c4countdown

If someone alive today wants* to become considered the greatest human being ever**, what would they have to do in their life to achieve it? They've have to overcome supernatural greats like Jesus, as well as sporting racing great Damon Hill.

They're not allowed to achieve this by any "supernatural" means, or by being perceived to be supernatural like some religious leader. So, what do they do? Can they do it?

*Well, they don't necessarily have to want it, and some people might count doing so against them.

**They'd have to come top under any reasonable voting system.

The very act of wanting to be should exclude you from ever becoming the greatest human in history. Oh, you already qualified that. I obviously haven't read the whole post which excludes me immediately.

Cure cancer?

Matt Morrison wrote:Cure cancer?

Good answer. It might seem obvious, but none of the other 1260 members of this forum could think of it or anything better in the amount of time it took you to come up with it.

It would still be tough though. A lot of people would still vote for people like Jesus and Mohammed, so would it be enough? I think a good backstory would help. They're not seen as particularly "gifted" at school, but worked hard to get some solid (but not spectacular) grades, then didn't go straight to university, but had to start work to support their family. Then maybe took a year out in Africa helping starving children before eventually going to university, getting into research and bingo, a cure for cancer.

Gavin Chipper wrote:

Matt Morrison wrote:Cure cancer?

It would still be tough though. A lot of people would still vote for people like Jesus and Mohammed, so would it be enough? I think a good backstory would help. They're not seen as particularly "gifted" at school, but worked hard to get some solid (but not spectacular) grades, then didn't go straight to university, but had to start work to support their family. Then maybe took a year out in Africa helping starving children before eventually going to university, getting into research and bingo, a cure for cancer.

I agree with all of that apart from the bit about getting into bingo, if anything that would devalue their story.

Gavin Chipper wrote:

Matt Morrison wrote:Cure cancer?

Good answer. It might seem obvious, but none of the other 1260 members of this forum could think of it or anything better in the amount of time it took you to come up with it.

It would still be tough though. A lot of people would still vote for people like Jesus and Mohammed,

If someone did cure cancer I'm sure people would still end up giving Jesus or God the credit for it. Yet they'd never blame him for creating cancer in the first place.

Matt Morrison wrote:I agree with all of that apart from the bit about getting into bingo, if anything that would devalue their story.

I lolled.

I think scientists have an uphill battle to get great fame. Crick and Watson discovered DNA, but no one would think of them for this accolade. Did anyone recognise Tim Berners-Lee at the Olympic opening ceremony without his name at the bottom of the screen? For the curer of cancer to get worldwide fame for their scientific feats alone; they'd need to either be in a wheelchair or have the dreamy good looks of a keyboardist from D:Ream.

While curing cancer would be a good start, I think they'd also need something else completely different on their cv. Maybe an Oscar or an Olympic gold medal?

Even better, the world leader who brings about world peace.

Martin Bishop wrote:While curing cancer would be a good start, I think they'd also need something else completely different on their cv. Maybe an Oscar or an Olympic gold medal?.

Lance Armstrong wasn't doing too badly until recently. Well, OK he only recovered from cancer, and won 7 TdFs with the help of the doctors, but, certainly in the eyes of some, he seems to have been up there with JC. (No, not John Cleese.)

Instead of speculating how to become the greatest human in history why not just ask Innis how he managed it?

Write history yourself.

Are you allowed to choose when the vote happens? And do you have to be alive? I reckon a self-sacrifice-to-save-the-planet (a la what happened in that movie, I can never remember which one the dude dies in, and which one he doesn't, but there's definitely an asteroid) with an immediate poll afterwards would give you a pretty good shot, even with religion to compete with. (Perhaps if you were really clever you could 'accidentally' not quite destroy the entire asteroid, and a big chunk could fly off and hit a densely super-religious part of the planet, but that's probably getting a bit supernatural.)

Michael Wallace wrote:Are you allowed to choose when the vote happens? And do you have to be alive? I reckon a self-sacrifice-to-save-the-planet (a la what happened in that movie, I can never remember which one the dude dies in, and which one he doesn't, but there's definitely an asteroid)...)

So, what do they do?

End racism.

Can they do it?

No.

Realistically, curing cancer seems the best bet. But there's surely no way one person can do that alone, so maybe even that isn't realistic.

Michael Wallace wrote:Are you allowed to choose when the vote happens? And do you have to be alive? I reckon a self-sacrifice-to-save-the-planet (a la what happened in that movie, I can never remember which one the dude dies in, and which one he doesn't, but there's definitely an asteroid) with an immediate poll afterwards would give you a pretty good shot, even with religion to compete with. (Perhaps if you were really clever you could 'accidentally' not quite destroy the entire asteroid, and a big chunk could fly off and hit a densely super-religious part of the planet, but that's probably getting a bit supernatural.)

I did wonder about the timing of the poll when I posted the thread because that could make a massive difference. I suppose I could make it "easy" by saying that they just have to be able to top a poll at some point, alive or dead.

When I started this thread, I was thinking that having two careers might help. Perhaps someone who is a big sports star in their youth (greatest ever at their sport) and then they go on to achieve something else (like curing cancer, solving the problem of poverty/inequality) completely independently of that.