I don't think we'll ever know who the greatest intellects of the past 250 years were. We can only know those who became famous and we usually pick Europeans. My own guess would be a Yanomami Indian who died in Brazil 138 years ago. And if not him, then an Ethiopian priest who died in Axum 215 years ago. And if not him, then an Inuk who showed Peary around the Greenland Ice Cap in 1886.
I'm trying to think of who the greatest intellect I ever met personally was. I keep focusing on a few people. One was a lame kid from northern Alberta who had no more than an eighth grade education, but who could recite and discuss Shakespeare by the hour. He had also read a lot of philosophy, and could discuss that by the hour. Another was an Indian from the central Yukon who had an incredible ability to get a bogged down meeting unbogged. Then there was my girlfriend when I was a teenager. At sixteen, she had already won a major prize for a published book of poetry and was a truly gifted graphic artist. And I'll never forget the hotel clerk in Delhi who had a crowd around him and was able to convert rupees into any other currency without a calculator or pen and paper. The people around him were panicked because Mrs. Gandhi had been shot and they wanted to get out before there was complete chaos. But he may have been a mere savant, not an intellect. Ed > American's quality of life in the outdoors will be considerably more > dangerous and all due to technological manipulation of the Environment > through Science. I can't believe the "Better living through Science" Myth > is still being preached. The problem never was either/or as Keith should > well know from his own life. He was a scientist and now has found his > balance by working in music. Let me give you three examples. Were > Rousseau, Descartes and Baumarchais scientists or artists? Hey I made it > easy. I didn't pick the easy examples like Leonardo or Galileo. > Rousseau was a composer as was Descartes and Baumarchais wrote plays and > opera librettos for Mozart. So you knew the first two were scientist > philosophers but did you know that Baumarchais was the man who invented the > pocket watch and was the watchmaker to the King of France? It all > depends on what you are willing to pay for. Most musicians today make > their living inventing computer software but that doesn't mean they did > spend their $200,000 for their instruction, study and become proficient from > the age of six, if a dancer from the age of 3. > > As for the belief in technology, explain how it is stopping rather than > encouraging the spread of heart disease through the Chagas blood sucking > moth. Chagas killed Darwin. > > Ray Evans Harrell > >
