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Who's your favourite genius (or geniuses)?

29 replies

TheFreaksShallInheritTheEarth · 14/09/2023 12:20

Who are your favourite geniuses?

I'm a little bit obsessed with Nikola Tesla. He was mind-blowingly brilliant and such a visionary. Sadly, many of his inventions were destroyed or appropriated and the credit given to others (Marconi, Edison and Westinghouse I'm looking at you) and he died penniless.

Also Beethoven. He composed the best piece of music ever (his ninth symphony) when he was profoundly deaf!

Whose genius do you most admire? I'm particularly interested to read about less well known ones 🙂

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caramac04 · 14/09/2023 12:26

I hugely admire Isembard Kingdom Brunel for his engineering feats and wonder what more he might have achieved if he had not died so young.

Mumofteenandtween · 14/09/2023 12:31

Alan Turing and Joan Clarke.

Shortened the war - probably by years.

notprincehamlet · 14/09/2023 13:05

Rosalind Franklin, Peter Ellis (architect) and Artemisia Gentileschi (Renaissance artist)

TheFreaksShallInheritTheEarth · 14/09/2023 13:26

Good call with IKB!

Pleased to see Joan Clarke and Rosalind Franklin mentioned. Neither have received the recognition they deserve for their important contributions.
And, sadly, we know why.

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QueenBitch666 · 14/09/2023 14:53

Tesla for me 👌

Judashascomeintosomemoney · 14/09/2023 15:28

Paul Dirac and also Robert Hooke.
Though I struggle to understand a lot of the science, I find them both endlessly fascinating characters.

daisychain01 · 14/09/2023 15:34

Marie-Sophie Germain, French mathematician who significantly contributed to the theory of numbers and the application of her theory to elasticity. As often happened with female academics her hard work was stolen by a man and passed off as his own research.

daisychain01 · 14/09/2023 15:37

Mumofteenandtween · 14/09/2023 12:31

Alan Turing and Joan Clarke.

Shortened the war - probably by years.

plus Alan Turing was one of the Foundational contributors to what is now generically called Artificial intelligence "getting computers to do tasks at least as well as, if not better than, humans"

FastFood · 14/09/2023 15:45

Really a huge fan of visonaries like Tony Wilson and Peter Saville. Insane contributions to music, culture and visual arts, too visionary for their own good.

TheFreaksShallInheritTheEarth · 14/09/2023 19:06

Bump for the evening crowd... hopefully they're a little more appreciative of genius 😃

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TheFreaksShallInheritTheEarth · 14/09/2023 20:03

Clearly not! 🤷‍♀️

I'd heard of Tony Wilson,
@FastFood , but not Peter Wilson. A quick Google tells me that I am familiar with his work, though.

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RobertaFirmino · 14/09/2023 21:10

FastFood · 14/09/2023 15:45

Really a huge fan of visonaries like Tony Wilson and Peter Saville. Insane contributions to music, culture and visual arts, too visionary for their own good.

Seconded. On reading the title thread, the first 'genius' who sprang to mind was actually Vini Reilly - the greatest guitarist nobody's ever heard of! How nice to have shoehorned in all these Factorians within the first page!

Needhelp101 · 14/09/2023 21:27

Hedy Lamarr. Managed to be both a Hollywood bombshell and also co-invented a frequency jamming system that (in some ways) formed the basis of the internet (massively simplified explanation and I'm not a genius, so can't explain but, yes, she was very clever).

Thatsmorethanhalf · 14/09/2023 21:37

notprincehamlet · 14/09/2023 13:05

Rosalind Franklin, Peter Ellis (architect) and Artemisia Gentileschi (Renaissance artist)

👍🏼 Gentileschi - not a name I thought I’d ever see here

NCGrandParent · 14/09/2023 21:42

Björk, Prince, Michel Gondry all for incredible inventiveness and variety in music and film.

ladygindiva · 14/09/2023 21:45

Beethoven. Love that was a grumpy introvert too.

GolgafrinchamB · 14/09/2023 21:51

Gentileschi, Georgia O’Keefe, Cornelia Parker and Judy Chicago are my favourite artist geniuses.

St Hilda of Whitby and Aethelflaed of Mercia made a big impact on me when I read Femina. Astonishingly cultured and inspiring women. Eleanor of Aquitaine too.

Maya Angelou, Jane Austen and George Eliot are my literary geniuses.

S910441 · 14/09/2023 22:31

Needhelp101 · 14/09/2023 21:27

Hedy Lamarr. Managed to be both a Hollywood bombshell and also co-invented a frequency jamming system that (in some ways) formed the basis of the internet (massively simplified explanation and I'm not a genius, so can't explain but, yes, she was very clever).

Not to mention getting married six times!

Needhelp101 · 14/09/2023 22:50

S910441 · 14/09/2023 22:31

Not to mention getting married six times!

Yes 👑 😁

Needhelp101 · 14/09/2023 22:53

Jane Austen too. Love the fact that she purposely chose to be a spinster in a society that only really valued married women. And wrote books that are STILL so funny and relevant.

merryhouse · 14/09/2023 22:55

Ah, OP, I can't agree about the 9th symphony.

It was going so well, then he decided to shove a choir in.

If he really wanted to rework the choral fantasy, he could have done a separate piece. It just Doesn't Go.

Needhelp101 · 14/09/2023 22:55

And William Wilberforce. Perhaps not a genius, but a bloody good egg.

TheFreaksShallInheritTheEarth · 14/09/2023 23:13

merryhouse · 14/09/2023 22:55

Ah, OP, I can't agree about the 9th symphony.

It was going so well, then he decided to shove a choir in.

If he really wanted to rework the choral fantasy, he could have done a separate piece. It just Doesn't Go.

Doesn't go? Oh I don't know... that piece of music has been part of my life since I was a young child, so I don't even think about it 'going', it just... is.
Whatever, it was undeniably revolutionary to have had choral and solo voices on a classical piece like this - this was probably the first symphony of its kind - and the whole message and aesthetic of it, with the brilliant music and singing is truly divine "Freude freude!"
And would you believe it, Beethoven was DEAF!! 😀

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TheFreaksShallInheritTheEarth · 14/09/2023 23:15

I love all these posts, especially about all the brilliant women.
Thanks everyone.

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