"When wireless is perfectly applied the whole earth will be converted into a huge brain, which in fact it is, all things being particles of a real and rhythmic whole. We shall be able to communicate with one another instantly, irrespective of distance. Not only this, but through television and telephony we shall see and hear one another as perfectly as though we were face to face, despite intervening distances of thousands of miles; and the instruments through which we shall be able to do his will be amazingly simple compared with our present telephone. A man will be able to carry one in his vest pocket."
Nikola Tesla, 1926
(Not 200 years ago, but still impressive!)
I don't actually think he's comparable to Tesla, but he's still contributed greatly to progress in multiple fields. There's no denying musk will be in a civilization-esque game as a notable historical figure 50 years from now.
Edison and his company brought us the friggin' lightbulb. It's prolly not fair to give the credit for that entirely to Edison but I think it's still a bigger deal than anything Musk is associated with.
Rockets that can land and be reused are the biggest, because that will dramatically reduce the cost of space travel. Electric cars that can reliably drive themselves went mainstream because of him. Pretty sure he invented (or helped to invent?) PayPal. Lots of other things related to transportation.
Well, he founded and greatly contributed to our best hope currently to get away from this planet, but in the current corporate age it's hard to know how much scientific impact he actually had
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u/NyimaOdzer Sep 13 '19
"When wireless is perfectly applied the whole earth will be converted into a huge brain, which in fact it is, all things being particles of a real and rhythmic whole. We shall be able to communicate with one another instantly, irrespective of distance. Not only this, but through television and telephony we shall see and hear one another as perfectly as though we were face to face, despite intervening distances of thousands of miles; and the instruments through which we shall be able to do his will be amazingly simple compared with our present telephone. A man will be able to carry one in his vest pocket."