Interesting article. A 12 year old with Aspergers and a higher IQ than Einstein says he can disprove both Einstien's Theory of Relativity and the Big Bang.

Phew, finally someone much younger and smarter than I can see through all the nonsense we've been fed for the last 50+ years and help us figure out the real make up of existence...

http://www.huffingtonpos...2-year-old_n_841577.html

WTF!?!? this is no human! this is a frickin alien disguised in human flesh as a 12year old!
damn i wish i could download a software upgrade for my brain.
thanks for sharing Saidin!! VERY interesting!

Wow! The mind boggles...!
...and yet, leave it to pop journalism to glibly state he may prove Einstein "wrong". So easy to misunderstand this: science does not "prove" things, but rather it continually brings evidence and technique to bear to support theories - in this case, perhaps, on a theory born out by much evidence, both theoretical and experimental. I suspect that if the kid is indeed a player, he will bring his challenges in the form of a revised model, not a complete overthrow.
I doubt very much any legitimate challenger to Einstein would think for a moment that his work is "nonsense" - just as Einstein didn't find Newton to be "wrong"... and speaking of that crotchety genius:
"If I have seen further than others, it is by standing on the shoulders of giants."
L

I wonder if that kid will ever smoke DMT when he gets older. Probably not but it would be interesting what he came up with after that.

Interesting for sure

But first of all, lets wait till his ideas get completed, published and given feedback by different physicists. So far seems he's yet "working on it" it seems.

Secondly, since when is Einstein's theories "nonsense that we've been fed"? A huge number of experiments (and practical applications) have shown Einstein's equations and ideas to be correct so far (or rather a good enough model for the moment), with many predictions that are confirmed. It serves to observe, analyse and put in practice several experiments regarding our world and universe.

Also, remember you are talking about science, it is a basis of science that things should be open to being disproven and changed, but this doesnt make what came before as 'nonsense'. For example Newtonian physics isnt nonsense, it can serve to explain pretty well things that go on in a simple level (for example explaining simple forces on earth), and you can still use the formulas for making useful calculations here on earth, but when you start talking about massive values and planetary movements, then the innacuracies will become obvious.

So if science is about to be updated by a 12 year old, great, but from another article I read it seems he wants to state an 'expanded version' of Einstein's theory, not completely refute it. So he would be building his breakthroguh thanks to the work of another genius who came before him, who has also build his breakthrough on the work of other genius and so on (and probably if that kid is right, someone else will come after him at some point and build more on top.. ).

Lets see how this turns out, of course any real change in science is very exciting

Very interesting, I like this kid. Hope he comes up with something neat!

Einstein never took an IQ test.

If this kid establishes at least 2 big scientific breathroughs, like einstein did, thén saying this dude could be smarter than einstein actually makes any sense.

I agree with you here. The nonsense descriptor was my personal addition to the story. By nonsense, I mean Big Bang Cosmology which arose from relativity and relies on 95% of its model being comprised of "dark" undetectable stuff.

Hopefully this kid changes the world, and doesn't get gobbled up by some military program and is never heard from again...

Well, if we don't hear from him again it'll be more likely he hadn't have much to contribute than being gobbled up by the military.

Anyway, why this tendency to put hopes on "young messiahs"?

A 12 year old who can re-write Einstein's equations, and whose IQ tested higher than the great man himself, wouldn't have much to contribute? I tend to lead toward the opposite. If he disappears, then he has been shuffled to some secretive military program...using his intelligence to destroy, rather than create.

I am intrigued by these types of people, because change begins with a single person. One person (or child) can change the world by realizing something that none other of us can see. So when I read stories about these young prodogies, who could be considered among the most intelligent to have ever lived, it gives me hope that someone could come along and change the world for the betterment of all humanity, rather than just some narrow interest that doesn't serve the greatest good.

That argument is actually mute since Einstein never did an IQ test. Also, IQ is not leading as there are some people with an incredible high IQ that are incredible hopeless in other areas. So pleae, let you not be seduced by using that argument to make your point.


Kind regards,

The Traveler

Saidin, I whole-heartedly agree, it is hopeful when brilliance shines forth, wherever that is!
This boy is interesting, no? Not in a messianic way, but, well, look what the brain is capable of! Asperger's is an interesting habit/debility on the autism spectrum and, as seems to be the case here, makes for incredible focus and perseverative expertise...
It will be interesting to learn if this boy keeps pushing the boundaries.
It is true that the Intelligence Quotient is a problematic measure of intellect. I recommend Stephen Jay Gould's The Mismeasure of Man for an illuminating discussion of efforts to quantify intelligence.
L

High IQ and aspeger's do not really sound as the prime qualities that may provide scientific breakthroughs. They may be positive contributing factors but still not convincing enough.

And what that is with the secretive military programmes? If he disappears it's because he wasn't worth that's all.

Yea...Binet himself essentially said this, afaik, the only reason he wasn't more outspoken when they appropriated his scale for non-intended uses was that he was a bit of a hermit.

Agreed, that is a flimsy argument. Let me change it to...he can understand Einstein so thoroughly, that he has found potential flaws in his theories, flaws that no other human being has been able to notice in the 70+ years since it was first formulated. He could teach this stuff to Einstien, which says a lot more about his intelligence than some semi-arbitrary number.

I saw this written by Saidin and thought it was worth a comment:

The Big Bang theory might not tell us how the universe works but it does explain a very basic observation. In the 1930's, Edwin Hubble measured that the farther away an object is from the earth, the faster it is moving away from us. That isn't a theory, that is what the measurements show.

Then the theories started with the question, "If the universe is expanding, will it continue to expand forever, or will gravity forces eventually cause the expansion to slow down and perhaps collapse back on itself?" Currently, no one knows the answer to this question but it is clear that the answer depends on how much mass is in the universe. We can see mass that is in the form of stars (light emitting matter) with a telescope but it's very difficult to see objects like planets (dark matter) located in another galaxy. (Your body is dark matter since it doesn't emit light.) We know there are both types of matter out there and to answer "Will the universe continue to expand?", we would need to account for both types of matter. Anyway, no one knows the answer to this question but there are several theories, the Big Bang being one of them.

What is curious to me is the initial observation that the universe is expanding. I wonder if it's really expanding or it just appears to be expanding. Things often aren't as they appear at first glance. Anyone ever think about this?(I don't mean to hijack the thread)

Many people have found potential flaws in einsteins theories. Einstein himself found potential flaws in his theories.
Every theory has flaws.

Einstein made 2 major scientific breakthroughs in his life though. That is rather unique.

Considering that time has changed and making big scientific breakthroughs today has become more difficult than it was a century ago, if this kid comes up with one major discovery that changes everything in science, THEN we can start comparing him with einstein.

That some kid scores high on a test doesn't exactly rock my world.

Aye... unless he raises the well-being of the masses somehow I'm not so impressed . I dislike how we liken intelligence to ultra-rationalism - I reckon its much more than having the capacity for all sorts of equations.

Aye, this is what the measurements show, but they do so due to a misunderstanding of Red-shift. There have been numerous observations of two galaxies which are interacting with eachother, yet their red-shifts are so far apart, one of the galaxies should be millions of light years away from the other. According to this theory, some observed galaxies are receding from us at faster than the speed of light. Even Hubble wasn't convinced that his observations denoted an expanding universe.

If you are truly curious as to whether the universe is expanding or not, look into Plasma Cosmology or Electic Universe Theory. These theories explain just about the entirety of the universe with observable data, and do not rely on invisible, undetectable stuff to make their theory fit the observations.

The media like prodigy's. Every now and then they got to come up with one. Usually these kids eventually wind up not performing that well later on in life, because they never had a proper childhood due to all the media attention.
If einstein would have been exhibited on a media freakshow as a kid, we probably wouldn't have relativity theory now.