Top 10 thinkers

[Oberon]

Ozy asked me to post this so here it goes.

I don't think I can come up with 10 but here goes, in no particular order:

Searle
Gödel
Lovelace
Penrose
Schrödinger
Da Vinci
Jordan Peterson
Democritus
some guy in the 18th century who asked what would happen if someone duplicated his brain years after his death

post your own list

[OzyWho]

I have 2 thoughts on this:

1) Jordan Peterson. I'm so against him being on the list. Lots of his advice is just common sense in psychological “You get motivated by action.” Duh. But beyond that there's countless examples of him pulling shit like this. There's some admirable qualities of his or things he's done: like his ability in having open and honest debates or his analysis of Hitler, or him pointing out basics things like the reverse racism of saying things like "all white men are oppressors". But I fail to see him being worthy of being on such a list tbh.

2) Just like the human mind can't imagine/generate a color it has never seen, so too it can't generate anything else - every thought, reasoning, idea, shape, sound comes from a combination of previous inputs. Which is why I think it can't be understated how highly we should value and appreciate the "fathers" of things. Father's of physics, philosophy, math, science, engineering, etc., - if we could name them, they deserve to be on such a list.
I don't agree that the complexity of an idea is indicative of how difficult it was to think of. For example, I'd value - people figuring out that the earth is round thousands of years ago from just the shadows of lunar eclipses - as more difficult than todays satellites built. I'd value the pythagorean cup as more complex than a tomorrows skyscraper. For that reason I think there should be a very few names listed from the last few centuries. Newton, Tesla, Einstein - I think it's theories and discoveries like that which should be worthy on the list, when it comes to more modern names.

[Marshmallow Marshall]

Okay okay, I watched a part of the video you linked, and...

"So God is that which eternally dies and is reborn in the pursuit of higher being and truth"

Yeah, okay. You're not reconciling anyone here sir XD. You're just founding a new religion!

[Oberon]

I think the stuff Peterson says is deeper than it looks. Like at first I thought he was just spewing nonsense and branding it off as profound philosophy, but a lot of the ideas he espouses, I've reached myself on my own. He just builds a lot of allegory and uses a somewhat mystical language to explain it

[theoneceko]

Victor Hugo
Ayn Rand
Ray Bradbury
Victor Hugo
Ayn Rand
Ray Bradbury
Victor Hugo
Ayn Rand
Ray Bradbury
Bernie Sanders

[oliverz144]

marx & lenin

[Marshmallow Marshall]

marx & lenin

URAAAAAAAAAAAA

[Helz]

(in no particular order)

Da Vinci - Might be the smartest ever. From what we know his mind worked in astonishing ways to the extent books were written on it. Small things like being able to write with both hands at once from both directions show he had a very different kind of intelligence that likely had to do with using both sides of his brain together in complicated ways. Some of the most intelligent people I interacted with have similar patterns and its something I wish I had understood earlier in life.

Max Weber - Created a lot of the thinking that framed the modern world we live in. I do not know if I really agree with the application of a lot of his views but he pioneered some very original works that were built upon to create a lot of good stuff.

Elon Musk - Easy fit on the list with what he is accomplishing. The amount of innovation and coordination he is able to do is pretty badass showing he is both intelligent enough on his own but also has that certain 'social intelligence' to create systems of people that accomplish incredible things that are literally pushing the limits of our species in ways we have not seen sense Mervin Kelly. If we measure intelligence pragmatically he is easily in the top 10 living if not ever.

Edward De Bono - I am certainly biased here but this guys work in understanding how the brain functions and how to create intelligence is a force multiplier for brainpower. As far as education goes this guy is nothing less than a god in that field accomplishing actual cognitive improvement in an age where education is watered down to regurgitation of information.

Jeremy Bentham - The guy studied Latin when he was just 3 years old and naturally spoke on a level people had to spend time unpacking his words. Yet he structured social science concepts like utilitarianism and pushed social reform effectively in line with ethical considerations in a political climate that had many driving factors against such fair treatment of people and animals. For me him being on this list is not only because he was an absurd level of genius but because he dedicated that brain power to ensuring others got fair treatment.

Claude Shannon - This guy was so smart he offhand created the structure of information theory without reason. Bell labs arguably changed the face of the world in massive ways and was packed with geniuses but he was so far out there he got to write his own ticket to the point he would spend months on whatever struck his fancy without reason. Many aspects of him may have been similar to Da Vinci as he seemed as much an artist as a scientist riding a unicycle up and down hallways. For hobbies he did stuff like creating devices that could play chess or solve rubik's cubes; even made a mechanical mouse that could navigate mazes and learn accidently creating the first form of AI that self learned.

Albert Einstein - I have a lot of love for how he could break down social concepts into mathematical relations of geometry. He was brilliant in both thinking as well as gifted in speech which is very rare. Any top 10 list should have him on it just because he was smart enough for his name to become a term to discuss intelligence.

David Hilbert - Not one most non-math nerds will probably recognize but almost beat Einstein to relativity (with some saying he actually did.) He did lots of cool stuff but I particularly enjoyed some of his toying with concepts of infinity and the theory's of how they could actually relate from theoretical math to reality.

Hedy Lamarr - Not sure if she is one of the greatest but her story really meant something to me. Society only really valued her for beauty through her life but even just being an actress and model she explored concepts of science and created the foundation for things like WIFI that were discovered in her journals after death. I feel like she should be mentioned as the cautionary tale of what society can do to a person when such a great mind is largely known for depicting the first on screen female orgasm while people like Amelia Earhart or Rosa Parks (disingenuously in some respects) get the marketed as icons in women's rights movements.

Vignesh Karunanidhi - Kind of a cool life story that I associate with. The guy started out figuring out technology and social structures but innovated in some pretty cool ways that made him a billionaire in the end. He felt like one of the few heavy hitting hackers that found a way back into society and fights for ethical considerations while accomplishing that without the crutches of having a great education. I kind of wonder who he could have been given a real education and opportunity; or if it was the adversity that drove him to become what he did.


Anyways; I guess a lot of anyones top 10 list would depend on what they value, what they consider intelligence, and what they have been exposed to but these are some I would consider off the top of my head.

[Helz]

I have 2 thoughts on this:

1) Jordan Peterson. I'm so against him being on the list. Lots of his advice is just common sense in psychological “You get motivated by action.” Duh. But beyond that there's countless examples of him pulling shit like this. There's some admirable qualities of his or things he's done: like his ability in having open and honest debates or his analysis of Hitler, or him pointing out basics things like the reverse racism of saying things like "all white men are oppressors". But I fail to see him being worthy of being on such a list tbh.

2) Just like the human mind can't imagine/generate a color it has never seen, so too it can't generate anything else - every thought, reasoning, idea, shape, sound comes from a combination of previous inputs. Which is why I think it can't be understated how highly we should value and appreciate the "fathers" of things. Father's of physics, philosophy, math, science, engineering, etc., - if we could name them, they deserve to be on such a list.
I don't agree that the complexity of an idea is indicative of how difficult it was to think of. For example, I'd value - people figuring out that the earth is round thousands of years ago from just the shadows of lunar eclipses - as more difficult than todays satellites built. I'd value the pythagorean cup as more complex than a tomorrows skyscraper. For that reason I think there should be a very few names listed from the last few centuries. Newton, Tesla, Einstein - I think it's theories and discoveries like that which should be worthy on the list, when it comes to more modern names.

I like Jordan Peterson for how free thinking he is and how willing he is to take the 'not popular view' on subjects although I do not like how he goes about arguing things. We all have our bias and inability to understand how very ignorant we are in some ways but I think some parts of how he argues represents something I do not like in myself about how I argue which makes me avoid listening to him although I find myself agreeing with a number of positions he takes when I do.

I really like your second point. I often having half joking conversations about 'who was the first person to do X' and how absurd it must have been in context to decide to smoke or eat a plant, use it for medicine or think of creating a boat. Sure some level of intellectual Darwinism had to have happened but every once in a while people come up with an idea that breaks free of our understanding and is the radical idea that pushes us forward as a species.

[WrathCyber]

Ozy asked me to post this so here it goes.

I don't think I can come up with 10 but here goes, in no particular order:

Searle
Gödel
Lovelace
Penrose
Schrödinger
Da Vinci
Jordan Peterson
Democritus
some guy in the 18th century who asked what would happen if someone duplicated his brain years after his death

post your own list

You named a lot of nobel laureates there.

[Frinckles]

No Descartes mention in a thinking thinker think think thread? Also no greeks allowed?
Ceko might be on to something with Ray Bradcekoberry.

[Oberon]

You named a lot of nobel laureates there.

not on purpose if that's what you're wondering lol

[OzyWho]

Also no greeks allowed?

You didn't read my post have you
I mentioned 4 greeks, though only 1 directly. >.<

[Frinckles]

You didn't read my post have you
I mentioned 4 greeks, though only 1 directly. >.<

You're right. I just ctrl+f Socrates Plato Aristotle and was like wut, no results? Lol

[HentaiManOfPeacesGhost]

Aristotle
Kant
Sun Tze
John Locke
Adam Smith
Rene Descartes
Leonardo da Vinci
Nikola Tesla
Karl Marx
John Stuart Mill
Charles Darwin
Hippocrates
Alexander Fleming
Fritz Haber and Carl Bosch
Johann Friedrich Miescher
Zacharias Janssen

[HentaiManOfPeacesGhost]

Jordan Peterson

Easiest way to tell everyone you have no credibility.

Jordan Peterson is a tough academic who crushes their debate opposition that young, disenfranchised males look up to because they have no control in their lives. The world needs less of him and more better thinkers who have time to fix bigger challenges than bullying trans people because of their inherent biological gender.

[oops_ur_dead]

Easiest way to tell everyone you have no credibility.

Jordan Peterson is a tough academic who crushes their debate opposition that young, disenfranchised males look up to because they have no control in their lives. The world needs less of him and more better thinkers who have time to fix bigger challenges than bullying trans people because of their inherent biological gender.

Hey man, I have to say, Jordan Peterson helped me a lot in life. Before I discovered him, I had never gotten laid in my life, and I felt really sad about it. After discovering Jordan Peterson, my life has improved substantially. I still haven't gotten laid, but I now realize that it's everyone else's fault and not mine.

[Oberon]

Easiest way to tell everyone you have no credibility.

Jordan Peterson is a tough academic who crushes their debate opposition that young, disenfranchised males look up to because they have no control in their lives. The world needs less of him and more better thinkers who have time to fix bigger challenges than bullying trans people because of their inherent biological gender.

Jordan Peterson says stuff that is deeper than it looks. It's not all political
And it's not all for helping young men