12 years old boy with higher IQ than Einstein developing his own theory of relativity

reply to post by ommadawn


His parents need to push him through the front door of MIT ASAP. I'm not sure what his major should be.
-- Mechanical Engineering -- Electrical Engineering -- Aerospace ???

This kid is simply amazing. I wish I had half the drive as he does to study physics, math etc.

Kind Regards,
TokyoDynamite

In my school he would have been called a smart Alec and had his head flushed down the toilet!
He can't be all that bright can he!? I hear he's a fan of Justin Beiber...
Does anyone else feel just a little bit sad for this kid? After all he has a great future ahead of him but no real childhood to relive as he gets older...

reply to post by Radiobuzz

I was very excited when started to read this thread because surely humanity needs more prodigies, however I couldn't help but roll my eyes when watching the first video... Writing his calculations on a window? That's so "A Beautiful Mind" and is without a doubt just pure show, probably made by his parents. There's no practicity at all in doing that unless you just want to show off. Later on I got to read the note posted by SJE98 and something doesn't seem right...

Agreed. Add to that the fact that the confident tone of the vocal presentation don’t suggest Asperger’s syndrome so much as they do a well-versed young media pro and his off-camera voice coach and scriptwriter.

Either this kid is an invention by his parents or he's really interested in science but he's not at the level of a genius as the media and his parents are claiming.

Precisely. I think we’ll find, as this story plays out, that the modern craze for celebrity at any price is the real wellspring of this young fellow’s ‘genius’. As somebody pointed out earlier, an IQ of 170 isn’t even that high.

reply to post by Astyanax


Aspergers, as one can continue to say till blue in the face without being heard or listened to, is an extremely varied and complicated condition. Without extremely close, and protracted study of his interpersonal communication capacity, his learning capability, his level of concentration and other various factors, claiming to be suspicious of this child, or any facet of his presentation is utterly without informed basis.
Furthermore, someone who has Aspergers, and has a particular interest in a subject, can hold forth lucidly, and incredibly precisely upon that subject, if thier condition is not of a severity which precludes any form of speaking or direct communication.
I once new a chap called Dan , who was a prodigious animator. He wrote, drew and coloured a comic strip for our college newsletter, and has been working on an independantly produced computer game for some time. When asked to speak on the specifics of creating characters and environments for an animation, and bringing skills together to create a finished product, Dan is as fluid and dynamic as a mountain stream. When speaking on the subject of friendship and deep personal connection to any one member of his social circle, Dan would be reduced to a stuttering wreck, unsure of himself, his position in the world, and the purpose of things like love and companionship. He has Aspergers.
While it is true that there are sufferers of this condition who have a much more severe form of the condition, and cannot function with any degree of lucidity, that is by no means the case for everyone who has the condition, and to comment on this prodigious childs capabilities, based on a lack of understanding of the depth and complexity of the condition he has, is not conducive to promoting sensible discussion about him or his amazing talent for math.

reply to post by TrueBrit

Your eagerness to defend this young fellow suggests a charitable heart and an uncritical mind.

The first does you credit, the second perhaps less so.

Without extremely close, and protracted study of his interpersonal communication capacity, his learning capability, his level of concentration and other various factors, claiming to be suspicious of this child, or any facet of his presentation is utterly without informed basis.

My background is in advertising and the media. Twenty-odd years’ experience tells me I know a trained communicator when I see one.

Any kid who’s smart and socially inept is immediately diagnosed with Asperger’s syndrome these days. Frankly, I disbelieve in the existence of any such condition. The modern world has made hypochondriacs of just about everybody.

reply to post by Astyanax


So, allow me to get things straight. My uncritical mind (which in fact is trained to be crititcal of anything that has no supportable scientific evidence attatched to it, and is also qualified in basic human psychology) and its conclusions are biased, but your admittedly cynical mind (long soaked in the anti thought of the world of advertising) is not? I fail to see how following a statement which according to all the expertise on the subject, is flawed beyond belief, with another statement which also shows your lack of comprehension of the issues concerned, can possibly reinforce your position.
There is nothing wrong with discussing a topic with which one is unfamiliar, and nothing wrong with stating an opinion on that subject, for such is the stuff of healthy debate. But to comment from a position of ignorance, and say that an entire branch of psychological dysfunction is in fact an invention is utterly unsupportable.
Much as the limitations of Einsteins thoughts on relativity for instance, are an annoyance to me, you will not see me galavanting around the place proclaiming that his work is bunk, simply because its consequences (i.e. the significant problems humanity faces regarding super luminal locomotion) are distasteful to me.

reply to post by Vitchilo


If he ever gets abducted by extraterrestrials, they will certainly be happy and it might even boost humanities reputation.

Hopefully this kid lives long enough to come up with some revolutionary theories and teachings.

I really wish that this kid will invest his gifts in contributing something important to the domain of technology in the future, because it's far greater than grappling with concepts in mathematics. therfor i really hope that intrests him sometime in the future .

reply to post by Vitchilo


Well, it is time to groom the next Stephen Hawking, if you think about it.

Who else will be the 'official voice' of all that is, when Stephen passes on?

I hope not- but it's looking too similar not to be.

reply to post by TrueBrit


I definitely agree with you 100%!!!! I have a nephew with it...but a slightly more severe case, the facial expressions, and the voice, along with some behavior issues. I can't even believe how ignorant some people are, thinking everyone HAS to be a severe case. Props to you for post!!!

i have asperger's syndrome, and i'm curious as to what being neurotypical feels like. there are select benefits, but its a tradeoff. i get physics like normal people get social interactions. intuitive. it could be worse, i thank God every day that i'm higher functioning, even if i'm not neurotypical.

reply to post by Bob Sholtz

From your own experience, and looking at the OP video, would you say this boy was a fellow-sufferer, Bob?

reply to post by Astyanax


i'd say so. constantly looking away from the camera while talking, extreme preoccupation with a specific subject, "motor mouth", sloppy handwriting, rocking back and forth. the only thing missing is how he gets on with peers in a social setting. i'd imagine that he would feel anxiety, alone, and would probably be content to do math by himself and ignore the other children, and he should be allowed to be like that.

i remember being very young (between 2 and 5) and not being able to sleep because i would picture shapes spinning, and i couldn't stop. i remember the first word i said at around 9 months, who was there, what i was doing, what they were doing. very specific. thats not very common though.

if you think your child is a little "different" but you can't nail it down, please have a psychiatrist evaluate them for asperger's syndrome. it would have made life sooooo much easier if i had known i had AS going through school. i eventually self-diagnosed (pretty common for people with AS to realize they are different) at 16, and a few weeks ago i got an official diagnosis from a psychiatrist.

I went through a few of his videos and found a big issue with the claims.

He divided by zero and said it equals infinity.

What!? And you think he's a Ph.D.? You'd be dropped from an undergrad program by asserting that.

Besides having a high IQ myself, I went to school with a guy who's IQ was around 180. It took him a lot of years to become awesome at physics. I don't think this kid is "for real". He might truly be well above average, but Einstein would probably eat him for lunch.

There are thousands of people who have IQs higher than his. What's the big deal? His parents are obviously running the PR campaign.

I found some of the comments here to be slightly disturbing.
However i will not get into it.
My opinion,
I would not expect this gifted young individual to be 'solving the biggest problems of mankind, inventing lots of amazing things, major scientific breakthroughs, etc etc etc...
If he does, then of course it would be of huge significance and a major BONUS.

My approach would be to let him live his life as he wants to.. If he wants to try solve the biggest scientific problems of our time or simply go get a 9--5 regular job,let him.
Putting enormous pressure on him will do no good at all. Setting the bar immensely high may discourage him.He has come this far using his mind and intellect, let him take his own path and if it leads to breakthroughs then brilliant. Applaud him, nobel awards etc etc.

Simply the fact he is where he is today deserves an immense amount of credit a respect.

Some people forget he is a 12 year old child with a medical condition, I find some of the comments distasteful, but that is my opinion, so is the above.

reply to post by Jeluzifus


he will struggle to be happy unless he is doing math. he'll struggle making/keeping friends and being around other people. i wouldn't even call it a medical condition,as that is insulting, its a difference in brain fuction and priorities.

google famous people with asperger's syndrome, and you will be shocked by how many shaped the world.

Originally posted by Bob Sholtz
reply to post by Jeluzifus

 

he will struggle to be happy unless he is doing math. he'll struggle making/keeping friends and being around other people. i wouldn't even call it a medical condition,as that is insulting, its a difference in brain fuction and priorities.

google famous people with asperger's syndrome, and you will be shocked by how many shaped the world.

I think he will struggle to be happy unless he is doing what he loves to do. At this moment it is Math.

What I was trying to get across is that whatever decision is made , that it is Him and his parents making the decision.
And I agree Math is what he absolutely loves to do, but will it still be in 10 years time? I just wouldnt like his path in life to be set in stone just because of what he loves now. And I was saying he is a 12 year old kid, his goals in life may change by the time he finishes puberty. But I get the feeling that he understands things on a deep level and whatever he applies himself to , he will be obscenely successful.
I just feel this kid is gifted and that there will so many people trying to get what they want from him rather than whats best for him.
I didnt mean to be insulting calling it a condition, I seen people above me call it a disease and I agree that is insulting. I was trying to find a neutral term. Apologies if I have offended anybody.
Wouldnt you call a syndrome a condition?

SYNDROME Pathology, Psychiatry . a group of symptoms that together are characteristic of a specific disorder, disease, or the like.
2. a group of related or coincident things, events, actions, etc.
3. the pattern of symptoms that characterize or indicate a particular social condition.

dictionary.reference.com...
Nothing but best wishes for this gifted young man.

reply to post by Jeluzifus


i see what you're saying, and i agree. no one should force him to do what he doesn't want, but from personal experience, the obsessions we experience are quite intense, but they bring comfort. he does it for fun and because he loves the concepts.

"medical condition" has negative connotations (you wouldn't refer to someone's genius as a "medical condition", even though they may be eccentric), and it certainly is not a disease. alot of us call ourselves "aspies" and refer to others as "neurotypicals". i would just call us "different". its just different wiring. if you met me, you would probably think i was different, but you wouldn't be able to name why i was different.

The little guy (or perhaps his Mom) has been very quiet for the last 4 weeks now.

Might be having a re-think, which would be good.