figures in the 21st century. I also think we're assuming the U.S. exists in 500 years. If it doesn't, outside of history textbooks, no U.S. President from our era will be household names. In all likelihood, the only near-household names among Presidents would be Washington (the Julius Caesar of the U.S. empire), Abraham Lincoln, FDR, and the last Presidents prior to the dissolution of the empire. All the rest would be viewed by history as general administrative presidents, with historians of the era knowing the Presidents but not larger society.
This guy histories. 500 years is a ridiculous amount of time and people are way over-estimating what will be persistent in a future society. If I had to pick anybody in industry, I think Bill Gates will make the cut as Microsoft has already had a 50 year unmistakable influence on the tech world and software. Steve Jobs probably won't be mentioned at all.
If I had to pick anyone from the 20th century that will survive in human consciousness the longest (what will be the last name remaining in human memory from our century when all other names are lost to time) it is definitely Neil Armstrong. I think he'll survive memory longer than Christopher Columbus.
In general the 20th century will definitely be in the history books - electrification, telecommunications, computing, cars, flight, rocketry, moon landing, world wars, nuclear weapons and energy, etc. Thus I believe the USA will have mention in history books by being the birthplace of the inventions above, even if we disappear. By contrast so far the 21st century is just kind of the tail end of the greatness of the last century and will be skipped entirely.
I respectfully disagree. If Lincoln is remembered, he will be remembered because of the Civil War, reasons for which are hotly debated - but is generally associated with slavery. The first black president is a direct heir of Lincoln's legacy and will be remembered.
There's also no way FDR gets remembered over Obama, because there are bound to be even more devastating wars than WWII in the next 500 years, and no one remembers Woodrow Wilson.
I also disagree Washington (no knock on GW) is the Julius Caesar of the US empire - I'm also one of the biggest fans of the Roman Republic and Julius Caesar there exists. If I had to compare anyone, I would compare Augustus (Octavian) because of his intense legal & nation building work, to Thomas Jefferson (the GOAT nation builder). Both set the real foundations for an enduring empire.
Washington was too moral, upright and unconcerned with personal glory to be Julius Caesar.
Deng Xiaoping, if China is able to grow through being a "middle income" country. He will be remembered as the leader who put China on the track back to prominence on the global stage after ~500 years of complacency due to colonialism, opium, and the Cold War/communism.
All of those happened within the last 150-200 years.
Colonialism started ~500 years ago which led to the fragmentation of Asia as a system, thus eroding the influence of China.
What's your hot take on which name from modern Chinese history will survive longer: Sun Yat-Sen (Sun Zhongshan) the founder of ROC after the collapse of the Chinese Empire, or Mao Zedong? If PRC survives in its current state then obviously Mao will continue to be more well known, but if there is a large regime change in the future period, I think Mao will be very de-emphasized and a democratic China will see itself more as a continuation of Sun Yat-Sen's legacy; he will be rehabilitated in the minds of the people.
That level of analysis is above my paygrade. I am by no means a scholar of Chinese history, but that take seems reasonable if the PRC were to collapse in the near future. The further away from the founding of the ROC a collapse, the less likely it is that Sun Yat-Sen would be the name that would stick in the minds of people.
I would imagine that whoever is the lead reformer of such democratization of China would be the name that is remembered (why I originally said Deng Xiaoping instead of Mao for China). I also would argue against the feasibility of a (truly) democratic China, given its history and culture.
Although I have not read it yet, I have George Friedman's "The Next 100 Years" sitting on my shelf which predicts China will fragment, which I could buy into. Go to page 98 of that link for his predictions of China's 3 possible future paths.
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Hopefully Nicolas Cage
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