Over the past month the BBC have been running a series of programmes to decide the most influential individual of the 20th century in several categories such as Sport, Science and Leaders. The public then voted for their choice, before the winners of each category went up against each other in the final. The winner was announced to be World War Two code breaker, Alan Turing. I feel that the winner and the shortlist (which can be found here) definitely have a British bias, so I thought I'd ask what you guys think. So Phuks, who do you think was the most influential figure of the 20th Century?
Most of the big influences in the 20eth century weren't form single persons. Also what is meant by "influential", influential then or now? Influential where? Average people, Science, Engineering, politics?
Turing isn't a bad choice, the Turing machine (aka the programmable computer) did influence the world a lot in the later part of the 20est century. But sure there are many more who could claim the title of the "most influential". Depending on viewing point it might have been Mao, Einstein, Mandela, Zuse, Ford, Hitler, Berners Lee, Stalin, and many others. None of them was working and therefore owed credit alone AFAIK.
Teams usually outperform single persons.