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From: rob@dadla.UUCP (Rob Vetter)
Newsgroups: net.misc,net.bio
Subject: Re: World population benchmark
Message-ID: <897@dadla.UUCP>
Date: Mon, 14-Jul-86 15:58:33 EDT
Article-I.D.: dadla.897
Posted: Mon Jul 14 15:58:33 1986
Date-Received: Wed, 16-Jul-86 03:17:42 EDT
References: <3553@hplabsb.UUCP> <599@bcsaic.UUCP>
Reply-To: rob@dadla.UUCP (Rob Vetter)
Distribution: net
Organization: Tektronix, Inc., Beaverton, OR.
Lines: 43
Keywords: Billions and billions, population, United Nations
Xref: watmath net.misc:9891 net.bio:605

In article <599@bcsaic.UUCP> michaelm@bcsaic.UUCP (michael maxwell) writes:
>In article <3553@hplabsb.UUCP> marvit@hplabsb.UUCP (Peter Marvit) writes:
>>According to the world population watchers at the United Nations, today
>>(7 July) the 5 billionth person will be born.
>
>Something I've always wondered: of all the people who've ever lived,
>what percentage are alive today?  I suspect it's a rather large
>percentage, and it makes me wonder why there aren't more people like
>Plato, Galileo, Michaelangelo, Bach, Einstein.  (Or, heaven help us, 
>more like Genghis Khan, Hitler, Alexander, Attila the Hun, etc.)  
>We seem to be lacking in "greats" (except here on usnet, of course :-).  
>Any thoughts?  Or flames about improper newsgroups?  (It's all Peter
>Marvit's fault, of course :-)

	We have them !!!  Lee Iococca (sp?) in business, Ronald Reagan
	in acting, Mother Theresa, Paul McCartney, Dan Rather, and yes,
	Mummar Khadafi and Khomeini.

	The people you are talking about are those which in some way
	go beyond the abilities (for good OR evil) of the norm in the
	human race.  I think that we have more of these hyper-achievers
	living now, and that there are many that we don't think
	about daily, but could agree that they are great (wo)men.

	As for lasting effect on history, it's harder for one human to
	affect the lives of all others now.  There are alot more people
	to affect.  (Are we now looking for hyper-hyper-achievers ??).
	History will STILL show that we had our fair share (relative to
	population) of hyper-achievers.

	One final note:  no two other people on the list lived as con-
	currently as Hitler and Einstein.  We will see more of the same
	from the 5 Bil. alive in the SECOND half of the 20th century.

-- 

Rob Vetter
(503) 629-1044
[ihnp4, ucbvax, decvax, uw-beaver]!tektronix!dadla!rob
	"		"	  !psu-cs!vetterr

"Waste is a terrible thing to mind" - NRC
  (Well, they COULD have said it)