Isaac Newton — a mathematician, physicist, inventor, economist, and theologian — was the smartest person ever to have lived. His unparalleled brilliance, however, came at a very steep cost.
Marilyn Vos Savant is a writer with the highest recorded IQ of 228. Normal people can't reach that much. She earned the name of the smartest person in the world.
Like Leonardo Da Vinci, Albert Einstein is one of the most famous geniuses in the history of our world. Unfortunately, his contributions to humanity are not nearly as universal as his name, except his theory of relativity.
Smartest Person in the World in 2023: Smartest Person Alive with highest IQ. Marilyn Vos Savant may well be the smartest person alive today. With an IQ of 228, she holds the highest IQ in the world by the Guinness World Records since 1990.
FAQs (Frequently Asked Questions) When did Elon Musk take an IQ test? The Tesla CEO is estimated to have an IQ score of around 155.
Marilyn vos Savant (/ˌvɒs səˈvɑːnt/; born Marilyn Mach; August 11, 1946) is an American magazine columnist who has the highest recorded intelligence quotient (IQ) in the Guinness Book of Records, a competitive category the publication has since retired.
That's about one in every 250 people. But one leading researcher in the 1940s suggested that a genius should have an IQ over 180. That's about one in every 2 million people. There is no one definition of genius.
Being a genius isn't as simple as being smart or having a high IQ. While intelligence is, of course, a prerequisite of genius status, there are other things at play here – including creativity, self-awareness, and an innate ability to ask questions few others have ever asked.
As far as standard measures of intelligence such as IQ, Tesla's was estimated to be about 195, so near the high end of the range (200). I've seen Einstein's estimated IQ to be anywhere from 160 to 220. Averaging that out, we get 191, so they both had about the same intelligence quotient.
What Is the Lowest IQ Ever? There's no record of the lowest IQ ever. However, the lowest IQ score possible is zero.
Leonardo da Vinci
A painter, sculptor, architect, musician, mathematician, engineer, inventor, anatomist, geologist, cartographer, botanist, and writer, Leonardo da Vinci was perhaps the most diversely talented person to have ever lived. His estimated IQ scores range from 180 to 220 by different measures.
Leonardo da Vinci, as we know, was the epitome of the Renaissance man. We know that he was a genius, a polymath, a pioneer in fields as diverse as anatomy and hydrodynamics. We know that Leonardo invented the tank, the helicopter, the flying machine, the parachute, and the self-powered vehicle.
Einstein never took an IQ score test. However, based on his historical records, academics have estimated his score to be around 160.
For a mean of 100 and standard deviation of 15 as on most IQ tests that means a person with an IQ of 200 is about 6.67 standard deviations above the mean. That means the odds of a given person having an IQ that high are about 1 in 1e20th.
Science supports laziness
The data found that those with a high IQ got bored less easily, leading them to be less active and spend more time engaged in thought.
The standard scores on most other currently normed IQ tests fall in the same range. A score of 160 corresponds to a rarity of about 1 person in 31,560 (leaving aside the issue of error of measurement common to all IQ tests), which falls short of the Mega Society's 1 in a million requirement.
“An Idiot with a Plan Can Beat a Genius Without a Plan”
Geniuses are both born and made. While genetics can explain up to 75% of variations in IQ levels, factors like socioeconomic status and home environment decide whether a person achieves their full genetic IQ potential.
Like most aspects of human behavior and cognition, intelligence is a complex trait that is influenced by both genetic and environmental factors.
The average IQ varies from country to country, with the US standing at 98. Anything above 130 is high. Here are some of the glimpses of genius that attest to Bill Gates' high IQ, even to the point of being a 160 score.
Her IQ is probably lower than average, around 90 SD 15. But she has a very entropic personality. Intelligence is ultimately about solving problems.
The Triple Nine Society (TNS) is an international high IQ society for adults whose score on a standardized test demonstrates an IQ at or above the 99.9th percentile of the human population. The society recognizes scores from over 20 different tests of adult intelligence.