Most controversial person in history
Posted: Wed Oct 07, 2020 6:31 am
Now, some people in history are decidedly evil like Hitler (though there always people who disagree with him being evil, obviously). But this is not about clearly evil people.
This is about people who had a huge impact on the world. But the end result is decidedly mixed.
My vote for most controversial person, whose impact on the world was huge, is naturally a scientist. Science can be harnessed for both good and evil acts. And the following scientist's inventions most definitely are responsible for good and evil acts.
My choice is Fritz Haber. Fritz Haber is the chemist in the Haber-Bosch process. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Haber_process His companion Carl Bosch was more the engineer, the one who made the process scalable.
Now this process is huge. It prolonged World War I. Because binding nitrogen from the air was crucial for making explosives. On the other hand, it created synthetic fertilizer. Which made our agricultural output increase by leaps and bounds. Thus Haber is responsible for a great amount of lives in the world. But modern explosives are responsible for a great amount of deaths. This process alone easily puts him down as both hugely influential, and hugely controversial.
Why not Carl Bosch his companion? Or Robert Le Rossignol his assistant?
There is one more invention. Poison gas. Chlorine gas was invented by him during/for World War I. And in the 1920s, Zyklon A.... mostly famous for being the predecessor for Zyklon B, which was used in the death camps.... Interestingly enough, Fritz Haber was born jewish (though he converted later in life) and several family members died in the camps.
sources (other than wikipedia: https://www.bbc.com/news/world-13015210 )
Ah, but what say you NSG? Which person had a huge impact on life on earth, but the end result being mixed? Gavrilo Prinzip? J. Robert Oppenheimer?
This is about people who had a huge impact on the world. But the end result is decidedly mixed.
My vote for most controversial person, whose impact on the world was huge, is naturally a scientist. Science can be harnessed for both good and evil acts. And the following scientist's inventions most definitely are responsible for good and evil acts.
My choice is Fritz Haber. Fritz Haber is the chemist in the Haber-Bosch process. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Haber_process His companion Carl Bosch was more the engineer, the one who made the process scalable.
Now this process is huge. It prolonged World War I. Because binding nitrogen from the air was crucial for making explosives. On the other hand, it created synthetic fertilizer. Which made our agricultural output increase by leaps and bounds. Thus Haber is responsible for a great amount of lives in the world. But modern explosives are responsible for a great amount of deaths. This process alone easily puts him down as both hugely influential, and hugely controversial.
Why not Carl Bosch his companion? Or Robert Le Rossignol his assistant?
There is one more invention. Poison gas. Chlorine gas was invented by him during/for World War I. And in the 1920s, Zyklon A.... mostly famous for being the predecessor for Zyklon B, which was used in the death camps.... Interestingly enough, Fritz Haber was born jewish (though he converted later in life) and several family members died in the camps.
sources (other than wikipedia: https://www.bbc.com/news/world-13015210 )
Ah, but what say you NSG? Which person had a huge impact on life on earth, but the end result being mixed? Gavrilo Prinzip? J. Robert Oppenheimer?