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[Just_myles]

I bet if we had someone with his equivalent intellect that they would work in Data marketing. Easy money.

 

[Nomadic Sparks]

another great anecdote

Two bicyclists start 20 miles apart and head toward each other, each going at a steady rate of 10 mph. At the same time a fly that travels at a steady 15 mph starts from the front wheel of the southbound bicycle and flies to the front wheel of the northbound one, then turns around and flies to the front wheel of the southbound one again, and continues in this manner till he is crushed between the two front wheels. Question: what total distance did the fly cover? The slow way to find the answer is to calculate what distance the fly covers on the first, northbound, leg of the trip, then on the second, southbound, leg, then on the third, etc., etc., and, finally, to sum the infinite series so obtained. The quick way is to observe that the bicycles meet exactly one hour after their start, so that the fly had just an hour for his travels; the answer must therefore be 15 miles. When the question was put to von Neumann, he solved it in an instant, and thereby disappointed the questioner: "Oh, you must have heard the trick before!" "What trick?" asked von Neumann, "All I did was sum the geometric series."[16]

This sounds like a sample that would be used in Quantic album

I read The Computer and the Brain a few years ago. I can't say that I understood more than a fraction of it, but what I thought I got was a good read.

Interesting thread. What inspired it?

:0

Do I just give up on being smart now?

Creating a new mathmatics sounds like a sure fire way to go completely nuts and honey

 

[Stumpokapow]

who is the genius of our time? Elon Musk?

The time of the true polymath is probably a little over because of the massive advances in specialization over the last 50 years, but if I had to come up with some names... Stephen Wolfram, Chinua Achebe, Daron Acemoglu, David Foster Wallace, Grigori Perelman, Terry Tao, Reggie Watts, Douglas Hofstadter, Edward Tufte, Ai Weiwei, Amartya Sen, Esther Duflo, Ta-Nehisi Coates, John Zorn.

I know very little about biological sciences but this covers many of the most brilliant writers, thinkers, social scientists, and artists.

I meant specifically 20th century

oh you mean Gauss as an applied mathematician, hmmm I didn't know that, i thought he was more pure

I was mostly hoping to instigate an argument about whether statistics counts as applied math

 

[shockthrill]

The time of the true polymath is probably a little over because of the massive advances in specialization over the last 50 years, but if I had to come up with some names... Stephen Wolfram, Chinua Achebe, Daron Acemoglu, David Foster Wallace, Grigori Perelman, Terry Tao, Reggie Watts, Douglas Hofstadter, Edward Tufte, Ai Weiwei, Amartya Sen, Esther Duflo, Ta-Nehisi Coates, John Zorn.

I know very little about biological sciences but this covers many of the most brilliant writers, thinkers, social scientists, and artists.

Wolfram is interesting, Stumpokapow..Isn't he kind of a little controversial especially with his "new science" book that came out back in 2002

 

[Mumei]

The time of the true polymath is probably a little over because of the massive advances in specialization over the last 50 years, but if I had to come up with some names... Stephen Wolfram, Chinua Achebe, Daron Acemoglu, David Foster Wallace, Grigori Perelman, Terry Tao, Reggie Watts, Douglas Hofstadter, Edward Tufte, Ai Weiwei, Amartya Sen, Esther Duflo, Ta-Nehisi Coates, John Zorn.

When you were thinking up names, how recently did they need to have lived, or produced the work they are known for?

 

[shockthrill]

When you were thinking up names, how recently did they need to have lived, or produced the work they are known for?

Hofstadter is great i just finished reading Godel, Escher, Bach a few months ago,

have no Idea what I read, but it still fascinated me

 

[Mumei]

Hofstadter is great i just finished reading Godel, Escher, Bach a few months ago,

have no Idea what I read, but it still fascinated me

Stumples put you up to this, didn't he?

 

[shockthrill]

Stumples put you up to this, didn't he?

My dad had the book from a long time ago, I found it in the garage and just started reading it on and off

 

[Mumei]

My dad had the book from a long time ago, I found it in the garage and just started reading it on and off

Does your father happen to be named "Stumples"?

 

[Stumpokapow]

I am pretty sure I do not have a mini-me running around out there, but I heartily endorse the decision to read GEB!

When you were thinking up names, how recently did they need to have lived, or produced the work they are known for?

I was thinking post-1950 or so and just grabbed names that came to mind [some because they're on my desk in front of me in my reference library] thinking of one category at a time.

 

[Alcotholic]

I'm actually doing a research paper on game theory and, by extension, him. So this will be an interesting thread.

 

[Mumei]

I am pretty sure I do not have a mini-me running around out there, but I heartily endorse the decision to read GEB!



I was thinking post-1950 or so and just grabbed names that came to mind [some because they're on my desk in front of me in my reference library] thinking of one category at a time.

Ah. I thought of a couple people (Rawls, Berlin), but since they died fifteen or more years ago I wasn't sure if they were recent enough. Habermas might work, too.

 

[Choabac]

The time of the true polymath is probably a little over because of the massive advances in specialization over the last 50 years, but if I had to come up with some names... Stephen Wolfram, Chinua Achebe, Daron Acemoglu, David Foster Wallace, Grigori Perelman, Terry Tao, Reggie Watts, Douglas Hofstadter, Edward Tufte, Ai Weiwei, Amartya Sen, Esther Duflo, Ta-Nehisi Coates, John Zorn.

I know very little about biological sciences but this covers many of the most brilliant writers, thinkers, social scientists, and artists.

Robert Huber, George Whitesides, Robert Langer, Charles M. Lieber, Leroy Hood, Craig Venter

 

[shockthrill]

as far as philosophy i feel like the most important of the 20th century are

Heidegger and Wittgenstein

then Kripke, Quine, Putnam etc.


sorry I lean more towards Analytic philosophy, so I don't really know much about Continentals

 

[NH Apache]

Totally agree. That's why I find Archimedes or Euclid so impressive. They had nothing to work with and yet came up with extremely impressive mathematics and solutions to real world problems.

My personal favorite as an engineer has always been Pierre-Simon Laplace:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pierre-Simon_Laplace

Ooh good choice. Stream equation is real fun.

 

[shockthrill]

Ooh good choice. Stream equation is real fun.

my favorite story is Napoleon talking to Laplace about "God" being in his work

and Laplace responds "I have no need for that hypothesis"

 

[LookAtMeGo]

I was always facsinated by Srinivasa Ramanujan.

 

[shockthrill]

I was always facsinated by Srinivasa Ramanujan.

Ramanujan is kind of in a tricky situation

on one hand, he was a natural genius, on the level of Gauss and Euler,a pure mathematical mind

but on the flipside,because of his circumstances, he wasn't really able to live out his full potential, and ultimately his achievements in math aren't at a high level (compared to some of the others mentioned of the 20th century)

but in terms of skill,he is definitely one

 

[jetjevons]

If he is so smart why did he invent planet devouring machines that are going to destroy us?

Because he knows there is no God? Love is an illusion and weakness?

 

[blu]

To the math-history-intrigued in this thread, I also recommend The Annotated Turing by Petzold.

 

[shockthrill]

by the way


is this a young Bill Clinton talking to Johnny in this video


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vLbllFHBQM4

 

[Mister Apoc]

It’s hard to be a polymath now a days since everything is so specialized

 

[Mister Apoc]

incredible mind

 

[God Enel]

I have to agree. We talked about him in a economics class back in university. one of the goats and barely anyone knows him.

 

[TyphoonStruggle]

incredible mind

 

[Helios]

incredible mind

Fuck it. I knew this thread had SOMETHING to do with Mister Apoc the moment I saw the title. He just wasn't the OP this time.

 

[Tesseract]

i would raise you a richard feynman, only because being a computer ain't that impressive

it's freaky in a hey look at the way this weird mudder fucker does mental math kinda way

 

[HarryKS]

Would you rather be smart or good looking?

 

[WinterIsComing]

Its hard to be a polymath now a days since everything is so specialized

incredible mind

lol how do you manage do double post 1 and 1/2 year apart? Is that still considered double-posting, or just grave digging?

 

[slugbahr]

lol how do you manage do double post 1 and 1/2 year apart? Is that still considered double-posting, or just grave digging?

In his defence, he gave people a year and a half to post a response.

 

[cheezcake]

Resurrect his brain so he can analyse EoE for us