Influence is a weird thing. You can be the most famous person on the planet today—someone like Taylor Swift or Elon Musk—and yet, in five hundred years, you might just be a footnote in a digital archive. Then there are the people whose names we barely remember, but whose inventions or ideas literally dictate how you eat, sleep, and think. Honestly, if we’re talking about the all time most influential people, we have to look past the celebrity glitz and look at the "code" of human civilization.
Most people get this wrong. They think influence equals popularity. It doesn't.
True influence is about "legacy persistence." It's about whether the world would look fundamentally different if you hadn't been born. If Steve Jobs hadn't existed, we’d still have smartphones; they’d just look different. But if a certain nomadic prophet or a bored mathematician hadn't shown up? The entire trajectory of the human race changes.
The Math of Human Impact
In 1978, an astrophysicist named Michael H. Hart published a book called The 100: A Ranking of the Most Influential Persons in History. It caused a massive stir. Why? Because he put the Prophet Muhammad at number one, ahead of Jesus and Isaac Newton.
Hart’s logic was simple: Muhammad was "supremely successful" in both the religious and secular realms. He founded one of the world's great religions and led the conquests that shaped the Middle East. You might disagree with the ranking, but the criteria—how much did this person change the day-to-day lives of billions over centuries?—is the only way to measure this fairly.
Then you’ve got the MIT Pantheon project. They use "Historical Popularity Index" (HPI) based on things like how many languages a person's Wikipedia page is translated into. As of early 2026, figures like Aristotle, Leonardo da Vinci, and Jesus Christ still dominate those charts. It turns out, the internet hasn't really changed who we find important; it just gave us a faster way to look them up.
👉 See also: Barn Owl at Night: Why These Silent Hunters Are Creepier (and Cooler) Than You Think
The Scientists Who Rewrote the Rules
We often take gravity for granted. We shouldn't. Before Isaac Newton, the universe was a chaotic, unpredictable place governed by the whims of gods or "magic." Newton didn't just discover gravity; he gave us a mathematical language to describe the physical world.
Think about this.
Without Newton’s Principia, there is no industrial revolution. No engines. No flight. No SpaceX rockets landing on barges. He is arguably the most influential scientist because his "rules" became the foundation for every single thing we’ve built since 1687.
The Darwin Shift
Charles Darwin is another one who makes people uncomfortable. But you can't talk about influence without him. He didn't just give us a biology lesson; he changed how humans see themselves in the mirror. Suddenly, we weren't just "separate" from nature—we were a part of it. That shift influenced everything from medicine to psychology to how we view social structures.
Religious Figures and the Moral Compass
It’s impossible to ignore the founders of the world’s major religions when discussing the all time most influential people. Whether you are a believer or not, the ethical frameworks of the modern world are built on their teachings.
✨ Don't miss: Baba au Rhum Recipe: Why Most Home Bakers Fail at This French Classic
- Jesus Christ: Beyond the religious impact, the very calendar most of the world uses is centered around his birth. The Western legal system, for better or worse, is deeply rooted in Judeo-Christian ethics.
- The Buddha (Siddhartha Gautama): He shaped the internal lives of billions across Asia. His teachings on suffering and mindfulness have seen a massive resurgence in the 21st century, even in secular psychological practices.
- Confucius: If you want to understand why East Asian societies value social harmony and hierarchy differently than the West, you have to read Confucius. He basically designed the social operating system for China for over two millennia.
The "Silent" Influencers Nobody Talks About
Some of the most influential people aren't names you see on posters. Take Johannes Gutenberg. He didn't write a great book or lead an army. He just built a machine that let other people share their ideas.
Before the printing press, if you wanted to learn something, you had to find a monk who had hand-copied a scroll. Gutenberg democratized knowledge. He’s the reason the Reformation happened. He’s the reason the Scientific Revolution happened. He basically invented the "Information Age" 500 years early.
Then there’s someone like Norman Borlaug. Have you heard of him? Probably not. But you’re likely alive because of him. Borlaug was the "Father of the Green Revolution." His work in agricultural science—developing high-yield, disease-resistant wheat—is credited with saving over a billion people from starvation in the mid-20th century. That is a level of influence that is hard to even wrap your head around.
What Most People Get Wrong About Modern Influence
We have a recency bias. We think the tech moguls of today—the Zuckerbergs and the Musks—are the most influential. And sure, they are changing how we communicate now.
But will they matter in the year 2500?
🔗 Read more: Aussie Oi Oi Oi: How One Chant Became Australia's Unofficial National Anthem
Most modern "influencers" are actually beneficiaries of the giants who came before them. Elon Musk is standing on the shoulders of Nikola Tesla and Michael Faraday. Mark Zuckerberg is standing on the shoulders of Alan Turing and Tim Berners-Lee.
True influence is usually "foundational." It’s the person who invents the wheel, not the person who makes a slightly better tire.
How to Think About This for Yourself
When you look at lists of the all time most influential people, don't just look at who is "famous." Fame is fleeting; influence is structural.
If you want to understand the world today, stop reading the news for a second and look at the people who built the tools we use to understand it. Read a bit of Plato. Look into the life of Marie Curie, who literally died for the science that now treats our cancers.
Actionable Takeaways
- Audit your influences: Are you following people who are "famous for being famous," or people who are creating foundational value?
- Read the source material: Instead of reading a summary of "Great Ideas," read a translation of the Analects or Newton's letters. It’s surprisingly grounding.
- Look for the "Gutenbergs": Identify the modern tools or people that are democratizing knowledge today. That’s where the next wave of massive influence is hiding.
Understanding history isn't about memorizing dates. It's about recognizing the ghosts who are still running the machine of our daily lives. From the way we measure time to the way we treat our neighbors, we are all living in the shadows of these few dozen individuals.