The Pantheon Project, created by the renowned MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Technology) Media Lab to map the world’s cultural production, has collected and analyzed data regarding the whole planet’s cultural production form 4,000 B.C. to the year 2010.
The resulting ranking indicates how popular a given personality is over more than six thousand years of history. Ayrton Senna was the best placed driver on the list – the first in motor sports among the 104 drivers listed by MIT.
The three-time F-1 world champion was also the most cited by people born after 1960 and, in the Brazilian ranking, he was the fifth most remembered name, on a list headed by soccer player Pelé. The Greek philosopher Aristotle had the biggest number of mentions worldwide, over the six-thousand-year period covered by the study.
