DATE: 11/18/00
Here is a riddle for you. I can't figure it out, maybe you can help me:
What is greater than God, More evil than the devil, Poor people have it, Rich people need it, If you eat it you'll die. ????
S.G.
----
Firstly I thought of that there is nothing satisfying all conditions. So Nothing could be the answer in that first sense. But then (A shocking discovery ;-), it also probably hits the intended answer!
As:
Nothing is greater than God, Nothing is more evil than the devil, Poor people have Nothing, Rich people need Nothing, If you eat Nothing, you will die.
UN
PS. I can imagine another possible answer from a 3 year old: Something (But I don't know what, daddy).
DATE: 11/25/00
Looking at the latest question reminded me of another riddle.
"Can an omnipotent God create an object that he himself cannot lift?"
If you have any solutions I'd appreciate them very much.
JC
----
To solve this riddle I think it helps if we first split God into God1 and God2.
If an omnipotent God1 can create an object so heavy, such that an omnipotent God2 can't lift it, then God2 can't possess the same degree of omnipotence as God1. If God2 can lift the object, then God1 can't possess the same degree of omnipotence as God2. As God1 and God2 is the same God in the question, we end up in a contradiction, and the question becomes meningless.
Actually, God knows that it is meaningless to create such an object as he always will be able to lift it. So instead of saying that the question is meaningless, we can say that the definition of omnipotence needs some modification.
UN
DATE: 12/01/00
Can you tell me your opinion about what is the meaning with life and the aim or goal for it?
M.T.
----
On a individual plane I think that the meaning with life is simply to fill it with as much meaning as possible. :-)
As it seems that the highest state of matter is when it displays consciousness (and can be reflecting on itself), maybe it is meant - on a collective plane and on a very long view - that we shall spread out ourselves to the stars and beyond.
If we are alone in the Universe, this would be even more important!
UN
DATE: 12/24/00
I noticed the change you made to the GRE(/SAT) Conversions. How exactly does one now use that? Does one use one's GRE score, or one's SAT score?
DJB
----
The conversion is adjusted for the GRE scores. If you want to know your IQ from your SAT score you should normally add 5-10 IQ points to your calculated value in the Stanford-Binet IQ box. GRE has a higher median than SAT, due to the fact that college applicants have a higher IQ average than the general population. Theoretically GRE and SAT have the same median and standard deviation.
A HAPPY CHRISTMAS TO ALL OF YOU!
UN
DATE: 12/27/00
When will we for the first time visit another star system?
JG
----
According to NASA's plans it is probable that we within 100 years, or so, will send a space-probe (unmanned) to the Alpha/Beta Centauri System (The closest sun in that system is Proxima Centauri, only 4.0 light years away). Very promising seems, the so called, Space Sailers pushed through space by a very large array of lasers placed on the moon or in space (The prevailing idea today, is to get very close to the sun and use a graviational sling effect together with the radiation pressure from the sun. The same technique can then be used to brake the probe at the destination sun).
However, to make the same trip with a manned space-craft will certainly require a breakthrough within physics (Extraction of Vacuum Energy*/Reduced Inertia/...). Maybe this will be possible within 200 years or so (at the time for the first Star Trek series :).
UN
*= Quantum Fluctuation Energy (Theory)
DATE: 01/01/01
Is it possible to measure beauty as it is with intelligence?
BG
----
Everyone knows that the ideal of beauty has changed throughout history. But a group of psychologists has tried to take the measurements on the most perfect face. They showed thousands of photos before different persons and ended up in a female and male ideal face with the most perfect proportions and qualities. Only one female face and one male face seemed to satisfy all the requirements.
So, these two persons below should be the most beautiful female and male today as science see it!
Catherine Deneuve |
Leonardo DiCaprio |
UN
DATE: 01/13/01
What is Nietzche's overman theory? Can you give me an explanation or refer me to a good site that explains this?
BM
----
According to Nietzsche, the masses conform to tradition, whereas his ideal overman is secure, independent, and highly individualistic. The overman feels deeply, but his passions are rationally controlled. Concentrating on the real world, rather than on the rewards of the next world promised by religion, the overman affirms life, including the suffering and pain that accompany human existence. He is a creator of values, a creator of a "master morality" that reflects the strength and independence of one who is liberated from all values, except those that he deems valid.
Nietzsche maintained that all human behaviour is motivated by the will to power. In its positive sense, the will to power is not simply power over others, but the power over oneself that is necessary for creativity. Such power is manifested in the overman's independence, creativity, and originality. Although Nietzsche explicitly denied that any overmen had yet arisen, he mentions several individuals who could serve as models, including Socrates, Jesus Christ, Leonardo da Vinci, Michelangelo, Shakespeare, Goethe, Julius Caesar, and Napoleon.
UN
DATE: 01/27/01
I have a question and was wondering if you could help. If you were to tell someone of 10 books that were must read books that no one should leave earth without reading which would you suggest? I realize that this may be a matter of preference, but being objective, which would you suggest?
BD
----
If I was to leave Earth in a space-ship I would probably find most valuable an up-to-date Encyclopedia from A-Z. (where each book is very thick!)
If I was to choose the 10 most important "Earth Works" you can't leave without, I think I would choose these ones:
1. Faidon, by Plato (400 BC)
2. Canterbury Tales, by Geoffrey Chaucer (1387)
3. Henry VI, Part 2, by William Shakespeare (1590)
4. Principia Mathematica, by Sir Isaac Newton (1687)
5. The Revolutions of the Heavenly Bodies, by Nicholas Copernicus (1543)
6. Gutenberg Bible, by Johann Gutenberg (1455)
7. Antiseptic Principle of the Practice of Surgery, by Louis Pasteur (1867)
8. Relativity: The Special and the General Theory, by Albert Einstein (1918)
9. Interpretation of Dreams, by Sigmund Freud (1900)
10. The Origin of Species, by Charles Darwin (1859)
UN
DATE: 02/22/01
Which breeds of dog and cat are the most intelligent?
PJ
----
Often mentioned as the most clever dog is the sheep dog, and among the cats, the Siamese cat. It should not be applicable with the human-related IQ values for animals, nevertheless it has been estimated by some researchers that the most intelligent dogs score close to 40, and the most intelligent cats around 20.
UN
DATE: 03/07/01
You sound like an anarchist - are you, what's your thoughts on politics?
SW
----
So I'm sounding like an anarchist? Well, I'm rather the opposite. I believe a society as complex as ours needs structure and order.
(My basic attitude on political matters is rather well reflected in the books "On Liberty", "Representative Government" and "The Subjection of Women", by John Stuart Mill.)
UN
DATE: 03/22/01
When was time created? Did time always exist or did it begin with the big bang?
K.K.
----
According to a theory by the physicist Stephen W. Hawking the Big Bang can be seen as originating from a Quantum Fluctuation creating all the dimensions in the space-time continuum simultaneously, i.e. also time itself.
Therefore it is eg. meaningless to ask what happened before the Big Bang. This fluctuation would also have created the massive singularity at time 0 containing the most part of the matter we can see in today's Universe. However, there are also some indications that smaller "local" fluctuations appear in Universe adding extra matter (seemingly out of Nothing) to the existing.
UN
DATE: 04/21/01
Internet IQ tests are supposedly inaccurate. Is this because they generally overestimate IQ, or because they underestimate it?
P.Y.
----
They are far too optimistic! Generally, it seems that on-line tests over-shoot the correct score with as much as 15-25 IQ points.
UN
DATE: 05/12/01
Is not our measure of "genius" culture bound. We measure genius by western standards. Could there not be genius among native Australians or South american tribes, not exposed to our standards but geniuses within their own level of society?
M.S.
----
Yes, naturally there have been geniuses also among the native Australians or South American tribes (This is a fact due to the nature of the evolution). The society itself determines in which direction the brain is trained, and IQ tests are generally adapted to mostly measure the effect of this "training". (This is one reason why, the so called, Flynn Effect is so controversial.)
If you, for example, have the intention to measure the intelligence for a native Australian, probably you primarily want to have a look at his hunting skills (his planning, overall strategy, efficiency when carried out, and so on).
And it is not difficult to imagine such a person performing on the "Genius" level.
Now, it is reasonable to believe that the occurrences of the highly intelligent in a society are more frequent the more complex the society is (not necessarily a developed Western one), as such a society demands more of the individuals.
Without doubt the quality of living (Nutrition factors, education, etc.) has an impact on intelligence.
UN
DATE: 06/02/01
If 85 - 115 is normal intelligence, what are the designations for IQs below 85?
D.F.
----
Intelligence Interval | Cognitive Designation |
| 0 | Microcephal Idiot |
| 1 - 39 | Idiot |
| 40 - 69 | Imbecile |
| 70 - 84 | Lightly Retarded |
| (85 - 89) | (Dull) |
UN
DATE: 06/12/01
If God has infinite intelligence, can He/She/It make 1 + 1 = 3?
D.R.
----
If we think of an omnipotent God making 1 + 1 equal to 3, it is hard to believe that our Universe can continue to exist in the way it does. As 1 + 1 = 2 satisfies logical rules as well (The equation was actually proved in Principia Mathematica, through logical methods, by B. Russell and A.N. Whitehead), our logic, i.e. our thought-laws, would no longer be valid - if God changed this fundamental equality.
I believe that our logic is strongly related to the reality we live in, and has a validity a priori (and is not a consequence of our experience with the reality - an opinion among some philosophers).
UN
DATE: 07/02/01
Is time travel possible?
KI
----
To travel forward in time would be no problem. Theoretically. It is sufficient to accelerate a space-ship up to a considerable speed to notice a slow-down of the time. If the speed is closing enough to the speed of light it may be possible to visit a future thousands of years from the launch, without losing more than a couple of years on-board the space-ship.
It is much more problematic to travel backwards in time. A necessary condition is that you can't be allowed to interact with events which have already occured (otherwise a number of paradoxes will arise)*. Still, under very special conditions and at extremely high energies (for example, in a wormhole), it appears that it is possible to travel backwards in time - for short periods - seen from an outside viewer's perspective. The end effect will - strangely enough - be as in the passage above, but much more dramatic.(Personally I think the causal laws in the universe prohibit such time travels. I.e. maybe it is possible to travel backwards in time locally, but whenever you leave that disturbed region, you follow the space-time curves back to "global" time.)
UN
*=The "many worlds" theory allows travels back in time without paradoxes, but is very speculative (probably only possible on quantum level).
DATE: 07/22/01
Is it believable to see aliens or any U.F.O's in our planet?
JJ
----
From what we know today it is probable that life exists also on other planets in the universe, not merely on earth. If we someday make contact with another civilization, however, it is likely that it will be far ahead of ours in terms of technical development (It is hard to believe that we will encounter a civilization with such a short time-span as our own, about 5000+ years).
The astrophysicist Ronald N. Bracewell has proposed a table for such life within our own galaxy, divided into four distinguishable possibilities (Case I - IV). If the nearest superior community is not in our galaxy at all, but outside it we have Case V. Finally, case VI covers the remaining possibility, that no community superior to us exists, anywhere!
Based on the knowledge we have today a qualified guess would be Case IV (with Case II representing life of any form).
It is impossible to say if any aliens will pay us a visit - there are too many unknown variables.
| Superior Technical Life Within Our Galaxy | Special Cases |
| Case | I | II | III | IV | V | VI |
| Degree of abundance of life superior to us | Abundant | Sparse | Rare | Very Rare | We are alone in the galaxy | We are alone in the universe |
| Distance to nearest superior community, d | Less than 30 light years | From 30 to 300 light years | From 300 to 3000 light years | From 3000 light years to edge of galaxy | Greater than 1 million light years | Infinity |
UN
DATE: 08/10/01
Will it ever be possible to teleport humans (as in Star Trek)?
JS
----
Generally, a teleportation of a human (or any other object) would involve these three steps:
1) Scan the person at the sending location to extract all information about the atoms in his body.
2) Send instructions to the receiving location on how to set the target atoms into the desired pattern.
3) Re-build the body (i.e. replicate the exact pattern using atoms of the same kind) at the receiving location, but destroy the original body in the progress.
Although the teleportation itself is instaneous, the demand of informing the receiving location means that a complete teleportation can't exceed the speed of light.
Remarkably. This scheme works for quantum-scale particles, such as photons and atoms. Although no existing laws of physics prevent teleportation from beeing carried out in humans, it is extremely unlikely that this scheme could be carried out - at least in the foreseeable future - in such macroscopic objects, because the uniquely quantum properties that make teleportation possible quickly break down as objects scale up to macroscopic sizes.
UN
DATE: 09/18/01
I have kind of a dispute with my father-in-law whether or not the maze found on the site Theseus and the Minotaur is possible to solve or not (he believes the answer to be that it’s not possible to solve the maze – I suspect much due to the fact that hours of hours in front of the screen hasn’t brought him any closer to the solution). If there is a solution to the maze, I would really appreciate if You could show/explain it.
MA
----
The maze is possible to solve, but it is extremely difficult and involves up to a hundred moves for Theseus.
It took me 4 hours to solve!
If you give up, you can find the solution here
UN
DATE: 10/13/01
Do you think there is an order to understanding philosophical concepts which relates to an order of IQ? For example, would someone in today's society need an IQ equal to Einstein to understand the theories of relativity?
DS
----
It is difficult to mention a threshold below which you can't understand certain issues. If you have at least average intelligence you should be able to comprehend most knowledge, on the condition that you are given enough time. In practical terms, however, without unlimited time to your disposal, an IQ of at least 125 (SD16) should be enough to understand all concepts teached at schools or colleges.
UN
DATE: 11/16/01
Why is the fly riddle on the IQ page?
ADC
----
It is there to illustrate the problems with some answers on IQ tests. In this particular case you have three choices, where:
A - is a tautology B - is a humoristic ingenuity C - is actually two answers within one
But which answer is the "right"? Is this not a matter of perspective from the test constructor's point of view?
UN
DATE: 11/21/01
You once said art and music don't require a high I.Q., Can you give me the name of a successful artist who has an I.Q. at or below the average level.
D.
----
Have I said that...where...when :-)
Well, I think one very striking example on an artistic genius scoring remarkably low, is the pop artist Andy Warhol (only at 86, like a moron!).
UN
DATE: 12/08/01
How can people move things by just looking at them without actually physically touching them? Is it also possible for me to be able to do that?
F.
----
It is hard to believe that these phenomena are real. Maybe the whole is an illusion induced by hypnosis or some other suggestion technique on the observers, so that they are believing the object is actually moving.
A "scientific" explanation, I have heard, is that the brain is emitting energy waves, and under certain circumstances these waves can cause a resonance in an object's matter - and sometimes making it move.
UN
DATE: 01/07/02
Do you know of a book or site that documents people of extremely high intelligence & IQ in this day and age, describing their achievements and obvious brilliance?
DH
----
A good start is The Hollingworth Center
A good book on this matter is Children Above 180 IQ by Leta S. Hollingworth
UN
DATE: 02/03/02
I read in the book The Bell Curve that Northeast Asians have an average IQ of 106 and Whites 103. Why do you state that the Japanese have an average IQ of 115? It doesn`t make any sense.
PCC
----
The expected average IQ for persons born in Japan 1960-61 is 115 (For the total population it is about 111). At least 10% of the Japanese have an IQ above 130. Remember that Japan is a much smaller region than the one you mentioned, and in which it is included, in effect increasing the IQ average for that encompassing region.
UN
DATE: 03/02/02
Who have been the criminals or villains of history with the highest IQ's? Also in what ways have they used that superior intelligence for harm?
FB
----
It is rumoured that the mafia leader Al Capone had an IQ of 200. I don't think he needs a closer presentation. An example of a criminal with a verified exceptional intelligence (IQ 170, at age 10) is the Unabomber Theodore Kaczynski. He was a successful researcher in mathematics before he turned against the society. You can read his manifesto here (and find other information about him there, as well). Other famous high IQ scorers among the criminals are Richard Loeb (child iq 160) and Nathan Leopold (child iq 210) at the beginning of the 20th century. You can read more about these two men at.
UN
DATE: 03/17/02
Do you know International Masters or Grand Masters with IQs between 120-140. Is it possible on an ELO-IQ scale, is there any studies of it, to calculate the maximum ELO that a person could reach based on IQ.
JN
----
The average IQ for International Masters seems to lie in the intervall 130 - 140 (SD16).
In fact there exists an attempt to formulate such a formula, you are asking after. It is called The Levitt Equation:
Elo ~ (10 x IQ) + 1000
The meaning of the ‘~’ symbol can be taken as ‘given many years of intense effort, will tend to equal approximately’. That is to say that a player with an IQ of Y, after many years of tournament play and study will tend to have a chess Elo rating of about 10Y + 1000.
You can find more information about this on the site Jon Levitt's Chess Pages.
UN
DATE: 05/14/02
India, China and Taiwan put together account for probably 50 % of the world's population, hence logically speaking should have 50% of the world's geniuses. But except for Ramanujan and Confucius I don't think I could find any Indians or Chinese in your page or even elsewhere for that matter. How is it that the geniuses in these countries aren’t as well recognized or as successful as their European counterparts? Statistically I read somewhere that there must be 6-7 Einsteins in these countries put together. Where are they?
PG
----
Yes, where are they? Maybe it is due to the fact that I'm from a Western country :). Anyway, if you for example look at the Nobel laureates you will see that many of them are Chinese or Indian by birth (but a high percentage of them pursue research at an American, English or another Western university). You must also be aware of that both China and India are poor countries, and may not satisfy the needs of their own geniuses (hence, some of those few with a thick wallet emigrate).
UN
DATE: 06/15/02
Why do people feel the need to create Gods?
RC
----
I believe the religious beliefs arise from hope and fear. Man, who is not master of his own destiny, sees himself in the hands of invisible powers, who his fantasy equip with human characters and who he try to appease through prayers and sacrifices.
UN
DATE: 07/11/02
Altough I see problemsolving as a creative mind in progress, I sure could use a framework for problemsolving. As a normal person I can't keep the structures (and know them) in my head. How do I solve problems?
PS
----
There are many books covering this topic. For example, you can find good guide lines in the following books:
How to Solve Problems, by Wayne Wickelgren
Conceptual Blockbusting, by James L. Adams
Aha!, by Martin Gardner
UN
DATE: 08/13/02
You seem to possess a lot of knowledge. What's your education?
TL
----
I have a M.A. in Theoretical Philosophy, and degrees in Physics, Mathematics, and Computer Science.
UN
DATE: 09/21/02
We all know that there is an absolute zero. Is there also an absolute heat point?
KU
----
Both no and yes. According to both the Big Bang theory and the latest ekpyrothical theory (where two universes collides in a cyclic manner through a gigantic "vacuum spring") the temperature reached its highest levels at about 10270 degrees Celsius just after time 0 (but this doesn't imply a limit).
However, in our Universe it is possible that there is a limit, called the Hagendorn temperature. According to the underlying theory, the temperature will not increase above about 1012 degrees Celsius, independant on how much energy is provided. The particles will re-aggregate and cool themselves down. (This is about 1000 times the temperature in the center of violet stars)
UN
DATE: 10/12/02
Where can I find the most intelligent students in the U.S.A.?
LK
----
The white mathematics and physics students at MIT have an average I.Q. of 138, which is the highest in the United States (The average for the professors is 145, also the highest in the U.S.). Interestingly, California Institute of Technology had higher median SAT scores than MIT (1400 versus 1375). This may indicate that the students have higher IQs, but I haven't seen any figures.
UN
DATE: 11/14/02
On your page "IQBoy: My Napkin Humour", where IQboy tries to prove the existense of Santa Claus, you seem to have used some sort of a symbolic language. Is this a true language or only a fabricated one by you?
PL
----
In fact it is a true, so called, object language. The language was constructed by the philosopher Rudolf Carnap in the book "The Logical Structure of the World & Pseudoproblems in Philosophy", a major work of logical philosophy. The language is used to establish a "constructional system", that is, an epistemic-logical system of objects or concepts, as a tool to analyse our reality.
UN
DATE: 01/24/03
i was running through a thought experiment when i ran across something quite foreign to me. i have never had a course in formal logic so, please, if there is a simple answer to my question, tell me. anywho, i had understood myself to be a machine, nothing more, nothing less. there is no god, soul, metaphysical, or any of that jazz. the problem that i'm confronted with arises when i tried to explain the existence of inductive logic. if i am a machine, i should be given a set of data as input and the output is predetermined. this is (as i understand it) how all machines work. they all follow the a->b,b->c, a->c pattern. i'm quite confused as to where inductive logic comes in? it is a leap in the other direction from deductive reasoning and i fail to see how it has come about. at first i attributed its cause to evolution. those things which are able to correctly inductively deduce outcomes have a better chance for survival. but that is just giving a cop-out answer that inductive logic is just patter recognition, which as far as i can tell is circular and gets me nowhere. how did the machine that i call me gain the ability to work outside of the algorithem that is the basis of all machinery? forgive me if this is an easily answered question, but i've had no schooling in the field. any books to read would be most helpful.
ES
----
Inductive arguments can be usefully divided into two classes:
A. Those arguments in which a general statement is affirmed on the basis of the truth of particular statements which contain the same terms as those found in the general statement. The following argument form (often called induction by enumeration) is an example:
A1 is B A2 is B . . . An is B Therefore all A's are B.
B. Those inductive arguments that do not involve induction of kind A, in which a statement is affirmed on the basis of the truth of statements which are evidence for it or good grounds for it.
Both these classes can easily be managed by a machine.
A good book on this matter is Fundamentals of Logic by James D. Carney/Richard K. Scheer.
UN
DATE: 03/21/03
Is there any scientific evidence that Jesus actually has exist?
KI
----
The only scientific evidence for the existence of Jesus, I know about, is an approximately 2000 years old cinerary urn from Jerusalem with the inscription "Jacob, son of Josef, brother of Jesus" (Among the jews at this time the brother's name was only mentioned if he hold a special position).
UN
DATE: 04/09/03
Which are the highest IQs assigned to fictious figures?
T.L.W.
----
The highest IQ scores explicitly mentioned, I have seen, are 2005 for Q (Star Trek), 1250 for Reg Barclay in "The Nth Degree" (Star Trek), over 200 for Hannibal Lector, 200 for Luther (Superman) and 190 for Sherlock Holmes.
UN
DATE: 05/17/03
Can high IQs in both parents be projected to their children, and do this produce comparable or even more intelligent children?
K.F.
----
Hereditary is not only responsible for the similarity between parents and children. It is also responsible for many of the differences. The pack of genetic "cards" is shuffled each time before it is re-dealt. As a result, it can be predicted that if any group of parents varies widely from the norm, then (if maturing is perfectly random) their children will tend to to regress towards that norm to the extent of about half in each generation. Thus a group of highly intellligent parents would, according to Galton's law, have children whose average intelligence, although above the general mean, would be about halfway back towards it. This principle is borne out by the following table, supplied by Sir Cyril Burt (Mensa).
Parents Children 153 127 137 123 132 120 117 112 109 105 98 97
UN
DATE: 06/22/03
How old is the Universe?
T.J.
----
NASA has recently taken the most detailed pictures of the cosmic background radiation. The measurements have verified the theory about the so called inflation. That is, that the universe is expanding. It has also been possible to measure the exact age of the universe! Earlier, the age of the universe was estimated to be between twelve and eighteen billion years. Now we know that the universe is 13,7 billion years old, with a margin of error of only one percent.
UN
DATE: 07/25/03
I have a dream. I want to see the most beautiful woman imaginable, on a painting or elsewhere.
K.Y.U.
----
I think I can help you with your dream :-). Look for Jonathon Earl Bowser's artworks. His women are so beautiful so you are being taken aback! (The British actress Catherine Zeta Jones is considered by many motion picture companies as the most beautiful woman today). Within literature Guinevere and Isolde are generally regarded as the most beautiful women who have ever exist (see below). It is also rather typical that two of the literature's greatest knights of all time - Sir Lancelot and Sir Tristan - had close relationships respectively with these two beauties.
UN
Catherine Zeta Jones, Guinevere and Isolde.