Posted on 01/26/2015 8:10:21 PM PST by SeekAndFind
Who was the smartest person to ever live? There are certainly many worthy contenders. Today, the very name of "Einstein" is synonymous with genius. Others may suggest Stephen Hawking. Those who appreciate literature and music may proffer William Shakespeare or Ludwig van Beethoven. Historians may recommend Benjamin Franklin.
Before I submit my own suggestion, we must first discuss what we even mean by smart. Colloquially, we routinely interchange the words smart and intelligent, but they are not necessarily the same thing. There is an ongoing debate among psychologists, neuroscientists, and artificial intelligence experts on what intelligence actually is, but for our purposes here, a simple dictionary definition will suffice: "capacity for learning, reasoning, understanding, and similar forms of mental activity; aptitude in grasping truths, relationships, facts, meanings, etc."
Implicit in this definition of intelligence is general knowledge. An intelligent person capable of understanding quantum mechanics is useless to society if he is completely ignorant. So, a truly smart person will know a lot of things, preferably about many different topics. He should be a polymath, in other words.
Finally, there is the element of creativity. Creative people think in ways in which most other people do not. Where society sees a dead end, a creative person sees an opportunity.
Which person from history was the bodily manifestation of intelligence, knowledge, and creativity? Our blog's namesake, Isaac Newton, of course!
What was Newton's IQ? It's impossible to say. IQ tests didn't exist in the 17th Century, and if they had, Mr. Newton certainly would not have deigned to spend 90 minutes filling out ovals on a multiple choice test. Besides, he likely would have finished the test early and then spent the remaining time correcting errors and devising more difficult questions.
(Excerpt) Read more at realclearscience.com ...
Moses.
I have already passed that part.
It didn’t even give him a hangover!
Because we here on Free Republic are honest above all.
I’m not sure if I’m smart, but if I’m one of the stupid, being last to know would be bliss.
Feynman for the most entertaining smart guy.
Anybody, who does physics in a strip club is my kind of man.
Rich Vos.
Rich Vos.
Rich ?
Is that you ?
You still owe me money.
I think I agree with that. Da Vinci overall, in almost every field of endeavor. And his personal accumulated notebooks that are free online are simply astounding.
Bohr, very very good. Probably yes, higher than Newton.
And I think Feynman is right up there with Bohr. If nothing else his stand on string hypothesis (I cannot call it a theory) gets him up there.
Euclid.
Absolutely.
Maxwell, Bohr because he postulated zero point energy, Bohm, and Bell, as they might be on to something. Jesus, because he is the only one on the planet to figure out how we could all get along.
And Albert Einstein.
+1
James Clerk Maxwell
Forbidden Planet is an awesome movie. Totally agree about Anne Francis.
You might try watching Forbidden Planet and the first Paranormal Activity movie back-to-back to discover an interesting parallel!
Indeed, see my post #94
Oliver Heaviside is the person who ‘cleaned up’ Maxwell’s equations and put them in their modern form.
and here I thought I’d found one you forgot...
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.