*greatest Genius Of All Time*

[G-man]

Who do you think is the greatest genius (http://www.ethologic.com/sasha/thinkers.html)of all time?


Some other names that you may feel should be on this list... such as Richard Feynman, Nichola Tesla, Thomas Edison, Srinivasa Ramanujan, William Shakespeare, Aristotle... add as a post with all other comments and other names.

Genius Ratings
Average: 85 - 115
Above average: 116 - 125
Gifted borderline genius: 126 - 135
Highly gifted : 136 -145
Genius: 146 - 165
High Genius: 166 - 180
Highest Genius: 181 - 200
Beyond being measurable Genius: Over 200


Any intelligent fool can make things bigger, more complex, and more violent. It takes a touch of genius -- and a lot of courage -- to move in the opposite direction.
-- Albert Einstein

Genius is one per cent inspiration and ninety-nine per cent perspiration.
-- Thomas Edison

Anyone can escape into sleep, we are all geniuses when we dream, the butcher's the poet's equal there.
-- E.M. Cioran

Calvin: People think it must be fun to be a super genius, but they don't realize how hard it is to put up with all the idiots in the world. Hobbes: Isn't your pants' zipper supposed to be in the front?
-- Calvin and Hobbes

[X-Factor]

actually, i think maybe Machiavelli or napoleon. despite what napoleon tried to do, he was incredibly good in the way he handled his government, and in the laws and acts he passed

[vbrio]

it's a bit difficult to determine the real genius of all time since the they are a genius in their on specialized fields

though for me Aristotle is a great genius

[ZelRiptha]

Egad!!

No Bach??

:)

While it's a shame to make it a contest, there are many great people on the list (I have always been intrigued by Ramanujan). Some that you didn't include that I find notable are Isaac Asimov (if for nothing else than his incredibly prolific and cogent writing), Ayn Rand (a somewhat maligned pioneer in modern objective philosophy), and in the musical world, Johann Sebastian Bach. I feel that the modern musical world owes a lot to JSB; music would be quite different without his influence. For instance, I believe even Jazz borrows from his ideas, 300+ years after he originated them.

One that might be somewhat outside the modern conscience but that I admire a great deal, is Charles Erskine Scott Wood. (http://bluebook.state.or.us/notable/notwood.htm). His book, Heavenly Discourse, is some of the best satire I've read. Here are some samples of his serious stuff: Anti-Imperialist Writings of C.E.S. Wood (http://www.boondocksnet.com/ai/ceswood/) and Chief Joseph of the Nez Perce (http://cdl.library.cornell.edu/cgi-bin/moa/sgml/moa-idx?notisid=ABP2287-0028-25). More links (http://www.wvu.edu/~lawfac/jelkins/lp-2001/wood.html). Anyway, his stuff in Heavenly Discourse cracks me up so bad, my sides hurt. Sometime, I'll post some excerpts. With disclaimers of course, since he tends to be blunt. :)

Neat thread idea, G. :thumbsup:

[G-man]

True Zel... I was debating adding Bach but in the end I felt with the 10 to take a diverse sample. I also intended on mentioning a few women in that list too. Actually, I originally planned on a musical genius thread and his name was certainly on that I even considered removing Beethoven in exchange for Bach weighing their level of genius... I had seven composers on that list which nearly became another thread... :laugh: All entries are truly genius I see here... and we each have those we admire and respect for various reasons. I hope to see some others come up too that weren't mentioned maybe even some Midibuddy members too! :laugh2: By the way, click the link up there for relatively extensive list...

[Pol]

i'd tend to go for someone from way back like Leonardo Da vinci

[Sk8er]

I think you lefty me out of the poll by accident ;) , i'm clearly a lot smarter than all of these old farts :)

[ZelRiptha]

Mmmhmm... except sk8er likes his reading to be "dumbed down" (http://board.midibuddy.net/showthread.php?postid=461573#post461573)... ;)

[Sk8er]

That doesn't make me stupid, it just makes me incompetant..is that a word? Gman, phone up that Michelangelo Buonarroti guy and ask him if it's a word...he sounds pretty smart.

[ZelRiptha]

I'd never call you stupid, sk8. :) I'm just teasing you about your other post. Oh, and if you'd like to ring up Buonarroti, it's 011 39 0485 513743. Careful how long you talk; international's bad enough, but the forwarding into the afterlife can be painful to the pocketbook...

;)

Edit: Whoops, you're in UK, no? That number should be 00 39 0485 513743 - right?

[Black_Kat]

Eh...where's Richard Nixon? Or Bill Clinton? Or even Chris Carter? And even at that, where's Al Gore? He invented the internet ya' know...:confused:

[G-man]

LOL! Nice play there... guys. Ummm.. err... Al Gore? :confused:

[Luiza*Cunha]

I don't see Dr. Evil there either... :confused:

[vbrio]

does bugs bunny count as a genius?????

[dmc1078]

Newton for sure. I think Calculus and Newtonian mechanics alone has had more of an impact then the work of everyone else listed here combined.

[ski_power]

Hey dude where would Newton be if Aryabhatta hadn;t invented the no. 0 (zero, z-e-r-o, zero)
Newton would be bankrupt, on the roads.
So Aryabhatta is the true Genius
Aryabhatta

[Gallokab]

Jeff Buckley

[yadrisil]

It's really hard to measure genius. IQ alone isn't enough, otherwise Goethe would win. It also depends on circumstance. Greatness requires trying times. For instance, no one would care about Jefferson if he didn't happen to live in revolutionary America. I still vote for Goethe though.

[ski_power]

Who's goethe? I mean i've never heard about him before...

[G-man]

Too true ski... many of those genius mentioned above owe their success to those pioneering before them... and equally true there needs to be a reason for inventing new technology... just think about where technology began and why... also, if it weren't for Edison we wouldn't be able to credit him with this ... http://fool.exler.ru/sm/thk.gif hmnnnn... do you suppose that's how he got the idea? http://www.websmileys.com/sm/happy/445.gif

[Raja]

I reakon it's gotta be Einstein....

I had a bird named Aristotle, and my dog's name is Albert, and the dog is way smarter than the bird ever was....

[G-man]

I've always liked Einstein one of my "hero's...
"Raja"? Hey, are you Alcozma's friend Raja? Welcome!

Another Buckley fan... yeah there's some musical genius there too. I used to front a cover band of his music... always had a similar style to his music, always would cover a tune or two of his while performing my own music and since I was always being compared to him physically... it was fun for a bit but not really my style to cover anyone. Besides, I saw a few of his shows and only one in which he actually showed up to play... (where he wasn't so inebriated he could actually stand up on his own) too bad and he put out very little material and most of that was just other covers. His father was as talented also and died very young too but put out tonnes of material.

[Raja]

:) Yeah G-Man that would be me.. thanks for the welcome..

[kim_eh]

Where is Homer Simpson? Come on people!

[Scotty 3]

What a question!

Mozart was undoubtedly the greatest genius of all time, being in possession of a remarkable gift of fluency that truly puts him in a class of his own - Einstein was a scientist, largely derivative of Newton.....

i sometimes wonder of Wolfgang was human - no mortal could be capable of his feats.

[CyberCat]

It's hard to choose just one, I think they all sort of needed each other, that is without inventions or discoveries made by one person, the others the other wouldn't have be able to invent or discovery what they did.

[Black_Kat]

Jeanie lent me a book...I've changed my mind from Hitler and Nixon and Mr. Killersnowman to Leonardo Da Vinci. ......Don't take that tone with me! I'm random like that :-p

[G-man]

Does anyone know any famous contemporary musicians who are confirmed genius? I can think of Kris Kristofferson, Alicia "Keyes", Gene Simmons, Randy Rhodes, the 2 guys from the band Air, Chet Atkins... there has to be some more? I was thinking Stewart Copeland from The Police was but didn't find out for certain...

a few actors/actresses are Sharon Stone, Steve Martin, Geena Davis, Asia Carerra, James Woods, Jodie Foster, Ellen Muth, Uma Thurman... they were all in Mensa too...

[saxmidiman]

Thomas Edison anyone. How many patents does he have.

Hard to pick anyone. How about Jesus Christ?

Have fun. Good list, but could definately be longer.

[Bladez26]

I agree that the measure of genuis is not IQ scores, is it then the application of a high score? I.E is a person a genius if he has a high score but does nothing with his intelligence?

[G-man]

Sure, why not? Who's to really judge what you did with your gift? ... that's a tough one as many folks never realised in their lifetime their impact of genius on the world... think about Va Gogh who was an intellectual as well as artistic genius never realized any success while he was alive... his IQ was 220 I do believe. Besides, like was mentioned earlier... some folks genius accomplishments stemmed only from prior genius who were... never noticed until another came along to take their theories... to a useful level long after... and very true Saxmidi. It's all meant to inspire thought and intellectual discussion and debate... it's really difficult to classify levels of genius... I read this article once that was rather interesting it grouped person's IQ's based on occupation... philosophers, writers and professors were topping the list...

[ski_power]

One more thing is that all genius(well atleast most of them) are given recognition only after their death, which is usually very bad ie they go around being very poor.

[G-man]

Exactly

... and I don't know if it's really so bad about going about being poor... having been on both sides of the issue I'm not convinced it is better or worse to be poor... depends on how you look at it...

[ski_power]

Yeah, true.

[gen79]

for me it is either beethoven or newton

[Mannydas]

None!! of them!! i think the greatest genius of all time is jimmy neutron he had a film and his own tv series!

[Mystic_Puppy]

what about God??? does he count?? cuz if he does hes got my vote. :)

[BazzerX]

Jimi Hendrix. Great stuff done without all the trickery and gadgetry we have now.

[imthenazz]

Ludwig Wittgenstein, Gottfried Leibniz, Immanuel Kant, Socrates, Plato, William Shakespeare, and Fyodor Dostoevski are some of the most brilliant minds that come to mind, and I see none of them are on the list.

[G-man]

Those are all very good... unfortunately, only so many could make the list when I began this thread so...

[* réprouvé *]

And where's kurt Cobain G-man?? Spike Milligan's missing too......

[imthenazz]

Originally posted by G-man
Those are all very good... unfortunately, only so many could make the list when I began this thread so... Yes, I understand. Da Vinci would seem to be the greatest anyway when you consider everything - his drawings, sketches for machines which were so far ahead of their time that he could almost have been transported from the future. He was the one who strikes me as having been truly out of step with his time, because he was so far ahead.

[G-man]

Originally posted by * hotchick *
And where's kurt Cobain G-man?? Spike Milligan's missing too......

There he is! :laugh2:
A fellow piscean... Kurt most likely had genius... many musicians typically have some genius in music and balance it out with having exceptional ability in mathematics.

[- Da Ville -]

check it. i don't really like 'is company and all that, but big ups gots to go to my man henry ford. wizzout 'im we wouldn't be flossin' our tight whips pickin' up honeys with big bumbalons and such. respeck.

[geffen43]

what a bout me mr Daniel Glynn im a geniouss in my own right please in sert my name up there thank you very much:borg:

[david2436]

I definitely think Thomas Edison should be on that list.

[TheFly]

Homer Simpson?? WHERE is Peter Griffin???
Lol:assskake:

[Sukai]

It's me! Lol j/k :p

[eagleeye0200]

Da Vinci knew things he didn't even know he knew. Amazing genius

[thepodman]

Alexander Shulgin.
Don't know who he is? Look him up on google or whatever.

[Black Kite]

bach, imho

[coojackson]

Da Vinci
he was 'THE' Reniassance Man
He painted, he made sculptures, he wrote philosophy.
He was an inventor, a politician, a musician.
A writer and a poet. He was the greatest genius.

[G-man]

Good choice CooJackson! Why he's in front still...

[J_iceman]

What a question!

Mozart was undoubtedly the greatest genius of all time, being in possession of a remarkable gift of fluency that truly puts him in a class of his own - Einstein was a scientist, largely derivative of Newton.....

i sometimes wonder of Wolfgang was human - no mortal could be capable of his feats. i must also have to agree, motsart already had songs in his mind, and all he had to do was write it down!!! it's just to bad he had to die early, And in other thought, biggie smalls and tupac were also in the same ballpark, also too bad they had to die.....imagine if they were still alive today!! Man life could of been GOOD!!!!

Einstien in the other hand worked so hard and figured out formulas that are STILL being used today...h was 27? when he proved newtons law wrong...the speed of light and about quantium physics, to much brains for me, now a days when some one says something stupid or trips, i say "Good one Einstien"

[J_iceman]

hey what about sherlock holms?? is he just a legend??

[Luiza*Cunha]

hey what about sherlock holms?? is he just a legend??

I'm afraid so, Ice... :)
Click ------>http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v196/luizacunha/detective_2.gif (http://www.who2.com/sherlockholmes.html)

[G-man]

heh... :exasper:

[J_iceman]

i KNEW IT!!!!!.......

[G-man]

:laugh2::laugh2::laugh2:

[ermines]

i voted for newton, cause i think he started it all....

[MDniteStryKR]

a bunch of names i've never heard of but i think they all are equal geniuses..all have major contribution to sciences and art and they even laid foundation for further discovery..the genius of all time has to be God, and Him only :-p

[xjcdentonx]

What about Pythagoras?

[Jim Colyer]

Albert Einstein

[M.O.T.E.]

it saddens me that Bugs Bunny was on the list.

[* réprouvé *]

it saddens me that Bugs Bunny was on the list.

Was he? :wow:

I liked the guy who used to chase him with the hat and the little bald head.............. :D

[Kircky]

i still think einstein is definitely the greatest genius of all time - not only was his iq so high that it couldn't even b measured at the time (which wasn't really that long ago) but he did make a lot of contributions 2 math and science --- even if he used Ptolemy's or Newton's or whoever else's work as a basis, it doesn't matter - nobody could even comprehend what he was doing at the time and most people even 2 this day can't understand what was working on...