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MANIFOLD
Who is the best human ever to exist (revised edition)
23
Ṁ975Ṁ1.6k
Jul 1
20%
Leonardo da vinci
16%Other
7%
Peter Singer
6%
John Ronald Reuel Tolkien
4%
Martin Luther King, Jr.
4%
Hildegard of Bingen
4%
Jesus
4%
Plato (Aristocles)
3%
Alexander the Great
3%
John von Neumann
3%
Emperor Krishnadevaraya of the Vijayanagara Empire
3%
Jane Goodall
2.0%
Augustus Caesar
1.8%
Richard Feynman
1.6%
Milarepa
1.3%
Joseph Stalin
1.1%
Benjamin Franklin
1.0%
Hypatia

This market is a ranking competition in which humans are evaluated across six traits: Physical Strength, Wisdom, Creativity, Value, Intelligence, and Wealth.


Scoring System

  • I will select 12 humans with the best winning chance to rank.

  • Ranks 1 through 12 will earn 15, 12, 9, 6, 3, 0, -1, -2, -3, (-5 for #10+) points respectively.

  • An option’s overall score is the sum of the points it receives across all six trait rankings. The option with the highest score

While personal preference and subjective judgment cannot be eliminated entirely, I will make a good-faith effort to answer questions and explain how I evaluate each trait and determine relative rankings.

Inspired by: https://manifold.markets/AmmonLam/who-is-the-best-living-human-physic-tQn59pSuZt

Differences from Ammon Lam's market:
1. Six traits, to more broadly represent humankind
2. Negative points for low scoring

3. Creativity allows artists and value accounts for great leaders.
4. Wisdom is purely subjective and depends on philosophical stances and general goodwill
5. IMPORTANT: dead people can participate!
6. Ambiguous entries will NOT be disqualified.

As the market is subjective, I will not trade.
Close date: Jul 1st 2026.

If there is a tie, it will resolve to 100/tied entries for each entry.
I have added all previous winners as options.
Liquidity is low to encourage new options.

  • Update 2026-05-25 (PST) (AI summary of creator comment): The 12 options with the best winning chance will be selected based primarily on percentage traded, but the creator will use subjective judgment to prevent manipulation of this selection process.

  • Update 2026-05-25 (PST) (AI summary of creator comment): Legendary/mythological figures (e.g., characters who are probably fantasy rather than historical) are disqualified from participation.

The creator has blocked themselves from betting in this market.
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Ṁ1,000
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@100Anonymous you should probably use the at sign traders broadcast function to let people know this is going down now, ongoing

Ranking #1:
Physical strength
--------------------

Rank 1, 2,3 and: Between Alexander, Plato and King Krishadevaraya. Caesar seemed to be not particularly strong- 4th. Plato ranks 2rd because i could not find too much information beyond his basic physique and that he wrestled. Yes, he was strong but it seems that was not a prominent part of his character. Hence 1st comes King Krishadevaraya (I will call him K. Krishna from now on to save time)
3rd is Alexander the Great: good emperor but not particularly strong.
The rest are based on pictures, gender and wikipedia pages.
5th - Leonardo da vinci due to endurance while sculpting.
6th -Benjamin Franklin

7th Martin Luther King, Jr.
Tied for 8th - Tolkien and Neumann (no information, similar physique)
Remaining are 10th, 11th and 12th which all receive the same score - hence little research done.
10th - Goodall
11th - Hildegard
12th - Singer, because he is 80 AND alive.

----------
Sources
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
Bill Thayer. (1913). Life of Augustus. Suetonius • Life of the Caesars. https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Suetonius/12Caesars/Augustus*.html

Young, D. (2015). Plato said knock you out. Psychology Today. https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/how-to-think-about-exercise/201502/plato-said-knock-you-out

@100Anonymous on Leonardo, there are tales that he could bend horse shoes into pretzels or something like that, so we know he had a rep as strong.

@100Anonymous also as mentioned in a conversation below, Plato was NOT a wrestler, that was an error by me, confusing him for Socrates, likely.

@JussiVilleHeiskanen oops. Read your reference.

@100Anonymous I have to say the statue of King Krishnadevaraya looks awfully skinny

@100Anonymous the statues of Akexander portray him as very muscular by modern standards, and I doubt they were flattering him, considering they didn't hide the peculiar angle of his head quite famously producing a huge list of other statues with similar weird head pose

Selected people

1 - Leonardo da vinci
====================================

2 - Peter Singer
====================================

3 - John Ronald Reuel Tolkien

====================================

4 - Martin Luther King, Jr.

====================================

5 - Hildegard of Bingen
====================================

6 - Benjamin Franklin

====================================

7 - Plato (Aristocles)

====================================

8 - Alexander the Great

====================================

9 - John von Neumann

====================================

10 - Krishnadevaraya of the Vijayanagara Empire

====================================

11 - Jane Goodall

====================================

12 - Augustus Caesar
------------------------------------------------------

11 out of 12 selected by percentage as no manipulation found. Jesus removed and Benjamin Franklin added - personal preference.

Ok im doing it now. expect resolution within 6 hrs

What’s happening here

@Jack1 Hmm... I've been inactive until recently. I'll get around to doing this later today.

@100Anonymous any update

@Jack1 sorry man not gettingtime. I PROMISE ILL DO IT BY 15 OCTOBER

@100Anonymous looks like Augustus Ceasar just scrambles over the threshold.

Do human characters from Hindu scripture that have divine ancestry qualify or would you consider them demigods rather than human and/or metaphorical rather than actually existing? E.g. Arjuna, Vaivasvata Manu, members of the Saptarshi etc.

@TheAllMemeingEye interesting. i believe the exact character did not exist but it was more metaphorical and as such, i prefer to stick to really existing humans in this market

you forgot to add knowingant

This dude was an absolute beast. Some relevant extracts from the intro of his wiki article (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Krishnadevaraya)

Strength:

Portuguese travellers Domingo Paes and Duarte Barbosa […] described him as […] an exceptional military commander who personally led campaigns and tended to wounded soldiers […] He became the dominant ruler of the Indian peninsula by defeating the sultans of Bijapur, Golconda, the Bahmani Sultanate, and the Gajapatis of Odisha, making him one of the most powerful Hindu monarchs in Indian history.

Wealth:

he presided over the empire at its political and cultural zenith […] he ruled the largest and most powerful empire in India during his time. […] When the Mughal emperor Babur surveyed the rulers of India, he considered Krishnadevaraya the most powerful, ruling over the most extensive empire in the subcontinent […] Krishnadevaraya was conferred with several honorific titles such as […] "Lord of the Jewelled Throne of Karnataka"

Intelligence:

On many occasions, the king changed battle plans abruptly, turning a losing battle into victory. […] Portuguese travellers Domingo Paes and Duarte Barbosa […] described him as an able administrator and an exceptional military commander

Creativity:

His reign is also regarded as a golden age of Telugu literature, and he was a distinguished patron of arts and scholarship. Krishnadevaraya himself composed the Telugu poetic work Amuktamalyada, celebrated for its literary and devotional value.

Personal priors lower, but expect to be overpriced, so market dynamics reasons won't bet against

@JussiVilleHeiskanen FYI, I am a Hindu, so I would probably put him pretty low on wisdom.

@100Anonymous since you also said that you subscribe to utilitarianism, does that mean the branch of Hinduism you follow doesn't prescribe dogma for morality the way Abrahamic religions do, and instead just describes the spiritual nature of the world? Or alternatively, does the dogma just happen to align very well with utilitarianism?

My apologies for my cultural ignorance, Hinduism was never covered even a tiny bit when I was at school, so all my knowledge comes from Western pop culture, Wikipedia, and like the very first verse of the Rigveda 😅

@TheAllMemeingEye It does prescribe morality, but you can't really consider it dogma, as people rarely force you to accept that view, and usually it is considered okay to have any reasonable (i.e not like torturing the entire world) view on morality.

@Jack1 wonder how his commisions compare with Musk's DoD contracts allowing for inflation

bought Ṁ10 YES

@JussiVilleHeiskanen excellent pick. Accomplished wrestler, wealthy aristocrat, obviously a creative genius and arguably pretty wise