Autistic "Genius" with 250+ IQ

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http://www.quantonics.com/The_Prodigy_Review.html

He was born of parents Boris and Sarah Sidis, emigrant Jews who escaped anti-Semitic Russian pogroms and came to America at the end of the 19th century. William James Sidis ('Billy') boggled minds of normal intellectuals and theoreticians. He was born on April Fool's Day in 1898. He became a strange combination of an April Fool and a 20th century genius vastly beyond common sentient discernment.


Given IQ is a purely anthropocentric means of assessing intelligence, Sidis' IQ is crudely estimated at 250-300.
Infant Billy listened to Greek myths read to him by Sarah as bedtime stories.
Started feeding himself with a spoon at eight months (after two months of trial and error).
Cajoled by Boris, Billy learned to pronounce alphabetic syllables from blocks hanging in his crib.
At six months, Billy said, "Door." A couple months later he told Mom he liked things, doors and people, that move.
At seven months he pointed to Earth's moon and called it, "moon." He wanted a 'moon' of his own.
Mastered higher mathematics and planetary revolutions by age 11.
Learned to spell efficiently by one year old.
Started reading The New York Times at 18 months.
Started typing at three. Used his high chair to reach a typewriter. First composed letter was an order for toys from Macy's.
Read Caesar's Gallic Wars, in Latin (self-taught), as a birthday present to his Father in Billy's fourth year.
Learned Greek alphabet and read Homer in Greek in his fourth year.
Learned Aristotelian logic in his sixth year.
At six, Billy learned Russian, French, German, and Hebrew, and soon after, Turkish and Armenian.
Calculated mentally a day any date in history would fall at age six. Absolutely fascinated by calendars.
Learned Gray's Anatomy at six. Could pass a student medical examination.
Billy started grammar school at six, in 3 days 3rd grade, graduated grammar school in 7 months.
At age 8, Billy surpassed his father (a genius) in mathematics.
Corrected E. V. Huntington's mathematics text galleys at age of eight.
Total recall of everything he read.
Wrote four books between ages of four and eight. Two on anatomy and astronomy, lost.
Passed Harvard Medical School anatomy exam at age seven.
Passed MIT entrance exam at age eight.
Intellect surpassed best secondary school teachers.
At age 10, in one evening, corrected Harvard logic professor Josiah Royce's book manuscript: citing, "wrong paragraphs."
Attempted to enroll in Harvard at nine.
In 1909, became youngest student to ever enroll at Harvard at age 11.
In 1910, at age 11, lectured Harvard Mathematical Club on 'Four-Dimensional Bodies.'
Billy graduated from Harvard, cum laude, on June 24, 1914, at age 16.
Billy entered Harvard Law School in 1916.
Billy could learn a whole language in one day!
Billy knew all the languages (approximately 200) of the world, and could translate among them instantly!

[Ixtab]

I am quite familiar with Sidis. I have read some of his works. His Hesperian constitution is impressive. His father, Boris, also wrote some interesting treatises on eduction which I recommend reading. William James Sidis was not autistic, though.

[<access denied>]

I am quite familiar with Sidis. I have read some of his works. His Hesperian constitution is impressive. His father, Boris, also wrote some interesting treatises on eduction which I recommend reading. William James Sidis was not autistic, though.

That's a matter of speculation. I have read more than one source contending "autistic" symptoms, from what little is known in Sidis's early life. His original achievements seem suspiciously scant for that level of precocity.

Gregory Klimov has noted that monomaniac geniuses tend to be sickly individuals - not just physically but mentally as well. Of course, the suspected connection between genius and mental disease is as old as psychology itself.

In what sense is Sidis a "genius" is also a matter of debate, and not only because of that term's ambiguity. His scientific contributions are simply not impressive compared to similar prodigies like Wiener, von Neumann or Kolmogorov.

[Mackie]

smart autistic kids are interesting. my youngest brother who just turned 9 is quite quiet and somewhat autistic kid and doesnt play with other kids and has trouble speaking. BUT he spends most of his time in his room studying structure of milkyway, planets and has special interest in the temperature changes of sun. He is expected to skip some grades in school, also heard from his school that he also has an interest in geometrical calculations. :>

[Dodge Viper]

My 5 year old son Is mildly autistic with Aspergers. He exhibits some quirky "Rain-man" like qualities, usually being able to correctly register the amount of CDs in a large rack very quickly. Hes very observant with a good memory. However, he struggles to interact socially with others at the usual level of his age. He cannot grasp metaphors or sarcasm.

[delete]

This I do not believe, and I think jews are out to spin us.

Billy could learn a whole language in one day!
Billy knew all the languages (approximately 200) of the world, and could translate among them instantly!

1 day to master the Finnish language?
200 languages in the world?

[Mackie]

This I do not believe, and I think jews are out to spin us.

1 day to master the Finnish language?
200 languages in the world?

Rofles :D
point well made, and then theres chinese too. :D

[<access denied>]

1 day to master the Finnish language?
200 languages in the world?

Why not? If you have photographic memory, it's easy. I know someone personally (younger than me) who knows 12 languages fluently, including Aramaic and Chinese. If F.P. Ramsey learned the entire German language in a few days with a dictionary and grammar, it's perfectly possible to learn it in a single day.

Sidis's abilities are well-documented in the biography "Prodigy" by Amy Wallace - they were confirmed by the professors who met him, family members, etc.

[delete]

Why not? If you have photographic memory, it's easy. I know someone personally (younger than me) who knows 12 languages fluently, including Aramaic and Chinese. If F.P. Ramsey learned the entire German language in a few days with a dictionary and grammar, it's perfectly possible to learn it in a single day.

Sidis's abilities are well-documented in the biography "Prodigy" by Amy Wallace - they were confirmed by the professors who met him, family members, etc.

You are an idiot to belive you can master any language in one day.

I can read and understand most dutch, because I know german, all the scandinavian languages and english, but if you move on to really different languages like Finnish, you need time just to master the sound system.
There is no one to one correspondence between words in different languages, so using a dictionary don't work, and then you have the prepositions that is hell on any indo-european language as it is not logical. (Finnish don't have prepositions by the way.)

[shanemac]

but if you move on to really different languages like Finnish, you need time just to master the sound system.

If you can grunt like a gorilla, you can basically speak Finnish.

[Mackie]

Why not? If you have photographic memory, it's easy. I know someone personally (younger than me) who knows 12 languages fluently, including Aramaic and Chinese. If F.P. Ramsey learned the entire German language in a few days with a dictionary and grammar, it's perfectly possible to learn it in a single day.

Sidis's abilities are well-documented in the biography "Prodigy" by Amy Wallace - they were confirmed by the professors who met him, family members, etc.

For couple of reasons that come to my mind, the various dialects and the fact that theres no head or tail to finnish language. It does make a certain sense but its continuously changing and expanding.
And by that I dont mean "random new terms every now and then".

Im not trying to make it sound more difficult than it is, though. Its just that its everchanging and dynamic, theres no "line" to follow.
I have sometimes no idea what people from helsinki are talking about, and people from helsinki dont have any idea what im going on about. Helsinki slang and Savonian dialect are just about two entirely different languages.

one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten. in three different dialects;

Yksi, kaksi, kolme, neljä, viisi, kuusi, seitsemän, kahdeksan, yhdeksän, kymmenen.
Yy, Kaa, Koo, Nee, Vii, Kuu, See, Kasi, Ysi, Kymppi.
Yks, Kaks, Kol, Nel, Viis, Kuus, Seittemä, Kaheksa, Yheksä, Kymmene.

And god only knows how many more ways there are to do those.

[Byssus]

32. Billy knew all the languages (approximately 200) of the world, and could translate among them instantly!

There exist today between 4000 and 6700 languages worldwide. New Guinea alone boasts 200 to 850, according to contemporary estimates.

[WFHermans]

Total recall of everything he read.
If you have such a perfect memory, I suppose it's possible to learn how to read superficially in a foreign language in one day if you learn a few thousand words and some grammar, provided you get up early in the morning.

[WFHermans]

Can't let this shoutbox posting of Hachiko get lost forever. :)

http://i105.photobucket.com/albums/m224/hachiko323/A_Winner_is_You.gif

I doubt if there is a rule in any book of grammar that forbids forming this sentence, yet it is not english.

[<access denied>]

Don't know about Finnish, but it's certainly possible to imagine learning Russian or English in a couple of days, or even a single day - at least as a reading language. The most obvious objection to "a whole language in one day" is that certain languages are much more complex than others, so their mastery can't be equally distributed.

So by learning a language in one day, I think they meant AT THE FASTEST, or on average.

The process of second-language acquisition is subjective for every learner. The "grammar translation method" (vocabulary, grammar and drilling) for Latin was dominant in Europe C19, and works well for gaining fluency in reading. The structure of the mind is modular - it's possible for some to be "receptive bilinguals" capable of understanding BUT NOT SPEAKING a language, or those who can read/write but not speak or listen.

Sidis could instantly translate from any language to another - this is completely possible via the "input processing approach" in directly interpreting written symbols.

[delete]

Don't know about Finnish, but it's certainly possible to imagine learning Russian or English in a couple of days, or even a single day - at least as a reading language. The most obvious objection to "a whole language in one day" is that certain languages are much more complex than others, so their mastery can't be equally distributed.

So by learning a language in one day, I think they meant AT THE FASTEST, or on average.

You don't have to defend the jewish spin. It is not your fault that somebody lied to you.

Billy could learn a whole language in one day!
Billy knew all the languages (approximately 200) of the world, and could translate among them instantly!
It is imposible for anybody. There are 6 billion people around the world, and if this was true, we would at lest see somebody with the ability to learn a language in a week.

I could probaly learn adequat dutch pretty fast, and the same was posibly true with your wonder boy to a greater degree, but your link does not say this, Billy could learn a whole language in one day!


The process of second-language acquisition is subjective for every learner. The "grammar translation method" (vocabulary, grammar and drilling) for Latin was dominant in Europe C19, and works well for gaining fluency in reading. The structure of the mind is modular - it's possible for some to be "receptive bilinguals" capable of understanding BUT NOT SPEAKING a language, or those who can read/write but not speak or listen.

What you say here is true, but this seem more like the way I puzzle out the meaning of dutch sentences, and has little to do with being able to learn a language in one day.


Sidis could instantly translate from any language to another - this is completely possible via the "input processing approach" in directly interpreting written symbols.
This it what tells me that you only speak one language. If you had spoken two of them, you would know the problems of translating between languages as there is no single one to one correspondence between words in different languages.

[Jimbo Gomez]

You can't learn adequate Dutch fast. A basic command of it: sure, but no more than that. I haven't met a single foreignor from anywhere in the world who manages to pronounce the words 100% correct. In general, English speaking people do a better job at it than German speaking.

[Hrolf Kraki]

This I do not believe, and I think jews are out to spin us.



1 day to master the Finnish language?
200 languages in the world?

I agree. Finnish is WILD hard!

Also, there are WAY more than 200 languages in the world.

[delete]

You can't learn adequate Dutch fast. A basic command of it: sure, but no more than that. I haven't met a single foreignor from anywhere in the world who manages to pronounce the words 100% correct. In general, English speaking people do a better job at it than German speaking.

You are wrong. Dutch is the easiest real forreign language for swedes and norwegians to learn. :)
It is true the other way around as well, as dutch people are the only forreigners that end up speaking Norwegian almost without an accent. (Swedes manage it, but don't want to.)

The grammar is mostly the same, and the same goes for the vocabulary if you change som letters.

[Jimbo Gomez]

I am highly skeptical of this claim.

[WFHermans]

An english person could figure out fast and easy how to read dutch, after all the languages were the same until the Norman Conquest, but to speak it is another matter. I've never heard of a foreigner who was able to do it, not even if they lived in the country for many years. It's absolutely impossible to learn dutch in one day, let alone finnish.

Another case of jewish "exaggeration".

By the way, it would be useful if there were courses in how to read a language only.