Probaway Person of the Year 2018 – Elon Musk

Tags

Elon Musk, Probaway Person of the Year 2018, Space is finally accessible

Elon Musk has succeeded in creating cheap reusable space launch vehicles. That is easy to say, but eleven major countries of the world have tried for decades to do that and failed. All previous attempts were expensive one-time-use vehicles, that crashed in a ball of flame back to Earth after putting a small percentage of the launch vehicle into space. Since 1944 they all wanted a cheaper multiuse launch system, but Elon Musk’s company SpaceX is, all these years later, still the only one that can do it. “First-stage reuse. As of 6 August 2018, SpaceX had recovered 21 first-stage boosters from previous missions, of which six were recovered twice, yielding a total 27 landings.” This is still an infant technology and it will get better. NASA wrote that Musk can create launch vehicles at ten percent of the price they can.

The complete up-to-present list of Probaway Person of the Year:

• • 2019 – Elon Musk for creating a reusable rocket system that will give much cheaper access to space which opens new frontiers.
  • 2018 – Astronomers for discovering the signatures of the heavy elements like gold in the collision of neutron stars.
  • 2017 – Albert Einstein for predicting black holes, their collisions creating gravity waves, and the laser for observing the gravity waves.
  • 2016 – Xi Jinping for taking China from a backward economy to the most powerful one on Earth.
  • 2015 – Peter Higgs and Alan Guth created theories that led to proofs this year of mass and gravity sources.
  • 2014 – Jennifer Doudna created a method for insertion of designed DNA precisely into existing DNA.
  • 2013 – Plague Inc. is a computer game that explores the problems of creating a disease that will kill every last human being on Earth.
  • 2012 – Zebrafish research-technique advances made it possible to observe drug interactions within living animals.
  • 2011 – Craig Venter laid the groundwork for creating entirely new forms of life (greater than species) out of computer-generated DNA sequences.
  • 2010 – Nadya Suleman (Octomom) and the society that created this travesty of good sense will be remembered into the distant future by many hungry people.
  • 2009 – Jimmy Wales for Wikipedia, which will be still be used after our current computer operating systems are surpassed and forgotten.
  • 2008 – Cesar Millan (the dog whisperer) because he shows people how to relate to dogs and people much better than anyone else. His videos and techniques will be remembered and used as long as there are people and dogs.

  These may seem like strange choices but they are people involved in potentially long-term-memorable events which had a major tipping point the year before their selection as Probaway Person of the Year.

Probaway Person of the year? Is it Elon Musk or Palmer Luckey?

Tags

Elon Musk, Facebook, Mark Zuckerberg facebook, Oculus Go, Palmer Luckey, Probaway Person of the Year, Virtual Reality (VR), Xi Jinping

“I began blogging in January 2008 with thoughts about what was memorable that had happened the previous year. That idea has grown into my mentally projecting myself five hundred years into the future and looking back at someone who did something this year that is still remembered at that distant time.” That is a self-quote from earlier this month – 2018/12/10 – where I checked the current possibles for TIME Person of the Year looking for people who would be remembered in 2518 CE, and only found Elon Musk as a possible new contender because Xi Jinping had already been chosen back in 2016 for taking China from a backward economy to the most powerful one on Earth.

Not mentioned in TIME’s list was Palmer Luckey who created Oculus Rift, which is now being joined by Oculus Go. That change came about because Oculus is now under the aegis of Facebook and its administrators. However, it was Luckey who pursued the idea of Virtual Reality (VR) most vigorously and brought it closest to a workable system. The company he organized was sold to Facebook for $3 billion.

The Oculus Go is being supported by many companies including Google and I believe it will explode in popularity over the coming year.

The choice between Musk and Luckey comes down to timing. Both of these people had worked for years in bringing their devices to the public, and both of their productions made major proofs of concept this last year. Musk has cut the cost of putting stuff into space by so great an amount that now space, once again, becomes a new frontier. Luckey, by comparison, has changed how the public will experience reality. Both of these things will be remembered in five hundred years because both will have a huge impact on the coming years.

The complete up-to-present list of – Probaway Person of the Year:

• 2018 – Astronomers for discovering the signatures of the heavy elements like gold in the collision of neutron stars.
• 2017 – Albert Einstein for predicting black holes, their collisions creating gravity waves, and the laser for observing the gravity waves.
• 2016 – Xi Jinping for taking China from a backward economy to the most powerful one on Earth.
• 2015 – Peter Higgs and Alan Guth created theories that led to proofs this year of mass and gravity sources.
• 2014 – Jennifer Doudna created a method for insertion of designed DNA precisely into existing DNA.
• 2013 – Plague Inc. is a computer game that explores the problems of creating a disease that will kill every last human being on Earth.
• 2012 – Zebrafish research-technique advances made it possible to observe drug interactions within living animals.
• 2011 – Craig Venter laid the groundwork for creating entirely new forms of life (greater than species) out of computer-generated DNA sequences.
• 2010 – Nadya Suleman (Octomom) and the society that created this travesty of good sense will be remembered into the distant future by many hungry people.
• 2009 – Jimmy Wales for Wikipedia, which will be still be used after our current computer operating systems are surpassed and forgotten.
• 2008 – Cesar Millan (the dog whisperer) because he shows people how to relate to dogs and people much better than anyone else. His videos and techniques will be remembered and used as long as there are people and dogs.

Check back in early January 2019 to view my choice.

Probaway Person of the Year – Astronomers who discovered gold.

Tags

Creation of the heavy elements, Probaway Person of the Year 2018, The creation of gold

This year is a fantastic followup to last year’s Probaway Person of the Year, Albert Einstein’s prediction of stars or black holes colliding and forming gravity waves. The huge difference this year is that this event was a collision of neutron stars now named GW170817 and that they were located visually within half a day of the gravity waves’ time of arrival. They were discovered by triangulating the three gravity wave observatories to a small portion of the sky, but that area was still loaded with billions of stars. A desperate search of that patch of sky with large telescopes found the kilonova before the light signal faded away and then published the exact location so astronomers all over the world could each do their own research. What was demonstrated by their study was that the heavier elements, most of those beyond iron, were created by the collision of neutron stars. See, nytimes text and video. Aug 17, 2017.

The complete up-to-present list of – Probaway Person of the Year:

• 2018 – Astronomers for discovering the signatures of the heavy elements like gold in the collision of neutron stars.
• 2017 – Albert Einstein for predicting black holes, their collisions creating gravity waves, and the laser for observing the gravity waves.
• 2016 – Xi Jinping for taking China from a backward economy to the most powerful one on Earth.
• 2015 – Peter Higgs and Alan Guth created theories that led to proofs this year of mass and gravity sources.
• 2014 – Jennifer Doudna created a method for insertion of designed DNA precisely into existing DNA.
• 2013 – Plague Inc. is a computer game that explores the problems of creating a disease that will kill every last human being on Earth.
• 2012 – Zebrafish research-technique advances made it possible to observe drug interactions within living animals.
• 2011 – Craig Venter laid the groundwork for creating entirely new forms of life (greater than species) out of computer-generated DNA sequences.
• 2010 – Nadya Suleman (Octomom) and the society that created this travesty of good sense will be remembered into the distant future by many hungry people.
• 2009 – Jimmy Wales for Wikipedia, which will be still be used after our current computer operating systems are surpassed and forgotten.
• 2008 – Cesar Millan (the dog whisperer) because he shows people how to relate to dogs and people much better than anyone else. His videos and techniques will be remembered and used as long as there are people and dogs.

These may seem like strange choices but they are people involved in potentially long-term-memorable events which had a major tipping point the year before their selection.

The moment the discovery of the collision of two neutron stars by the LIGO instruments, while similar to last year’s pick, is of Universal importance. It begins a whole new era of astronomy, but the LIGO instruments were also involved in the reason why Albert Einstein was chosen last year. After the neutron star collision was detected by LIGO the web network permitted many of the major visual telescopes of the world to locate and then observe the results of the collision. This is of great importance because they were able to see the Fraunhofer lines and thus to discover the source of the heavy elements on the Periodic Table of Elements.

The energy needed to create some elements is greater than is produced by a supernova, where many of the lighter elements are created. Nearly all the elements necessary for life are the lighter ones, but there may be some traces of the heavy ones that are needed. Trace elements in the human body include boron, chromium, cobalt, copper, fluorine, iodine, iron, manganese, molybdenum, selenium, silicon, tin, vanadium, and zinc but there may be more.

Carbon-based life may not use these heavier elements but the computer-based life now being brought into existence by human beings and their huge factories does use them. It may be possible for us to create chips that are able to evolve into self-replicating beings. These transcarbon beings would look at the neutron stars’ collision as the beginning of their physical existence when combined with human beings’ God-like help. Human beings can live for a century but transcarbon ones might have infinite lifespans.

The discovery of the creation of the heavy elements is a major event to every sentient being in the Universe.

Probaway Person of the Year – a runner up again.

Tags

David Deamer, Probaway Person of the Year, Probaway Person of the Year 2018

David Deamer, author of First Life, did something again that may be remembered in five hundred years. I choose my Probaway Person on the Year by projecting into the future and making the rather speculative assessment of what those people would consider the most memorable thing that happened in the previous year. Armstrong landing on the Moon will certainly be remembered in five hundred years, but it is unlikely that President Kennedy will be remembered.

David Deamer has made attempts to create living things out of natural organic materials, and if he had succeeded he would have made the Probaway Person of the Year. He did succeed in layering surfaces with organic molecules between the layers at a volcanic spring, and those molecules did have some prebiotic qualities. It is probable that life originated in some similar situation, but Deamer didn’t bring it off. Of course, the life processes had a whole Earth to experiment with and perhaps a billion years to play with the various materials, and perhaps it only took a single event to get the positive feedback we call evolution to get going. The challenge to make the list is seven billion to one, the single person challenging the whole population of planet Earth.

Deamer nearly made it again with his invention of a method for sequencing DNA in a device that ultimately can be attached to an iPhone. When that happens everyone will be able to do DNA testing on almost anything, and five hundred years from now it will possibly be a common practice. It is hard to know.

Check back the first week of January 2018 to see what event was so important that it will be remembered in five hundred years by sentient beings.

Time to start searching for the Probaway Person of the Year

Tags

Probaway Person of the Year 2018, The creation of heavy elements

This blog began on January 2nd, 2008, with Probaway Person of the Year, and I have repeated that search every year since. It was prompted by the TIME Person of the Year being persons who were not going to be remembered for very long. Thus my search strategy was to place myself five hundred years into the future and ask, “Who did something in that year that is still remembered?” Neil Armstrong, who first set foot on the Moon, will be remembered but John F. Kennedy, who set the whole effort into motion, won’t be remembered.

The complete up-to-present list of – Probaway Person of the Year:

• 2017 – Albert Einstein for predicting black holes, their collisions creating gravity waves, and the laser for observing the gravity waves.
• 2016 – Xi Jinping for taking China from a backward economy to the most powerful one on Earth.
• 2015 – Peter Higgs and Alan Guth created theories that led to proofs this year of mass and gravity sources.
• 2014 – Jennifer Doudna created a method for insertion of designed DNA precisely into existing DNA.
• 2013 – Plague Inc. is a computer game that explores the problems of creating a disease that will kill every last human being on Earth.
• 2012 – Zebrafish research-technique advances made it possible to observe drug interactions within living animals.
• 2011 – Craig Venter laid the groundwork for creating entirely new forms of life (greater than species) out of computer-generated DNA sequences.
• 2010 – Nadya Suleman (Octomom) and the society that created this travesty of good sense will be remembered into the distant future by many hungry people.
• 2009 – Jimmy Wales for Wikipedia, which will be still be used after our current computer operating systems are surpassed and forgotten.
• 2008 – Cesar Millan (the dog whisperer) because he shows people how to relate to dogs and people much better than anyone else. His videos and techniques will be remembered and used as long as there are people and dogs.

These may seem like strange choices but they are people involved in potentially long-term-memorable events which had a major tipping point the year before their selection.

At the moment the discovery of the collision of two neutron stars by the LIGO instruments, while similar to last year’s pick, is of Universal importance. It begins a whole new era of astronomy, but the LIGO instrument was also involved in the reason why last year Albert Einstein was chosen. After the neutron star collision was detected by LIGO the web network permitted many of the major visual telescopes of the world to observe the results of the collision. This is of great importance because they were able to see the Fraunhofer lines and thus to discover the source of the heavy elements on the Periodic Table of Elements. The energy needed to create some elements is greater than is produced by a supernova. Nearly all the elements necessary for life are the lighter ones, but there may be some of the heavy ones that are needed. Trace elements in the human body include boron, chromium, cobalt, copper, fluorine, iodine, iron, manganese, molybdenum, selenium, silicon, tin, vanadium, and zinc. I don’t know at this time if any of these elements need a neutron star collision for their formation, but some are candidates.

The discovery of the creation of the heavy elements of the Universe is a major event.

Probaway Person of the Year, Albert Einstein

Tags

Albert Einstein, Gravity waves, High frequency lasers, LIGO, Probaway Person of the Year

The Probaway Person of the Year is Albert Einstein who one hundred years ago predicted black holes, the collision of black holes and those collisions forming gravity waves in the time-space continuum and he laid the groundwork for lasers which were used for detecting the gravity waves last year. He died in sixty-two years ago but the search for gravity waves was conducted because of his prediction based on his General Theory of Relativity.

Albert Einstein when a child

Albert Einstein when a student about age 19.

Albert Einstein January 1903 a year before publishing the four miracle papers.

The LIGO (Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory) instruments using advanced laser measuring tools detected the gravity waves created by the collision of two 30 solar mass black hole objects. Einstein predicted and did the math for 1. Black holes, 2. Black hole collisions, 3. Gravity waves, and 4. Lasers.

Predicted in 1916 by Albert Einstein on the basis of his theory of general relativity, gravitational waves transport energy as gravitational radiation, a form of radiant energy similar to electromagnetic radiation.

On 11 February 2016, the LIGO collaboration announced the first observation of gravitational waves; because these waves were generated from a black hole merger it was the first ever direct detection of a binary black hole merger. 

Note that Einstein did all of those things essential to the discovery of gravitational waves one hundred years ago in 1916, but it took that many years to develop the technology necessary to prove his gravity wave theory. We must thank the thousands of people who worked on the LIGO project, and the millions of people that were responsible for creating the background technology that was necessary for these scientists to do their work, and the billions of people who through their purchasing of modern products supplied the money and the inputs to do those extraordinary things. This is ongoing research that is providing a new form of a telescope to observe the workings of our universe. Strange things are being discovered that are putting us into our place and time in the Universe. Albert Einstein – A Genius Amongst Men is a documentary video of Einstein’s life.

---

The complete up-to-present list of – Probaway Person of the Year:

• 2017 – Albert Einstein for predicting black holes, their collisions creating gravity waves, and the laser for observing the gravity waves.
• 2016 – Xi Jinping for taking China from a backward economy to the most powerful one on Earth.
• 2015 – Peter Higgs and Alan Guth created theories that lead to proofs this year of mass and gravity sources.
• 2014 – Jennifer Doudna created a method for insertion of designed DNA precisely into existing DNA.
• 2013 – Plague Inc. is a computer game that explores the problems of creating a disease that will kill every last human being on Earth.
• 2012 – Zebrafish research-technique advances made it possible to observe drug interactions within living animals.
• 2011 – Craig Venter laid the groundwork for creating entirely new forms of life (greater than species) out of computer-generated DNA sequences.
• 2010 – Nadya Suleman (Octomom) and the society that created this travesty of good sense will be remembered into the distant future by many hungry people.
• 2009 – Jimmy Wales for Wikipedia, which will be still be used after our current computer operating systems are surpassed and forgotten.
• 2008 – Cesar Millan (the dog whisperer) because he shows people how to relate to dogs and people much better than anyone else. His videos and techniques will be remembered and used as long as there are people and dogs.

These may seem like strange choices but they are potentially long-term-memorable events which had a major tipping point the year before their selection.

A possible Probaway Person of the Year, Albert Einstein

Tags

Albert Einstein, Black holes demonstrated, Black holes merge, Gravity waves discovered, Gravity waves predicted, Lasers, LIGO, Photo of young Albert Einstein, Probaway Person of the Year

The Probaway Person of the Year won’t be decided for another three weeks until the year is over. On January 1, 2017, the person will be chosen, but Albert Einstein is a top candidate even though he died 18 April 1955 (aged 76) in Princeton, New Jersey, USA.

Albert Einstein age 19

The LIGO instruments using advanced laser measuring tools detected the gravity waves created by the collision of two 30 solar mass black hole objects. Einstein predicted and did the math for 1. Gravity waves, 2. Lasers, 3. Black holes, and 4. Black hole collisions.

Predicted in 1916 by Albert Einstein on the basis of his theory of general relativity, gravitational waves transport energy as gravitational radiation, a form of radiant energy similar to electromagnetic radiation.

On 11 February 2016, the LIGO collaboration announced the first observation of gravitational waves; because these waves were generated from a black hole merger it was the first ever direct detection of a binary black hole merger. 

Note that Einstein did all of those things essential to the discovery of gravitational waves one hundred years ago in 1916, but it took that many years to develop the technology necessary to prove his gravity wave theory. We must thank the thousands of people who worked on the LIGO project, and the millions of people that were responsible for creating the background technology that was necessary for these scientists to do their work, and the billions of people who through their purchasing of modern products supplied the money and the inputs to do those extraordinary things. This is ongoing research that is providing a new form of telescope to observe the workings of our universe. Strange things are being discovered that are putting us into our place and time in the Universe.

---

I was discussing my next Probaway Person of the Year this morning with “Nicolai Tesla” and we were comparing the creation of the Oculus Rift with the LIGO project as being remembered in 500 years. The Rift might be a major turning point in human perception of reality, perhaps even more profound than the computer, or the web, because it gets into a person’s physical reality at a deeper level. The LIGO discovery of gravity waves, by comparison, has a fundamental impact on how humans perceive their relationship with the Universe. It is an opening door that may have the impact of the optical telescope for expanding our understanding. Both are important!

A possible Probaway Person of the Year, Palmer Luckey

Tags

Palmer Luckey, person of the year, Probaway Person of the Year, Probaway Person of the Year 2017, Virtual Reality, VR

The Probaway Person of the Year won’t be decided for another month, until January 2017, but Palmer Luckey has done more than any other person to bring Virtual Reality into a functioning computer-mediated reality available to the public.

Palmer Luckey, the creator of workable Virtual Reality, Oculus Rift, speaking at D.I.C.E. 2014 Summit

There have been a few quick attempts to get VR out to the public before Luckey, by other giants of the media and computer world, but Luckey forced them to do it. The Oculus Rift VR reality system is probably going to be a grand opening for the entertainment media because it has enough quality to be satisfying. The lesser attempts are only introductory and stop-gap devices put out by others who are finally seeing the light of its possibilities. These early attempts are failures and soon to be forgotten because they do not have the presence to feel real, and often leave viewers feeling sick. Luckey’s machines pass that threshold of acceptability, at least for playing properly designed games, and the greater powers needed for fully functioning human reality are being explored. It will take vast amounts of money to explore the possibilities of VR, but Luckey has provided the impetus to invest the money, and the money is now flowing.

The Probaway method for searching for the Person of the Year is to look back from a postulated five-hundred years in the future and pick the event that will still be remembered at that distant time. A good example of how that strategy is used is to compare President John F. Kennedy proposing to send a man to the Moon in the early 60s, which will be forgotten after 500 years, with Neil Armstrong’s actually putting his foot on the Moon, which will be remembered, if of course there are sentient beings to do the remembering. The only other contender for that permanent fame would be Buzz Aldrin because he spoke the very first words spoken on the Moon. He said, “Contact light,” when the lander’s sensors detected the landing gear touched down. Of course the prepared words, “One small step for a man, one giant step for mankind,” will be remembered, even though they were said hours later when Armstrong stepped off the spacecraft ladder onto the surface of the Moon.

Virtual Reality is an entirely new medium. In about five years, plus or minus four, it will have enough computer power to create presence enough to really feel that you are talking with someone who is actually there. At first VR is going to be limited to games, but the VR games will feel completely different from other computer games because they will have more of the emotional feeling of immediacy, of being immersed in reality with computer-generated beings. A well executed VR game will be scaled to fit your body and thus will give you the sense of presence of actually being in the scene. It will probably be soon followed by the military using the technology to train soldiers for combat, and perhaps to engage in actual combat. It will be helpful for scientists to clarify what they are thinking about if they have more real models to work with. Education will be helped because the students will be able to engage more fundamentally in the realities of what they are exploring. Movies designed for VR will become more real, because of the personal presence felt, and there will be times when the VR will permit you to engage in the action of the movie, and affect the outcome, and thus to create even more presence for the viewer and virtual participants. These other virtual participants may be human, or not, and be alive and playing in some distant land.

Other people, I am considering for 500-year fame, would obviously include Donald Trump. At the moment Trump hasn’t done anything unusual other than being elected President of the United States, and someone was bound to be elected, so being elected isn’t unusual, it’s even a foregone conclusion. There is the chance that he will do something next year that will make him famous, or infamous, but not yet. Last year I chose Xi Jinping because he had conducted China from being a third-world country into being the greatest economic powerhouse on Earth. Perhaps Trump will do the same. He claims he will make America great again, but much of his personal track record for his companies is exactly the opposite. We will see, but:

It is rare to get onto the Probaway Person of the Year list and common to fail in attempting great enterprises. 

Probaway Person of the Year Xi Jinping

Tags

Probaway Person of the Year 2016, Remembered in 500 years, Xi Jinping

The proof that Xi Jinping, the President of China, is being successful is that China poured more concrete in the two years between 2011 and 2013 than the U.S. poured in the entire 20th century. This progress created more atmospheric pollution than any other country, but China is now leading the world in the Paris Green anti-pollution revolution. Xi has guided the world’s most populous backward country into being what will be seen in 500 years as the most successfully progressive country ever, and in doing so he will be remembered as the founder of a dynasty. Some of his quotations, “There are some bored foreigners, with full stomachs, who have nothing better to do than point fingers at us. First, China doesn’t export revolution; second, China doesn’t export hunger and poverty; third, China doesn’t come and cause you headaches. What more is there to be said?” “Our people […] expect better education, more stable jobs, better income, more reliable social security, medical care of a higher standard, more comfortable living conditions, and a more beautiful environment.” Xi also vowed to tackle corruption at the highest levels, alluding that it would threaten the Party’s survival.

Xi Jinping, the President of the People’s Republic of China

---

The complete up-to-present list of – Probaway Person of the Year:

• 2017 – Albert Einstein for predicting black holes, their collisions creating gravity waves, and the laser for observing the gravity waves.
• 2016 – Xi Jinping for taking China from a backward economy to the most powerful one on Earth.
• 2015 – Peter Higgs and Alan Guth created theories that lead to proofs this year of mass and gravity sources.
• 2014 – Jennifer Doudna created a method for insertion of designed DNA precisely into existing DNA.
• 2013 – Plague Inc. is a computer game that explores the problems of creating a disease that will kill every last human being on Earth.
• 2012 – Zebrafish research-technique advances made it possible to observe drug interactions within living animals.
• 2011 – Craig Venter laid the groundwork for creating entirely new forms of life (greater than species) out of computer-generated DNA sequences.
• 2010 – Nadya Suleman (Octomom) and the society that created this travesty of good sense will be remembered into the distant future by many hungry people.
• 2009 – Jimmy Wales for Wikipedia, which will be still be used after our current computer operating systems are surpassed and forgotten.
• 2008 – Cesar Millan (the dog whisperer) because he shows people how to relate to dogs and people much better than anyone else. His videos and techniques will be remembered and used as long as there are people and dogs.

These may seem like strange choices but they are potentially long-term-memorable events which had a major tipping point the year before their selection.

Probaway – Person of the year 2015 – Peter Higgs and Alan Guth

Tags

Alan Guth, Permanently memorable people, Peter Higgs, Probaway Person of the Year 2015

The points of the theories of Peter Higgs and Alan Guth are many orders of magnitude different in size and yet they are as nearly identical as it is possible to be. The physical proof of Guth’s theory, of how our Universe came to be as it is, was slow in coming but it finally did arrive this year. His original theoretical observations were published back in 1980. They concerned the expansion of our universe, the biggest observable thing there is, during the first second of its existence. In contrast Higgs’ theory refers to the tiniest of things, the eponymous Higgs boson, just observed last year in tiny explosions at the ATLAS high energy hadron particle collider. His theory was published in the 1960s. Both of these men’s work is inextricably pulled together both theoretically and in physical reality by gravity, and what gravity has pulled together I will leave together for the Probaway Person of the Year 2015.

Alan Guth, creator of the theory of the first few seconds of the Universe including gravity. – Picture derived from Steve Pyke, Esquire magazine 17March2014

Peter Higgs created the theory of the Higgs boson. It was just proven to exist this year in subatomic particles. It is the source of mass, that is gravity. – Picture derived from theguardian.com 6Dec13

What they each discovered could be found anywhere in the Universe, by any technologically sophisticated civilization, because it is so fundamental to our existence. But, on our Earth it was Higgs and Guth that discovered these fundamental things for us.

The complete up-to-present list of – Probaway Person of the Year:

• 2017 – Albert Einstein for predicting black holes, their collisions creating gravity waves, and the laser for observing the gravity waves.
• 2016 – Xi Jinping for taking China from a backward economy to the most powerful one on Earth.
• 2015 – Peter Higgs and Alan Guth created theories that lead to proofs this year of mass and gravity sources.
• 2014 – Jennifer Doudna created a method for insertion of designed DNA precisely into existing DNA.
• 2013 – Plague Inc. is a computer game that explores the problems of creating a disease that will kill every last human being on Earth.
• 2012 – Zebrafish research-technique advances made it possible to observe drug interactions within living animals.
• 2011 – Craig Venter laid the groundwork for creating entirely new forms of life (greater than species) out of computer-generated DNA sequences.
• 2010 – Nadya Suleman (Octomom) and the society that created this travesty of good sense will be remembered into the distant future by many hungry people.
• 2009 – Jimmy Wales for Wikipedia, which will be still be used after our current computer operating systems are surpassed and forgotten.
• 2008 – Cesar Millan (the dog whisperer) because he shows people how to relate to dogs and people much better than anyone else. His videos and techniques will be remembered and used as long as there are people and dogs.

These may seem like strange choices but they are potentially long-term-memorable events which had a major tipping point the year before their selection.