Historian Michael Hart is best known for his ranking of the 100 Most Influential People in History.
He also wrote A View from the Year 3000, a book written under the name “Arturo Kukeni, a descendent of Michael Hart.” The book pretends to be a new ranking of the 100 Most Influential People in History, written from the year 3000. Thus, it contains many invented people of the future, such as Chang Po-Yao, inventor of brain replacement surgery, and Pridi Thanarat, a revolutionary who averted the world’s descent into global dictatorship.
A short chapter on each figure describes, from the view of the year 3000, their impact on world history. Even a thousand years from now, “Arturo Kukeni” ranks Jesus at #8 and Mohammad at #9.
Here is his view of the influence of Jesus from the year 3000:
Since there are few Christians left in the world today, some people may feel that Jesus should not be accorded such a high place in this book. But the religion which he founded had so many adherents, for so many centuries… that the only question in my mind is whether I should have ranked him even higher.
…Perhaps the most interesting thing about Jesus… are his ideas concerning ethics and morality. Naturally, he accepted the Golden Rule, which was an accepted part of the Jewish religion of the day (and has remained so). But to this, Jesus added some truly remarkable ideas, including:
But I say unto you, that ye resist not evil: but whosoever shall smite thee on thy right cheek, turn to him the other also.
and
Ye have heard… thou shalt love thy neighbor and hate thing enemy. But I say unto you, love your enemies, bless them that curse you…
(Whatever one may think of these ideas, they are certainly not obvious, and they stamp their author as a most original thinker.)
…At first, [the new skeptical philosophy of the later Enlightenment] had few adherents, but their numbers steadily increased. Just as Christian civilization had once replaced the classical civilization of Greece and Rome, so Christian civilization was gradually replaced by “Western civilization.” By the late twentieth century, although the majority of the population of Europe and America were still Christian, many of the intelligentsia were not. The result was a culture war… By the end of the twenty-third century the new philosophy had triumphed, and since then Christians have never comprised as much as one percent of world population.
In its heydey… critics complained that Christianity was for many centuries an intolerant ideology, and that it caused many bloody wars and cruel persecutions (a remarkable result considering the obviously pacifistic ideas of Jesus).
These criticisms are true, but they are far from the whole truth. Christianity was also responsible for a large number of very beneficial political and social reforms. For example, it was in Christian Europe that slavery was first abolished, and it was because of Europea influence that slavery was abolished in the rest of the world.
…Christianity has long since ceased to have any political influence. However, for over a millenium and a half it had enormous political effect, and throughout that time it profoundly influenced the personal lives of one-quarter of the world’s population. All in all, that young Judean who was executed thirty centuries ago – a young man who had no money or political power, and who left behind no writings – must still be considered one of the most significant figures in history.
And, his view of the influence of Mohammad from the year 3000:
The prophet Muhammad was the founder of Islam, one of the world’s great religions. Although Islam is of minor importance in today’s world, for roughly fifteen centuries it was a major force in human history, and there were periods during which the Moslems… outnumbered the adherents of any other religion.
…At the time of Mohammad’s birth [in 570 A.D.] the Arabs were a backward people, dwelling on the fringes of the civilized world. However, they quickly learned from the more developed nations that they conquered, and by 800 A.D. the Arab empire was not merely the largest in the world, it was also the most prosperous and culturally advanced…
Eventually, though, Arab civilization declined. By 1200 A.D., the Moslem world was stagnating culturally, while European culture was advancing rapidly… By 1900, the Moslem world had fallen far behind Europe: so far behind that many parts of it had become European colonies…
…The results of the relative inflexibility of Islamic thought were profound. In the long run, the Christian world was far better able to adjust to changed circumstances and to adopt new social and political arrangements when needed. It was the Christians who first abolished slavery, and who first granted equal opportunities for women; it was in Christian Europe that modern democracy developed, and it was in the Christian world that modern science and mathematics were created.
Today, of course, we live in a highly secularized world, and few people belong to any organized religion…
The process of secularization eventually engulfed the entire world; however, it started in Moslem lands about 150 to 200 years after it began in Europe [and] by 2050 Christianity had declined so severely that Islam had become the leading religion in the world.
Moslems were jubilant over this turn of events, but their joy was short-lived. In the interval 2050-2200, Islam declined just as rapidly as Christianity had in the previous century and a half.
It was difficult for me to decide where Mohammad should be placed in this book… for fifteen centuries the religion he founded intimately affected the lives of a sizable fraction of the world’s population, and was a major factor in political developments as well.
On the other hand, Islam has had little residual effect on the culture of the modern world. Neither in science, nor politics, nor art is the modern world much affected by Islam, whereas it continues to be affected (albeit indirectly) by Christianity. That is the main reason why I have concluded that Mohammad… should be ranked lower than Jesus.
Fascinating perspective.
The full list from the year 3000, by the way, is this:
- Chang Po-Yao (2213-living): inventor of brain-replacement surgery (“pseudo-immortality”)
- Miklos Szabo (2216-2283): inventor of brainwashing machines
- Pridi Thanarat (2358-2540): leader of the rebellion that averted world dictatorship
- Rukmini Gopal (2370-living): inventor of reversible sex-change operations
- Isaac Newton (1642-1727): physicist, mathematician, astronomer
- Johannes Gutenberg (1400-1468): inventor of printing with movable type
- Euclid (c. 300 B.C.): mathematician
- Jesus Christ (6 B.C. – 30 A.D.): founder of Christianity
- Mohammad (570-632): founder of Islam
- Louis Pasteur (1822-1895): germ theory of disease, innoculation
- Mauni Nkato (2196-living): political philosopher who designed the constitutional system for world government that has survived since his day
- Ts’ai Lun (c. 105 A.D.): inventor of paper
- Miguel Carranza (2274-2413): first president of United World Federation
- Confucius (551 B.C. – 479 B.C.): political and moral philosopher
- David Katzenbaum (2042-2095): formulated the most basic laws of physics
- Gautama Buddha (563 B.C. – 483 B.C.): founder of Buddhism
- Antoine Laurent Lavoisier (1743-1794): father of chemistry
- Liu Mei Hua (2063-2135) & Wang Mei Lin (2069-living): medical researchers on methods to avert aging
- Sayyid Shirazi (2407-living): reformed the United World Federation in the wake of the Thanarat rebellion
- Christopher Columbus (1451-1506): explorer who brought Europe to America
- James Clerk Maxwell (1831-1879): formulated basic laws of electromagnetism
- Harrison Stevens (1997-2088): invented nuclear fusion
- Canta Luis Alvarado (2745-living): holovision writer/producer; greatest artist of all time
- Albert Einstein (1879-1955): theory of relativity
- Charles Darwin (1809-1882): theory of biological evolution by natural selection
- John J. Maxwell (2076-2163): builder of the first space colony
- Lisa Kolb (2022-2121): inventor of soma, the first pleasure drug with no addiction or negative side effects
- Kim Won Lee (2316-2571): first planetary engineer; terraformed Mars for human habitation
- James Watt (1736-1819): inventor of the steam engine
- William T.G. Morton (1819-1868): inventor of modern anesthesia
- Sue Ellen Green (2018-2109): cured cancer
- Jean Crozet (1958-2029) & Jacob Levine (1955-2055): invented the artificial heart
- Mika Kivikoski (2221-living): invented techniques for large-scale control of the weather, and launched the first program of weather control
- Tabora Maunga (2304-2540): World General Coordinator, attempted world dictatorship that was averted by Pridi Thanarat
- Robert Alan Cooper (2175-living): developed techniques for transferring information directly from a computer into a human brain, and from a human brain into a computer.
- Takeo Tanizaki (2038-2108): pioneer of nanotechnology
- Antonio Delgado (2123-2894): developed the “revised neo-classical synthesis” in economic theory
- Sara Chindwara (2520-living): greatest novelist of all time
- John P. Eckert (1919-1995) & John W. Mauchly (1907-1980): inventors of the computer
- John Kaszewski (2028-2160): inventor of personal robots
- Wilbur Wright (1867-1948) & Orville Wright (1871-1912): inventors of the airplane
- Mona Stein (2487-living): greatest musical composer of all time
- Mikhail Bronstein (2040-2090): inventor of first efficient solar cell
- Harold Bjornson (2036-2099): discovered how genes determine the physical form and function of an organism
- Aristotle (384 B.C. – 322 B.C.): influential ancient philosopher
- Jalal Uskudar (2201-2481): devised the constitutional provisions and rules that prevented brainwashing techniques from being used to establish a dictatorship
- St. Paul (4-64): co-founder of Christianity
- Francis Crick (1916-2004) & James Watson (1928-2016): discoverers of the structure of DNA
- Werner Heisenberg (1901-1976): innovator of quantum mechanics
- George Washington (1832-1799): leading figure in the creation of the USA, one of the most important nations in the history of the world
- Stuart Stromboli (2238-2347): first to apply the political ideas of Nkato & Uskudar, paving the way for the constitutional system that has survived to this day
- Nicolaus Copernicus (1473-1543): modern heliocentrism
- Adam Smith (1723-1790): first great economist
- Uno Thaik (2286-living): collaborated with Sayyid Shirazi in reforming the United World Federation following the Thanarat Rebellion
- Ernst Rutherford (1871-1937): launched nuclear physics
- Oliver Cromwell (1599-1658): overthrew the monarchy in England, leading to modern democracy
- John Dalton (1766-1844): innovator in chemistry
- Michael Faraday (1791-1867): researcher in electromagnetism, and inventor of the electric motor and electric generator
- Stella Ricardo Garcia (2369-living): greatest architect and landform architect
- Shih Huang Ti (259 B.C. – 210 B.C.): conquered and unified ancient China, instituted sweeping reforms
- Edward de Vere (1550-1604): greatest playwright of all time, known as “William Shakespeare”
- Leonardo Pagliaroni (1255-1307): invented spectacles
- Kaku Sarabashi (1972-2060): established first human colony beyond Earth, on the moon
- Galileo Galilei (1564-1642): innovator of modern science and the scientific revoluation
- Krishna Patali (2011-2082): founder of Pataliism, political head of India, instigator of the only war where nuclear weapons were used extensively
- Mingadongu (2727-living): greatest visual artist
- William Harvey (1578-1657): innovator in physiology
- Hatta Sumbawa (1989-2052): developed first effective and convenient method of weight control
- Yang Cheng Shi (2368-living): influential moral philosopher
- Pythagoras (c. 500 B.C.): ancient philosopher and mathematician
- Shukri ben Abbas (2144-2202): unified Arab states
- Mugali Singh (2316-2701): developed techniques for cleaning the oceans of severe pollution, and implemented them
- Johannes Kepler (1571-1630): discovered the laws of planetary motion
- Guglielmo Marconi (1874-1937): inventor of the radio
- Alexander Graham Bell (1847-1922): inventor of the telephone
- Sung Bai (2767-living): conquered the entire planetary system about Tau Ceti (11.3 light-years away)
- Thomas Edison (1847-1931): leading inventor of the age of electricity
- Kamaladevi (2615-living): popular and influential author and screenwriter
- Linda Albert Stack (2499-living): World General Coordinator for 16 non-consecutive terms
- Constantine the Great (280-337): emperor of Rome, converted the Roman empire to Christianity
- David McPherson (2079-2612): prominent epistemologist
- Moses (c. 1200 B.C.): major Jewish prophet
- Banta Ujiji (2410-living): innovative cook
- Chao Li Pang (2059-2155): innovator in cosmology
- Guo Qingzhao (2110-living): originated the SAGE language, allowing computers to make reliable translations between natural languages
- Mitsu Hamamoto (2031-2084): developed first usable system of psychokinesis
- Lin Fu Shing (2506-living): popular holovision producer
- Alexei Simagin (2111-2540): formulated presently accepted theory of history and social change
- Karl Marx (1818-1883): founder of scientific socialism
- Wu Li Kao (2710-living): mathematician
- Dani Baklanova (2802-living): greatest poet of all time
- Ghenghis Khan (1162-1227): military leader
- Thomas Arvane (2082-living): inventor of workable cryonics
- Augustus Caesar (63 B.C. – 14 A.D.): first emperor of Rome
- Tsung Shang (2112-living): artificial intelligence innovator
- Roberto Ferruchio (2047-2086 and 2240-living): greatest game designer in history
- Chu Shih-Li (2064-living): inventor of holovision
- Shu Gungwu (2709-living): philosopher who solved the mind-body problem
- Li Lu Wang (2372-living): captain of first successful interstellar expedition
- Baba Al-Khalid (2647-living): singer and most popular actress of all time
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{ 33 comments… read them below or add one }
‘Edward de Vere’? Instead of Shakespeare?
That’s the equivalent of adding someone like David Irving or Peter Duesberg to the list in terms of taking crazy ideas seriously.
Otherwise, it makes for fascinating reading.
Jacopo(Quote)
I don’t want to diss Jesus (what kind of monster doesn’t love Jesus!), but I’m not sure I can agree with Hart on the “originality” of his teachings. Weren’t the Cynics arguably there first? Interesting piece, tho.
Contrararian(Quote)
A fun excerpt to read, but only that. Futurists have about the worst track-record of accuracy you can imagine, right up there with the National Enquirer’s psychic predictors. But that doesn’t chasten them. Apparently, 990 years from now English will be indistinguishable from the English of today, even down to the idioms (cuz those never change). After all, the English of today is indistinguishable from Anglo-Saxon. The only safe prediction: futurists will turn out to be mostly wrong.
Steve Maitzen(Quote)
The guy who invented spectacles had a bigger influence than Marx? srsly?
nate(Quote)
What’s interesting is that Jesus didn’t “invent” this concept. It was already in the Hebrew Bible. Paul uses this same concept in one of his epistles, curiously not quoting Jesus:
The “love your enemies” concept was already in the Hebrew Bible. And Paul also argues to love your enemies and for some reason doesn’t quote Jesus.
J. Quinton(Quote)
What, Darwin is only at 25?
Duke York(Quote)
Duke, I had a WTF moment with that too. Darwin’s insight has arguably been more influential than that of, say, Pasteur. Or even Jesus or Mohammed for that matter (give it time!). A fun sort of list, but pretty random.
Shane(Quote)
Steve,
Agreed.
lukeprog(Quote)
Lol, I think I would find it disturbing to come up with dates of death for some of the people still currently (2010 that is) alive on the list. I also like that a significant number of them born after 2100 are still living and are therefore anywhere from about 600 to 900 years old. That’s a nice touch :)
Jeff H(Quote)
Jesus proclaimed the imminent coming of the Kingdom of God. He may have identified himself as the “son of man” who would be instrumental in the coming, and he certainly assigned himself a high place aiding God in His rule in the transformed world to come.
jesus’s ethics maybe would have been appropriate to the new Kingdom and to this world as the Kingdom was breaking in on it, but are not appropriate to the world as we know it. Hence Jesus’s ethics as he imparted them can scarcely be appropriated by men and women in the world they know.
The religion of Jesus was a variant of Judaism, apocalyptic, a religion for the End Time. But the times of this world have not ended, hence Jesus’s religion is not one that men and women of this world can adhere to.
Paul (#47) proclaimed a religion of the End Time as well. But he also construed Jesus to have risen from the dead, a token of his status as a divine being who would return (Paul thought soon) and bring the Kingdom of God in tow. His religion spread with rapidity and established a presence such that by the 4th century a Roman emperor was converted and made Paul’s religion the empire’s.
Since Jesus’s religion is believed by nobody today and Paul’s by two billion, Paul’s ranking should be higher than 47 and Jesus’s lower than 8.
Desperately Seeking(Quote)
Um, where is Luke Muehlhauser on this list?
Ajay(Quote)
17. Antoine Laurent Lavoisier (1743-1794): father of chemistry
and
57. John Dalton (1766-1844): innovator in chemistry
Totally awesome!!! Some one who understands the importance of my favorite topic.
dc-agape(Quote)
Beautiful article on Death, Atheism and religious epistemology.
http://www.tnr.com/blog/damon-linker/76925/the-most-pressing-question
G’DIsraeli(Quote)
G’Disraeli,
Good link. I’ll include it in my next News Bits.
lukeprog(Quote)
Jacopo,
I know, kinda weird. But check it out – there’s a new movie coming out that runs with the Oxfordian theory: Anonymous. Directed by, of all people, Roland Emmerich!
lukeprog(Quote)
In reading up a bit more on the Shakespeare authorship question, I came across this awesome quote by Justice Scalia:
lukeprog(Quote)
A more likely scenario, assuming Jesus does not return first, is like this:
Europe descends into Islamic wars where martial law has to be imposed to contain violence.
The US has a Christian revival partly spurred by growing Islamic violence.
China becomes largely Christian and brings democracy and freedom across Asia and even into the middle east.
I think that the author is projecting his WISH that the world becomes more secular, but seriously, I don’t see that happening at all, because secularism creates a vacuum into which either christianity or islam will rush (or temporarily, paganism and spiritism, but people soon see the emptiness of those), and you better pray it isn’t Islam, whose ‘golden age’ may be greatly exaggerated. Mostly, Islam brings the end of education and progress.
dgsinclair(Quote)
Oh man. It seems to me that if you have a crazy idea, one of the first things to do is make a movie about it and make a load of people who’ve never really thought about the issue come to some crazy conclusion that they’ll likely believe for life. The way to get rich these days is not to start a religion. Now, the way to get rich is to support some bizarre theory of some kind or another and you’ll find a load of contrarians who will revel in believing it.
It is crazy that the film will get far more viewers than an actual scholar on the issue, like Shapiro (if you’re interested in this, incidentally, he’s the first guy to read), will get readers. There are far more interesting issues in Shakespeare authorship – like the different influences brought to the table in the plays which Shakespeare collaborated on with playwrights like John Fletcher, or the historical context within which he (co)wrote his plays.
Jacopo(Quote)
Also, as you’ve been happy to have this sort of thing pointed out before, I should mention that ‘playwright’ has a ‘w’ in it (you’ve missed the ‘w’ out in your description of de Vere/Shakespeare).
:)
Jacopo(Quote)
Ah, thanks: fixed.
lukeprog(Quote)
Where’s the theory of everything on this list?
Luis Roman(Quote)
G’DIsraeli, thanks for the hitchens link. I’m following his commentary and progress with interest, and not a little sadness. He doesn’t talk about his brother’s faith much during this time, but I guess being private about family is understandable.
I wonder if his brother will write another book, perhaps a bio of his brother.
danielg(Quote)
Wait, the philosopher who solved the mind body problem was born like 500 years after brain transplants and uploading human minds to computers became common? What kind of dumbasses are these future people?
Freethinker(Quote)
How could he leave Bill S. Preston and Ted Theordore Logan off the list? The music of the Wyld Stallyns will bring an end to war and poverty, align the planets and bring them into universal harmony allowing meaningful contact with all forms of life, from extraterrestrial beings to common household pets.
Ryan Secrest should probably be on the list as well.
Freethinker(Quote)
Where’s the technological singularity???
Luis Roman(Quote)
Hart didn’t see it coming. :)
lukeprog(Quote)
Most posters miss the point entirely. It’s not whether Jesus was original (he wasn’t) or if Marx should be more highly rated (he shouldn’t). Worst, it’s not a measured, scientific tome carved in stone (loved the English language – lol). Rather, it’s fiction – one man’s thoughts on what a human in the year 3000 might image. No one knows the future but it is nice to contemplate. Enjoy the book (if you can find one) and leave the arguing for another day.
smb12321(Quote)
Good luck getting this crowd to go along with that! :)
Steve Maitzen(Quote)
u ve wirtten mohammed to be next to jesus, is it true of other way round.
axon(Quote)
Excuse me, the editor of this website please change the part saying “prophet Muhammad (P.B.U.H) is the founder of Islam” actually he is not I am a Muslim and i know that Islam was here since the first man walked the earth. So if you could please change that description of Muhammad. It should be that he is the last and final prophet in Islam and that he was the man that Allah (SWT) sent down the Holy Quran to.
Danial(Quote)
Danial, oh please STFU!
Anti-Danial(Quote)
AD: no, Danial is right, Islam was here since the beginning – it started with the fall of Satan! >:)
imp(Quote)
10 people left of this list that should have been here.
1. Timero Shojo (2444 – 2762) started the “Neo-Crusades” that wiped out many religions
2. Dmitri Hergova (2954 – current) allowed man to travel faster than light
3. Vanessa Huiler (2145 – 2384) – invented the “Huiler Wormhole”
4. Graham Theodore Bhyen (2456 – current) colonized the asteroid belt
5. Tiana Beltrez (2654 – 2876) and Joanna Beltrz (2679 – alive) sisters who made contact with intelligent life outside of our solar system
6. Xic Vwanveunito (2233 – 2276) liberator of the Confederate States of Jenanta, one of the most important nations on this planet
7. Adolphine Brehya (1998 – 2087) philosopher
8. Quincy Leglas (2555 – 2602) first man who communicated with his anti-form
9. Sierra Tyo (2134 – 2212) ended the Neo-Crusades
10. Frank Byler (2457 – 2504) musician
GoB(Quote)