12-year old kid with Aspergers smarter than Einstein

[Rogue]

TheHumanist;
Off topic, but I feel that I have to chime on this that there's more forces at work to why we haven't cured cancer yet. Some media and started to noticed this with a big article noticing how the rate of finding new drugs have tricked while the rate of discoveries of proteins that can be inhibited or causes cancer have exploded. We other words, in the past 30 years, we learned a ****-ton of how it is caused, but developed almost nothing in prevention or cures.

Just to chime in, there is no "cure for cancer." There are many different types of cancers and certain approaches are only effective for certain types of cancers. New treatments often hold promise in early stages of clinical trials but characteristically fail at later clinical stages. Also, most importantly, the greatest lesson from the human genome is that genetics is far more complex than originally thought; single traits are connected to whole networks of genes. Another thing is the paradox of cancer treatment: more treatment is not necessarily better; technology has tremendously improved at detecting tumors at early stages that people are often times better off not doing anything about, as most tumors will never become fatal.

 

[ChalengeGuyFan]

Sure he's smart, but Aspies can't get laid.

:yes:

If he really is that smart, he'll be tapping a lot of fine college ass.
"So you need some help with that homework..."


But I don't know...
Have you noticed how he says things anyone could memorize?
Have you noticed how all the "kid geniuses" are American? How we never hear about them the second time?
How the American media likes to write boombastic news?

 

[TheHumanist]

Just to chime in, there is no "cure for cancer." There are many different types of cancers and certain approaches are only effective for certain types of cancers. New treatments often hold promise in early stages of clinical trials but characteristically fail at later clinical stages. Also, most importantly, the greatest lesson from the human genome is that genetics is far more complex than originally thought; single traits are connected to whole networks of genes. Another thing is the paradox of cancer treatment: more treatment is not necessarily better; technology has tremendously improved at detecting tumors at early stages that people are often times better off not doing anything about, as most tumors will never become fatal.

I know I know, I'm just trying to simplify it as possible. My main point is the rate of new, effective treatments have slowed despite the increase of rate of new findings, a large part of it is from how we set our incentives in favor of incremental research over research may produce a more effective drug in a relatively reasonable time-span but also high chance of being a dead end.

Sure he's smart, but Aspies can't get laid.

Brutal and almost completely true. But isn't that statement a bit "deterministic" from you who I understand you post to help guys from falling into that fate?

 

[CaptainJ]

I wish the kid good luck but I think it's bad to shove him in the media spotlight at such an early age. He is still developing and celebrity pressure may just cause him to burn out and break down. There is always a common relation between geniuses: they have some form of mental illness, be it bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, autism etc. It is those mental illnesses that make their brains function without limit, allowing boundless creativity. Yet people with mental illnesses are also more vulnerable and unstable, and likely to just break down and end up living less that average significant life.

Think of John Nash, the founder of Nash's equilibrium a huge game change in game theory and modern economic theory. He came up with brilliant and hugely significant theories during his twenties and but then fell into a world of delusions where he thought he was emporor of the world and aliens were trying to contact him. He recovered with help (no thanks to mental institutions who made him undergo insulin therapy). It's harrowing to think the amount of geniuses out there who just crumble under the massive stress of their intellectual abilities and are forgotten.

Stress is a massive factor when it comes to mental illnesses. It's important that this boy is not pressured, but encouraged, so that and stress that happens to him will not end up destroying him. Sadly the amount of media exposure he has already received leads me to believe he'll die just another forgotten genius.

 

[ArcBound]

If he really is that smart, he'll be tapping a lot of fine college ass.
"So you need some help with that homework..."


But I don't know...
Have you noticed how he says things anyone could memorize?
Have you noticed how all the "kid geniuses" are American? How we never hear about them the second time?
How the American media likes to write boombastic news?

On the window he's writing down integration techniques, some of which are taught in Calculus II of my university.... and my university is number 14 in the world. Even if he did memorize that, at that age that's still an extreme accomplishment considering some 20 year olds fail the class because they can't memorize the same techniques.

Second, the article states Scott Tremaine (google him he's world famous) even saw the kid's potential. Scott Tremaine also being Canadian born, and part of the Royal Society of London.

So the kid hasn't been affirmed just by American media, he was validated by a world famous Canadian astrophysicist and by extension the Royal Society of London.

And lastly if you click on the article the OP linked, it isn't even the American media who wrote the article. It clearly states "By MailOnline" which I'm pretty sure is the Daily Mail which is in the UK.

If the story were fake and boombastic media reporting, I highly doubt a British news agency would pretend an American kid is super smart, and then a Canadian astrophysicist would risk his world famous reputation claiming the kid is on the cutting edge of astrophysics.

I don't know about the other kids you claim to have heard in American media, but this kid seems 100% legit.

 

[ChalengeGuyFan]

OK, I didn't care to investigate that much, so I'll take your word for it.

But what he's writing on that window is BASIC calculus that we learn in highschool here, in Romania, one full year before we even go to University!


When I was in the 7th grade, a colleague of mine and her sister, who was one year older than the two of us, left for Canada.
The little one entered the 10th grade and the older one in the 12th grade.
We were hearing that the older one was actually schooling her math teacher there, in Canada. Haha! (true story, not bullsh!tting in any way)



Edit:
And one more thing (unrelated to this specific kid): don't underestimate the power of memorization of 12 year olds.

In the 7th grade (13yo) I participated at the Biology Olympics, having learned from University grade books. I narrowly missed the 1st place because at one question I wrote a very short essay explaining why their question was dumb and no answer was correct. (I was a legend that day )
In the same year I went to like... 4 different Olympics and at each of them I got pretty high in the hierarchy.

Did I understand the things that I had learned? Of course I did, but without the huge memorization that I did I wouldn't have gotten anywhere.
And I wasn't even the smartest kid, let alone a genius. (actually, I as the smartest kid in my school, goddamit, but still no genius)


Anyway, props for the kid in the OP.

 

[Alle_Gory]

Sure he's smart, but Aspies can't get laid.

:yes:

I disagree. If he's smart, really smart he WILL get laid.

 

[SharinganUser]

He won't be on Fox news when he disproves God.

 

[SharinganUser]

Is he smarter than Hawking???

 

[azanon]

As a scientist, I'm all ears about his efforts to debunk the Big Bang Theory, and why he's even trying to do so. Is it because he's religious? Has he already determined that the theory is flawed, and on what basis? Does this really intelligent kid understand what a theory is, and the level of evidence that would be needed to even imply that it is flawed?

My guess is humility is something that will come with age, and he isn't there yet.