Not gone, necessarily, but fewer of them are are allowed to flourish. Too many are deemed problematic when they challenge teachers who are giving incorrect information, or when they finish their work in a fraction of the time the rest of the class takes and then start doing something besides what the teacher told them.

jestme: Not gone, necessarily, but fewer of them are are allowed to flourish. Too many are deemed problematic when they challenge teachers who are giving incorrect information, or when they finish their work in a fraction of the time the rest of the class takes and then start doing something besides what the teacher told them.

It also doesn't help that it's hard to be motivated when working in a failed society which history indicates will probably require violent overthrow to alter.

The national environment has been a little biased against independent thought for a few years now, yes.

Occam's Chainsaw: jestme: Not gone, necessarily, but fewer of them are are allowed to flourish. Too many are deemed problematic when they challenge teachers who are giving incorrect information, or when they finish their work in a fraction of the time the rest of the class takes and then start doing something besides what the teacher told them.

It also doesn't help that it's hard to be motivated when working in a failed society which history indicates will probably require violent overthrow to alter.

Terrified Asexual Forcemeat: The national environment has been a little biased against independent thought for a few years now, yes.

Ha ha ha- you three tards all flunked out of Organic Chem, didn't you?

Lady Beryl Ersatz-Wendigo: flunked out of Organic Chem, didn't you?

I got a gentleman's D, thank you very much.

I'd say its sort of due to the fact that alot of the big discoveries have already been made. Most new discoveries seem to be refinements these days. (Yes I know relativity is a refinement on Newton, but it was a BIG idea).
The next so called Einstein will be whoever gets the credit for the unified field theory, assuming it only comes from one source.

/Everyone knows Darwin, but how many of the unwashed masses know Alfred Wallace?

Lady Beryl Ersatz-Wendigo: Ha ha ha- you three tards all flunked out of Organic Chem, didn't you?

I had sense enough to avoid orgasmic chem like the black plague. The professor was a hardass and it was easily a five-hour class that counted for three.

I flunked out of Japanese, thank you very much. (Arigato gozaimasu.)

If they keep telling kids that everyone is equal, and that scoring doesnt matter, and that grades are being equalized.. then what is a kids motivation?

Lady Beryl Ersatz-Wendigo: Occam's Chainsaw: jestme: Not gone, necessarily, but fewer of them are are allowed to flourish. Too many are deemed problematic when they challenge teachers who are giving incorrect information, or when they finish their work in a fraction of the time the rest of the class takes and then start doing something besides what the teacher told them.

It also doesn't help that it's hard to be motivated when working in a failed society which history indicates will probably require violent overthrow to alter.

Terrified Asexual Forcemeat: The national environment has been a little biased against independent thought for a few years now, yes.

Ha ha ha- you three tards all flunked out of Organic Chem, didn't you?

No, but my son was called an idiot by a teacher when he said Illinois is flat because glaciers swept it that way. And we live at the edge of a moraine.

Terrified Asexual Forcemeat: The national environment has been a little biased against independent thought for a few years now, yes.

tell me about it. Not to mention the fact that we seem to have lost our sense of humor.

I'd say that this explains a lot.

I'm right here. I just choose to stay quiet about my genius.

jestme

Too many are deemed problematic when they challenge teachers who are giving incorrect information,

I had several arguments with a science teacher who didn't know his arse from a hole in the ground. Then I gave up arguing, and prepared a totally bogus presentation, with a perfectly acceptable (i.e., fair and balanced) chemical equation showing manganese dioxide as a catalyst in a reaction where it wasn't a catalyst at all. The bozo gave me an "A."

or when they finish their work in a fraction of the time the rest of the class takes

I was blessed with a teacher who allowed us to do work at "our own pace." Finished a year's worth of history in six weeks, and proceeded to slough off. (He was a jerk in other ways, but for this I recall him fondly.)


SJKebab

/Everyone knows Darwin, but how many of the unwashed masses know Alfred Wallace?

I know of him, but of course I just washed this morning. I'm acutally surprised more don't know of him, since he became an ardent foe of evolution, and so should be a darling of modern Creationists.

SilentStrider: I'm right here. I just choose to stay quiet about my genius.

This reminds me of the time when you tried to drill a hole in your head....

Weaver95: SilentStrider: I'm right here. I just choose to stay quiet about my genius.

This reminds me of the time when you tried to drill a hole in your head....

That would have worked if you hadn't stopped me.

There are still plenty of geniuses. We just don't, as a society, pay much attention to them.

SilentStrider: Weaver95: SilentStrider: I'm right here. I just choose to stay quiet about my genius.

This reminds me of the time when you tried to drill a hole in your head....

That would have worked if you hadn't stopped me.

you both made my night!

God is in the gaps and the gaps keep shrinking. The days of a few guys in a garage coming up with the next great invention are pretty much over as well.

NewportBarGuy: I got a gentleman's D, thank you very much.

I just discovered that the prof stored all his grades on a floppy disk with no backup. One casual walkby with a magnet followed by a quick trip to the counselor explaining that I was never instructed to hold on to my work and viola A-, thank you very much.

Regarding the smart ones - I'd say the Hawkman might have something to say about Einstein being the last of his kind.

/Course when the only thing you can do is think, you're bound to be damn good at it.

FTA:Sir Isaac Newton, for example, said that if he had achieved anything with his work, such as his laws of motion and gravity, it was "by standing on the shoulders of giants."

Of course, those of us who know anything about REAL geniuses, know that Isaac said that as an insult to short hunchback Robert Hooke with whom he was having a bitter feud at the time, and it had nothing to do with his work on motion or gravity. Everyone later said he was being modest, because we know that geniuses aren't mean or sarcastic to disabled people.

Wait, so Einstein was smart because he had perfect airways in his lungs?

Incontinent_dog_and_monkey_rodeo: God is in the gaps and the gaps keep shrinking. The days of a few guys in a garage coming up with the next great invention are pretty much over as well.

Bah, you're all just doom and gloom (not to go all Limbaugh on yer arses). There are still plenty of mysteries out there for people to figure out, and somwhere, out there, there's three people not getting laid inventing the next bread slicer.

/You don't have to invent something, but even if you only inspire those smarter than you to do it, you've still changed the world.
//Absolutely believes we'll eventually break the light barrier. (Or get around it some how)

Wait, you live in a place where a vocal majority of the population takes pride in anti-intellectualism and you wonder where all the geniuses have gone?

They're hiding from the Morans.

Are you kidding?
If Einstein was a kid now a day, he would be forced to be on Ritalin.

"A balance between individual and institutional approaches is the best idea, according to a new theory by a Duke University engineer Adrian Bejan"

oh come on folks,
is this FARK or not?

/is not American
//has never been to America
///but knows what Duke does

not if we're all stupid.

A few years from now someone will stumble on this article and say can you believe that was written just before so and so's discovery of...

Well, I'm still here.

ADHD Librarian: ///but knows what Duke does

Overrated Basketball teams?

This has to be the most ignorant article ever produced by mankind!

/ i don't even know where to begin

Britney Spear's Speculum: FTFA: IsWAS Einstein the Last Great Genius?

Apparently.

This is fark so I assume you're excluding cripples from your list, right?

They're still around, but only budlight recognizes them for who they truly are.

Link (new window into a crappy site, but its got them all there)

FuturePastNow: There are still plenty of geniuses. We just don't, as a society, pay much attention to them.

Note for farkers: Aspergers != genius. so don't even start that, all you poor maladjusted geeks.

I do think about this sort of thing sometimes. I worry that modern research is so far outside the bounds of ordinary human perception that maybe a human brain will never be able to deduce further innovations intuitively. Einstein was a poor mathematician as a young man and needed help to formulate relativity - he figured it out because to him it was just obvious that was the way things worked.

I am given hope though by the public reaction to relativity at that time. Newspapers and pundits largely assumed that it was so complicated that only a few people could understand it. Nowadays, conceptually it's quite easy to understand. Doing the mathematics is another thing entirely, but maybe the brains of a whole population can adapt to new ideas and keep the ball rolling.

ADHD Librarian: "A balance between individual and institutional approaches is the best idea, according to a new theory by a Duke University engineer Adrian Bejan"

oh come on folks,
is this FARK or not?

/is not American
//has never been to America
///but knows what Duke does

Duke Sucks.

\there
\\did my irony detector break
\\\probably
\\\\slashies?

crazypeltast52:
Duke Sucks.

\there
\\did my irony detector break
\\\probably
\\\\slashies?

came to hear Duke Sucks
/leaving satisfied

More focus in our schools and Colleges if on remembering the information for the test, and not learning it.

you can always look up the date of a event, but can you tell why it happen, what events lead up to it, sadly 90% of my fellow history majors can tell only when and maybe how, but rarely why

Solitary thinkers have flourished throughout history

Didn't know "flourished" was a euphemism for being burnt at the stake.

jestme: Not gone, necessarily, but fewer of them are are allowed to flourish. Too many are deemed problematic when they challenge teachers who are giving incorrect information, or when they finish their work in a fraction of the time the rest of the class takes and then start doing something besides what the teacher told them.

"Deru kugi wa utareru" (The nail that sticks up will be hammered down"

/oh look, American Idol!

Einstein would have his ass handed to him by today's modern scientists. Period!

/for his time, he was very good.

To those biatching about the education system in this thread. The school systems in the US suck for gifted kids in many placed but they've always sucked. Might be slightly more now because they don't allows skipping grades as much but new specialized programs probably balance it out.

Parents who know what they're doing will find special programs for their gifted kids, send them to summer camps, private schools, encourage them to take advanced classes (at the local high school/college) and so on. There are organizations which will help with such tasks however parents need to actually look for them. I guessing the end you can blame the mess on parents who don't give a damn and an utter lack of personal responsibility on their part.

THE EASY STUFF HAS ALREADY BEEN INVENTED!!!!

jestme:
No, but my son was called an idiot by a teacher when he said Illinois is flat because glaciers swept it that way. And we live at the edge of a moraine.

Moraine? Is that what he called the teacher?

that is all

sojourner: I am given hope though by the public reaction to relativity at that time. Newspapers and pundits largely assumed that it was so complicated that only a few people could understand it. Nowadays, it's still too hard conceptually it's quite easy to understand. Doing the mathematics is another thing entirely, but maybe the brains of a whole population can adapt to new ideas and keep the ball rolling.

FTFY. If you think relativity is something relatively easy (forgive the pun) for the population at large to understand, you've probably never TA'ed a college physics class on the subject. People can BARELY comprehend the TV shows about it; as soon as you start writing equations for even basic relativity concepts peoples' eyes glaze over and they froth at the mouth.

Is our geniuses gone? Define genius.

Talented people?
IQ > 140?
Revolutionary in their field?
Challengers of contemporary thought?

There are kids who built a bicycle that filters water. Another guy built a machine that filters any nasty thing you can think of out of water. That researcher at Wake Forest may have found a cure for cancer. Scientists can build synthetic bladders out of old printers and stem cells and can build primitive hearts. I once saw a man fart out the alphabet.

Geniuses are here to stay.

This article is ridiculous. They act as if singular great figures are the reason for scientific advancement, which is rubbish - even great minds like Einstein heavily relied upon the works of others to advance their theories, most of whom will never be known outside their specialties. It's not that brilliant scientists don't exist today (and I've worked with a few I'd consider geniuses), it's that they get no mainstream publicity - when's the last time you read an article outside of a scientific journal about a particular scientist's work? That being said, it's probably for the best - creating a cult of personality around 'the next Einstein' is not what scientific progress is about.

This was on AOL News and they had a list of the top 10 geniuses still alive, and Matt Groening was #3.. so yeah... good article

almandot: Matt Groening was #3.. so yeah... good article

*facepalm*

/get me off this farking world..NOW!