[Auracle]

I’m not who you replied to but that’s honestly an interesting question. Genghis Khan? Jesus, I suppose?

Elon Musk is probably up there, though. You could say people like Henry Ford are on his level, but Elon is certainly more broad in his scope. I think people like them are probably accelerationists, meaning someone else would have done what they’ve done eventually. That could be a long eventually though. It’s hard to compare them to people who shaped history through their actions that nobody else would have done the same way.

[slowin]

> You could say people like Henry Ford are on his level

Since Tesla was started, they've sold ~9.6 million cars. In that same time period, Ford has sold 100 million. Musk is no Henry Ford, it's much more accurate to compare him to P.T. Barnum and Bernie Madoff.

[Auracle]

Sure, but I wasn’t talking about car sales. I brought Ford up because of the first mass-affordable car and the production line stuff, not to compare sales measures.

Musk doesn’t just have Tesla. SpaceX is probably a bigger deal for humanity and how we live. Starlink was probably only possible because of SpaceX. We’ll see how some of his other ideas pan out. Ford was, as far as I know, just cars (and manufacturing said cars).

[fnordsensei]

You'd probably want to be more precise regarding "important for what" as well. And the philosophical angle: if the person hadn't existed, would someone else have slotted in to take their place? Is the impact measured in years/decades, because the overall historical forces were heading in a direction anyway?

Is it like trying to say "the most important bacterium in a petri dish"?

Without diminishing the impact that Musk has had, I'm fairly certain that Musk isn't the answer. And either way, the intent of saying that Musk is the most important person in history I'm fairly certain wasn't a very grounded decision. I'm sure it was more an expression of reverence and fealty.