1. J. Oppenheimer - Atomic Bomb
A slightly controversial choice, but hear this one out. Between them, the two world wars of the 20th century killed nigh on 100 million people. Whilst the development of nuclear weapons almost definitely falls into the camp of "bad things", the threat of M.A.D (mutually assured destruction) has certainly put world powers off the idea of large-scale conflicts. Now that a fair few world powers have their hands hovering over the big red button, the importance of negotiation has become paramount, because the moment one person's finger slips, everybody's does and we all go to hell in a handbasket. Actually dropping the thing definitely removes the atomic bomb from the list of "things that have saved your life", but like the threat of no dessert unless you eat your dinner, just the idea of the catastrophic levels of destruction has made world powers behave themselves a little more. Either that, or they just pick on people that don't have nukes. That's always a safer option.
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