The Most Influential Person Who Never Lived

Think about it. There are a lot of famous people who never lived. Sherlock Holmes. Tom Sawyer. Spiderman. There's a well-known person in this text, too.

The most significant person who ever lived.

Numero Uno. In all of human history.

Who is it?

When TIME magazine tackled this question, they used a computer to aggregate "millions of traces of opinions," the way Google ranks web pages. The top results were not terribly surprising:

1. Jesus.
2. Napoleon.
3. Muhammad.
4. William Shakespeare.
5. Abraham Lincoln.

Going down the list, things got a bit more controversial. For example, Ronald Reagan (32) beat out Paul the Apostle (34). And they both crushed Saint Peter (65).

Presbyterians will note that John Calvin is number 99 out of 100.

All of these folks are real people, of course. But who would be among the 100 most influential people who never lived? People who never took a breath except in the pages of fiction?

TIME produced a book about these folks as well. Some of them are better known to us than actual historical figures: Sherlock Holmes, Wonder Woman, Ebenezer Scrooge, Betty Crocker, Don Quixote, Rosie the Riveter, Captain Ahab, Mary Poppins,...