Are there some modern-day Einsteins out there among us right now?
There has to be, right?
Well, we’re gonna get to the bottom of that right now…
Take a look at what folks had to say about this on AskReddit.
1. Out there somewhere…
“I know this absolute child prodigy genius of a mathematician that went to Harvard and was easily one of the best there.
He’s currently a professor of a 3rd tier state college.”
2. Way over my head.
“Terrence Tao.
His research topics include “harmonic analysis, partial differential equations, algebraic combinatorics, arithmetic combinatorics, geometric combinatorics, probability theory, compressed sensing and analytic number theory”.
Just look down the rabbit hole of any one of those theories or topics and your mind will explode.”
3. Look him up.
“John Carmack.
Just go read some of the things he has done and is doing. From inventing some of the math and programming that gave us the modern computer gaming revolution (this is the guy behind the original doom), to running a rocket company trying to achieve orbit and complete propulsive landings similar to what spacex does today, to dropping everything to create the future of VR. Now he’s immersed in AI research on top of everything else. The guy is a walking talking genius who sees things on a whole different level.
He spent his whole career doing “impossible” things in software and hardware. Whether you know his name or not, his work has had a real effect on all of our lives, and likely will be even more impactful in the future as we move toward a more virtually-centered life.”
4. Sounds smart to me.
“Ed Witten.
American mathematician and theoretical physicist at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton. He received his Ph.D. in physics in 1976 from Princeton University.
He has made landmark contributions to string theory from the 1980’s to the present day, most notably the development of M-theory in 1995. He was awarded the Fields Medal in 1990 for his contributions to mathematics and mathematical physics.”
5. Missed out.
“Roger Penrose.
He did a guest lecture at my university about about a year ago. Unfortunately I had a class at the same time and attendance was mandatory.
Still really p**sed that I missed hearing him speak.”
6. A pioneer.
“Ian Goodfellow has consistently pioneered ML and AI research, invented new techniques, and pushed the field forward to such an extent that Apple considered it a strategic company-level advantage to have him working at Apple rather than Google and changed its remote work policy in response to him leaving.
It’s one thing to be an early pioneer in a technical field; it’s another thing to be so consistent at pioneering in an extremely competitive field that the expectation is that you will personally contribute a high percentage of all advances going forward.
7. I love this description.
“Jeff Dean is the Chuck Norris of software engineering and has a comparable number of jokes made about how good he is at engineering.
Google’s engineering leveling system used to only go up to L10, but Google had to add a new level Senior Google Fellow to represent Jeff Dean. Essentially when Jeff Dean wants to do something different from what the CEO wants to do, the default assumption is that Jeff Dean is right and the CEO is wrong.
Jeff Dean can understand and explain and manipulate things at levels of abstraction all the way from planet scale distributed computing down to silicon and how those relate to each other and the business impact and research velocity and bit flips caused by photons from cosmic rays.”
8. Proved it.
“Sir Andrew Wiles, who proved Pierre de Fermat’s last theorem.
He took a big risk too! He spent like 10 years working on this solo and on nothing else. Not knowing if the theorem was actually correct, or even provable!
I also remember it took a long time for experts to examine and validate the proof.”
9. Impressive.
“Miguel Nicolelis.
He created the theory and proofs of the brain net, basically telepathy. Thanks to this he managed to create a machine that a quadriplegic could walk using the power of thought.
And it worked. The power of thought from someone else for this quadriplegic to relearn how to think about walking.”
10. Good one!
“My 93 year old German holocaust surviving organic scientist NASA employee dad!
He rocks! “
11. One or the other.
“I’d argue it’s between Peter Higgs or John B Goodenough.
Both are geniuses.”
12. Don’t know them…yet.
“We probably don’t know about them.
They’re probably buried in some pharma, rocket science, technology company and are content to do their thing.”
Do you have anyone to add to the list?
Talk to us in the comments and let us know.
Thanks a lot!
