1--Alfred Nobel – The man who paved the path for destruction and peace
Alfred Nobel’s life history is one that is deeply interesting. Here was a man who was an industrialist, an engineer and an inventor who later came to be synonymous with the word “peace” through his Nobel Award foundation. In 1860, he was looking for ways to blast rock efficiently and he discovered that mixing nitroglycerine with silica would create a volatile paste called dynamite. However, when he saw that people were misusing his creation for maiming and murdering people, he came to regret his own invention. In his will, he stipulated that most of his assets should go towards the creation of a unique fund that would reward people who brought a positive change in our world. To this day, it honors the work of people all over the world who aim to truly make our world a better place. In many ways, though he did not live to realize it, he managed to transform his biggest regret into one of mankind’s greatest triumphs.
2--J. Robert Oppenheimer and the heavy burden he had to shoulder
J. Robert Oppenheimer, who is considered to be the father of the atomic bomb, held the position of Director of the Los Alamos Lab during the time of the World War II. Countries were fighting each other, millions of people were dying every day and there was no end in sight. While creating the atomic bomb, everyone on the research team believed that they were creating a safer world for themselves and the citizens of their country. However, after seeing the mass death and destruction of millions of Japanese people, they came to regret making the bomb. Oppenheimer in his last years talked about how the war had made humankind numb and that they had made a grave mistake in ever creating the weapon of mass destruction. The atomic bomb did win the war for America but in the most horrific and cruel way possible.
3---Mikhail Kalashnikov – The man who created the fearsome AK47
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Mikhail Kalashnikov who created the extremely dangerous AK47 is another one in the long list of people who came to regret their inventions. Mikhail passed away in 2013 and he died knowing that he had created a weapon of mass terror. When he made the rifle, he never thought that it would be the most popular weapon of choice for gang lords, terrorists and dictators all over the world. In his last years, he sent a heartfelt letter to the head of the Russian Orthodox Church asking several questions that weighed in his mind. He wondered if he should be the one to blame for the millions of deaths the weapon had caused over the years? He wondered why God allowed man to have such cruel urges and capacity for greed and aggression
4--Ethan Zuckerman – The creator of the most annoying digital product in the world
If there is one thing that really annoys the hell out of people, it is the incredibly frustrating pop up. It comes out of nowhere right when you’re in the middle of something important as if it has a mind of its own. You can’t help but think that the entire purpose of the pop up is to frustrate you all the way to kingdom come. Interestingly, the man who invented it shares our views too. He worked for Tripod.com in the 90’s, which was a website that marketed both content and services to graduates. Later on the company turned into webpage hosting provider where they needed to bring in more advertisement money to keep the business afloat. And out of that despair and darkness came the most vicious and annoying digital item in our world; the “pop up”. It was initially made so that brands don’t have to worry about being associated with the content their ads play on. Before, you would see ads of big companies on porn sites but Zuckerman figured out a way to display the ad on a separate window. Though made with good intentions, he has come out in interviews apologizing for creating it.