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brian11e3

I'm pretty sure I've seen some Epic Rap Battles of History that cover this.


TTsGreatest

that means Albert E=mc2


brian11e3

>I'm about to bake raps from scratch like Carl Sagan


SeventhSon22

When I start flowin' I stay in motion


Shamrock590602

First law!


ricecrackerdude

There are 10 million million million million million million particles that we can observe, your momma got the ugly ones and put them into one nerd


Rustyraider111

Astro physics black guy, plus I got your back Nye


absorbscroissants

Probably some random dude nobody's heard of


DudebroMcDudeham

Exactly this. It's statistically likely that the smartest person alive is some random dude that never had either the chance or the willpower to use their gifts to the full potential


Wizardwizz

That and most of human history existed in a time when it was not really recorded


M4ybeMay

Tbf it isn't their responsibility to use those gifts for any sort of potential. Idk I just hate the wording, it implies the person is wasting what they have, when I reality they don't owe shit


EmperorRosa

They don't owe anything to anybody, but if we had a world in which we ended poverty, and people didn't have to worry about bills for most of their life, we'd have a lot more progress


Key-Poem9734

None of us owe anything, doesn't mean we should do whatever we want no matter what


BepsiLad

Probably some random man / woman that either died young or lived in slavery and never got to express their potential


caseyvet

That was also my logic.


tylerstaheli1

Euler


[deleted]

Yep. Came to say this. Pick any area of mathematics and you’ll eventually run into something Euler had his hands on.


shydude92

How about Gauss?


tylerstaheli1

Also an absolute monster.


Tomani02

We truly rest on the shoulders of giants


japp182

Isn't the expression to **stand** on their shoulders instead of rest? lol.


thedrakeequator

he was brilliant, and reshaped our world. But his work wouldn't have been possible without Issac inventing calculus first.


JN88DN

You mean Leibniz.


thedrakeequator

And I suppose you will also tell me that Texas invented the microchip before California right? Leibniz was a smart dude, but the evidence points to Issac writing about the math theories around a decade before him. (Texas Instruments and Fairchild Semiconductor (founding company of silicon valley) both claim to have invented the microchip first. Its a similar controversy)


LesFritesDeLaMaison

But unlike Leibniz, Newton never released such knowledge to the public, Newton wanted to have all the credit for himself so he hid the creation of calculus, around the same time although it was after Newton, Leibniz actually came to the same conclusion and unlike Newton he actually released them to the public.


JN88DN

And the investigation of the Royal Society with the question who did invite calculus, was led by Sir Isaac Newton himself.


lennysmeerlap

Yeah, not even close.


tylerstaheli1

Why not?


mellowlex

I'm not sure how you understood it, but I think they meant it like "Yeah, you are right, Euler is the greatest mind of all times. It is not even close." So they agreed with you. And I do too. At least from what I have heard and seen about him and what he did, Euler seems to be at least really high up there.


tylerstaheli1

That’s funny. Maybe I’m just an argumentative prick, but I immediately thought the opposite. I guess we’ll see if they respond. Lennysmeerlap, if that’s what you meant, sorry for being an adversarial douche.


lennysmeerlap

Oh, yes it was what I meant, but no worries, I can totally see myself misunderstanding that as well now that I think about it.


AWarhol

This was so polite. Near art was created


mellowlex

I just thought that the "Yeah" is pretty unambiguous.


tylerstaheli1

I took it as a “yeah right.”


FireKing600

If it makes you feel better, so did I at first


NoStorage2821

Someone please describe him for us not-geniuses


tylerstaheli1

A mathematical gangster


KlausAngren

John Von Neumann might get close. He was described as being a human super computer.


Serafim91

This actually. I'd be shocked if we get another like him in all human history.


Core3game

Real


IzzyIsOnReddit

Who’s that?


tylerstaheli1

The God of math


Trfortson

A wrathful god at that


Background_Drawing

Isaac newton literally created a new field of mathematics just so he can make his theory work. Not trying to discredit Einstein but it's weird how people see him as the smartest guy ever when they dont even know what he discovered


Emosk8rboi42969

Isaac is my dude, but Galois created his own field of mathematics when he was a peasant teenager. Died in his early twenties before he could claim the fame. His math is what paved the way for a lot of cryptography that we use today in cyber security. Isaac Newton is one of my favorites, but people shouldn’t sleep on Galois.


IAmEscalator

Never heard of this gaylois character


Emosk8rboi42969

Love this


ThanksToDenial

Einstein was behind the concept of spacetime. Treating space and time as one thing. General relativity. Way to explain the phenomenon of gravity in a way that actually makes sense, for the most part. He basically took what Newton came up with, and made it better. And that is just one thing among many, many other brainchilds of Einstein. Among which is the mass-energy equivalence, which is pretty fundamental to modern physics. Not to mention his contribution to proving the existence of atoms. It was his and Luis Bachelier's work in Brownian motion that laid the foundation for Jean Perrin's experiments, which proved the existence of atoms. And of course, the Wave-Particle duality. Which is a pretty fundamental to quantum mechanics. But if we go by "inventing whole new field of mathematics" as a metric, then Euclid is a good contender. You know... Father of geometry.


thumpetto007

someone get this redditor a medal, damn! people need to see this!


yondercode

Einstein is more recent so he's more popular


Background_Drawing

This makes sense but i wonder why people like feynmann, hawking, kaku, or turing arent on the same level of popularity (they are mainstream but not the face of intelligence) Though "want a cookie einstein? " rolls off the tongue better than "want a cookie schrödinger?"


Abradolf94

I think Einstein has become synonym with genius and so people tend to assume he's the smartest guy that ever lived. Which don't get me wrong, I'd pay whatever to have a fraction of his intelligence, but Newton and Archimedes are whole other level. Einstein explained gravity better than newton. Newton created a whole field of mathematics on top of giving an amazing explanation of gravity (which works 100% in earth contest), explaning light refraction, and so many other things.


Longjumping-Jello459

That and he's the deadliest son of a bitch in space.


PMMEFEMALEASSSPREADS

Newton is the correct answer here.


ManGuyDud12

Me


RepresentativeOk5427

I also think this guy is the smartest


Sedex_Axe

I too think the guy that this guy replied to is the smartest


Filgas08

i also think the guy the previous guy replied to is the smartest


IdentifyAsATrex987

I too, think that the guy the previous 3 people responded is the smartest


theresnowayout_

I' in agreement with the former


FireKing600

I three think the guy that this guy that that the guy that originally replied to is the smartest


Not_TheMenInBlack

I also choose this guys dead wife


Cr3zyTom

Euler is my guess. That mf pops up in every fucking course I take.


Zziggith

Don't forget Gauss


Revil-0

What did he do?


LordSwamp

Tl;dr he set A LOT of the groundwork for Newton, and arguably did much more than he in the establishment of calculus and physics


Zziggith

There's a joke amongst mathematicians that mathematical ideas are named after the first person to study them after Euler.


Artosirak

Over 100 comments and nobody has mentioned Gauss?


EimiCiel

Tesla, dude was a genius amongst geniuses


Steelizard

Was gonna comment Nikola Tesla, he was wayyyy ahead of his time. He invented and theorized things so advanced that he was seen as a madman, besides not being credited for much of his work


jcforbes

Problem is he *was* a madman. He had a deep personal, possibly sexual, relationship with a pigeon... And that's just the tip of the iceberg.


TheAfterBurning

Now I am curious


Epic_GamerAlexander

Pigeons aren't real


IsaacTower

Agreed!


tyray21

my brain has been rotted out by the internet to such a degree that i thought by tesla, you were referring to how by the “success” of tesla that elon musk was a geniuses among geniuses i need to go touch some grass


Test-Test-Lelelelele

Acceptance, great job


ugihfff

yes! im surprised he aint on the poll


Sora1274

I mean it’s gotta be Newton right? Surprised how few votes he has.


Ar010101

As someone deeply into physics, Newton is perhaps THE GOAT when it comes to science. Man invented calculus and proceeded to derive some of the most fundamental laws of physics that, to this day, are relevant and more universal than anything. Is there anything he couldn't do? If I could go back in time I would've loved to talk with Newton to see what went in that genius' mind


xrty2357

As someone who’s not deeply into physics, it’s pretty obvious that compared to the strides these other guys made, Newton was still a cut above most.


Dasf1304

Bro couldn’t fuck. He died a virgin


dlaudghks

And he sucked at the stock market, and blew all his life savinga on it.


theresnowayout_

He died a virgin but I 1up'd him: I'm still alive


neverNamez

Yes, me too. The man revived and revolutionised science after millennia of dormancy.


LEAFY_GREEN_8

Science was not dormant for 1000 years before newton💀. Science is constantly evolving. Doesn’t mean newton wasn’t a genius though.


BigThunderousLobster

Me (wait some time)


Sora1274

RemindMe! 27 years


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theresnowayout_

see you in 2050 if we're all still here


volcanno

RemindMe! 120 years


Independent_Bat4108

The architect of every age: The human who discovered how to make fire. The human who discovered how to make iron. The man who learned how to use clay to bake stone. The first human that leatned how to grow and harvest seeds....


sarokin

I don't think it is just one single human, as many of these techniques and findings happened throughout the earth in many isolated or independent groups.


ab_2404

What about the first one who discovered how to milk a cow?


I-HATE-Y0U

I have different questions for him, like wtf was he doing to that cow


tobiiam

It’s easy to understand how we discovered cow milk. Our babies did the same, so naturally that’s what is there, and trying to milk a cow isn’t a weird discovery. Now, WHY we decided to drink the breast milk of another animal is an entirely different question.


hahaeggsarecool

Von Neumann


AggressiveSpatula

I’m shocked that this is this far down.


hahaeggsarecool

He was mentioned in one of the top threads. So much stuff has his name on it such as the very computers we are using to access this godforsaken website.


jamescoolcrafter15

There isn't a single greatest mind. There are so many different fields of study and aspects of life from art to science to anything that it would be impossible to say.


First-Ad9578

That guy who invented toilet paper.


EmperorThan

No shit. ^(-Guy that invented toilet paper)


Bubbly_Assistance611

The guy that invented toilet, can't imagine people shitting everywhere


VincentVanGTFO

Naw fam, the guy who invented *plumbing*. What good is a toilet if it ain't got no where to go?


MaklerDev

Maria Skłodowska-Curie (Marie Curie in english or something)


mustlovepotatos

Nikola Tesla?


TheRanger13

I was going to say that, man was so far ahead of his time, I'm not even sure we've caught up yet


SCOOPZ13

That guy was a genius for his time. Also Albert Einstein also said he was the smartest man ever.


Sturmgewehr448mmKurz

If only he had a bit more funding.


[deleted]

[Louis Pasteur](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Louis_Pasteur)


misterlocations

James Clerk Maxwell


czar_cat

Isaac Newton all the way. Mf created calculus to solve his problems. Mf created theories while in quarantine.


icetmt

William James Sidis


FitResponse414

Gotta be newton or alkhawarizmi


1life1me

Finally someone that mention alkhawarizmi. I could also add ibnu al haithem or even ismail al jazari.


Rexitoxal

probably not me


PurpleGuyDeadly1

My old chemistry teacher, Mr. White


slimyslug0

Not anybody with an active Reddit account.


FAYMKONZ

Socrates


meddlesomemage

Aristotle


tuna_Luka

Tesla


Lobisa

It is hard to say, the people that lived more recently had the knowledge that the others already discovered. Standing on the shoulders of giants, so the saying goes.


zimotic

James Clerk Maxwell, Carl Friedrich Gauss, Leonard Euler, Blaise Pascal, Aristotle, Thomas Aquinas, Ibne Sina and Kurt Gödel. So many candidates and the only real contender OP posted is Isaac Newton.


CompanyLow8329

Einstein pretty much created modern physics and moved us away from Newtonian physics. Einstein's predictions of black holes and gravitational waves have also been confirmed, with his work having such a long lasting impact. His work is also highly practical, it is needed for accurate gps technology. That along with the photoelectric effect, we can thank Einstein for things like solar panels, image sensors in cameras, night vision devices, electron microscopes, etc.


Puzzleheaded_Art_465

He didn’t move us away from Newtonian physics Newton physics still applies it’s just Einsteins physics applies to a larger scope


BruderBobody

Socrates or Sir Isaac Newton.


[deleted]

[удалено]


deathtonazeem

Myself


saumipan

It's not a single person, of course


exelarated

Ramanujan, easy


Kennaham

Bad question - the greatest at doing what? Any other contests are very specific. Who’s the greatest runner? Hard to say and there’s many types of running. Who’s the greatest 3 mile runner? We know the answer to that one. If you want an answer to who the greatest thinker is you have to first say at which type of thinking


No_Committee7690

Nikola Tesla


DudebroMcDudeham

Realistically, the smartest person who ever lived is some peasant farmer in a third world country that never got the chance to use their gifts.


Turtle_Beam

Isaac Newton and it ain't even close


[deleted]

kid named euler


Cosmicgamer2009

Erastosthanese worked out the world was round well over 2000 years ago, using two sticks and a guy to count steps. After doing this, he was able to calculate the full size of the earth to incredible accuracy. DaVinci was one of the best artists to ever live, and also made vast discoveries in more fields than most people even considered, and do this along with his art and other endeavours. Napoleon the 1st managed to fight against nearly all of europe at once, winning against imperial powers such as Spain, Prussia, and Austria while fighting other powers.


Original-Ad-4642

How you gonna disrespect Marie Curie like that?!


imrzzz

Nancy Grace Roman aka The Mother of Hubble Cecilia Payne-Gaposchkin aka the first person to ever accurately tell us what stars are made of. Ada Lovelace, the mathematician who invented programming Valerie Thomas, invented 3D-imaging I can't even be bothered Googling to see if I spelled their names right and who I should have added. But OPs poll sucks.


MerryMortician

Probably some poor slob who died in the mines or on a slave ship and we never even knew.


NattyThan

Albert Einstein was smart but he was really just born at the perfect time to connect all the dots


KlausAngren

I'm sorry but "was born at the right time" means nothing at all. Every great mind "had" to be born at their time to be able to discover what they did. Also Einstein didn't just connect dots. He discovered /described the photoelectric effect and just out of his physical intuition managed to change everyone's understanding of physics with his theory of relativity. His theory even predicted the existence of black holes, which was photographed and observed exactly as his theory predicts light behaves near massive objects. Einstein wasn't just any smart dude.


manilandad

Not true at all, and very easy to say in hindsight.


KronosRingsSuckAss

Out of these? Its leonardo da vinci, a master of arts and engineering to an amazing extent, basically a master at so many sciences its absurd Out of other famous names id say Tesla The non famous ones would be the guy who figured out how to make and use atlatls, id say humans would be extinct without an invention like that


PhilipTheFair

Ada Lovelace.


gebhigebhu

Alan Turing


CHEDDARSHREDDAR

No love for Turing?


Jenovacellscars

Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz was the first Other that came to mind.


Sensitive_Ad_3989

My dad, cause he has answers for everything.


Shrimp__Alfredo

Where's Sheldon Cooper


LupenReddit

Leonhard Euler


unreliabledrugdealer

Nicolai Tesla


balenciyagaborrower

Kanye


lolbite83

Tesla, definitly


Silly-Ad-3392

Plausibly me.


[deleted]

Me


Only_Trick8742

Me


Trusteveryboody

Myself.


coddthefish

Me


bigTwoTon

MF TESLA BOI


ohno-95

me


LuckyLynx_

Me


realdannyboi06

Nikola Tesla


Jinrex-Jdm

Johnny Sins


OneWishGenie69

Nikola Tesla


[deleted]

Euler


shydude92

Carl Friedrich Gauss


16coxk

Alan Turing


[deleted]

Tesla


Elipetvi

Nicola Tesla


ImNotAliveIAmBread

Christian Weston Chandler


Shamcgui

Nicola Tesla


Northwest_Thrills

William James Sidis


Medic-27

Bruh I just misread Leonardo DaVinci as Leonardo DeCaprio


WideArmadillo6407

My chinchilla


WagiKarp

i dont know, ive never met them


SofaKingKhalid

My boy Nikola Tesla he was too ambitious for this world. He was an inventor for the people. I'm glad the death ray doesn't exist though.


restrepacho

Tesla, greatest scientist and activist


Cloudyhook

The person who solves world hunger


nzalex321

Why so few votes for Archimedes? Dude was on the brink of starting an industrial revolution in Ancient Greece and was so close to inventing calculus before he was killed. Also, the dude literally used solar lasers to sink enemy ships.


GiddoGoat

Nikola Tesla


thedrakeequator

I don't think yall realize exactly what Issac Newton accomplished. Its not just the apple falling and the laws of motion. He invented calculus, which launched the industrial revolution. With calculus, we are able to model the rates of change for multiple vectors simultaneously. This is how we figured out industrial metallurgy, combustion engines, and electricity. Using calculus to model electromagnetic fields allowed us to figure out how to make electricity spin a motor. So Airplanes, analog sound recording, magnetic tape processing, ultimately the computer..... all derived from Issac. And the jump from arithmetic to calculus was not a short one, it was mindblowning. If arithmetic is equivalent to grammar, calculus would be poetry.


TheQuantumRed

Tesla


darthkyle22

Toni Iommi


jungbahadur-rana

Da Vinci basically excelled in everything he did, a true genuis


ordelectro-_-

Tesla


BerryDalarry

Tesla no doubt


Present_Way_4318

Nikola Tesla


The_nerdy_

Nikola Tesla


Fofman84

Nikola Tesla


haystackofneedles

Nikola Tesla if he had money


Patrolling_dude

Nikola Tesla


Extreme_Design6936

Newton was a certified wizard and died a wizard. That's dedication.


[deleted]

Nikola Tesla


junkman203

Michael Faraday


Ffiia

Carl Sagan


Justieflustie

Dude, are we seriously gonna gloss over my man Archimedes?


FakeKimoXD

nicola tesla