If you could meet any five people, who would you meet?

[monstah]

Just now, Just Jim said:

1) Steven King

2) Clive Barker

4) John Carpenter

BTW, Harv is Brazilian, so I guess the planet being called "Duna" isn't a coincidence.

I'll just shut up and follow the thread from now on.

[DarkOwl57]

Just now, monstah said:

I'll just shut up and follow the thread from now on.

HAHAHAHAAHAHAHAAHAHA Thank you for making my (Somewhat dull, annoying and partially terrifying) day

[XB-70A]

- Harrison "Stormy" Storms : chief designer of my unique love, the B-70 Valkyrie. He, alas, was on the list of the huge amount of peoples fired after the Apollo 1 disaster.

- Robert Oppenheimer.

- Andrei Tupolev.

- Hans-Ulrich Rudel.

- Mikhail Yangel : as the famous aphorism said Korolev works for the news agency Tass, Chelomei works on crap, Yangel works for us.

[razark]

Right now:

1. Whoever wrote the Paperwork Reduction Act.

2. Whatever lawyer wrote the current Agency interpretation of the damn thing.

3. A dark alleyway.

...

That's all I can think of right now.

[adsii1970]

That is an interesting question. But here's my problem, most of the people I would want to meet have already died... But here's that list anyway and I will even share why I would want to meet them...

1. Admiral of the Fleet Chester W. Nimitz: Perhaps one of the greatest naval strategist minds in the world.
2. Lieutenant General George S. Patton: An under-recognized army (tank) strategist. Many considered his only real rival in strategy to be Rommel, was considered the foremost tank strategist of WWII.
3. Carl Sagan: As a child, he was someone I loved watching on the television. He could take a complex topic and break it down to where an idiot like me could understand it.
4. Neal Armstrong: This should be a no-brainer... Really, it should be...
5. Maxime Faget: An unsung hero of the American space program. As an engineer, he designed the Mercury space craft, contributed to the Gemini project, and was instrumental in the redesign of the Apollo capsule after the fire aboard Apollo I. He had several projects that also contributed to the Space Shuttle Program.

Now if I had to choose living people, here would be the list I'd choose:

1. Colonel Buzz Aldrin: I met him once before as a seven or eight year old boy and only briefly. I would like the chance to meet him again, but this time as a mature adult.
2. Captain John Young: Commander of STS 1. So many questions that I'd need a week just to write them all down.
3. @Just Jim: Over our time on the forum, he's become a good friend to someone that does not make friends easy. If I make it down to his neck of the woods, we're going to Logan's Steak House...
4. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice: As someone that studies foreign policy and statecraft for a living, she is probably one of the most brilliant minds to ever work in the U.S. Department of State. She's rivaled only to:
5. Secretary of State Henry Kissinger: Probably still the most influential voice in American international affairs since Benjamin Franklin. A true diplomat, he has always stood for what would be the best for the nation, even if it meant he would be unpopular with the executive branch. A truly brilliant mind. 

Edited April 6, 2017 by adsii1970

[NSEP]

@tater, I actually have a higher chance of meeting a German WW2 veteran because i live in Western Europe. I would actually like to see how the war was seen through different perspectives from different factions. That would be interesting. And i also know a Jewish Survivor of WW2 sadly she was just born when the war started, so not much memory there. And i also have a grandmother who lived during the time WW2 happend at an aware age, yet she lived in a place were there was no noticable effect of the war, or at least no actual warfare that i now of. I would also like to know how litterly anyone, space enthousiast or not, reacted to the Moon Landings. That would be amazing. But then we also have the German bunkers, that i live near. And there are a tonload of those. Those tell a story too! I even saw a bunker with actual gunshots through them!

[Ultimate Steve]

Wow, I didn't expect such a response! I think this is the fastest growing thread I've ever made!

OP is being edited. Additions:

1. Assume you can speak any language.

2. You can have them be living or dead, or make separate lists for each.

[Spacetraindriver]

(not in any specific order)

1. Any lunar astronaut

2. Captain Edward J. Smith (Titanic and Olympic)

3. "Casey Jones" ("The Brave Enginner")

4. Robert Stephson (Stephson's Rocket [locomotive] and others)

5. Reverend W. Awdry (The Railway Series, Thomas The Tank Engine)

Edited April 7, 2017 by Spacetraindriver
Just remmbered what I forgot. :p

[Cydonian Monk]

Hmm. Difficult question. Why are we meeting? To shake hands? To chit-chat over drinks? To plan the invasion of Mars? To discuss the inevitable and continuing decline of the Roman Empire?

The thing is: most famous folk are rather dull in ordinary conversation. Not because they're neccesarilly boring people, but because they've been small talked to death. If we're just meeting to shake hands, then five random farmers from Iowa are just as good as five world leaders - skin is skin.

If we're meeting to get into a conversation about a topic of interest to them (any topic), then maybe. Doesn't even need to be the topic they're most known for - some of my favorite conversations with the famous and semi-famous have been about football and types of trees in Central Appalachia. 

So with all that in mind: who among the living would I like to meet (who I haven't already met)?

1. Barrack Obama, because he seems to know his stuff when it comes to college basketball. 
2. I'll also say Condoleezza Rice, more to trade notes on college football than anything else.
3. Aluru Seelin Kiran Kumar, because we never hear anything about the ISRO folk and dude's gotta have some interesting hobbies. 
4. The person(s) who made the jewelers screwdrivers or the small Channellocks I've been using for the last three decades and my grandfather was using for a couple before that. (Ok, I admit they might not still be alive.)
5. Sir Anthony Hopkins, just because. 

[adsii1970]

23 minutes ago, Cydonian Monk said:

1. I'll also say Condoleezza Rice, more to trade notes on college football than anything else.

[edited by adsii1970 for relevant content to my below comments]

Don't forget she also knows a lot about the NFL. The woman knows her football!

[razark]

Well, now that we can include the dead...

1. Hannibal Barca
2. Jesus
3. Alfred the Great
4. Thomas Jefferson
5. Terry Pratchett

 

[cubinator]

Neil DeGrasse Tyson

Johan Sebastian Bach

Albert Einstein

William Herschel (to talk about astronomy and to warn him about the millions of horrible jokes he can prevent)

Any ISS astronaut

[Foxster]

52 minutes ago, razark said:

Well, now that we can include the dead...

1. Hannibal Barca
2. Jesus
3. Alfred the Great
4. Thomas Jefferson
5. Terry Pratchett

Oooh, I met one of them a few years ago.

There's actually a few people I wish I had not met...Larry Ellison being near the top of the list. A genuine living member of the snake-people overlords if I ever met one. 

But, now, who would I like meet. Umm...

1. The abbot of Abbey of Notre-Dame de Saint-Rémy in Belgium. This is the man responsible (amongst other worthy things) for the production of Rochefort 10. 

2. The man who dropped the bundle of £50 notes I found in the lift at Bank tube station in London in 2008. I'd like to meet someone who carries around five grand and when they lose it doesn't think its worth the bother of reporting the loss to the police. By the way, if you are reading this, thanks!

3. Brad Richards, Design Director, Harley-Davidson. Brad, my man, call me. I have some really good ideas. Like you hiring someone who understands that some people are insane enough to want to ride a Harley in the rain, yet not have large strips of paint fall off their new £20,000 motorcycle.    

4. Thomas Midgley Jr. just because he was a man with such big dreams and yet who failed so miserably. I'd say to him "Dude, what the hell?".

5. That guy (let's call him Ugg) who accidentally dropped an oozing lump of flesh in a forest fire about 2 million years ago and invented fried steak. I'd also like to think there were some wild onions caught up in the conflagration, leading to a light bulb moment when some stuck to the dropped steak.

 

[KSK]

17 hours ago, Brent Kerman said:

1. Elon Musk

2. Scott Manley

3. Felipe Falanghe

4. Any Moon Astronaut

5. @Kuzzter , @Just Jim , or @KSK

Wow - I'm flattered! Buffalo is a fair old way from Edinburgh sadly, otherwise we could make this happen.

[Tex]

It's a tough list to cobble together. My top five-ish:

1. Nikola Tesla
2. Carl Sagan
3. Neil deGrasse Tyson
4. Mike Finnegan/David Freiburger
5. Gene Cernan

Bonus fictional character: Cave Johnson.

 

[WinkAllKerb'']

kim peek

johnny deep

an random elder from ww ii

a random kid from ww 2+n+somewhere

a shaolin monk that never left the mountain temple

bonus: musk, but well kinda like kim peek anyway ^^
 

[Bill Phil]

Let's see...

1.) Werner von Braun

2.) Hugo Eckener

3.) Theodore Roosevelt

 4.) John Young

 5.) Beethoven 

[benzman]

Juan Manuel Fangio, the greatest racing driver of them all.  Fangio only spoke Spanish, which could be a problem, but hey!  What is a Bablefish for?

Abraham Lincoln.  I would ask him what plans he had for post-civil war America and where he hoped America would go in the future.

The Roman Emperor Constantine.  I would ask him what caused him to make Christianity the official religion of the Roman Empire.

Neil Armstrong.  I would get him to talk about his flying career BEFORE Apollo 11, especially about flying the X-15.

Nicolaus Copernicus. I would tell him that his theory was was mainly correct, except that the planets orbits were not perfect circles but slightly elliptical, and that he did the right thing by delaying publication until he was on his deathbed, thereby avoiding the inevitable heresy trials.

By the way, in 2004 I very briefly met and shook hands with Buzz Aldrin,  I regard it as one of the high points of my life.

 

[klesh]

I went for dead people:

 

1. Napoleon

2. Frank Zappa

3. Jimi Hendrix

4. Roland Kirk

5. John Coltrane

[Ultimate Steve]

17 hours ago, Zoemacrossan said:

Farmer

Pilot

Writer

Song Composer

Actor

Well, if you go by very general definitions...

 

I grew a Venus flytrap once.

I got to take over control of an airplane for about five minutes.

I have written a couple hundred thousand words of story in my time on this Earth.

I have written several songs and recorded an extremely rough version of one. More to follow.

I went to the state competition for Improvisational acting.

 

Nice to meet you, @Zoemacrossan and welcome to the forums!

[Just Jim]

I already posted my picks, but I'm ashamed to admit I forgot one, so I have to add, or edit one more onto my "dead" list:

5.5) Alfred Hitchcock!!!

 

[WinkAllKerb'']

i was thinking just after posting, a few day ago, where is val ^^ in most answer insert rng, val need more love xDr

Edited April 18, 2017 by WinkAllKerb''

[Jeb1969]

1. Geddy Lee- The Man is one of the greatest vocal/synthesizer/bass virtuosos in all of rock history.

2. John F. Kennedy- Not only was he a power force behind the quest for space, but he was a champion of so many other non space but still legendary achievements: He valued civil liberties and unity as key to creating a more just and vibrant democracy. 

3. Thomas Edison- For one a native of my home state of Ohio, second I have always looked up to Inventors because the kindred spirit of Inventure, spreads like wildfire, yet does not consume victims with burns and scars, but rather powers the engine of humanity forward.

4. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.- A true sage for the sake of unifying races into believing that through unity, hope and peaceful resistance of prejudice, bigotry and bitterness could be the antidote to the poison that is Oppression

5. Neil Armstrong- Every time I look at the moon I am reminded that all it takes is a small step off a ladder to make a quantum leap and usher in the drama and vigor of discovery.   

[pxi]

These are the ones that first spring to mind:

Dead:

• Robert Anton Wilson
• Terence McKenna
• Johnn Balance
• Peter Christopherson
• Hunter S. Thompson

Living:

• Genesis P-Orridge
• Isabella Bunny Bennett
• Thighpaulsandra
• Clive Sinclair
• David Braben

[benzman]

On 5/12/2017 at 6:43 AM, pxi said:

These are the ones that first spring to mind:

Dead:

• Robert Anton Wilson
• Terence McKenna
• Johnn Balance
• Peter Christopherson
• Hunter S. Thompson

Living:

• Genesis P-Orridge
• Isabella Bunny Bennett
• Thighpaulsandra
• Clive Sinclair
• David Braben

I must be getting old, or else I have led a sheltered life.  Apart from Hunter Thompson and Clive Sinclair I had to Google all the others to find out who they were!