Posted on 07/13/2004 9:23:48 PM PDT by ecurbh
Ken is not a genius. He is a walking encyclopedia, but a genius is not someone who keeps a lot of useless information in his head. Einstein once stated that it is a waste of brain power to memorize something that you can look up in a book.
But then Einstein never earned a million dollars in 30 days.
LOL! Einstein's Theory of Relativity or Ken's Theory of Relayed Trivia Buy-a-vility. YOU be the judge.
It is certainly the case that the show will sag in popularity if Ken is not given some stronger challengers. Yours is a good idea.
Another poster suggests that others have done as well as Ken. I have watched fairly regularly for years and I don't have the sense that others have done anywhere near this well. He has already matched the all time daily record twice I believe.
The daily record is $34,000 set by Jerome Vered in 1992. Jennings would have to score more than $68,000 to set the daily record.
...and you know this how? Are you a Troll, or do you just play one on TV??
Occasionally too, you'll se him go on a roll when even he is better than usual at buzzing in. He will often buzz in at these times without a clear idea of what the answer is, he just thinks up an educated guess during his 5 seconds, whic is usually correct.
It's just a case of a really smart guy who has working the buzzer down to a science - just as you'd expect a trivia-expert computer geek to do, given multiple chances.
According to a TV news report, the show is currently on hiatus. Taping is supposed to resume in September.
And even then Hawkins may not even win. The greatest strength Hawkins has is his ability to visualize concepts in a cognitive manner that most people simply cannot. When it comes to pure 'brain juice' Hawkins outpaces Jennings (and most humans) by far. However the greatest advantage Jennings has is the ability to store, and extract at will, memory facts and figures.
And that is the key that might allow Jennings to win Hawkins .....in physics!
If it came to describing the workings of singularities in a 12-dimensional framework, or to elaborate on the potential impacts of string theorem on collapsible gravity, then Hawkins has the edge (by far). However if it is saying what year Einstein came up with the theoryof relativity, or what the speed of light is, then Jennings has the advantage (of memory that can be brought up very quickly, and obviously a lightning fast hand at the buzzer .....and talking of hands Hawkins would have a very hard time buzzing due to his physical ailments).
In Jeopardy Jennings would win Hawkins since it is about what you have in your mind, if you can recall it, and how fast you can do it. Hawkins is a pure genius .....but he probably would not make it in Jeopardy ....even if they only asked physics questions.
I guess an analogy would be Jennings being a Corvette, and Hawkins the Space Shuttle. The Shuttle can go much much faster, than any Corvette ever made .....and moreover it can fly to space (something not even a dream 'Vette can do). It is basically BEYOND the 'Vette. However ....on a winding road .....the 'Vette will win everytime.
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