The smartest man on Earth is said to be Oxford graduate Dr. Stephen Hawking.

This is not an easy question to answer. To begin with first one needs to define 'smart'. If one uses the IQ system of measure it should be noted that this system is flawed and can only really answer the question "who is the man, or woman, who has the highest recorded IQ score aggregated across several IQ systems?". If this is the question, then there are several individuals who belong to MENSA (check out the websites) who can claim this accolade. Be aware though that many possible candidates don't record their IQs and may actually "be smarter". A typical famous example is Albert Einstein who was never measured, but is generally accepted as being a 'genius' (this is actually a technical reference of IQ). Also be aware that IQ scores vary according to age and scale. Personally my IQ has been measured as 168 on one scale and 147 on another - this doesn't mean that my IQ has varied between tests, only that the scales used are different. Either way, these scores classify me as being "up there" yet despite this measure, I wouldn't for a moment classify myself as belonging to the echelon you're seeking to identify. With reference to Prof. Hawking, while a popular and great thinker, I'm sure that even he would admit that he's not at the top of the list. As a point of information, in a recent poll of scientists as to who were/are the greatest scientific minds, although Prof. Hawking did make it into the top 100, it wasn't very high and he only polled 1 vote (from the hundreds of scientists) when the top 10 was complied.

William James Sidis is arguably the brightest human who ever existed on our planet Earth. Here is a partial list of William James Sidis' extraordinary capabilities and accomplishments: 1.) Given IQ is a purely anthropocentric means of assessing intelligence, Sidis' IQ is crudely estimated at 250-300. 2.) Infant Billy listened to Greek myths read to him by Sarah as bedtime stories. 3.) Started feeding himself with a spoon at eight months (after two months of trial and error). 4.) Cajoled by her Mom, Billy learned to pronounce alphabetic syllables from blocks hanging in his crib. 5.) At six months, Billy said, "Door." A couple months later he told Mom he liked things, doors and people, that move. 6.) At seven months he pointed to Earth's moon and called it, "moon." He wanted a 'moon' of his own. 7.) Mastered higher mathematics and planetary revolutions by age 11. 8.) Learned to spell efficiently by one year old. 9.) Started reading The New York Times at 18 months. 10.) Started typing at three. Used his high chair to reach a typewriter. First composed letter was an order for toys from Macy's. 11.) Read Caesar's Gallic Wars, in Latin (self-taught), as a birthday present to his Father in Billy's fourth year. 12.) Learned Greek alphabet and read Homer in Greek in his fourth year. 13.) Learned Aristotelian logic in his sixth year. 14.) At six, Billy learned Russian, French, German, and Hebrew, and soon after, Turkish and Armenian. 15.) Calculated mentally a day any date in history would fall at age six. Absolutely fascinated by calendars. 16.) Learned Gray's Anatomy at six. Could pass a student medical examination. 17.) Billy started grammar school at six, in 3 days 3rd grade, graduated grammar school in 7 months. 18.) At age 8, Billy surpassed his father (a genius) in mathematics. 19.) Corrected E. V. Huntington's mathematics text galleys at age of eight. 20.) Total recall of everything he read. 21.) Wrote four books between ages of four and eight. Two on anatomy and astronomy, lost. 22.) Passed Harvard Medical School anatomy exam at age seven. 23.) Passed MIT entrance exam at age eight. 24.) Intellect surpassed best secondary school teachers. 25.) At age 10, in one evening, corrected Harvard logic professor Josiah Royce's book manuscript: citing, "wrong paragraphs." 26.) Attempted to enroll in Harvard at nine. 27.) In 1909, became youngest student to ever enroll at Harvard at age 11. 28.) In 1910, at age 11, lectured Harvard Mathematical Club on 'Four-Dimensional Bodies.' 29.) Billy graduated from Harvard, cum laude, on June 24, 1914, at age 16. 30.) Billy entered Harvard Law School in 1916. 31.) Billy could learn a whole language in one day! 32.) Billy knew all the languages (approximately 200) of the world, and could translate among them instantly!

Yes, Stephen Hawking is the smartest person on the planet. He was effected by ALS(amyotrophic lateral sclerosis) at the age of 20. The disease confined him to a wheel chair and forced him to use a computer generated voice synthesizer. He still continued his research and provided the mathematical support for the big bang theory. He is regarded as living Einstein, but he is undoubtedly a greater genius than Einstein. For more information about him visit http://www.hawking.org.uk/

Tom Cruise Because no one knows the history of psychology like he does.

The question is akin to "How long is a piece of string?" Grammatically correct, but meaningless. Any answers would rely on some kind of relativistic statement, like: Twice as long as from one end to the middle. In that vein, I think the correct answer to the question is: The smartest man on earth would be the man who makes sure that no one knows he's the smartest man on earth. So look for some really smart guy, (Hawkings is a reasonable choice), who says "Oh no, I'm certainly not the smartest man on earth"....and you've probably found him.

Without a doubt, the smartest man in the world is Dr. Brian Kidd. This is a well known fact! Ask Prof. Hawkings himself.

Somewhat off-topic: James Sidis' parents were the smartest people on earth. The environment they created for him allowed his prodigiousness. I, like most of you, spent a great deal of my childhood in a public school classroom. This is a place where the math taught must be accesible to the student with the least aptitude, the music training catered to the student with the least musical talent. For each student, 50-70% of the time spent in a(n American) school is wasted time. Maybe very few children would do as well as Sidis did, but the vast majority would do very well. This in no way blames teachers. Most teachers I have had did their jobs very well, and went beyond what was required of them. It is the school system that causes the limitations described above. Maybe there is no economically feasible way around it. There are programs in public schools commonly called things like Gifted and Talented, but the sizes of the programs are probably limited by a lack of money, not of bright children - though I have no statistical evidence to back this up.

There a very easy answer to this question......one season of the year, this man has everyone's attention. from retailers, to adults, the weather people as well as all the children on planet earth. its of course, santa claus. if you disagree with my answer, just ask any child!!

Ernest Manigo, Jr. is accepted to being one of the smartest people alive today. He has a very diverse background, and a multitude of experiences. His IQ is above 200 and he scored 1600 on the SATs. He has developed new math theorems, created new physics theories, composed masterpiece music works, created magnificent art, wrote and produced films, and can speak 4 languages: Japanese, Frence, Spanish, and English. This young man was born in The Bronx, NYC.

Historically, Jesus Christ by far takes the honours. ------------------------ Smartest man - Stephen Hawkings. Smartest woman - Marilyn Ann Mach (Marilyn vos Savant) with an IQ of 230 as a child. Marilyn Ann Mach was born in 1946. At the other end of the scale The famous Nobel Prize Winner Francis Crick founded DNA with an IQ of 120.

Most likely the smartest man on Earth currently living is Stephen Hawking, a British scientist.

I think this question is relative, because different people are more intelligent than others in different fields. Do you think Stephen Hawking is an expert dancer/ballet artist, and knows the history of the dances as well as the proper steps to perform them? I think not.

The man who agrees with his wife whether she's right or wrong, then does what is right anyway.

The smartest man is obvious to have the biggest brain. or at least one that is the most used in terms of nuero activity and higher brain functioning. That person would beKim peeks(Rain Man). who possesses the strange anomally of having 1 brain hemisphere instead of 2. But the guy can't even tie his shoe. Ironic paradox.

The smartest man is the man who challenges himself with smarter other men.

Intelligence is a multidimensional entity, a human characteristic too complicated to be accurately and sufficiently measured by any IQ test. IQ tests merely photograph one's cognitive level / mental performance, rather than fully analyze and describe it, mainly since IQ itself is not all there is to intelligence. Creativity, for instance, which is highly correlated to imagination (the core of intelligence), is not IQ dependent. So it's really very hard to say, even more since the IQ estimation of most of the greatest geniuses of all time is based almost entirely on their work, since they're not alive. Thus, the results' credibility cannot be verified with intelligence tests. Despite that, several psychometricians consider William James Sidis to be the most intelligent human who ever lived. Moreover, some believe his peak cognitive level to be representative of the highest possible level a human being can reach (his deviation IQ is estimated at about 250-280, sd 16). Others characterize Emanuel Swedenborg as the most intellectually charismatic person ever (during his lifetime, his mental abilities where considered nearly divine). Some other universal geniuses allegedly reaching or exceeding the level of a deviation IQ of 200, sd 16 are Leonardo Da Vinci, Socrates, Plato, Nikola Tesla, Hypatia and more. Others, with an estimated deviation IQ of 180, sd 16 - the critical level of 5 sigma above the mean - are Friedrich Nietzsche, Gottfried W. Leibniz, Stephen Hawking, Salvador Dali, Baruch Spinoza, Marie Curie, Johann W. Goethe, Pythagoras, Srinivasa Ramanujan, John Stuart Mill, Michelangelo Buonarroti, Robert J. Fischer and many more. Just consider that according to the current statistics & norms, the top 0.00003% of the unselected population corresponds to a deviation IQ of 180, sd 16 which is statistically equivalent to approximately 1800 individuals in our current population of (roughly) 6.4 billion people. Many scientific magazines & top scientists around the globe accept Dr. Edward Witten as the most intelligent human alive on earth. Witten works as a professor of physics at Princeton's Institute of Advanced Study and focuses on the laws that govern the Superstring Theory, currently the most realistic and widely accepted theory regarding the beginning and evolution of our universe. Grail Society (founded by Paul Cooijmans) has been created with a sole purpose of bringing out the most intelligent person who ever lived, that is, 1 in 100 billion people. This corresponds to 6.7 sigma above the average or a deviation IQ of 207, sd 16.

Alex Trebek is the smartest man on earth. Tom Cruise knows psychiatry. HA! Confucius would say that the smartest man on earth is the one who realizes how little he still knows.

The smartest Man on earth... If he/she is really smart, we probably never heard of him/her!! Intelligence cannot be measured, Einstein had worse grades then I did and I have an IQ of 129. He achieved greatness and had an impact on the World, I'm married with 3 children. lol Is it really important to know who the smartest is?

Someone that a lot of people have never heard of is Alvin Plantinga. He is a prof at Notre Dame. Widely considered in the Christian circles as one of the, if not the, smartest man alive today.

Stableboy and Tom. Its a dead on tie.

who knows what to speak , when to speak, when to smile (a big give away of thoughts in your mind). this man can practically manipulate everything around him . do you think you match the criteria?

I can tell you this it’s not me. But I would add this it’s from stand points or looking at something from the 4 dimension. The question should be what is smart and from what stand point. In my opinion it’s a person that creates or improves something. To copy or memorize is practice to create is genius. Cheers, Brian Diaz

The man who knows that he cannot lift himself.

The one who can get the packaging off of CDs and DVDs.

Not me! The more I learn, I just learn how little I know.

It is I Jonathan Howell (Only joking).It would be great if you'd read my poetry, i'd love to be considered a literary genius. myspace.com/jonohowell It's on the blog.

It is I Jonathan Howell (only joking). It would be great if you go a chance to read my poetry though; i'd love to be considered a literary genius. my webpage is myspace.com/jonohowell it's on the blog. Cheerio chaps and chapesses!

I think the smartest man on the earth is the one who doesn't think he is the smartest man on earth.

My Dad. I've believed that since I was 2 years old and I'm sticking to it.

Bill Gates.

Me...

Err...who said "the smartest man" was a man? How about a woman...or a child? There seems to be a questionable assumption in the question itself. I have some thoughts on smart people at: www.scientific-child-prodigy.blogspot.com

Err...isn't there a questionable assumption in the question itself? Who said the "smartest man" wasn't a woman...or a child? I write about gifted people on my blog: www.scientific-child-prodigy.blogspot.com Anyone interested in this question would probably find something of interest there.

Bildad in the Bible he is a Shuhite!

OJ Simpson....look what he got away with! (OK maybe the luckiest on earth)

Joe Francis or Hugh Heffner..

Well, I for one do not believe there is a single man or woman capable of outdoing all others in every measure of intelligence that would be necessary to claim such a title. Rather, I think it is more likely that there are many individuals out there that are specialized in various forms of intelligence. I don't think the social pressures of growing up today, in any country, are sufficient to "shape" such a prodigy, even though chance dictates one eventually must come about. Having said that, if such an intelligent being was born, one that obviously stood head and shoulders above all else intellectually, I think there are various situations that are likely to have occurred: Conspiracy theory - such a person would be extremely valuable. A government body or private company, or even a single man, may have find this person, and force or trick him/her into working for them. Then sell the plans to various other companies secretly, thus making much money and remaining undetected. Would you be surprised to hear tomorrow that the fast pace of the computer business was a result of one person and their ides? The person/person to be would not live up to their full potential, or concentrate on menial tasks, and therefor remain undetected. Laziness, if you will. Ties in with our society and its values on upbring and such. Desperation theory - having realized their situation, how completely alone they are (as various media sources portray it), they seek a life of solitude, or even as far as self destruction I agree with Ender will ninja... . I do not think the smartest man alive would be concerned with petty ratings, unless he had a emotional disorder. I reckon its lonely at the top :)

such a subjective question...but Stephen Hawking is pretty smart imo.

Don't tell this to any body. You know, its a great secret i've been protecting for years and I reveal it to you for you are a great person. The smartest person on earth is..... me!

Complicated question. Simple answer. Me.

God.

I would vote for Stephen Hawking.

Whoever he is, I'll bet Chuck Norris could roundhouse kick him into next Tuesday! LOL!

Me, for I am a genius who spends his time on meaningless message boards, hoping to find the seeds of truth in the commercial vision of a corporate empire.

ECHELON

the guy in the pin stripped suit dead smart tie aswell and trouser and shiny shoes wow

madalyn elizabeth sanford

Some of you guys are idiots! you should only answer questions that with references or really know what you are talking about...for instance: superstring theory is NOT the "most" accepted theory in physics....it is still very controversial. IQ tests are dumb. It's valid, but culturally bias! But if you ask me, I think Brian from Family Guy is the smartest person/dog ever!

who said it was a man?

I feel before asking the question "Who is the smartest man on earth?" one needs to answer the question "What determins the smartest man on earth?" How does one seperate memory from well educated. For example, if I read a 1000 page book and be able to recite it back to you word for word, I feel that I would be considered a very smart person. Now after that I was asked to anwser the math problem of 2+2=? and I couldent, than I would be considered dumb. Even if I cant do simple problems like 2+2=? but I remember words and such does this mean i am not in the catigory of some of the smartest men on earth. Peoples perseption of being smart is missed directed. I feel the person who can remember the most is the smartest persone on earth. Now if the person with the best memory can be well educated this persone will be divine.

My husband, he got with me didn't he!

Jesus

I am definitely not the smartest man on earth. Witten is a possibility, so too is Chris Langan, a virtual nobody, but remarkable in a number of ways. He easily could take the role of any one of these great geniuses, and make an impact on in virtually any field. He really fits the mold of a reclusive genius. IQ measured circa 195(a real freak). Mathematical: Gauss. Integral/abstract but physical: Einstein perhaps. these are just known names, however, as there are so many great thinkers out there. And let us not forget that there are thinkers out there today who may be working on ideas that the great minds of today are not capable of proving just yet, for lack of time or resources. So there could be great thinkers of the present era or of the last 50 years whose genius and brilliant theories may not be revealed to the world for some time, and may not even be well understood by many for even longer, if ever at all.

I am definitely not the smartest man on earth. Witten is a possibility, so too is Chris Langan, a virtual nobody, but remarkable in a number of ways. He easily could take the role of any one of these great geniuses, and make an impact on in virtually any field. He really fits the mold of a reclusive genius. IQ measured circa 195(a real freak). Mathematical: Gauss. Integral/abstract but physical: Einstein perhaps. these are just known names, however, as there are so many great thinkers out there. And let us not forget that there are thinkers out there today who may be working on ideas that the great minds of today are not capable of proving just yet, for lack of time or resources. So there could be great thinkers of the present era or of the last 50 years whose genius and brilliant theories may not be revealed to the world for some time, and may not even be well understood by many for even longer, if ever at all.

grigori perelman

one who NEVER talks about politics, religion, abortion, or any sensitive topics..

Stephen Hawking

ben stien

Mr. Bean. My 2 cents.

We'll never know, because if he's that smart he'll stay 'under the radar' yo...

Matt Schneider

Bill gates all that money :)

Not sure if he's the smartest on earth, but my bf is truly an incredibly smart man.

Daniel Tattmen

The smartest man on earth is... YOU! Unfortunately, however, you are not the smartest person on earth, sicne the smartest person on earth is a woman.

The one who knows that what he inhibits is only a small particle in the galaxy of knowledge

The "Hu" man

We are all equal in that regard...some people are just better in certain subjects than others.

Me ofcouse

That's definitely me...by miles. And most humble too...lol

DR.Aldaffa in king fahad university of petroleum and minerals in Saudi Arabia because he is the king of integration

John Stuart Mill, he was like 1,000 Einsteins and 100,000 times more unstable.

my boy friend he looks good and beats me on every test even tho he's a yer younger ...... he just can't spell.......... honestly I think it was einstien

collectivly, we are the smartest man on earth. ask us anything. an answer you will get

Stephen Hawkins.... or ME.. oh wait... *looks down* I lack the parts to be the ssmartest man on earth... guess I got promoted to smartest woman on earth... JUST KIDDING!

Homer Simpson

it aint me

P.T. Barnum

Stephen Hawkins

RALPH NADER!

Obama, for saying he has visited 57 of the United States.

Any man who realizes there is always more to learn and pursues that.

For me my dad he is the smartest and most caring man that I know exist on earth

Stephen Hawkins!!! Absolutely no contest! He hashes through the question of the Universe and works with his wife as a DJ part time! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9_iBfkBNLi8

Chris Langan

Kevin Federline. he has probably acquired the most wealth with the least ability of any man alive.

After me?

stephen hawking maybe?

simon cowell

Al Gore...just ask him!! Hahahah!

I'd have to say that Bill gates is the smartest man on earth ... He has made MILLIONS and Billions of $$$$$$ and doesn't really need anything from anyone .... He has to be VERY intelligent ...

someone who knows lots about people... hmm...if we change it to what... cameras ? nah.. the one with the highest IQ or... the one who knows much about people common sense ?

Well I don't know who is the smartest, human/man on earth. For we all learn off one another. But if I had to pick just one of us humans. I'd say it maybe a FRIEND, who lives on another farm. Just a few miles north of here. His name is Chris Michael Langan. You can check his site out for more info: here at..... http://www.ctmu.org/ If you wish......Plus 5 for your question & have a Great Day.......................M.C.S.

Maria Vos Savant.

alex jones. cuz he's right about everything.

The book of lists names Leonardo DaVinci

There`s nothing such as 'the smartest'. It`s just that some people are very smart.

god is

Ice Man. His IQ is 259.