Rating of the most successful men. Outstanding minds in human history

The IQ test is often criticized by serious researchers. And, nevertheless, it is IQ that remains the most popular measure of intellectual power.

Our top ten includes 10 smartest people on the planet with an IQ of 160 and above. By the way, about 50% of the world's population have IQs from 85 to 110 points.

The brilliant theoretical physicist is known for his works devoted to unraveling the mysteries of the universe. Despite the severe form of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, which deprived the scientist of the ability to walk and speak, Hawking's intelligence remains one of the strongest on the planet.

9. Paul Allen (170 points)

The co-founder of Microsoft has managed, as they say, to turn his mind into wealth. Allen is one of the planet's most renowned entrepreneurs, investors and philanthropists. Allen invests heavily in sports teams and space exploration programs.

8. Sir Andrew Wiles (170 points)

In 1995, a British mathematician shocked the entire scientific world by proving Fermat's theorem, which was considered unsolvable. Wiles has 15 prestigious awards in mathematics and related sciences.

7. Judit Polgar (170 points)

The only woman in the top ten smartest is a Hungarian chess player who became a grandmaster at the age of 15. Chess was taught to Judit and her sisters by her father, who thus proved the effectiveness of homework with young children.

6. James Woods (180 points)

This American actor brilliantly completed a course in linear algebra from the University of California and was admitted to the famous Massachusetts Institute of Technology. However, science was abandoned for the sake of acting. On account of Woods - three Emmy awards and a couple of Oscar nominations.

5. Garry Kasparov (190 points)

Kasparov became the world chess champion at the age of 22, thus setting a world record. Today the famous chess player devotes his time to politics, literature and public life. Kasparov is considered one of the informal leaders of the political opposition in Russia.

4. Rick Rosner (192 points)

Such a high intelligence of TV producer Rick Rosner is all the more surprising that the American's track record includes work as a stripper, waiter and sitter. Today Rosner works in TV, producing and scripting TV series, talk shows and cartoons.

3. Kim Ung-Yong (210 points)

This Korean prodigy has been included in the Guinness Book of Records for his high intelligence. At the age of two, he easily read, wrote and spoke in two languages, by the age of four he solved complex mathematical problems, and by the age of eight he left to study in the United States at the invitation of NASA.

2. Christopher Hirata (225 points)

American Hirata entered the prestigious California Institute of Technology at the age of 14, and at 16 he was already working at NASA. Hirata specialized in projects related to the colonization of Mars. At 22, the young man received the title of Doctor of Science in Astrophysics.

1. Terence Tao (230 points)

Holder the highest IQ in the world mastered school mathematics at the age of two. By nine, he had finished university mathematics courses, and at 20, he taught at Princeton University with the title of Doctor of Science. At 24, Tao became the youngest professor at the University of California. Peru Terence Tao owns more than 250 scientific works. This is the smartest person in the world today.

How to identify the smartest person in the world? It's impossible. Why? It's simple - you can be a master in one business, but a complete burdock in another. Let's imagine that you are a great programmer, you consider yourself smart. This is probably the way it is. However, if you are given the task of developing a sewerage project for a building shopping center, you will probably be helpless, because you cannot do this.

However, in 1912, the German scientist William Stern introduced the concept of a coefficient, calling it IQ. Four years later, IQ was first used on the Stanford-Binet intelligence scale. This is a group of tests that determine a person's thinking ability. The average IQ is 100, and if it is less than 70, then the person is considered to be mentally retarded.

Marilyn Vos Savant (IQ 228)

Judging only by her IQ level, the first place on our list goes to a resident of the American state of Missouri, born in 1946, Marilyn Vos Savant. Her IQ was 228, bringing her into the Guinness Book of Records. Remarkable is the fact that she put it back when she was 10 years old, when she first passed the test. Since then, the record has not been broken.

By the way, she is married to Robert Jarvik, the man who was the first in the world to invent an artificial heart. His IQ is 180, and their child is 164.

Terence Tao (IQ 227)

Terence was a gifted child from childhood, and at the age of 24 he received the title of professor at the University of California Los Angeles. At the moment, he is the youngest scientist who has ever been awarded this title. The parents of a genius are the most ordinary people: mom works as a math teacher, and dad is a pediatrician.

Tao learned basic arithmetic when he was only two years old. In addition, at that time he knew the entire alphabet. But from where, asked the astonished father of his child? As it turned out, he learned it through the hit show Sesame Street.

Interestingly, our hero has two brothers who also have incredible abilities. So, one of them works at Google and has an IQ of 180, and the second received a double degree in music and mathematics. The brothers live in Australia, Terence himself - in Los Angeles with his parents.

Christopher Hirata (IQ 225)

It was not possible to learn much about this young man, but here are some particularly interesting facts about him: at the age of 14, Hirata was able to independently enroll at the California Institute of Technology, and after only two years he was hired by NASA, where he works on projects. associated with distant planets, including Mars. When the guy was 22 years old, he received the title of Doctor of Science in Astrophysics.

Kim Ung-Yong (IQ 210)

Kim Ung-Yong is one of the Korean geeks. He was born in 1963 and showed incredible abilities during his early childhood. So, at the age of 5, he already knew four languages, and also solved problems in mathematical analysis without problems. Despite the fact that his IQ level is 210, he got into the Guinness Book of Records as the smartest person on the planet.

Currently, Kim is the author of many works. As his parents recall, at the age of 4, the boy got on one of the local TV shows, in which he tried to solve a difficult mathematical problem, and at the age of 8 he was invited to NASA for training, after which he returned to his homeland, where he currently lives.

Rick Rosner (IQ 192)

Rick Rosner is an extremely controversial person. Despite his incredibly high IQ, this 54-year-old American is currently writing scripts for various television shows. Prior to that, he was unemployed, took part in the "Who Wants to Be a Millionaire" program, worked as a stripper, waiter and even a bouncer in bars.

Today, Rick sometimes spends sleepless nights doing various IQ tests in an attempt to achieve an even more impressive result.

Garry Kasparov (IQ 190)

Garry Kasparov is a legend of Russian sports, one of the most famous chess players in the world, world chess champion, and is now a politician. Independent experts agree that Kasparov can safely be called the greatest chess player ever born, since he won a huge number of games, and his FIDE rating remained undefeated for more than a decade.

Harry was born in Baku in 1963. The love for chess was instilled in the young guy by his parents who were fond of the game. At the age of five, young Kasparov began to tell his parents the right moves. Subsequently, he was sent to a chess club. His father died early and his mother completely focused on her son's career.

During his career, Kasparov has achieved incredible heights and won a huge number of various awards.

James Woods (IQ 180)

It's amazing to see legendary Hollywood actor James Woods on our list. He was born in 1947 in Vernal, Utah. He studied well, after graduation he decided to enter the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, but shortly before graduation he dropped out and moved to New York, where he took up an acting career. Already a couple of years later, he first appeared in a film, but Woods came to success only in the 80s of the last century. He was remembered by many, first of all, for such films as "Once Upon a Time in America", "Breaking Through", "Salvador", "Chaplin".

Andrew Wiles (IQ 170)

Andrew John Wiles is a well-known scientist and mathematician. He is a member of the scientific council of the Clay Institute of Mathematics and professor of mathematics at Princeton University. At the age of 29, he moved from his native England to America.

Perhaps the main event in the career of this great scientist was the proof of Fermat's Last Theorem. With the help of one of his graduate students, he discovered a method that allowed him to prove the theorem. During his life he received a lot of international awards in mathematics.

Paul Allen (IQ 170)

Paul Allen is a very famous person, because it was this man, together with Bill Gates, who founded the legendary Microsoft company in 1975. True, in 1983 he sold most of his shares, but retained a seat on the board of directors. For a long time, it was believed that he did it because of health problems, although in fact, Paul simply did not want to devote all his time to the company, which he co-founded.

After leaving, he began to invest in other projects. As of 2011, Allen was one of the 60 richest people, and his capital reached $ 13 billion.

Stephen Hawking (IQ 160)

Stephen Hawking is perhaps the most influential theoretical physicist to date. According to him, man is not the crown of evolution and must constantly improve. He applied thermodynamics to the description of black holes, developed the theory that black holes "evaporate" due to Hawking radiation, presented his point of view on resolving the paradox of information disappearance in a black hole.

Stephen was born in 1942. His mother worked as a secretary at a medical center, and his father was also a researcher there. At the age of 20 he graduated from Oxford University, and four years later received a Ph.D. At the same time, he began to show signs of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, which eventually led to paralysis. Subsequently, Hawking became confined to a wheelchair, and later lost the ability to speak. Today, mobility is retained only in the facial muscles of the cheek, with the help of which he communicates with others through his computer.

Stephen was married twice, but both marriages broke up. Currently, documentaries are being released based on his theories, in which Hawking sometimes participates himself.

Grigory Perelman (IQ unknown)

If we talk about the smartest person in Russia, then he, of course, is Grigory Yakovlevich Perelman, born in 1966. It was he who was able to prove Poincaré's theorem, for which he was awarded the so-called "Millennium Prize" of one million dollars, which Perelman easily refused.

Unfortunately, at present, Grigory Yakovlevich refuses to communicate with anyone, including even his friends. He is closed, almost does not go out into the street. He lives in St. Petersburg in a small two-room apartment with his mother, where he is engaged in the main business of his life - mathematics. By the way, at one time he lived in America, but he missed his homeland so much that he returned back to his homeland.

About 50 percent of people have IQs between 90 and 110, 2.5 percent of people are mentally retarded with IQs below 70, 2.5 percent of people outnumber most people with IQs above 130, and 0.5 percent are considered geniuses with IQs above 140.

Although the debate over who is considered smart will probably never subside, hardly anyone would argue that these people can be called some of the smartest in the world. Here are 10 of the smartest living people, translated by Infoniac, according to the independent web publication SuperScholar.org.

IQ 160

This is probably one of the most famous people on this list. Stephen Hawking became famous for his progressive research in theoretical physics, and other works explaining the laws of the universe. He is also the author of 7 best-selling books and winner of 14 awards.

IQ 210

Kim Ung-Yong is a Korean child prodigy who entered the Guinness Book of Records for the highest IQ in the world. At the age of 2, he was fluent in two languages, and by the age of 4 he was already solving complex mathematical problems. By the age of 8, he was invited by NASA to study in the United States.

IQ 170

The co-founder of Microsoft is by far one of the most successful people to turn his mind into wealth. With a fortune estimated at $ 14.2 billion, Paul Allen is the 48th richest person in the world, owning many companies and sports teams.

IQ 192
With such a high IQ, it would hardly occur to you that this person is a television producer. However, Rick is no ordinary genius. His track record mentions the work of a stripper, a waiter on roller skates, a sitter.

IQ 190
Garry Kasparov is the youngest undisputed world chess champion to win this title at 22. He holds the record for the longest retention of the number one chess player in the world. In 2005, Kasparov announced the end of his sports career and devoted himself to politics and writing.

IQ 170
In 1995, the famous British mathematician Sir Andrew Wiles proved Fermat's Last Theorem, which was considered the most difficult mathematical problem in the world. He is the recipient of 15 awards in mathematics and science.

IQ 170
Judit Polgar is a Hungarian chess player who, at 15, became the youngest grandmaster in the world, surpassing Bobby Fischer's record by a month. Her father taught her and her sisters chess at home, proving that children can reach incredible heights when they start learning from an early age.

IQ 225
At the age of 14, the American Christopher Hirata entered the California Institute of Technology, and at the age of 16 he was already working at NASA on projects related to the colonization of Mars. Also at the age of 22, he received his Ph.D. in astrophysics.

IQ 230
Tao was a gifted child. At the age of 2, when most of us were actively mastering walking and speaking, he was already performing basic arithmetic operations. By the age of 9, he was taking university-level math courses, and at 20, he received his doctorate from Princeton University. At the age of 24, he becomes the youngest professor at the University of California, Los Angeles. For all the time he has published more than 250 scientific papers.

IQ 180
American actor James Woods was a brilliant student. He enrolled in a linear algebra course at the prestigious University of California, Los Angeles, and then was admitted to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where he decided to leave politics for acting. He has three Emmy awards and two Oscar nominations.

Warning: If you are prone to self-deprecation, low self-esteem, bouts of melancholy and chronic self-dissatisfaction, you should not read this article. The mere knowledge that there are such brilliant people in the world can give an inferiority complex. But for self-sufficient, self-confident and purposeful people, such knowledge can give new guidelines and faith in a bright future for all mankind. How to react is your choice, we will just tell you who now deserves the title of "the smartest person in the world."

Stephen Hawking

This name is known to every person who is even slightly interested in science. And even with minimal awareness of its current state, it is extremely difficult not to remember this colorful scientist. According to many, the smartest man of our time, a prominent popularizer of science, an outstanding cosmologist and theoretical physicist, one of the few who imagines how the Universe works.

A cripple, confined to a wheelchair for life. A paralytic with only one finger, eyes, and a small area of ​​muscles in the neck moving. A disabled person who cannot speak due to a remote trachea, forced to communicate with the world using a computer and a speech synthesizer.

A person who lives an incredibly rich and interesting life, teaches, writes books, acts in films, performs and travels a lot, has been in zero gravity in a special plane and almost flew into space.

In his youth, when he developed amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, doctors believed that he had about 2 years to live. It was 50 years ago. And he wanted to chhat for all the predictions and continued to live. Perhaps this causes even more respect than outstanding intelligence.

This Korean is officially considered the smartest person on earth. At least that's what the Guinness Book of Records claims - the immutable authority on the very best. And it's all about his IQ. Let us recall that for an average person it is 100, for gifted people 120-130, for intellectuals - 130-140, for geniuses - from 140. For Kim Ung-Yong, it is 210.

At the age of four, he already read fluently in four languages, including English and Japanese, received higher education from 3 to 6, when the vast majority of his peers are still making Easter cakes. At the age of 7, NASA became interested in him, which invited him for training and further work. He later returned to Korea and now teaches at one of the leading universities.

His name may well be synonymous with the word "prodigy". Moreover, despite his young age, he has already broken several landmark records, for example, at a very young age he received a certificate of secondary education. At that time he was only five years old. Most do it at 16. At the age of 14, he entered the University of Cambridge. This has not happened for more than two centuries. At 18, he became a Senior Wrangler at the same university (what it is is not clear, but it sounds very solid). Now he is one of the youngest and brightest mathematicians in America and the whole world.

Like many intelligent people on the planet, Sir Andrew Wiles showed his ability as a child. His goal has always been Fermat's Last Theorem - a stone about which hundreds of mathematicians have broken their teeth. The mischievous creator wrote in the margins of the book that the proof was too long to fit in the margins. He was too lazy to take a leaf, and for almost 4 centuries he gave all the mathematicians of the world millions of sleepless nights.

For the first time, a sir from mathematics tried to work with her at the age of ten, armed with a mathematics textbook. Naturally, nothing good came of it, but Andrew's perseverance was beyond measure. He received an excellent education, became a prominent mathematician, and already with this knowledge he once again embarked on the most terrible nightmare of all theoreticians. And this time the attempt was successful, which automatically allowed him to be ranked among the smartest people in the world.

A gifted person naturally possesses a high intellectual resource, a smart person develops it, and a wise person knows how to apply it in practice. Using this gradation, Paul Allen can be counted just as wise. His IQ is 170, but he is better known as the co-founder of Microsoft Corporation. They have been friends with Bill Gates since childhood, and Paul's role in the founding of the common brainchild is quite large. But already in 1983 he left, leaving behind a small block of shares and a seat on the board of directors. According to him, he did not want to devote his whole life to this business.

These five are not just smart, but very smart people, generously gifted by nature, and most importantly, who managed to use this gift, which is even more important.

INTELLIGENCE - lat. intellectus - understanding, understanding) - a set of mental abilities of a person and some higher animals, for example, great apes.

Source: A Brief Dictionary of Psychological Terms

INTELLECT (ICD 290; 291; 294; 310; 315; 317) - general thinking ability that allows you to overcome difficulties in new conditions.

Source: Dictionary of Psychiatric Terms ()

INTELLIGENCE - this concept is defined rather heterogeneously, but in general terms, we mean individual characteristics related to the cognitive sphere, first of all - to thinking, memory, perception, attention, etc. knowledge and effectively use them in the course of life, - the ability to carry out the process of cognition and to effectively solve problems, in particular, when mastering a new circle of life tasks. Intelligence is a relatively stable structure of an individual's mental abilities. In a number of psychological concepts, he is identified:

1) with a system of mental operations;

2) with the style and strategy of problem solving;

3) with the effectiveness of an individual approach to a situation that requires cognitive activity;

4) with a cognitive style, etc. There are a number of fundamentally different interpretations of intelligence:

1) in the structural-genetic approach of J. Piaget, intelligence is interpreted as the highest way of balancing the subject with the environment, characterized by universality;

2) in the cognitive approach, intelligence is considered as a set of cognitive operations;

3) with the factor-analytical approach, on the basis of a set of test indicators, stable factors of intelligence are found (C. Spearman, L. Thurstone, H. Eysenck, S. Barth, D. Wexler, F. Vernoy). It is now generally accepted that there is general intelligence as a universal mental ability, which can be based on the genetically determined property of the nervous system to process information with a certain speed and accuracy (H. Eysenck). In particular, psychogenetic studies have shown that the proportion of genetic factors, calculated from the variance of the results of intellectual tests, is quite large - this indicator ranges from 0.5 to 0.8. At the same time, genetically verbal intelligence is especially dependent. The main criteria by which the development of intelligence is assessed are the depth, generalization and mobility of knowledge, mastery of methods of coding, recoding, integration and generalization of sensory experience at the level of ideas and concepts. In the structure of the intellect, the activity of speech and especially internal speech is of great importance. A special role belongs to observation, operations of abstraction, generalization and comparison, creating internal conditions for combining various information about the world of things and phenomena into a single system of views that determine the moral position of the individual, contributing to the formation of its direction, abilities and character.

In Western psychology, the understanding of intelligence as a biopsychic adaptation to the current circumstances of life is especially widespread. An attempt to study the productive creative components of intelligence was undertaken by representatives of Gestalt psychology, who developed the concept of insight. At the beginning of the XX century. French psychologists A. Binet and T. Simon proposed to determine the degree of mental giftedness by means of special tests of intelligence; this was the beginning of the widespread pragmatist interpretation of intelligence as the ability to cope with appropriate tasks, to effectively engage in socio-cultural life, and to successfully adapt. At the same time, the idea of ​​the existence of basic structures of intelligence, independent of cultural influences, is put forward. In order to improve the methods of diagnosing intelligence, various studies of its structure were carried out (usually using factor analysis). At the same time, different authors distinguish a different number of basic "factors of intelligence" from one or two to 120. Such a fragmentation of intelligence into many components prevents the understanding of its integrity. Domestic psychology proceeds from the principle of the unity of the intellect, its connection with the personality. Much attention is paid to the study of the relationship between practical and theoretical intelligence, their dependence on the emotional and volitional characteristics of the individual. It was shown the inconsistency of statements about the innate conditionality of differences in the level of intellectual development among representatives of various nations and social groups. At the same time, the dependence of the abilities of an intellectual person on the socio-economic conditions of life is recognized. The meaningful definition of intelligence itself and the features of the tools for measuring it depend on the nature of the corresponding socially significant activity of the individual's sphere (learning, production, politics, etc.). In connection with the successes of the scientific and technological revolution, the term artificial intelligence has become widespread.