Paul Allen

Of all the billions of humans who have ever lived, only a very few have had a truly deep and profound effect on society, history, and progress. If things break right, Paul Allen may turn out to be one of those few.

Allen co-founded Microsoft with Bill Gates. Microsoft has played a key role in the personal computer revolution that continues to change the social world as it evolves into ever more advanced devices. Microsoft also made Paul Allen a billionaire. Allen has used that wealth to, among other things, team with Burt Rutan to produce the first privately funded manned spacecraft to actually reach space in 2004-- a huge accomplishment. Allen has also funded the Allen Telescope Array for the SETI Institute, which is searching the heavens for radio signatures of alien civilizations. Recently, Allen has also helped found Stratolaunch, a company that has a revolutionary approach to delivering payloads, eventually including humans, to Earth orbit-- an approach the company expects will lower the cost and increase the flexibility of space operations.

So, Paul Allen has already been at the heart of a transforming change involving culture and technology, as well as having a hand in a milestone in space travel. If he follows that up by helping in giving mankind reliable, relatively inexpensive access to Earth orbit and playing a role in humanity's first contact with an alien race, Allen could end up a major figure in human history.