Daily Telegraph: British brains dominate list of living geniuses
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.
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, [Al Gore, call your lawyer's office. - F.G.] 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."
1] Albert Hoffman (Swiss)
Chemist
1] Tim Berners-Lee (British)
Computer Scientist
3] George Soros (American)
Investor & Philanthropist
This is as far as any sane man needs to go before realizing this is either a monumental joke or the work of a madman.
4] Matt Groening (American)
Satirist & Animator
I am no fan of Citizen Mandela, but the guy who created The Simpsons?
5] Nelson Mandela (South African)
Politician & Diplomat
5] Frederick Sanger (British)
Chemist
7] Dario Fo (Italian)
Writer & Dramatist
7] Steven Hawking (British)
Physicist
Hawking proves that a fat PR man is worth his weight in gold.
9] Oscar Niemeyer (Brazilian)
Architect
9] Philip Glass (American)
Composer
Glass is tied for ninth? That is just sick.
9] Grigory Perelman (Russian)
Mathematician
12] Andrew Wiles (British)
Mathematician
12] Li Hongzhi (Chinese)
Spiritual Leader
If Citizen Li is not out of Slave China yet, he better start running right now.
12] Ali Javan (Iranian)
Engineer
Same for ol' Ali. Unless he is the Father of the Iranian Bomb, of course. [Don't worry, kiddies, I checked. He is safely ensconced at MIT and is co-inventor of the gas laser.]
15] Brian Eno (British)
Composer
Oy vey!
15] Damian Hirst (British)
Artist
15] Daniel Tammet (British)
Savant & Linguist
18] Nicholson Baker (American)
Writer
Who?
19] Daniel Barenboim (N/A)
Musician
Nobody will claim him.
20] Robert Crumb (American)
Artist
Who's Harry Crumb?
20] Richard Dawkins (British)
Biologist and philosopher
20] Larry Page & Sergey Brin (American)
Publishers
20] Rupert Murdoch (American)
Publisher
Oh, no. He's Australian.
20] Geoffrey Hill (British)
Poet
BTW, there are too damn many ties in this list. Prove you have a pair and pick one!
25] Garry Kasparov (Russian)
Chess Player
Fyodor's endorsed candidate for President of Russia.
26] The Dalai Lama
(Tibetan)
Spiritual Leader
Brave, yes. But a genius?
26] Steven Spielberg
(American)
Film maker
Viva Spielbergo!
26] Hiroshi Ishiguro
(Japanese)
Roboticist
26] Robert Edwards
(British)
Pioneer of IVF treatment
In vitro, nobody can hear you scream...
26] Seamus Heaney (Irish)
Poet
31] Harold Pinter
(British)
Writer & Dramatist
Hee-hee!
32] Flossie Wong-Staal
(Chinese)
Bio-technologist
32] Bobby Fischer (American)
Chess Player
That is just mean.
32] Prince (American)
Musician
HOLY CRAP!
32] Henrik Gorecki (Polish)
Composer
32] Avram Noam Chomski
(American)
Philosopher & linguist
Noam is a commie. It does take a lot of cogitatin' power to reconcile that with one's conscience. Or a lot of booze.
32] Sebastian Thrun (German)
Probabilistic roboticist
32] Nima Arkani Hamed (Canadian)
Physicist
32] Margaret Turnbull
(American)
Astrobiologist
40] Elaine Pagels (American)
Historian
40] Enrique Ostrea (Philippino)
Pediatrics & neonatology
40] Gary Becker (American)
Economist
43] Mohammed Ali (American)
Boxer
Un-be-freakin'-lieveable.
43] Osama Bin Laden (Saudi)
Islamicist
Goat rape is brain food.
43] Bill Gates (American)
Businessman
It takes a genius to sterilize poor women.
43] Philip Roth
(American)
Writer
Dumbass.
43] James West
(American)
Invented the foil electrical microphone
That surely tops M. Ali [#43 above], who only invented the rope-a-dope.
43] Tuan Vo-Dinh (Vietnamese)
Bio-Medical Scientist
49] Brian Wilson (American)
Musician
Oh my. I do believe I just soiled myself.
49] Stevie Wonder (American)
Singer songwriter
It is about time.
49] Vint Cerf (American)
Computer scientist
49] Henry Kissinger (American)
Diplomat and politician
49] Richard Branson (British)
Publicist
49] Pardis Sabeti (Iranian)
Biological anthropologist
We seem to be stuck on 49, kiddies.
49] Jon de Mol (Dutch)
Television producer
49] Meryl Streep (American)
Actress
Kissinger is gonna be pissed.
49] Margaret Attwood (Canadian)
Writer
58] Placido Domingo (Spanish)
Singer
58] John Lasseter (American)
Digital Animator
58] Shunpei Yamazaki (Japanese)
Computer scientist & physicist
58] Jane Goodall (British)
Ethologist & Anthropologist
58] Kirti Narayan Chaudhuri (Indian)
Historian
58] John Goto (British)
Photographer
58] Paul McCartney (British)
Musician
He did get away with murdering one of his "wives", after all. And he portrayed the maimed one as a golddigger. Brilliant!
58] Stephen King (American)
Writer
Dumbass.
58] Leonard Cohen (American)
Poet & musician
Ditto.
67] Aretha Franklin (American)
Musician
Yes!
67] David Bowie (British)
Musician
Another example of British genius.
67] Emily Oster (American)
Economist
67] Steve Wozniak (American)
Engineer and co-founder of Apple Computers
67] Martin Cooper (American)
Inventor of the cell phone
Hmmm...
72] George Lucas (American)
Film maker
72] Niles Rogers (American)
Musician
Hee-hee!
72] Hans Zimmer (German)
Composer
72] John Williams (American)
Composer
72] Annette Baier (New Zealander)
Philosopher
My eyes are glazing over...
72] Dorothy Rowe (British)
Psychologist
72] Ivan Marchuk (Ukrainian)
Artist & sculptor
72] Robin Escovado (American)
Composer
72] Mark Dean (American)
Inventor & computer scientist
72] Rick Rubin (American)
Musician & producer
Please, make it stop!
72] Stan Lee (American)
Publisher
I love Marvel Comics, but Stan must be blushing from head to toe.
83] David Warren (Australian)
Engineer
83] Jon Fosse (Norwegian)
Writer & dramatist
83] Gjertrud Schnackenberg (American)
Poet
She is a genius because she can spell her own name.
83] Graham Linehan (Irish)
Writer & dramatist
83] JK Rowling (British)
Writer
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
83] Ken Russell (British)
Film maker
Blah, blah, blah...
83] Mikhail Timofeyevich Kalashnikov (Russian)
Small arms designer
Cheap, rugged automatic weapons for all the peasants. Definitely genius. Definitely Zardoz.
83] Erich Jarvis (American)
Neurobiologist
91] Chad Varah (British)
Founder of Samaritans
91] Nicolas Hayek (Swiss)
Businessman and founder of Swatch
91] Alastair Hannay (British)
Philosopher
94] Patricia Bath (American)
Ophthalmologist
94] Thomas A. Jackson (American)
Aerospace engineer
94] Dolly Parton (American)
Singer
Now the joke is exposed. Dolly is obviously #44...DD.
94] Morissey (British)
Singer
He's still alive?
94] Michael Eavis (British)
Organiser of Glastonbury
94] Ranulph Fiennes (British)
Adventurer
100] Quentin Tarantino (American)
Filmmaker
He has been promoted from everybody's third favorite foot fetishist to world's #100 genius. That's some serious marketing, baby.
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