The Geniuses Thread

[$teauA]

Driving home from work today I was listening to Allegro Con Brio from Beethoven's 5th Symphony on my iPod and I started wondering to myself how in the f*ck did that man write that while being deaf ? That's nothing short of genius, creative genius but genius nonetheless.

That got me thinking about other geniuses in history like Plato, Da Vinci, Darwin, Einstein etc... And then I realized something; all these guys lived years and years ago. Today's society does not focus such individuals. Sure you could say that Bill Gates is a genius but is he really? or is he just a very successful businessman who had a great idea and took advantage of it?

I think it's kind of sad that today there is no one man that we can look at and say "wow he is truly a genius" or "he has revolutionized the world with his ideas" etc...

It's like the world is running out of things to be discovered/calculated/represented. I don't know about everyone else but that makes me feel like I'm living in a really boring generation that is focused so much more on politics and religion instead of science.

Discuss...

PS: I felt like it was time for the Lounge to have some sort of thread that requires intellect. It gets kinda old after a while.

 

[yoyo913]

i think thom yorke is a genius, like bethoven in a musical sence

same with bill hicks as a thinker and many other great phylosophers i greatly admire

 

[bigp]

A genius sees something that other people don't see. Bill Gates is a genius. He saw a business oppurtunity that his competitor didn't see and used it to build up so much wealth.

 

[RUSI]

great thread man

great points also

 

[Run DMB]

Today's society does not focus such individuals.

Yeah, that's part of it. There could be plenty of "geniuses" out there but you'd never hear about them. Today's heroes are not the most enlightened individuals, but rather the biggest dullards and dumbells of all. Today's heroes are recording artists, movie stars and professional athletes.

I think it's kind of sad that today there is no one man that we can look at and say "wow he is truly a genius" or "he has revolutionized the world with his ideas" etc...

Well, I think you can say Bill Gates revolutionized the world with his ideas, but the question is - does that make him a genius?

Some of these geniuses of the past were underappreciated in their own time and only later received recognition and fame. Who knows, there could be someone like that today.

 

[Bilo90]

we are living in a boring generation ..

what happened to the pythagoras's, or the einstein's, or the plato's, or galileo's.. this sucks, nice points steau, it does get you a bit depressed doesn it

 

[Run DMB]

Our generation is not boring at all, it's actually the most exciting yet. Things are being invented and technologies developed at a faster rate today than at any other time in history. We're looking at a very narrow time period here. Just think how far apart some of these discoveries and inventions were.

 

[ShiftyPowers]

Bill Gates as far as I know really is a genius. His IQ is incredible.

The super geniuses today get shunned by society and live as reckluses. The Unibomber for example was a genius.

 

[Bilo90]

meh, maybe life'll get more exciting while i get older

 

[ShiftyPowers]

Today's heroes are not the most enlightened individuals, but rather the biggest dullards and dumbells of all. Today's heroes are recording artists, movie stars and professional athletes.

Back in Greece there were famous athletes and actors, in Rome famous Gladiators. Every culture with a leisure class has people like this become huge in their own time. I guarantee an actor was more famous than Sophocles in his own time, and Homer was more famous than Aristotle. As time goes on, we realize who really was great, but at the time it is tough to see.

 

[$teauA]

Some of these geniuses of the past were underappreciated in their own time and only later received recognition and fame. Who knows, there could be someone like that today.

Yeah I thought of that as well but that's not true about Plato, Galileo, Descartes or heck even Einstein. All of them were HUGE in their respective time.

I agree with you, today is very exciting but maybe too exciting. You see instead of having a few really big discoveries scientists make little discoveries here and there and call them all "amazing progress" but how many of them really affect our day to day lives?

Now if somebody comes up with a cure for HIV, cancer etc... now that would be a discovery worth mentioning and one that would affect our lives.

 

[Run DMB]

Back in Greece there were famous athletes and actors, in Rome famous Gladiators. Every culture with a leisure class has people like this become huge in their own time. I guarantee an actor was more famous than Sophocles in his own time, and Homer was more famous than Aristotle. As time goes on, we realize who really was great, but at the time it is tough to see.

Fair enough. I guess common folk have never really idolized intellectuals to begin with. I'm just really irritated (I'm sidetracking here) by today's celebrities and their staggering lack of talent in their respective fields.

 

[Bobby]

Ted Turner.

Say what you will, but he turned a hole in the wall local-Atlanta TV station into Time Warner.

 

[rhizome17]

I don't think genius really exists today. Like DMB said earlier, things happen at such a fast rate these days that the ability to create something that has widespread effects is nigh on impossible. Even with Eienstein - I am not sure the label of genius applies because without Newton he would have been floundering. And in many ways his 'discoveries' would probably have been 'discovered' eventually anyway. For me a genius has to do something utterly unique which is why I think the creative industries (art/ literature etc.) are the places where genius exists (if it actually does). Which is why I guess beethoven was the inspiration for this thread. I think Mozart was a better composer personally, but then the replies in this thread show just how subjective 'genius' actually is. I wouldn't place a businessman in the genius category at all because the ability to make money is not exactly a unique skill in capitalism. And Bill Gates - he might be intelligent, but then so is Usama Bin Laden - and neither of them would be anywhere without the people 'beneath' them doing a heck of a lot of the work. They are coordinators and facilitators rather than unique individuals.

I also think we are unlikely to see genius as we did historically because we live in a world of specialisation - the people who regularly get mentioned as geniuses (Da Vinci etc.) were interested in a wide range of things, whereas today we tend to operate in narrow confines of interest.

 

[LilPlayaJosh]

Who will be the Homer, Sophocles, Shakespeare, etc. of our time?

 

[MaSsiVe]

Malcolm Glazer.

 

[bigp]

Yeah I thought of that as well but that's not true about Plato, Galileo, Descartes or heck even Einstein. All of them were HUGE in their respective time.

I agree with you, today is very exciting but maybe too exciting. You see instead of having a few really big discoveries scientists make little discoveries here and there and call them all "amazing progress" but how many of them really affect our day to day lives?

Now if somebody comes up with a cure for HIV, cancer etc... now that would be a discovery worth mentioning and one that would affect our lives.

It's the little discoveries that lead to the big ones. I just don't think we can be able to see who is a genius right now because the effect of their work won't be seen for a long time.

But for sure there is one genius right now and it's Bill Gates.

 

[Hyun]

the term genius is such an ambiguous term (and wrongfully used most of the time). the question is so simple, but the answer you get vary from the bethoven to thom yorke .

don't be so depressed, the past is ALWAYS better when marinated. we shouldn't look for how the past was better, but how we can make today better. however, things in our generation is not helping that cause. that douschebag who runs ebaumsworld is making tons of money, and suddenly networking sites are must for even the most prestigious media.

 

[Forza_Azzurri]

The Unibomber for example was a genius.

At least we agree with this example, ShiftyPowers

 

[ShiftyPowers]

I don't think genius really exists today. Like DMB said earlier, things happen at such a fast rate these days that the ability to create something that has widespread effects is nigh on impossible. Even with Eienstein - I am not sure the label of genius applies because without Newton he would have been floundering. And in many ways his 'discoveries' would probably have been 'discovered' eventually anyway. For me a genius has to do something utterly unique which is why I think the creative industries (art/ literature etc.) are the places where genius exists (if it actually does). Which is why I guess beethoven was the inspiration for this thread. I think Mozart was a better composer personally, but then the replies in this thread show just how subjective 'genius' actually is. I wouldn't place a businessman in the genius category at all because the ability to make money is not exactly a unique skill in capitalism. And Bill Gates - he might be intelligent, but then so is Usama Bin Laden - and neither of them would be anywhere without the people 'beneath' them doing a heck of a lot of the work. They are coordinators and facilitators rather than unique individuals.

I also think we are unlikely to see genius as we did historically because we live in a world of specialisation - the people who regularly get mentioned as geniuses (Da Vinci etc.) were interested in a wide range of things, whereas today we tend to operate in narrow confines of interest.

I disagree. Newton was not comming completely out of nowhere, he was building on his predecessors just like people now are building on what they already know. Gravity wasn't a new concept, it was quantified. And to be honest, Leibnitz probably did more for calculus than Newton and they developed it at the same time individually. Leibnitz, now there's a genius, so under rated.