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Comment by madiathomas | Hacker News Reader

Same here. I will rather win that prestigous award.

I'd take the money. You can't take either with you and with a billion dollars I could get more than a few things named after me.

Things which will likely all be forgotten. Name 10 billionaires from the 19th century. Now try naming 10 scientists.

Go with the Turing Award if you want to be remembered.

Trick question.

> Forbes magazine updates a complete global list of known U.S. dollar billionaires every year. John D. Rockefeller became the world's first confirmed U.S. dollar billionaire in 1916

Stop being a pedant; I think you get my point.

If you want to play, note that I did not say USD anywhere in my comment. Not to mention that Forbes was founded in 1917, and so it clearly has no data collected to "confirm" an earlier billionaire. We can go back to the 14th century if you like (https://www.wikiwand.com/en/Musa_I_of_Mali):

> During his reign Mali may have been the largest producer of gold in the world at a point of exceptional demand. One of the richest people in history, he is known to have been enormously wealthy; reported as being inconceivably rich by contemporaries, "There’s really no way to put an accurate number on his wealth" (Davidson 2015).

But thanks, I actually never knew that about USD billionaires.

Everything will be forgotten. The only question is "when".

Well, I'd argue that (for example) Warren Buffet will be forgotten long before the invention of the transistor will.

But what about the inventor of the transistor? I already don't know that name. (But on the other hand, I don't know many names)

I meant the inventors of course. They shared a Nobel prize: Shockley, Bardeen, and Brattain.

Anyways, it was just an example.

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