Are We Running Out Of Scientific Geniuses?

Perhaps humanity has evolved to such a high narcissi behavior; we are now blind to see the genius amongst us, lol.

.... or humanity has evolved to such humility, we no longer see the genius among us.

Naaaa, we are to narcissistic as a species now to see clearly.

I think it has more to do with the time needed to expand on knowledge learned from said geniuses. From the guys below there really was much overlap in timelines, and even less overlap in timelines from same field of study.

Albert Einstein 1879-1955
Nicolaus Copernicus 1473-1543
Charles Darwin 1809-1882
Galileo Galilei 1564–1642
Isaac Newton 1642–1727

Between Newton and Einstein there was almost 150 years between death and birth so my argument would be you won't see a groundbreaking revelation for another 50-100 years due to Einstein's achievements in last 100 years.

History loves having just one person to pin specific events on. Nothing is that simple though. These geniuses were the name on top of major discoveries. Events that had quite a few other contributors in their own right that don't get mentioned. It takes a good 50-100 years removed to have the ability to assign specific historical events to one pivotal person.

I ponder this quite often because the same can be said about a lot of things. Like sports, television, technology etc. Are we running out of ideas? Or is it too easy to take one platform and expand upon it? Have we reached a time where nothing else can be learned or invented?

Personally I think(as far as geniuses go)that modern technology takes a lot away from the thought process and in turn affects the way people think. For example, I learned mathematics the old fashioned way, a pencil & paper. Today kids in school use calculators. Because they don't have to process math equations in their heads, does this have an adverse affect on how their minds are molded and the way they think? I believe so.

I think there is some truth in that a big discovery is dependent more on a team rather than a single person in modern times. This makes sense as the more complex things get people must specialize more in order to be able to learn everything.

On the other hand, I think Quantum physics has a long way to go, so there will continue to be big discoveries in that field.

Finally, many big discoveries take a while to be proven and for its importance to be understood by average people.

Many of the great scientific discoveries of all time took humanity decades to understand and accept. My contention is that there are important breakthroughs happening constantly in hundreds of different fields and subfields, but that it's become so complicated that we don't realize what's going on. I believe that once today's science has been understood by a larger group of people and has been put in textbooks, the important scientific discoveries of our era will become evident.

What isn't mentioned is that fundamental facet of the process of new knowledge, people being willing to disengage from what they "believe" already! Just try saying "'evolution' is wrong" to any "science" devotee. They won't let you get past the first couple of syllables! "Evolution is absolutely, utterly and completely right! There is nothing that is better than it! I won't listen to a word you say! I won't listen to your arguments! I won't look at your proof! Everything you provide must be wrong, because I am ordered to believe evolution is right! Tin foil hat alert! Take your meds!" If Carl Sagan didn't say it, they won't accept it. They all mirror Manitou's suggestion that every "scientist" is a genius. If "geniuses" say these things, they can't be wrong! Then they go and condemn, say, the people of Copernicus' day for believing what "experts" said that the sun went around the earth.
And there is another crucial facet of the situation that needs to be overcome. The rabid insistence by "science" devotees that "scientists" cannot lie, that anything they say must be believed, without question. They are never provided a single piece of tangible, incontrovertible evidence by "science", but they insist it must be true because "experts" said it. You can give them a truckload of evidence of crop circles and they will still scoff, but they accept "science" without a single piece of "evidence". The most they'll do is sya, "'Scientists' tell me this GPS works by 'relativity'. This GPS works, therefore, 'relativity' is proved true!" They describe "scientists" in glowing terms of utter selflessness and altruism. If there are any who abide by devotioin to truth, they get no further than quality control lines at factories. Only "the kind of crooks the New World Order can work with" are allowed higher, into the well paid lie facilities they call "laboratories".

The preceding reply is one that I used elsewhere on the same subject, which explains the reference to a comment not mentioned here. The essence is the same., however, that, until "science" devotees stop being almost addictively enslaved to what "science" says, no advancement will occur and. therefore, there will be no "geniuses".

In addition to the comment above about the hypocratic hubris of modern scientists, I would add that I blame modern society. Technology and Honeybooboo have made us into a self righteous band of idiots that aren't able to do any critical thinking, and thus often can't see the forest for the trees. And when one genius does, they are immediately shot down by the scientific community because those new ideas don't conform to the present way of thinking. These days, it seems the genius among us are just those that know the proper use/spelling of the term 'You are'.

Who needs to ponder about Quantum Mechanics when we can watch Snooki indulge herself with peanut butter and pickles?
#yolo

We no longer uphold geniuses.

"Why" - Everyone.

“Moderate giftedness has been made worthless by the printing press and radio and television and satellites and all that. A moderately gifted person who would have been a community treasure a thousand years ago has to give up, has to go into some other line of work, since modern communications put him or her into daily competition with nothing but the world's champions.”
― Kurt Vonnegut

Think about it. No one is born a genius, they learn, grow, rise to the top with the support of a whole network of friends and mentors who notice their gift and potential. Now, though, if you aren't soldering together gadgets in kindergarten or discovering laws of physics at 7, you won't be noticed, you won't be as 'amazing' as someone whose already out there, and you won't have the opportunity to realize your potential. Imagine if Albert Einstein, a C-student and relatively unambitious person in the ladder-climbing, getting noticed sense, had tried to get into MIT or get his theories into a major journal in this modern age of extreme, cut-throat global competition.

None of this is new, its been a learned slope thats only getting steeper. Porn stars, actors, sports players (don't get me started on how much of a waste of everything golf is), musicians, etc... are all paid way more than the people we actually need, doctors, police officers, really any kind of emergency response, anyone brave enough to be in the military. I think there should be some kind of 5 year rotation system, especially in the government, let everyone have a shot at greatness and tip the scale in the other direction. Sports players should be paid in fame let the real heroes get the money.

"please dont be offended by me,
i just humbly, and respectfully disagree"

I suspect the apparent lack of geniuses is caused more by the breadth of discoveries that have already been made. Currently any leaps in scientific understanding are going to be the result of teams of people studying a subject together. A single person simply can't know and process enough information to make the huge leaps of understanding past scientists have.

albert einstein thoughts his ideas simply in his head.
he didn't even had a notebook to write them on. it was all in his head. these days we are programed to think in a specific way.

To be honest, the past few decades were actually spent recovering from two world wars and examining the full implications of Einstein's works.

Don't forget that most geniuses aren't realised, there were times when a great man's birth couldn't let him become known at all. Even today, you do need a nice sum of money to get the knowledge you need to expand upon ideas, and I think that's seriously ruining the chances of most mould-breaking thinkers.

The thesis WILL be proven wrong, there's an immeasurable amount of time and a grand number of people being born and you know the thing about large numbers.

Aw, ain't that a shame. You'd think a lot of smarts would have rubbed off on Simonton by now. His points are all at least somewhat valid, but in drawing his conclusions he apparently does not do what geniuses do. Where is his thinking outside the box? Why does he assume geniuses exist only in an academic setting? Why assume that A GENIUS actually needs ANY of other people's work to shatter the boundaries of something they put mind to?

One summer this genius named Dave decided he wanted to do something I thought was odd. No big deal; he was usually off on some tangent that I'd have problems comprehending without much more study than he seemed to have to put in. So I'd play chess with Dave, but his condition was that I had to restrict myself to one move a week. He would give himself one minute to answer. I never beat him. Stands to reason, even without his 180 IQ, as he is a highly rated player. So there's no way the likes of me could compete...and Dave got this idea. He created a chessplayer rating system that could not only define how good a lay-player was using the standard points system as a comparative, but could also be used to tell the weaknesses and skill levels of players that were rated higher than even he was at the time. People that Dave probably could not beat before, now had exposed weaknesses that don't read ANYTHING like what you'd see in a chess journal. He'd use it to read 'mistakes' in grandmaster play. He carved off huge sections of the U.S. player base as dilettantes. And then his chess world was starting to make sense both in particular and as a whole, so he said his continued interest was now justified.

A whole lot of geniuses out there are just living normal lives. Taking care of regular things. But to suppose that they don't exist because you ain't met enough of them that are publicly engaged in high profile studies is irrational. Thinking you somehow know that no geniuses on Earth keep their discoveries entirely to themselves is too. Give em reasons to come out of the woodwork. Show them that their efforts are truly valued. Don't put them in pressure-cooker scenarios that destroy their personal lives or on brain-numbing treadmill science. Get the hell out of their way.

I don't understand how you could possibly think genius is extinct. There will always be a people that make significant contributions to society. These once in a generation people are rare, but will never cease to exist.

I agree with some of the comments that we may train genius out of people with our rigid educational system. I have often toyed with the idea of funding a day where you would bring together say four genius level people, each from his own field. Each would present an unsolvable problem to the others. I wonder if the other three, coming at the problem with no prejudice might point out something that the experts never considered. I think creativity knows no discipline.

Genius.

Today's magic is tomorrow's technology.

Science has run aground on shoals of credential snobbery, political correctness, and atheism. In today's science, agenda trumps truth.

i didn't read the article, hell, i barely read any of the comments, but in response to the question posted by the superbly crafted headline i would have to say that no we aren't, scientists just have a stick up their ass about what is right and what isn't. the genius is there and probably even more so than ever before, the problem is there's so much red tape and politics involved for the genius to be realized. and that's without adding actual politicians to the equation.

to be completely honest we'd laugh out a 3 year college student who would posit that the graviton is simply a normal neutron. however we'd laud an accredited scientist proclaiming the same thing for being mind blowingly anti establishment that the scientific community would dump billions into any experiment on his word alone. even after it's being conclusively proven that it's nigh impossible to become accredited without building upon what has already been established.

you don't become an accredited scientist by discovering an unsettling accurate prediction of what an unknown particle does, you become an accredited scientist by proving that water is wet. and then go on to prove that fire is hot so that you can get your grant money that year.

to mars or bust!

There's a fine line between genius and insanity.

Fact of the matter is, we are weeded out, those among us that stand out face other challenges in the 21 century. Greed and Envy run rampart. Mindless tasks are forced upon us.

Most genius's will lack finical backing for they care little of money, great ideas fall below the waist side or are sold to the highest bidder.

Humanity has taken a wrong turn.

The collective will stop a singular from rising!

I think many of you are down on the human race overall, which is a shame.

To achieve Einstein status you must think a certain way and be at precisely the right place at the right time in history. How you scored on tests in school is irrelevant. It is my recollection that Einstein had much difficulty in proving his theories, because he lacked the math skills. What he lacked in mathematics he made up with passion for his work and desire.

Take Davinci for example. His vision was extraordinary, but the materials and equipment needed to make practical use of it would not be around for a long time. Maybe if Davinci were around today he would be just another engineer?

How many Einsteins and Davincis missed their moment in history or never found their true calling?

IT IS QUITE POSSIBLE THAT THE WRITER OF THIS ARTICLE HAS NOT READ ENOUGH POPSCI!!! ACTIONS OF GENIUS HAVE SIMPLY GROWN EXPONENTIALLY. HIGGS BOSON, MIND CONTROLLED DEVICES, ROBOTIC LIMBS, ARTIFICIAL ORGANS AND HOW CAN WE OVERLOOK THE IPOD AND ITUNES AND ALL i PRODUCTS!!!
GENIUS I SAY, GENIUS!!!

Hmmm. I agree that many of what caused wonder in the past has now been "solved" and that "we" are just building on what is known. However I think its a temporary phase of our evolution. You have to get mired in the way things are before a fresh mind can escape the way things are and see, create, solve something new. "Back in the day" there were clearly advances waiting to happen. Now, there is just SO much, and so much information to be processed, reworked, mixed with other information in new ways.... "we" are still trying to figure out how to work with what we have in our grasp. The advances are there, but until they become a product that a consumer can use and buy, its all kind of appreciated yet ignored by the general populace. Regardless of snooki, the general populace also has access to information, may read it, acknowledge it, say "hey cool", but until something can be USED by them/us, its not really "genius". Humanity is still trying to lift itself from the shackles of organized religions. I believe the next step for humanity, if we don't kill ourselves first, will be acknowledging that we are one race on a planet that MUST move forward, evolve, or die on this planet. The next genius will be the people/persons who can convince humanity that its in its best interests to be one, not so many parts fighting with each other. When/if that environment is reached, THAT will be the moment of genius, THAT will be when all these newer scientific advances will be embraced, allowed/given funding to flourish, to forward humanity as a whole.

It may be that "genius" has evolved. During the stone age, the genius was defined by his(her) ability to identify the spear tip that held the most lethal edge. In that time, the upper 25% was probably considered "genius" by the clan. Zoom to the Renaissance to find a high proportion of "genius" candidates in a much larger population. The 19th and 20th centuries produced numerous candidates, with the field narrowing near the end. Consider today, the degree of difficulty in understanding the fields of knowledge already available. We may need to redesignate genius levels 1,2,3,...,n. Each layer standing on the shoulders of the other in order to spot the next island for discovery.

Robot, maybe you are the only narcissist. Everybody else is normal.

PooPoo1,
Oh yea, SURE, I have my hang-ups, lol. Absolutely!

But watch out for the over the top extreme narcissist. In FACT RUN LIKE YOUR EXSCAPING FROM FIRE!

Of course, if you get into an emotional relationship with an extreme narcissist in many ways it can be an unexcitable nightmare to leave. Most people that have successful escaped, compared it to a life and death, surviving experience and yet it is just a social experience to be caught in.

It is a nightmare!

... where are my writing skills, rofl...
I did say I do have my hang-ups, lol

... it can be an inescapable nightmare ...

@ bobg: You sell genius far short even in your stone age man. Identify the environments for taking EVERYTHING that the man, chief, father, wants; with the purest cunning and predatory manipulation in effect in everything he did. Highest kill rates. Best defensive adaptations. A core martial system. The best man cave. Secondary and tertiary process tools have now been carbon dated for N.Man at one location. Australia's readings in support of the capabilities of Australopithecus show they were using secondary tools and tools of as yet unknown type.

Simonton said!

“It may very well be that the only way to integrate the four forces of nature is to rebuild physics from the ground up. That would take a major revolution,”

The forces have been united. A fifth force has been discovered. A new "non polluting energy source" has been developed and is producing power from seven power plants now in operation.

All a result from Dr. Randell Mills' research of the true nature of the orbiting electron.

Seems like quantum mechanics may become obsolete. Dr. Mills' integration of forces uses only Maxwell's equations, Newton's "laws of motion" and Einstein's relativity to explain everything from the micro to the macro.

Check out his theorys: blacklightpower.com

Two things folks: As to the whole Blacklightpower scam, if you can't dazzle them with brilliance, baffle them with bullshit
As to the idea that there just aren't anymore genius out there it makes me think of an oft forgotten infamous quote which I believe is analogous :
"Everything that can be invented has already been invented"
Charles H Duell, Commissioner,U.S. Office of Patents, 1899.
So everything a genius can do has been done? So no more genius, so sad.

True who's knows maybe in 50 to 100 years people like Miguel Alcubierre and Cumrun Vafa will be as common household names as Newton and Einstein.

But as for building on what was already known that is a lot of what science is.
Einstein himself said "If I have seen further it is by standing on the shoulders of giants"
Ie he built on the work of those who came before him.

True geniuses do still exist. We are currently in a fundamental different world.

This world is currently in the ability age after resource age (hunter-gatherer, agriculture and industry) and information age. In this age, true geniuses should have the abilities of analyzing information and of using resources in completely altering the way we understand and make the world.

The world is currently rich in resource and information. People can make fortune through blocking advances and making crises instead of solving crises. Doing so, these people need to block the way of identifying the abilities of true geniuses and the way of supporting their efforts. Due to science/technology/economic/financial/political crises, people are unemployed, societies are unstable, and countries are downgraded.

The world needs strong leaders. A leading country is able to lead the world through identifying true geniuses and supporting their efforts. High wage and high skill jobs can be created for its people. Exports and revenues can be substantially increased for the societies. These make a leading country the most attractive place in the world for entrepreneurs, innovators, and businesses to grow.

Steve Jobs was a genius.

-

"I contend that we are both atheists. I just believe in one fewer god than you do. When you understand why you dismiss all the other possible gods, you will understand why I dismiss yours"

- Stephen Roberts

@ Mister_Fixit

I wasn't aware that Blacklightpower was exposed as a scam.
Please give your reference to that so I might read about it.

The last I heard, his process has been verified by a dozen laboratories, including MIT and CIT.

(1) Geniuses are actually more common today than ever (because they are a percentage of the population, and the population continues to grow), but it is not geniuses that this article is concerned with. It is scientific revolutionaries they are concerned with.

(2) Academia does naturally resist revolution. It is always a flat Earth socity. Any revolutionary idea will be immediately written against by someone else in academia and the publishing cycle will stifle anything resembling revolutionary ideas. Years and years of indoctrination by the weak ego and strong egotism of academia will do so as well (it is not suprise that most revolutionaries do not go as far in academics and their intellegence would indicate).

(3) If human knowledge is an expanding pool, the amount of water needed to make a visable rise is ever increasing. Someone adding an equal volumn now is causing a smaller percentage of change now than in the past.

(4) There is much that goes into those men beyond themselves. What is Eintstein 100 years ealier or later? Tesla? Darwin? It takes the right man in the moment of happenstance. They do not do this alone. Even Newton gave credit to the giants on whose shoulders he stood.

(5) Crossing discipline is increasingly difficult. That said, need genious be confined to one man? If the Sci-Fi writer creates the concept, the physicist designs it, and the engineer creates it - is it any less an act of genious than if it is all done through the force of a single man?

I think that the major innovations of the future will now be driven by corporations. The world is different now. Science 100-400 years ago relied on a single person who had the spare time to focus on an idea. I would dare to say that these folks found answers to problems which were the "low hanging fruit" so to speak. the easiest and most obvious problems get solved quickest with the least amount of work/effort/time. they get credit for it, good job to them.

As the knowledge base builds, there are fewer gaps of unknown and as well, those gaps are harder and harder to fill. the fruit at the top of the tree remains, until nature either evolves a taller creature, a more cleaver creature who can climb higher still, birds who can fly to reach the fruit, or until lighting strikes the tree down.

The sad part about all this knowledge and learning is that we, as a species, are still only a few crazy dictators away from bringing it all to a stop. No innovation or stroke of genius will suddenly ensure our survival against the biggest threat to humanity, which is ourselves.

Regardless, eureka moments will likely be fewer and farther as more and more information is added to the knowledge base and the missing pieces that remain will be harder and harder to fill. Example: Franklin only had to tie a kite to a string during a lighting storm. Now we have thousands of educated people working on the LHC trying to find quarks and higgs and bosons, and costing billions of dollars. You now have to throw alot of money and a a lifetime of group effort into a single experiment with an unknown outcome/return, all to fill another gap in the puzzle.

Genius and insanity tend to go hand in hand. The new geniuses are out there, but probably wont make an appearance until the world is ready.

" I never think of the future, it comes soon enough"....Einstein All the "narcissistic" race comments, being such a race, we may not need to know at this time.

I agree dkella.

in reply to - issowi - and their comment...
I think that it will be sooner than 100-50 years from Einstein that another Great Mind will come our way... If you look at your pattern it seems that over time the gap seemed to close and we should have another Great Mind - well right about now- Einstein was born 3 years before Darwin died...Maybe our next Great Mind just has not came out yet with his theories...maybe because they do not have the "proper" (lol) education and or they are led to believe they are "crazy" or they have insecurities which are holding them back due to lack of ... acknowledgement of their ideas....blah blah blah- who knows. But i do believe the next Great Mind is already among us.
Also i would have to agree it has alot to do with the amount of education one must have in order to gain acknowledgement of ones own ideas... who has time to go through all that schooling when they are spending so much time in their head. Yes we need education for sure- but who is to say one is not smart without a certain criteria meant?
Where is that fine-line placed?

To Feel... Is to Be. To Be... Is to Feel. Laughter... Feeling created to Awaken us from this Chapter... Believe, Feel, Laugh... Or find yourself Stuck, Fearing the Rapture... Created by Man to keep us from the Hereafter.

I'd say there are SO MANY genuses today that it's really hard for any of them to stand out... Just because you don't see flying cars running off antigravity doesn't mean the discovery wasn't made... Blame it on multimillionaires that spend too much money on new hotels and yachts and don't invest enough in consumer applications of modern discoveries. Or better yet, blame it on the american public that have a pathetic rate of technological adoption for a country that considers themselves "liberal".

The ideas come but it's hard to get them out there. One place wants 500. + to get them to look at your idea. Then they want thousands to take it to the next level. Who has that kind of money? Most ideas don't make it. If you give away your ideas, then someone else gets to benefit. It's just not going to cover getting the next ideas out there.

I don't know if anyone noticed but there's lots of good ideas in Popular Science. These ideas are from different people.

Hi, Genius is all around us. Me for example.

The problem is not having a great mind, the problem is getting all you arrogant peers to recognize me.

Newton is the most recent example of total arrogance,
he sought out and destroyed the reputation of those who had ideas even remotely related to his topic of study. In fact he would not have published if not for his ego.

Einstein, regretted his proclamation for the need for atomic weapons not because he was arrogant but because he feared those who might know what he knew.

The problem is not answers to the most Universal questions they are all around us. Every thing has since the beginning, (if beginnings exist) its own answer within its question...The truth is For every action an equal and opposite reaction.

Our problem is how "hard should a genius push his /her ideas?"
The harder one pushes the greater the resulting back lash.

Albert died regretting his "Greatest mistake" he over estimated the USA's presidents restraint. And Thousands died because he pushed for the development of the A-Bomb Before the Germans, for the specific reason of preventing its use!

So with history as our guide, we Genius need to mediate the release of answers until the world is truly ready for it.

We know by experience that good intentions along with brilliant minds is insufficient for getting the results we need.

The answer is not good enough unless the people are.
Just hate me. Because you are not ready for the truth!

Just saying :) DJG

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jump30.ℂom

With large governments acting in a more and more fascist fashion in the west most of the best and most intelligent people are running for cover as in the book Atlas Shrugged. That is likely why we have been seeing fewer and fewer geniuses lately. When those who are violent for a living weather they be called criminals, government officials, or politicians does not matter. What does is these types scare off those most able to see patterns through to the future via superior reasoning.

May governments corporations and religions be limited or abolished so that individuals can be free!

If you think Grace`s story is impossible,, last munth my uncles best friend brought in $4338 grafting ninteen hours a week in their apartment and the're co-worker's mother`s neighbour done this for 3 months and actually earned over $4338 in there spare time on their mac. the tips here... pie21.ℂom

Scientific genius extinct? Probably not, but there seems to be fewer well rounded experts who have great knowledge in many areas. Too many are so specialized that they are ignorant of simple facts in other fields. By comparison most of our (uneducated)great grandparents raised their own food, butchered their own meat and could survive on their own. They knew which wood made a good chair or axe handle and could make both without running to the store. My grandfather built his own wind mill generator(hand carved blades) and his own batteries from junk yard metals back in the 1930s and had his own electric power before there was a power grid in the country. He was a farmer, mechanic, electrician, and carpenter. I also knew a man in the 1940s-1970s who was a farmer, carpenter, aircraft mechanic, electrical engineer, mechanical engineer, jet test pilot, and finally got a business degree and became a banker. He also had 268 credit hours of college. All this by age 40. He could(and did) build a TV from scratch and scavenged electrical parts. He built his own ethanol facility to power his farm in 1974 in response to the oil embargo. Much of this man's genius is in use today but only companies that he worked for got the credit. Sadly, he passed away 9 years ago. I don't know anyone alive today with this much accumulated education and self taught knowledge or who has this kind of energy. They are probably out there.

Were not just running out of geniuses, were running out of educated people in general. Think about it, if Einstein had the misfortune of being born poor in America today, hed never be able to go to college, and hed be flipping burgers instead of progressing human knowledge.

I agree with the narcissism. Everyone is too busy working, trying to be their own genius, and concerned with their own lives, to look at the world around them and see the amazing things that are going on. Only those rare few who stumble upon this world know that there are geniuses still among us, they are just ignored and/or poo-pooed.

I say Temple Grandin is a pure genius, I just love her to pieces, would love to meet her and just listen to the things she has to say about animals. I hope I can see her before she kicks the bucket. I also feel that those who have turned classical conditioning into a training method for mammals (which includes humans, mind you) are geniuses. But no one really cares about animals now, they listen to what they hear on T.V. or a narrow-minded/biased view on the internet (PeTA anyone?) and regard everything on there as fact and the all-knowing, this is why Cesar Milan is so popular. But my ranting/bashing aside, geniuses do exist, you just need to look for them, and for the love of god, please do. Please? :D

Scientific research has nearly reached the peak that a monetary based society will allow. The incentive to do research has fallen from "how much good will this research be for the environment and mankind" to "how much money one can make by finding this out". Since wealthy businessmen generally fund a large portion of scientific research and resources are allocated by who can afford them, the only real research being done is on issues that create the most profit for these people. There are only a finite amount of resources on this planet and they are being "claimed" and extorted in the name of profit instead of science.

Our schools are following suit in the sense that people feel the only need in life is to "have things" which requires money. Our education system is no longer concerned with kids being curious about anything and it beats this out of them to satisfy and extend the status quo.

Without a large change(and im not talking about Obama change) we are headed for a similar society of that from the movie "God Bless America". Maybe we're there and I have been to preoccupied with blinding myself from these things to realize...Hope not.

-drank-

I really think we are facing the same problems we, as humans, have always faced: Everything we "know", everything we can "prove" to be wholly and accurately definite, isn't necessarily definite. What we know is just the best answer we can devise for all of the mysteries the universe has conjured up. As the article said, it only takes one genius mind to completely rewrite our textbooks. What was previously written,if you were to interview the scientists of that time and age, they would say it's completely accurate, hard fact. But it only took one great mind to change all that. It may be hard to believe, what with all of the amazing technology we have now, but I think there are still countless mysteries out there, waiting to be discovered, we just need someone, SOMEONE to challenge all of that, to question what we "know" now just as the greats did.

I am a scientific genius, and the academic network was intolerant of me directly because of this. At least my graduate school didn't.

Here is why. I was one of like 3 or 4 American students in my department. The majority of students were foreign nationals who just wanted the degree to go home and make more money in a job. The professors were also fairly representative of the student body. There were a great deal of minority professors and the department head was a woman who had very little knowledge of the intricate details of our discipline. She was a human computer interaction specialist in a computer science department full of people who specialized in machine learning, image/signal processing (including medical image processing) etc.

The professors did not want to work with anyone who had their own algorithm to test and report on for their thesis. Most of the professors were extremely defensive about their own capabilities and productivity, and were looking for students to run their side projects.

Attempts to explain my project to professors and get them on board went as follows. Several became extremely angry or sarcastic at the implication that I had designed a different kind of data mining algorithm with the ability to handle data of any kind, and prevented me from demonstrating or explaining. Some went to drastic measures to make me look incapable in front of my peers (using debate fallacies like yelling over me which I can't respond to without getting expelled for disrespecting a professor). Some of these asked me to work up a presentation that they would view in private. The ideas that they managed to understand, they would give to their graduate students and then refuse to help me.

Open minded students that had heard about my accomplishments told me that there was a general consensus that I was "arrogant" which was amusing because I almost always used the socratic method in a non sarcastic manner when interacting with professors. They would attempt to manipulate my grades downwards using criteria that had nothing to do with project goals, or using tricks like asking open ended questions on finals and arbitrarily claiming that my answers were not what they were looking for (even though I would subsequently provide a wealth of references supporting my position, or in 1 case a mathematical proof).

I finally complained to the dean when the head of the department, in a class she taught, transparently attempted to mis-grade my homework assignment and was blatantly rude during my presentation. I had recorded much of her behavior and the behavior of the other professors (One said I looked like a truck driver during presentations, another said all local non-foreign students were less capable and lazy). Afraid to face me in an appeal, she gave me an A that defied all her previous grades.

In order to prevent the department head from facing any consequences of her actions, a female dean promoted her to the deans office before leaving the university. This was based on the excuse that my complaints were motivated by gender bias.

However, I left the department without any professor to work with. Modern Academia no longer serves any purpose. It is a racket to sell visas to foreign nationals, while simultaneously being used as a platform for naive liberalism and affirmative action. Michigan state U was caught giving 20 admissions points to minorities while perfect SAT scores received 8 (SAT is an IQ correlate, so that means moron minorities could replace supergenius majorities)