Some Smart People: Views and Lives 5

Some Smart People: Views and Lives 5 is part of a long series for more than a decade on the high-IQ communities. The following are acknowledgements and the foreword for this volume by Anas El-Husseini, Hindemburg Melão Jr., Sudarshan Murthy, and Veronica Palladino. This is intended as a free public access resource.

Acknowledgements

For Some Smart People: Views and Lives 1: Manahel Thabet for being the first in this series and giving a gauge on the feasibility of this project, and to Evangelos Katsioulis, Jason Betts, Marco Ripà, Paul Cooijmans, Rick Rosner; in spite of far more men in these communities, it, interview-wise, started with a woman, even the Leo Jung Mensa article arose from the generosity of a woman friend, Jade.

For Some Smart People: Views and Lives 2: Claus Volko, Deb Stone, Erik Haereid, Hasan Zuberi, Ivan Ivec, Kirk Kirkpatrick, Monika Orski, and Rick Rosner.

For Some Smart People: Views and Lives 3: Andreas Gunnarsson, Anja Jaenicke, Christian Sorensen, Claus Volko, Dionysios Maroudas, Florian Schröder, Ronald K. Hoeflin, Erik Haereid, Giuseppe Corrente, Graham Powell, Guillermo Alejandro Escárcega Pliego, HanKyung Lee, James Gordon, Kirk Kirkpatrick, Krystal Volney, Laurent Dubois, Marco Ripà, Matthew Scillitani, Mislav Predavec, Owen Cosby, Richard Sheen, Rick Farrar, Rick Rosner, Sandra Schlick, Tiberiu Sammak, Tim Roberts, Thomas Wolf, Tom Chittenden, Tonny Sellén, and Tor Jørgensen.

For Some Smart People: Views and Lives 4: Björn Liljeqvist, Christian Sorenson, Claus Volko, Dionysios Maroudas, Sandra Schlick, Erik Haereid, Giuseppe Corrente, Guillermo Alejandro Escárcega Pliego, HanKyung Lee, James Gordon, Justin Duplantis, Kirk Kirkpatrick, Laurent Dubois, Marco Ripà, Marios Prodromou, Matthew Scillitani, Mislav Predavec, Richard Sheen, Rick Farrar, Rick G. Rosner, Thomas Wolf, Tiberiu Sammak, Tim Roberts, Tom Chittenden, Tonny Sellén, and Tor Arne Jørgensen.

For Some Smart People: Views and Lives 5: Anas El-Husseini, Anthony Sepulveda, Christian Sorenson, Claus Volko, Dionysios Maroudas, Erik Haereid, Giuseppe Corrente, Guillermo Alejandro Escárcega Pliego, Heinrich Siemens, Hindemburg Melão Jr., Jason Robert, Julien Garrett Arpin, Justin Duplantis, Marios Sophia Prodromou, Matthew Scillitani, Mhedi Banafshei, Rick Rosner, Sudarshan Murthy, Tiberiu Sammak, Tor Arne Jørgensen, and Veronica Palladino.

Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Foreword by Anas El-Husseini

Today, everyone is excited about Generative Artificial Intelligence, or GenAI. Well, most people are, but a certain minority are just watching closely and anxiously, waiting for the moment where they get to say: “I told you so! AI will be the end of us!”.

When computers were introduced decades ago, people were afraid that they were going to lose their jobs to those computers. Moving fast-forward to the present, it seems that computers, and technologies created around them such as the Internet, created more jobs than they have taken away. People started to use those technologies to automate their work, as those machines did not replace humans, and more and more job types continued to come into existence.

Once again, people today are using the new technology, GenAI, to facilitate their work. They are using it to automate their tasks. But here is the problem. The risk, this time, is not just about humans losing their jobs. Unlike computers, which are just machines that can solve complex problems using simple logical operations, GenAI has one additional and very significant feature: the vast accumulated human knowledge fed to it.

The concept of GenAI is not a new one. Artificial intelligence has been around for quite a while. What is new is the continuous feeding of information, in an era where humans were able to digitalize data in all forms. GenAI has been trained with those datasets to be able to predict with high accuracy the words of answer, the pixels of an image or a video frame, and the sound waves of an audio output. People of all kinds started relying on this seemingly miraculous tool, and all of a sudden both an idiot and an intelligent person are able to deliver an informative and intelligent answer to virtually any question asked. The reliance on such a tool started to make people lazy, as they delegate tasks they were capable of doing themselves. Their brains were effectively relieved from doing the heavy lifting, and succumbed to spending more time on entertainment and relaxation.

Surely enough, a brain is like a muscle, and the less it is used the less it retains its original power and potential. Taking that into consideration, GenAI, still being fed in the future by data generated by humans, will become subsequently less and less intelligent as a result. An imminent decrease in I.Q. is likely bound to happen to both humans and the tools they have become so reliant on.

This leads me back to this book, the 5th volume of “Some Smart People: Views and Lives”, which is a collection of intelligent human thoughts and opinions gathered by Scott Jacobsen. I believe that one point of salvation for the future of humankind is the preservation of intelligent thoughts and views portrayed by intelligent people, as illustrated in the interviews throughout the volumes of this book. Perhaps one day, a new generation, looking back at the state of decay that happened to its predecessor, will pick up the slack and focus on improving the organ that the humans were once most proud of having it more developed: the brain.

Foreword by Hindemburg Melão Jr.

In a world with increasing access to information and opinions, some of the voices that most deserve to be heard are those that dare to delve into the intricacies of the human spirit and the understanding of Nature in creative and unusual ways. In this context, Some Smart People: Views and Lives 5, by Scott Douglas Jacobsen, offers a collection of interviews with some of the leading figures in high-IQ societies; it is a mosaic of insights from great names such as Tor Arne Jørgensen, Veronica Palladino, Marios Prodromou, Rick Rosner, Heinrich Siemens, Matthew Scillitani, Claus Volko, Erik Haereid, and other prominent intellectuals, who share their opinions on a variety of subjects.

Each interview is a window into the lives of these thinkers, who comment on childhood, daily life, dreams, insecurities, discrimination and many other aspects of life, providing the reader with the experience of getting to know the intimacy of some of today’s great geniuses up close.

The book is permeated with several curiosities and anecdotes that provide glimpses into the less visible aspects of high intelligence, revealing how much geniuses are also human in certain aspects, how much they are superhuman in other aspects, and how much they can present weaknesses, especially in childhood and adolescence, being victims of bullying and other forms of oppression.

Scott Douglas Jacobsen’s meticulous curation and thoughtful questioning illuminate each conversation and make “Views and Lives 5” a unique and inspiring work, a stimulating source of knowledge and wisdom.

For anyone interested in intelligence, this is a must-read.

Foreword by Sudarshan Murthy

First and foremost, I would like to express my regards to Mr. Scott Jacobsen for inviting me to write a foreword for Some Smart People: Views and Lives 5. I would like to express my gratitude to Mr. Scott Jacobsen as he is the pioneer in creating In-Sight Publishing journal which is interested in High IQ people and that too which is not-for-profit. This journal aims to give them a platform where they can put forth their thoughts and ideas. We see that high IQ people are a largely neglected community and sometimes people make fun of them as can be seen from ancient times. Today there is no concrete platform where highly intelligent people are given opportunities to utilize their talent and potential to do something creative for the benefit of society.

For starting this In-Sight Publishing, we should all be grateful to Mr. Scott Jacobsen.

I want to mention here the name of Mr. Paul Cooijmans who has greatly written on various aspects of intelligence and psychometric testing. I consider him as the pioneer in creating unique intelligence tests and evaluation. His thoughts on intelligence are commendable.

I am a member of one of his highly honourable society “The Glia Society.” When I was admitted to his society, I was the only Indian in that highly difficult to join society. I am grateful to him for that. Some of his best tests are the “The Marathon,” “The Labyrinthine Limit,” “Test of the Beheaded Man” and so on and on. Each one of his tests will test the extremities of intelligence.

I request Mr. Scott Jacobsen to include a biography and interview of Mr. Paul Cooijmans in the subsequent editions.

I have given several intelligence tests, and my IQ range is between 145–155 and I am currently working as pharmaceutical research scientist in one of the pharmaceutical companies in India. I developed a wholesome medicine for gastric ulcer patients because I considered the current therapy as one sided and it was published in the journal.

I think and would like the world to realise the potential of highly intelligent people by providing them opportunities to showcase their talents in all areas of creativity and to honour them for their exceptional abilities.

Lastly, I would like to express my gratitude to people like Scott Jacobsen who have shown interest in the study of intelligence and developing and publishing this journal. I hope this will help in creating awareness and importance about high intelligence as a specialized trait.

I wish all the very best for his upcoming Journal.

Thanks, and regards,

Mr. Sudarshan Murthy,

Bangalore, India

Member of Glia Society and other High Intelligence Societies.

Member of World Genius Directory

Foreword by Veronica Palladino, M.D.

Having a brain is a blessing, if it works faster and better then it is a double blessing. We should all be grateful because knowledge, language, understanding are the most significant aspects in everyday life. We should not make fun of high range IQ societies’ world and intelligence tests because they are not a self-celebratory tool but an effective practice to know ourselves and start towards a more mature elaboration of intelligence. Intelligence is the way to connect to wisdom, it is the epiphany of truth.

According to me it is fundamental to thank Scott Douglas Jacobsen because he is the voice of talented people. Each interview is conducted with care and focuses on a precious and unique aspect of brilliant minds. Each page is a gift.

So every person has the relief of intelligence. Genius is superior evanescence.

“Genius and madness have something in common: both live in a world that is different from that which exists for everyone else.” -Arthur Schopenhauer-

Photo by Jasmine Coro on Unsplash