Who's the smartest man alive?

Define smartest. And can it be a woman?

Stephen Hawking .

The man who grabs me up quick while I am still single.

@talljasperman I was thinking Stephen Hawking too.

Christopher Langan, reported. IQ is not quantifiable IMHO so who knows….

Maya Angelou was cool.

The Dumb & Dumber guys, apparently. After 20 years they still managed to rake in 38 mil with their sequel. On the smartness scale, I’m not sure about the people who bought those tickets.

Don’t you mean who is the second smartest man alive?

Agree, should be Stephen Hawking

Reed Richards

I second Mr. Fantastic @cookieman

Me.
For all I know, I invented the rest of yous all, and I’m taking great care.

It’s the Ex. Mrs.-Me that’s causing all the misery in the world, following the D*I*V*O*R*C*E.

I think Johnny Walker is causing my Global Warming.

The Stoke.

Known also as Second Hand.

That depends. A smart person, so defined by his or her peers, can have lousy common sense.

Depends on how you measure intelligence. IQ tests only measure a limited type of intelligence.

Mr. Happy Pants is a lot smarter than Mr. Smarty Pants.

Well, it’s for sure not me

Guys, there is no such thing as smartest person in the whole world. It can depend. A above average person in US can be a below average person in Japan, because Japanese people are smarter than Americans. (Yes, it is true) People have different IQ levels in different countries. So maybe this person is the smartest in US but when this person moves to Japan, they become the stupidest person in the country. So it really depends, and I recommend editing the title to “Who do you think is the smartest person in your country in you opinion?” It sounds much more realistic this way. Good luck!

And if I were to answer it like I didn’t know the above, I’d say Albert Einstien.

There’s absolutely no way to quantify something like that.

Dwight Schrute.

Btw Einstein is dead.

He’s sitting on a beach somewhere, or hiking through a sun-kissed valley, or swimming in a pristine mountain stream. No one outside his social circle knows his name, and that’s part of what makes him so smart.

IQ tests are for guaging intelligence levels, which boils down to a capacity for learning and storing knowledge. It is only capable of determining in part comprehension, and not at all for practical application.
The smartest man in the world could be much as described by @FireMadeFlesh .
He would be the man who knows a great deal, but also understands how to apply what he knows to how he lives, the impact he has on his environment, the impact he has on others, and whether he is able to piece all those factors together in a way which is not only exceptional, but also feels good to him and keeps him happy.
The smartest man in the world could easily be homeless and unemployed, so long as he has the skills to sustain himself.

No such thing. Book smart does not mean that the person is savvy in the ways of the world.

It’s like picking the right tool for the job. If I am lost in the forest, I want someone who is smart at survival. If I’m working at Google, I want a creative person. And so on.

Questions like this one have to be put in some sort of context..

He’d never tell.

Keanu Reeves…think about it.

I was thinking more about this.

Why does it matter who the smartest person alive is?

Smart people generally aren’t politicians, and politicians can affect my daily life in ways that, for example, a scientist can’t.

Smart people may be philosophers or researchers or poets or something else, but their effects on life today are miniscule. A philosopher may be brilliant, but the effects of his or her work will take decades to be felt or experienced – if ever.

So why does it matter?

<—ahem.

^^ Case closed!

^^ Done. Archive this thread.

NEXT

There’s a proverb… May my child be born average so he can become a magistrate.

It’s often the average people who become most visible, not the most intelligent people. Case in point: George W. Bush.

George W. Bush is more intelligent than the persona the public sees. The half-wit he presents to the public is a facade he puts on to appeal the masses. And the family he was born into is anything but average. I realize this is a thread about intelligence, not wealth, but don’t underestimate the impact that coming from a background of wealth and affluence can have on one’s chances of getting into positions of power.

@Darth_Algar If George W. Bush had a half-wit public persona, then that illustrates my point even further. I’ve learned that people are not exactly comfortable, on a daily basis, with high intelligence.

@linguaphile

Not really. It only illustrates that people can be manipulated. Having the intelligence to manipulate the public enough gain that kind of power, however, is another matter.

Cake: “I realize this is a thread about intelligence, not wealth, but don’t underestimate the impact that coming from a background of wealth and affluence can have on one’s chances of getting into positions of power.”

Eat it too: “George W. Bush is more intelligent than the persona the public sees.”

So, can we all just agree the GWBush is a wealthy and influential ¾ wit?

Wait! A 1.0 wit from a wealthy and influential family proves both @linguaphile and @Darth_Algar‘s points.

Average wealthy guy following in (albeit above average intelligence) daddy’s footsteps.