Posted on 10/29/2007 12:44:04 PM PDT by COUNTrecount
Britain has more living geniuses per head of population than anywhere else in the world, according to a new survey which reveals the country's influence on science, technology, business and the arts.
The top 100 living geniuses
Sir Tim Berners-Lee invented the world wide web
Almost a quarter of those featured in the list of 100 living geniuses are Britons, including Sir Tim Berners-Lee, who invented the world wide web, in joint first place, and physicist Stephen Hawking at seven in the list.
British artists and musicians feature heavily, including Brit Art leader Damien Hirst at number 15, poet Seamus Heaney at 26, playwright Harold Pinter at 31, Sir Paul McCartney at 58, David Bowie at 67, Harry Potter author JK Rowling at 83 and filmmaker Ken Russell at 100.
Sir Richard Branson, the head of Virgin Group, at 49, chimpanzee expert Jane Goodall, at 58, and psychologist Dorothy Rowe, at 72, also made the list.
With 24 Britons in the list, the country has generated one living genius per 2.5 million people – a higher proportion than any other country.
The list, compiled by a panel of six experts in creativity and innovation, is jointly topped by Sir Tim and Albert Hofmann, the Swiss scientist who created the drug LSD.
They are followed by George Soros, the American financier and philanthropist, Matt Groening, creator of The Simpsons and Nelson Mandela, the former South African president.
There are also some surprise entrants. Osama Bin Laden ranks at number 43, a spot he shares with Bill Gates, the Microsoft founder and Mohammed Ali, the former world heavyweight boxing champion.
The Americans have 43 geniuses on the list – one per 6.9 million people.
Creators Synectics, a global consultants firm, chose their geniuses by awarding scores out of 10 to each entrant against a number of factors: paradigm shifting; popular acclaim; intellectual power; achievement and cultural importance. The firm emailed 4,000 Britons this summer and asked them to nominate up to 10 living people who they considered geniuses.
They received back 1,100 nominations for individuals in all walks of life, more than 60 per cent of whom were either American or English. Only 60 per cent were still alive.
The panel was then charged with ranking the list in order of genius and to present a resulting shortlist of 100, who were then scored against the five factors.
Nigel Clarke, a managing partner of Synectics UK & Europe, said: "Many people argue that a genius can be defined by their contribution, where it turns conventional thinking on its head.
"I think that Albert Hoffman and Tim Berners-Lee have this in common with the great geniuses of the past.
''Both of them have, in their own way, turned the world that we live in upside down. And it may be that alone that accounts for their acclamation as the world's greatest living geniuses."
Creators Synectics, a global consultants firm, chose their geniuses by awarding scores out of 10 to each entrant against a number of factors: paradigm shifting; popular acclaim; intellectual power; achievement and cultural importance. The firm emailed 4,000 Britons this summer and asked them to nominate up to 10 living people who they considered geniuses.
Oh. Buzzword voodoo.
I'm ... NOT ... impressed.
Utterly worthless.
This list is stoopid! My name was supposed to be in the top ten!
And,,,”George Soros, the American financier and philanthropist?”
Gimme a break! Didn’t he almost cause The Bank of England to fail? And they vote for him?
Am I wrong about the Bank?
Nonsense, AlGore invented the worldwide web. Everybody knows that.
...
The Americans have 43 geniuses on the list – one per 6.9 million people.
Only in Britain would 24 British geniuses be a larger number than 43 American geniuses.
And why were Albert Einstein and the Wright Bros. left off the list?
Dolly Parton is more of a genius than Einstein or the Wrights?
Ri-ight...
British brains are indubitably the most valuable brains on the planet.
Do you have any idea how may Brits it takes to produce a pound of brains?
Dr. Frank N. Stein
He’s right you know.
Eye-gore
Here is their "genius" survey results.
Their site is so chocked full of new age pablem it would be a great site to spoof but after looking at it and this "genius" list I wonder if someone is not pulling our legs.
Einstein and the Wright brothers have died a long time ago. This list lists living ‘geniuses’.
A man who's rudimentary cartoons had "that look" because he admittedly couldn't even draw a decent Charlie Brown???
If they are all genuines, what are their measured IQs?
There are people who have an awareness about themselves and some things (like Robert Crumb) who would shrink from any suggestion that they are GENIUSES.
Then there are businessmen like Bill Gates who have ZERO forsight in the industry, let alone technical knowledge. He isn’t a scientist.
Bin Laden?
Soros?
And Brian Wilson, a man who’s mind had already collapsed in a nervous breakdown before long periods of LSD and cocaine use followed by harmful “counselling” that has taken him years to recover from. I’m all for the guy moving on with his life but it is shocking to hear him called a genuis, especially in his present condition. What are idiot savants?
Mohammed Ali? A boxer who’s damaged his head with physical confrontations for sport?
Note that Les Paul ISN’T in the list as an inventor or musician.
Aw come on people, The American education system teaches it’s students thing also.
Like the correct way to put on a condom, how to be nice to homos and dykes, how to put their trust in teachers so that they are easy prey to be molested and they call them liers whenever they tell while the teacher goes free or is transfered to another district to search for new victums
I have to give Bowie more credence than some might. Forget what he has accomplished on his own, he has always been aware of things going on around him. He’s a chameleon who absorbs from others.
The Stardust in Ziggy Stardust came from the Legendary Stardust Cowboy of Lubbock Texas (who’s only chart success was a then contemporary but atypical radio hit called Paralyzed).
Bowie had also acquired an accetate of the Velvet Undergound’s album before it was released; he’d taken to covering one of the songs live before it even came out.
He mixed the third Stooges album and later revived Iggy Pop’s career in the 1970s at a point when he might’ve been written off completely.
He discovered Devo at the Ann Arbor Film Fest (they became a band to score their own film projects) and got them connected to Hollywood.
He had Stevie Ray Vaughan play session guitar on the Let’s Dance album before Stevie had secured a solo record deal.
Equal to the some of their parts? No but he does seem to pick up on some things and has a good success rate.
I have to give Bowie more credence than some might. Forget what he has accomplished on his own, he has always been aware of things going on around him. He’s a chameleon who absorbs from others.
The Stardust in Ziggy Stardust came from the Legendary Stardust Cowboy of Lubbock Texas (who’s only chart success was a then contemporary but atypical radio hit called Paralyzed).
Bowie had also acquired an accetate of the Velvet Undergound’s album before it was released; he’d taken to covering one of the songs live before it even came out.
He mixed the third Stooges album and later revived Iggy Pop’s career in the 1970s at a point when he might’ve been written off completely.
He discovered Devo at the Ann Arbor Film Fest (they became a band to score their own film projects) and got them connected to Hollywood.
He had Stevie Ray Vaughan play session guitar on the Let’s Dance album before Stevie had secured a solo record deal.
Equal to the some of their parts? No but he does seem to pick up on some things and has a good success rate.
Media Schadenfreude and Media Shenanigans PING
If you don’t read the daily paper you are uninformed.
If you read the MSM you are misinformed.
Man my Bullsh*t meter just broke....
Congressman Billybob
Wait, I don’t see “the smartest woman in the world”’s name on there!
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