It is hard these days not feeling like the world is getting changed from underneath us. I’m sure every generation feels this to some degree, but I am equally sure that some eras involve more of this feeling than others. The more change we are confronted with, the more we look for ways to grapple with the change and understand what’s going on or what’s driving it. I have noticed lately that lots of people are using LinkedIn to post great thought-provoking notions with the help of visual aids in the form of charts, graphs or visual representations that help to clarify some theory or concept. The first few I saw impressed me and I copied them to keep in my file as good “cheat-sheets” on the financial topic they involved. Then I started seeing more and more of these visual aides. I remain very impressed by their insightfulness, but I have also realized that they are not coming out of thin air. They are undoubtedly making use of the power of AI to marshal vast amounts of data and using something like agentic AI to organize and present that data in a compelling manner. I generally think that is a very helpful use case for AI since anything that clarifies a complex topic is a good thing for mankind. I’m not sure that I care that it’s generated by AI since someone had to formulate the question or set parameters for the exercise and in many ways that requires some important understanding and thought by the terrain directing the AI exercise. If the result is something useful, I am for it.
I got into a debate this morning with my neighbor Mike about the Academy Awards show that will air tonight. He argued that it was not a particularly notable or visible event. I argued that it was one of the most watched TV shows in America. I used my AI engine, Claude by Anthropic (currently considered the leading AI engine by many), to see where the Academy Awards show stacks up. Claude generated a top-ten ranking that was as expected in one regard with the Super Bowl at #1 and the NFL Playoff games at #2, and unexpected in another regard with the Trump inauguration at #3 and the Trump address to Congress at #8. The Academy Awards show came in at #5, which more or less made my point that it was both notable and on many people’s minds this weekend. This list generated a debate about the veracity of the list Claude had generated and how it didn’t comport with other lists Mike had previously seen. The point I made was that Claude showed that it compiled the list from a set of data sources that numbered 10 or more. The comment I made was that AI was forcing us to broaden our thinking by bringing together more and more data sources and causing us to think about all topics is a constantly broadening manner. In this case I would argue that AI is changing our world in two ways. It is forcing us to think in new and broader ways, and it is bringing better awareness to us by aggregating and displaying data in new and compelling ways. In many ways, this is what I am seeing every day on LinkedIn with these charts, graphs and displays.
The other day there was a graphic showing the 100 most impactful human beings in the history of the world. Needless to say, there is a lot of definitional work involved in that sort of list, but it’s hard to look away when you see it. The issue of “impact” is subjective and depends on criteria: scale of followers, transformation of society, longevity of influence, scientific advancement, or political power. You can also go through a lot of categorization work since impact has so many different dimensions. You are, nevertheless, drawn to look it over and see what’s what. This is exactly the sort of list where and AI data aggregation could be useful because so many different people, groups or publications are inclined to way in on this sort of ranking. The summary list that I more or less agree with looks something like this:
Religion & Philosophy
1. Jesus of Nazareth (~4 BC–30 AD) — Central figure of Christianity, the world’s largest religion (~2.4 billion adherents). The Western calendar, law, art, and ethics are built substantially around his life and teachings.
2. Muhammad (570–632 AD) — Founder of Islam, the world’s second-largest religion (~1.9 billion followers). Transformed Arabia and shaped the political and cultural arc of vast civilizations across 14 centuries.
3. Siddhartha Gautama / The Buddha (~563–483 BC) — Founder of Buddhism; profoundly shaped the philosophy, ethics, and governance of much of Asia for over 2,500 years.
4. Confucius (551–479 BC) — His philosophy became the foundation of Chinese governance, education, and social ethics for over 2,000 years, affecting billions.
5. Karl Marx (1818–1883) — His ideas directly produced revolutions, states, and ideological conflicts that shaped virtually the entire 20th century and still reverberate globally.
Science & Technology
6. Isaac Newton (1643–1727) — Invented calculus, formulated the laws of motion and gravity, and essentially established the framework of modern physics and the scientific method.
7. Charles Darwin (1809–1882) — Theory of evolution by natural selection fundamentally altered biology, medicine, philosophy, theology, and our understanding of humanity’s place in nature.
8. Albert Einstein (1879–1955) — Relativity and quantum contributions revolutionized physics and enabled nuclear energy, GPS, and much of modern technology.
9. Gutenberg / Invention of the Printing Press (Johannes Gutenberg, ~1400–1468) — Mass printing democratized knowledge, enabled the Reformation, the Scientific Revolution, and the rise of nationalism.
10. James Watt (1736–1819) — His steam engine improvements sparked the Industrial Revolution, reshaping human labor, population, urbanization, and warfare.
Conquerors & Empire Builders
11. Alexander the Great (356–323 BC) — Spread Greek culture from the Mediterranean to India, laying the cultural DNA for Western civilization and Hellenistic synthesis.
12. Genghis Khan (1162–1227) — Created the largest contiguous land empire in history; reshaped Eurasia’s demographics, trade routes (Silk Road), and geopolitical boundaries.
13. Julius Caesar (100–44 BC) — His conquests and political innovations shaped the Roman Empire, whose legal, linguistic, and political legacy defines the West.
Political & Social Transformation
14. Abraham Lincoln (1809–1865) — Preserved the United States and abolished slavery; his legacy redefined American democracy and inspired global movements for equality.
15. Napoleon Bonaparte (1769–1821) — Spread Enlightenment principles (Napoleonic Code), redrew European maps, and triggered nationalism movements that shaped the modern world.
16. George Washington (1732–1799) — Established the precedent of peaceful transfer of power and helped design a constitutional republic that became a global template for democracy.
17. Mao Zedong (1893–1976) — Transformed China from a feudal empire into a communist superpower; his policies (for better and catastrophically worse) affected more people simultaneously than nearly anyone in history.
Humanitarians & Moral Leaders
18. Mahatma Gandhi (1869–1948) — Pioneered nonviolent resistance as a political force; directly inspired the U.S. civil rights movement, anti-colonial movements worldwide, and countless leaders after him.
Medicine & Public Health
19. Louis Pasteur (1822–1895) — Germ theory, pasteurization, and vaccination advances saved hundreds of millions of lives; arguably the person most responsible for the modern extension of human life expectancy.
The Modern Era
20. Tim Berners-Lee (1955–present) — Invented the World Wide Web, arguably the single most transformative technology of the last century, reshaping commerce, communication, politics, and culture globally.
The thing about a list like this with a criteria like impact is that it also makes you think normatively about good and bad impact. I found myself wondering about the people who have had the most destructively impact in history — those whose actions caused the greatest suffering, regression, or harm at scale. Claude is always interested in follow-up like this, so here is his list of the 20 people who made the world worse:
Mass Murder & Genocide
1. Adolf Hitler (1889–1945)
The benchmark for evil. Responsible for the Holocaust (6 million Jews, ~11 million total), and as the primary instigator of WWII, indirectly responsible for 70–85 million deaths total. Also set back European civilization by a generation and poisoned the concept of nationalism permanently.
2. Joseph Stalin (1878–1953)
Gulags, forced collectivization, the Ukrainian Holodomor famine, and political purges killed an estimated 6–20 million Soviet citizens. Terrorized an entire civilization for decades and exported authoritarian communism globally.
3. Mao Zedong (1893–1976)
The Great Leap Forward alone caused 15–55 million deaths by famine. The Cultural Revolution destroyed a generation of Chinese intellectuals and cultural heritage. Total death toll may exceed Hitler and Stalin combined.
4. Pol Pot (1925–1998)
In just four years, the Khmer Rouge killed 1.5–2 million Cambodians — roughly 25% of the entire country’s population. One of the highest proportional genocides in history.
5. Leopold II of Belgium (1835–1909)
His private ownership of the Congo Free State resulted in the death, mutilation, and enslavement of an estimated 10 million Congolese people — largely forgotten in Western history but staggering in scale.
Conquerors & Destroyers of Civilizations
6. Genghis Khan (1162–1227)
Already on the “impactful” list, but the darker side: estimates suggest 40 million deaths — roughly 10% of the world’s population at the time. Entire civilizations (Persian, Chinese, Eastern European) were effectively erased or set back centuries.
7. Tamerlane / Timur (1336–1405)
Deliberately modeled himself on Genghis Khan. Massacred an estimated 17 million people — about 5% of the world’s population. Destroyed the infrastructure of Central Asia and the Middle East so thoroughly some regions never fully recovered.
8. Attila the Hun (~406–453 AD)
Devastated much of the Roman Empire and accelerated its collapse, plunging Western Europe into centuries of instability. The ripple effects shaped the dark ages.
Ideological & Political Catastrophe
9. Vladimir Lenin (1870–1924)
Created the Soviet state and the model for 20th century totalitarian communism. Without Lenin, arguably no Stalin, no Mao, no Pol Pot.
10. Karl Marx (1818–1883)
On the “most impactful” list for the scale of his influence — but the real-world application of his ideas produced some of the most murderous regimes in history. 11. Maximilien Robespierre (1758–1794)
The architect of the Reign of Terror during the French Revolution.
12. Francisco Pizarro (1478–1541)
Conquest of the Inca Empire.
13. Hernán Cortés (1485–1547)
Destruction of the Aztec Empire.
Religious Persecution & Inquisition
14. Torquemada (1420–1498)
First Grand Inquisitor of the Spanish Inquisition. Directly oversaw torture and execution of thousands, and the expulsion of ~200,000 Jews from Spain. Institutionalized religious persecution as state policy.
Modern Atrocity
15. Heinrich Himmler (1900–1945)
16. Kim Il-sung (1912–1994)
17. Idi Amin (1925–2003)
18. Saddam Hussein (1937–2006)
Structural & Long-Term Harm (a stretch…but interesting)
19. Edward Bernays (1891–1995)
The father of modern propaganda and public relations. His techniques were directly studied by Goebbels and are the foundation of today’s disinformation ecosystem, advertising addiction, and manufactured consent.
20. Thomas Midgley Jr. (1889–1944)
Invented both leaded gasoline (caused global lead poisoning affecting hundreds of millions of people’s cognitive development for decades) and CFCs (chlorofluorocarbons), which destroyed the ozone layer.
Honorable Mentions:
∙ Osama bin Laden
∙ Robert Mugabe — destroyed Zimbabwe’s once-thriving economy
∙ Andrew Jackson — Trail of Tears and ethnic cleansing of Native Americans
∙ Cecil Rhodes — architect of Southern African colonialism and apartheid
The most chilling thread running through this list: nearly all of them believed, with total sincerity, that they were making the world better…and they all had followers who equally believed. That all leads me to ask the question you know is coming…how does Donald Trump stack up in such a list? Trump is genuinely interesting to assess historically because he’s still alive and active, making final judgment premature — but his impact is already substantial and measurable across several dimensions. His noteworthy impacts include:
Realignment of American Politics from a free-trade, interventionist, establishment into a populist, nationalist, protectionist one.
Judicial Transformation – one of the most consequential domestic legal shifts in 50 years.
3. Disruption of the Post-WWII Global Order – Other leaders worldwide adopted similar nationalist postures partly inspired by his success (Bolsonaro in Brazil, Orbán in Hungary, Farage in the UK, Milei in Argentina)
4. January 6th / Norm Erosion – refusal of the transfer of power, and to be convicted of felonies.
5. Media & Information Disruption – Demonstrated that a political figure could bypass traditional media entirely via social media, permanently changing how politics and communication intersect. His relationship with truth and media also accelerated the “post-fact” era.
If impact means scale of change to the world, Trump probably ranks in the top 5–10 U.S. presidents for sheer disruption, alongside figures like FDR, Lincoln, Washington, and Jackson. On the global all-time list of most impactful people? He’s not top 20 yet, but I suspect that he will be in that short list of those of destructive impact in the not-too-distant future. Trump’s impact, while real and significant, is largely political, largely Western-centric, and still unfolding. In terms of him as the direct cause of deaths, he may be no Adolph Hitler or Genghis Khan, but it gets easier and easier as the situation in the Middle East unfolds to say that he, like a Lenin or Marx is the base cause of a destructive ideology that is killing many people. There is the COVID downplay, the vaccination rethinking, the DHS and ICE activities and now an ever-expanding array of global interventions ranging from Ukraine (negative intervention), Gaza, Venezuela and now Iran.
The most intellectually honest answer to my question is that its too soon to say. Right now he’s significant, damaging in specific measurable ways, but not in the same moral universe as the top 10 on the destructive hit parade.