I am interested in creating a memory peg system 1 - 100 of the greatest geniuses of all time. I googled searched and found this interesting video. I am however surprised at the list of names given and certain ommissions and questionable inclusions. Putting the question out there who do you deem to be the greatest geniuses of all time? Obviously both living and dead.
What is particularly impressive about Paul Morphy is he played at GM strength while all his competition was playing at ~expert level.
Would you consider Morphy more of a genius than Bobby Fisher? If you indeed consider Bobby Fisher to have been a genius, to begin with? I like the idea of having geniuses other than mathematicians and philosophers. I don’t know whether any sports people could be considered geniuses either. Whilst I don’t particularly have an affinity towards Deigo Maradonna (Argentine footballer number 10), many journalists referred to his physical footballing skills as a genius. Seems a bit bizarre to have the likes of Maradonna rubbing shoulders with Pythagoras as an example. Then again what about Lennon and McCartney? I suppose it really all starts with how we define genius. I’m pretty sure that other than Pythagoras none of the other names (barring Bobby Fisher and perhaps Morphy) would be Mensa material??
I believe that John von Neumann stands amongst the greatest minds to ever exist, besides his crucial contributions to mathematics, physics, computer science, economics and biology, from a very young age he had an extraordinary memory capacity and speed of thinking. If you compare him to his most famous contemporary, Einstein, he might not have been as original or deep of a thinker as him, but his raw intelligence and cognitive abilities were unmatched in my opinion. There are a few interviews with Teller Ede and Leo Szilard talking about Neumann’s astonishing mental feats. You can find lots of anecdotes about him memorizing and then solving really complex mathematical problems in his head in a matter of minutes and doing simple arithmetics at astonishing speeds, which are most likely true considering the fact that his scientific colleagues have confirmed it and gave examples of him showcasing his capacity while they were working together on the Manhattan Project. I have no idea if he ever purposefully trained himself to do such things, but even if he did, I honestly believe that only a very few people have had raw intellect as high as his in the course of human history. It’s really sad that most people have never even heard about him, I think he was as close to being a human computer as one can be. Look up Neumann solving the Fly and the Trains problem.
