The World's Smartest Person

[Plotinus]

It's not at all clear if Sidis was in fact a super-genius, or merely a gifted child twisted by a bizarre experiment in child-raising conducted by his parents. I mean, for all his gifts, the guy accomplished virtually nothing. There's a reason nobody reads about him...he didn't do anything. Feynman cracked open quantumelectrodynamics. Hawkings changed the way we think about space-time. Gauss mapped out new fields of mathematics. Sidis? Memorized train schedules.

Quite right. He clearly didn't have any creativity. I once saw a survey of likely IQs of historical figures (obviously a pretty daft survey, since IQ isn't really a serious index anyway) and, of all people, Goethe came out on top. I think Leibniz and Aristotle came pretty close, plus Newton. All those people were not only damned clever but original and creative too (not that IQ measures that, of course).

 

[Little Raven]

I once saw a survey of likely IQs of historical figures (obviously a pretty daft survey, since IQ isn't really a serious index anyway) and, of all people, Goethe came out on top. I think Leibniz and Aristotle came pretty close, plus Newton. All those people were not only damned clever but original and creative too (not that IQ measures that, of course).

Goethe is a little out of my field, so I can't really comment on him, but Leibniz, Aristotle, and Newton can all deservedly be called geniuses. Each was capable of not only absorbing and understanding information, they could also use that knowledge base to push their fields farther, to go where nobody had gone before them. That, to me, is the true mark of genius. Sidis appears to have been a walking encyclopedia...capable of absorbing immense amounts of information and reciting it back to you, but that's all. He was an impressive fact-machine, but he never demonstrated the ability to see past what is already known and into what could be known. As betazed pointed out, the few times he tried, he appears to have been spectacularly wrong.

 

[Shadylookin]

quite simply a waste. Knowledge of the entire universe won't do you any good unless you put it to good use.

 

[newfangle]

I thought this thread was going to about the guy whose won about 350 consecutive times on Jeopardy.

Is he still winning?

 

[thestonesfan]

Last I knew.

I used to want to be on the show. Now the question is whether or not I can outlive this guy. He's unbeatable.

 

[Perfection]

I regret to inform you that this probably implies your IQ is not up to the 250-300 mark . Seriously, I can't follow it all either, but I do think that it deserves closer reading, before we can draw any conclusions.

No it doesn't, it's utter BS.

As for argueing based on IQ remember, IQ tests only test the ability to take IQ tests.

BTW, let's start bidding for when Perfection sees this thread and is surprised when it isn't about him.

I bid right now!

And I win!

The world's smartest person strikes again!

 

[Little Raven]

Cecil Adam's (AKA The Straight Dope) take on Sidis.

 

[javad]

Ken Jennings on Jeopardy! is much, much more intelligent than this kid. At least Ken is making tons of money for knowing tons of trivia tidbits. That is, of course, if Ken isn't cheating by vibrating moorse code attached to his leg. However, writing Quiz Team questions will help one pick up on various things like Ken has done. By the way, I hate how the term genius and prodigy are thrown around. People, everyone is a genius in their own right. Beethovan couldn't do Algebra, Edison couldn't speak 10 languages, Ken Jennings couldn't write a Kama Sutre. But, they are all geniuses in their own right. Maybe Ken could write a Kama Sutre, though

 

[newfangle]

Ken must have broken a million dollars so far. He's up to what? Day 30?

 

[Immortal]

I thought it was around 780,000/. Dont quote me on it though.

 

[downtown]

something like that. He's an animal. thats what a BYU education will do for ya

 

[Syterion]

Ken Jennings on Jeopardy! is much, much more intelligent than this kid. At least Ken is making tons of money for knowing tons of trivia tidbits. That is, of course, if Ken isn't cheating by vibrating moorse code attached to his leg. However, writing Quiz Team questions will help one pick up on various things like Ken has done. By the way, I hate how the term genius and prodigy are thrown around. People, everyone is a genius in their own right. Beethovan couldn't do Algebra, Edison couldn't speak 10 languages, Ken Jennings couldn't write a Kama Sutre. But, they are all geniuses in their own right. Maybe Ken could write a Kama Sutre, though

What does he do(besides win Jeopardy-maybe he could make that his profession)? Where is he from? I'm intrigued.

 

[downtown]

He's from utah...went to BYU and was on their quiz bowl team (which womped on everybody taht year)..then wrote quiz bowl questions for a living for a while I think. I dont remember what he's doing now.

 

[SeleucusNicator]

He went crazy and died homeless. They mention his obsession with bus transfers. They were his great passion in life. He wrote entire books about bus transfers.

 

[SeleucusNicator]

He's from utah...went to BYU and was on their quiz bowl team (which womped on everybody taht year)..then wrote quiz bowl questions for a living for a while I think. I dont remember what he's doing now.

They didn't play in the finals because they were held on a Sunday.

 

[Immortal]

SN: His bus transfer book was referred to by a biographer as "the most boring book ever written" lol!

 

[downtown]

They didn't play in the finals because they were held on a Sunday.

really? that would surprise me. While the school usually doesnt participate in compititions held on sundays, (you might remember the fiasco about their men's basketball team last year, which would have changed the entire bracket), they usually make exceptions for finals. I know their men's vollyball team, a national power, has won national championships on sundays. The womens basketball team also played a final four match on a sunday (they lost)

 

[Mrogreturns]

A remarkable, if ultimately rather sad person, but you have to question claims like "learning an entire language in a day". Ok maybe if you define that as learning the grammar then it might be feasable just maybe- but the claim that he could translate instantly between them? How did he acquire the necessary vocabulary to be able to do that? How did he acquire experinece in pronounciation and develop his "ear" for the language so fast? Sorry- No Sale.

 

[Perfection]

Oh just for the record Ken is up to $920,960 and is still running.

 

[HamaticBabylon]

I'm the world's smartest person and I’m beyond every one's puny mind!

What did I gain from such a bold statement?