Stephen Hawking in Hunt for Africa’s Hidden Talent
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Professor Stephen Hawking, who has devoted his career to finding the origins of the universe, is to begin a new search—for Africa’s answer to Einstein.
Despite suffering from motor neurone disease which has left him almost completely paralysed, Hawking, 66, has made the journey to South Africa to launch the project today.
Some of the world’s leading high-tech entrepreneurs and scientists have backed the £75m plan to create Africa’s first postgraduate centres for advanced maths and physics, after the British government declined to provide funding.
Hawking will be joined by eminent physicists and mathematicians including two Nobel laureates in physics, David Gross and George Smoot, and Michael Griffin, the head of Nasa. Naledi Pandor, South Africa’s education minister, will also speak.
“The world of science needs Africa’s brilliant talents and I look forward to meeting prospective young Einsteins from Africa,” said Hawking.
Neil Turok, founder of the project and professor of mathematical physics at Cambridge University, where he is a close colleague of Hawking, said the aim of the centres was to “unlock and nurture scientific talent” across Africa. “Apart from an African Einstein, we want to find the African Bill Gates and the Sergey Brins and Larry Pages of the future,” said Turok, referring to the founders of Microsoft and Google.
The 15 new centres will be modelled on the African Institute for Mathematical Sciences (Aims) which was founded by Turok in Muizenberg, near Cape Town, four years ago. It has produced 160 graduates from 30 African countries, many of whom have gone on to take science doctorates. Another 53 will graduate shortly.
Among them is Buthaina Adam, whose mathematical skills shone out in Sudan’s war-torn Darfur province where she grew up. With a physics degree from the University of Khartoum, she hoped to become a nuclear physicist, but shortage of money and opportunities left her career on hold until she was offered a place at Aims in 2006.
“Aims gave me a life, opened doors for me,” said Adam, who hopes to return to Darfur and teach after completing a PhD.
Turok decided to push for 15 more Aims institutes after winning the £50,000 Technology, Entertainment and Design prize in America earlier this year. He donated the money to Aims.
He has since been offered support potentially worth tens of millions of pounds. Google, the Gates Foundation and Sun Microsystems are among those that have expressed interest.
Turok and Hawking hope that Aims’s students will help to overturn the negative stereotypes of Africa that were recently given expression by James Watson, the co-discoverer of DNA.
Watson lost his job as director of the Cold Spring Harbor laboratories in America after suggesting that Africans were less intelligent than Europeans. A subsequent analysis of his own DNA showed that he had part-African ancestry.
“Watson’s views were simply ridiculous,” said Turok. “The quality of students we are seeing at Aims is extremely high. What they need is an opportunity to learn.”
Hawking’s keynote lecture this afternoon is expected to be the highpoint of the ceremonies in Cape Town. When he gave a talk at the Caltech campus in Pasadena in the United States, he was wheeled out of the auditorium to a standing ovation and took a victory lap in his wheel-chair while the crowd shouted: “We love you, Stephen.”
Hawking is expected to repeat his call for a global effort to enable humanity to colonise space, starting with the moon and then Mars. Turok’s hopes are more down to earth: he wants to persuade the British government to rethink its refusal to fund the Aims project.
“The Department for International Development spends £1.5 billion of taxpayers’ money on aid to Africa every year but there is precious little to show for it. The people who will make Africa rich are the brightest people because they will generate wealth,” Turok said.
Andrew Mitchell, shadow development secretary, was equally critical: “There is much more to Africa than poverty and starvation. This is an extremely important initiative and I’m going to see how the next Conservative government could support it.”
The international development department said it preferred to focus on projects to fight poverty.
(Posted on May 14, 2008)
Comments
Watson lost his job as director of the Cold Spring Harbor laboratories in America after suggesting that Africans were less intelligent than Europeans. A subsequent analysis of his own DNA showed that he had part-African ancestry.(FROM ARTICLE ABOVE)
Watson had part African ancestry? That’s hard to believe. But, even if he was 1% black that does not make him black. Not in my book.
Posted by Howard in Las Vegas at 6:23 PM on May 14
Professor Stephen Hawking, who has devoted his career to finding the origins of the universe, is to begin a new search—for Africa’s answer to Einstein.
He’ll perfect the origins of the Big Bang and the Unified Particle Theory before he finds Africa’s answer to Einstein. Such a genius cannot seem to accept the possibility that some of the genetic science he might have heard about in passing might apply to human racial groupings. Believing that the Universe was created in a week takes more faith than believing in racial equality.
Posted by Question Diversity at 6:35 PM on May 14
“Hawking will be joined by eminent physicists and mathematicians including two Nobel laureates in physics, David Gross and George Smoot, and Michael Griffin, the head of Nasa. Naledi Pandor, South Africa’s education minister, will also speak”
This further confirms that NASA is nothing more than white collar welfare for blacks. If the shuttle occasionally crashes, they’ll look into it, but diversity training and learning to love the blacks they hire is their main goal.
I’m sure NASA will be holding positions open for these geniuses until they get their PHD’s.
No doubt the next Werner Von Braun is working on his fusion powered rocket in some grass hut.
Posted by William Hendershot at 6:43 PM on May 14
“Watson’s views were simply ridiculous.”
That’s it. That’s the last straw. Our race is doomed.
Let’s just hand our civilization over the Afrocentrists right now.
Plato, Caesar, Dante, Michelangelo, Da Vinci, Galileo, Shakespeare, Newton, Mozart, Beethoven and Darwin are nothing when compared to Miles Davis and Nelson Mandela.
The Afrocentrists and extreme Multiculturalist are right (for the wrong reasons of course).
A race of people, let alone its “best and brightest,” who would even entertain the possibilty of racial equality in this day and age is NOT fit for survival.
And I don’t care if Hawking and his idiot pals are just pretending to believe in equality to give Africans hope.
Posted by Cecil Rhodes at 6:50 PM on May 14
“Turok and Hawking hope that Aims’s students will help to overturn the negative stereotypes of Africa that were recently given expression by James Watson “
These are hardly “stereotypes.” They are REALITIES that anyone with open eyes and an open mind can see.
Posted by at 6:50 PM on May 14
“…I look forward to meeting prospective young Einsteins from Africa,” said Hawking.”
There is an old belief that the very booksmart/brainy types have very little common sense. It goes without saying that Hawking is the ultimate brainiac, so therefore he must have the least amount of common sense of anybody on the planet according to this belief. I believe that quote backs up my claim.
Posted by WBHM at 7:14 PM on May 14
Out of the whole population of Africa, there are undoubtedly a few dozen who qualify for an advanced education in the sciences. I tend to do pretty well on multiple guess tests myself, even for a white boy, but I’m unable to comprehend how educating a few dozen very bright Africans will dispel the negative stereotypes that run-of-the-mill Africans work so hard to create.
I’m also puzzled as to why a woman from Darfur wants to study nuclear physics. It just doesn’t seem to be a useful skill in a place where most boys attend the University Of Kalashnikov. You don’t suppose that her real intention is to bug out to a first world country at her earliest opportunity, do you? Yeah, I know I’m a filthy racist for even thinking such a thing.
Posted by Gringo_Malo at 7:21 PM on May 14
Turok and Hawking hope that Aims’s students will help to overturn the negative stereotypes of Africa that were recently given expression by James Watson, the co-discoverer of DNA.
Stereotypes always have some element of truth.I think Mr. Turok is nothing but a hustler out to defraud the British taxpayer of a few billion dollars a year.Its the same with all of these NGOs out to eliminate poverty in the third world.I bet the next project Mr. Turok will begin is to disprove the ridiculous assertion by James Watson that if you crossbreed a swine with an eagle you will not create a flying pig.
Posted by Tony Soprano at 7:29 PM on May 14
Some of the world’s leading high-tech entrepreneurs and scientists have backed the £75m plan to create Africa’s first postgraduate centres for advanced maths and physics, after the British government declined to provide funding.
I’m convinced we’re going to have to plod through every theory yet unimagined until all theories are exhausted and we’re left with the only answer that was there all along: race is real.
I welcome this effort. Only I know that when their efforts fail, what we will be left with is not the truth, but yet another theory to explain why their efforts failed.
Do-gooders are a cornucopia of theories and excuses.
Posted by sbuffalonative at 7:29 PM on May 14
Good luck, Turok (Son of Stone) and Hawking (Hawk-man)!
You will, quite possible, find a few at the very, very, narrow upper end of the black intelligence distribution curve, but I must say this:
With all your exalted intelligence, YOU ARE LIVING IN A COMIC-BOOK WORLD. Any person who knows reality will tell you that you will have more luck in finding Bigfoot or Nessie!
Turok and Andar—you must find your way back to your real world!
Posted by ? and the White Mysterians at 7:30 PM on May 14
Maybe on his way home Hawking can stop at Mt Arat and see if he can find Noah’s Ark. I’m sure it’s there.
Posted by Robert at 7:56 PM on May 14
From what I have gathered about Steven Hawking and I really have not spent much time gathering much about him I would describe him as a Lyndon Larouchite/scientologist. Sort of a global utopianist or survivalist. He would seem to have many beliefs in line with Lyndon Larouche and Scientology. The elimination of national borders, a central authority, first world resources pouring into the third world equalizing the world (aka global communism), you get the picture. Sort of a Star Trek world visionary. Then of course space travel and exploration which I personally find fascinating.
Posted by ChiefofClanFearghus at 8:12 PM on May 14
How about the African James Watt, Marie Curie, Gallileo, Capernicus, Issac Newton, Aristotle, Epicurus, Tesla, Henry Ford, John M. Browning, Werner Von Braun, Roentgen, Salk, Jefferson, Boneparte, Les Paul, Beethoven, B. Franklin, etc., etc., etc….
Posted by HH at 8:14 PM on May 14
Most of the students will probably be white Africans.
Posted by at 8:15 PM on May 14
Professor Stephen Hawking, proof positive that motor neurone disease can be overcome while liberalism is a disease that cannot.
Posted by at 8:17 PM on May 14
After scouring 30 countries, they come up with 160 graduates. That’s hardly enough to refute Dr Watson’s views. Nobody said that there are no intelligent Africans, just that there are very few of them, not enough to sustain an economy and infrastructure equal to England’s in 1800, certainly not enough to compete with any White nation today.
Posted by Schoolteacher at 8:29 PM on May 14
As any serious scientist in the field of intelligence studies will tell you people of all races can be found all along the distribution of intellectual ability. What is different is the mean and the distribution of intelligence amongst the races. The average IQ of Blacks in America is 85 wich is one standard deviation below the average of 100. This fact does not mean that there are no high IQ blacks, just that there will be fewer of them in relation to Whites and people of East Asian decent. The Black IQ distribution that has a mean that is one standard deviation below the mean results in only 1 in 6 Blacks having an IQ above 100.
IQ scores for Africans have typically been lower than that of American Blacks. This fact will make it difficult for any group looking for African Einsteins to find a large number of individuals with high IQ’s. The money this group is spending would probably be better allocated where it could do more good such as providing infrastructure. It is difficult to advance economically without good infrastructure (roads, bridges, sewage, etc.). Economic development could then lead to an environment where a high IQ was better rewarded.
Posted by at 8:40 PM on May 14
He’s gonna end up on the menu.
Posted by Wallace Stroup at 8:48 PM on May 14
““The world of science needs Africa’s brilliant talents and I look forward to meeting prospective young Einsteins from Africa,” said Hawking”
Good Luck!
Posted by pgh at 8:59 PM on May 14
Sorry there Steve, an african Einstien does not exist!!! I know they can say there is one…it just ain’t so!!
Posted by lydia at 9:05 PM on May 14
One question: why is it necessary for whites to seek out and nurture African “genius” if, after all these thousands of years, it hasn’t come to light of its own accord? Especially since genius has sprung naturally from European countries? Also, isn’t it kind of racist for whites to presume that they have to save Africans from themselves?
Watson lost his job as director of the Cold Spring Harbor laboratories in America after suggesting that Africans were less intelligent than Europeans. A subsequent analysis of his own DNA showed that he had part-African ancestry.
What has that got to do with anything? If anything, that should make him more qualified to speak on the subject. It would if he were identified as black. And isn’t it funny that this and other writers see nothing sinister in the fact that someone was fired simply for speaking his conscious?
Posted by Tim in Indiana at 9:26 PM on May 14
Hey Steve, the United States public education system has been trying this stunt for the past few decades, and has sunk a lot more cash into it than your group, with scarcely few notable results.
As the old saying goes, “A politically correct theoretical physicist and his grant money are soon parted.”
Posted by ZKR at 9:27 PM on May 14
“Watson lost his job as director of the Cold Spring Harbor laboratories in America after suggesting that Africans were less intelligent than Europeans.”
That is a lie. Watson stated that, on average, whites have higher IQ scores. That does not equate to saying all whites are smarter than all blacks. This is how the MSM likes to twist things.
I’m sorry Mr. Hawking, finding a few brilliant blacks is not going to overturn the numerous studies showing blacks to have lower mean IQ’s than whites.
Posted by What? at 9:32 PM on May 14
“The world of science needs Africa’s brilliant talents and I look forward to meeting prospective young Einsteins from Africa,” said Hawking.”
“Brilliant talents” out of a population with an average IQ of 70? Even if you could find a few, why exactly does the world need them? Africa needs them to stay put and do something on their own continent.
Posted by Cliff Yablonski at 9:33 PM on May 14
I eagerly await the funding by Africa for the New Africa Bell Laboratories! I wonder what kind of African inventions they have in store to be unleashed upon the world?
Posted by at 9:46 PM on May 14
Boy, that will be money gone down the drain!!!! Yes there are a few Neil Degrasse Tyson’s out there, but precious few.
Posted by at 9:46 PM on May 14
The May 2008 Fake, Phony, Fraud Award has some competition. Only someone from such a liberal environment as Cambridge U. could be so brazenly foolish.
Posted by S & GS at 9:56 PM on May 14
“Stephen Hawking in Hunt for Africa’s Hidden Talent” is the name of the article.
While in black Africa maybe he can also find some of these hidden (lost) civilizations we are continuously told about.
…but it will remain the same, both the talent and civilization will remain hidden as in Detroit…
Posted by Sissy White at 10:06 PM on May 14
“…new search—for Africa’s answer to Einstein.” An exercise in futility, unless white Africans can be considered.
Posted by Ray Cist at 10:09 PM on May 14
“Professor Stephen Hawking, who has devoted his career to finding the origins of the universe, is to begin a new search—for Africa’s answer to Einstein.”
Hilarious. And when he fails to find him he’ll tell some lies hoping to fool people, just as the rest like him do.
Better stick to finding the origins of the universe, old guy. It’s much easier.
Is there no end to the stupidity displayed by these pitiful dorks who believe do-gooderism is next to godliness?
Posted by ice at 10:10 PM on May 14
Good Luck, Steve!
Posted by at 10:11 PM on May 14
You’re floggin a dead horse buddy.
Posted by Thunderhawk at 10:13 PM on May 14
How come the original Einstein and Gates didn’t need to be “found”?
What a waste of 150 million dollars. The USA has probably thrown a trillion dollars at blacks, and hasn’t managed to civilize them. Out of the 800 million black africans there are probably a thousand or so with PhD level intelligence. The marxists will nab a few and then claim that shows the average african isn’t a retard. And Hawking is supposed to be a genius.
Posted by Flamethrower at 10:43 PM on May 14
You can predict the litany of excuses that will be offered to explain why there isn’t a gusher of Einsteins coming out of this institution:
— We don’t have enough funding.
— We know they’re out there, but we don’t have the resources to go out and find them.
— Young talent in Africa is not provided with the right opportunities at the elementary school level.
— Malnutrition is cutting off their education before it can even start.
— Prejudice against girls is preventing girls from pursuing careers in math and science.
— The elementary school teachers aren’t getting the right training.
— Wars and disease are stopping them from coming forward.
— We haven’t been able to get the word out to the right people.
You can add to the list. Or, just wait for the stories to appear in about two or three years.
Posted by Reader-1 at 10:55 PM on May 14
People can do whatever they want with their own money. I hope it helps the small percentage of smarter africans. Everyone who are able and willing to work hard should be given some assistance. I still doubt we are going to get an ‘african Einstein etc…’ though.
Posted by realist at 10:56 PM on May 14
It would be cheaper and a lot less trouble to just give full scholarships (tuition, room & board, transportation, and living expenses) to a good Brit/Euro college for the qualified ones they find. But, I think this is a publicity stunt, not a project.
Posted by Lost in Paradise at 11:10 PM on May 14
The University of Khartoum…..now that is surely an alma mater to be proud of. Doubtless looks good on a resume.
Posted by STEELWOLVES at 11:25 PM on May 14
“The world of science needs Africa’s brilliant talents and I look forward to meeting prospective young Einsteins from Africa,” said Hawking.
Hope you make it off the continent alive, Hawking.
Posted by at 11:35 PM on May 14
“Professor Stephen Hawking, who has devoted his career to finding the origins of the universe, is to begin a new search—for Africa’s answer to Einstein.”
Well, he did so well on finding the origins of the universe it’s no wonder he wants to embark on a more difficult project. I mean his discovery IS in the textbooks, isnt it?
Don’t anybody tell him that even if he did find such a black, that wouldn’t change the fact that blacks are the least intelligent human species on the planet, as a group.
I won’t be surprised if he announces next year he’s found bigfoot. I have no doubt the old boy is in the initial stages of dementia.
Posted by Robert Kelly at 12:27 AM on May 15
While you are at it, can you look for King Solomon’s mine? You have a better chance of finding it.
Posted by flyingtiger at 12:36 AM on May 15
Perhaps Mr. Hawking’s next project could be to find the Lost Ark or the Holy Grail. Oh, wait, Indiana Jones already beat him to it!
As someone above said, why does the African Einstein need to be “found”? If one existed, wouldn’t he have emerged on his own already? If Africa where capable of producing such people, Africans wouldn’t need whites to come and help them in the first place. This is a fool’s errand. Perhaps Mr. Hawking can team up with Don Quixote for his next quest.
Posted by Ron at 2:55 AM on May 15
Shame on you all. Having lived in South Africa for 24 years, there must be some potential or actual geniuses left who have not been driven out by the affirmative actions of the new Marxist government. Many are still getting out as they are refused jobs or earned promotion because of the colour of their skins. (Over 20% of the white population has left SA.)
So the whites will probably not get a look-in as the South African government will make sure that only blacks can apply or are introduced. Let us hope that Prof. Hawking reports the truth and is not hoodwinked easily.
Posted by at 3:00 AM on May 15
Don’t worry, after much fanfare the predictable will happen (no black Einstein found) and this story, like so many other Leftist utopian stories, will quietly be dropped from the lime-light and gently flushed down the memory hole.
Posted by P Norman at 6:56 AM on May 15
He will find the smartest of the Africans. They, being smart, will get out of Africa as fast as they can and move to any White Nation.
That will LOWER the remaining group IQ of Africans.
The smartest Africans want white women and thus will breed intelligence OUT of Africa as well as lower the IQ of the whites stupid enough to breed with them.
What a world.
Posted by LOGIC at 8:37 AM on May 15
Brilliant! After realizing that it is impossible to actually visit a black hole in outer space, Hawking discovered the “African black hole” into which billions and billions of dollars have been sunk. The African black hole is so dense that not even light can escape, much less the money that is thrown into it.
It’s interesting that even a man as intelligent as Hawking can buy into the leftist ideology which states the following:
“We must ignore the concept of overlapping bell curves when it comes to race. It is incumbent upon us to reduce the law of averages to absolutes (ie. all blacks are stupid and all whites are smart) for, by doing so, we set up a straw man.” The Leftist Bible pg. 304
Posted by jewamongyou at 10:05 AM on May 15
I don’t see why the goal is to create “Africa’s first post-graduate centres for advanced maths and physics”. After all, there are several African universities that offer students doctoral training in post-graduate mathematics and physics.
The expected naysayers—before responding—should note that those doctorates are awarded only after the student’s thesis will have been examined by professors from reputable universities in and outside of Africa—including professors from the students’ universities.
Posted by OCCAM at 10:56 AM on May 15
I have some experience with African Universities .Makere In Kampala is one of the best, founded by the wicked colonialists to try educate the black ruling classes. In the 70’s they were doing research on S.T.D. and whilst this is only hearsay from one of the
white professors, 2000 of the 3000 students wanted to join the study. As for the average intellectual abilities, I despair. After having carefully trained a maid to set the dinner table for six, that is where to put all the knives, forks, spoons, various kind of plates and glasses, she managed to do the job quite well after a week or so. The experiment came to nought when we rearranged the dining room furniture. the table had been turned 90 degrees, we arrived home to find two place settings on each of the
ends and one each in the middle of the long side.
Posted by ciccio at 11:42 AM on May 15
He’d have better luck looking for polar bears in the Sahara.
Posted by at 11:50 AM on May 15
A fitting mission for some Nobel physicists—Looking for Bigfoot—how much is the CD?—
Posted by George Tasso at 12:41 PM on May 15
“I wonder what kind of African inventions they have in store to be unleashed upon the world?”
I wait with bated breath - civilisation has been at a complete standstill since the invention of peanut butter and the ironing board.
Want to bet they’ll find someone? This sort of exercise always comes up with something. He’ll (bound to be male) be paraded around for a short time then disappear into obscurity.
Posted by Iain at 12:53 PM on May 15
Turning blacks into Whites, like turning paper into gold.
Who would try such things?
Posted by alchemy at 12:56 PM on May 15
Apart from suffering from motor neurone disease, Hawkings also appears to be having his judgment and common sense severely impaired. He might just want to compare notes with Oprah Wimfrey, who also started a school in Africa not too long ago.
As utterly ridiculous and Quiotic a quest this is, I am shocked a man of Hawking’s stature would waste time, much less money on something this improbable.
I agree wholeheartedly with the poster who suggested that if an African Einstein existed, he’d have alread surfaced. It might be pointed out in closing that Whites AND Blacks started on a level playing field at the end of the Last Ice Age, 50 to 60 thousand years ago.
Does it not occur to Hawking, that all the learning, the sciences and incredible amount of knowledge the human race acquired since the Ice Age… NONE of it was by Black thinkers. That Africa NEVER produced an Archimedes, a Pythagoras, an Aristotle, a Galileo, an Einstein, an Isaac Newton, or a William Herschel. That it is highly unlikely the Blacks EVER will.
Blacks have had a half-century or more since the end of Colonialism and White Rule to advance themselves. The picture of today’s Africa speaks for itself… Crime, Disease, Abysmall Poverty and the ignorance that leads Africans into murdering each other over the most simple reasons.
I am sorry, but I have lost all respect for Stephen Hawking. He has clearly lost his mind.
Posted by Fed Up at 1:44 PM on May 15
“Some of the world’s leading high-tech entrepreneurs and scientists have backed the £75m plan to create Africa’s first postgraduate centres for advanced maths and physics, after the British government declined to provide funding.”
Stephen Hawking has simply Proved he’s a genius. And in touch with the concerns of the common man. How much money is it worth to keep them from coming here to study and then moving here?
Posted by Just another AmRener at 1:50 PM on May 15
Exactly what drugs is Hawkins on? Just because he does well at physics does not imply anything about his talent for the absurd, i.e. finding an Einstein in black Africa.
The chances are very remote, indeed, what with a mean IQ of 70. In fact the history of the world and its cultures is a refutation to the entire project of Hawkins and his friends. In ten thousand years black Africa has produced nothing of worth—-that is quite a record and is completely consistent with their mean IQ.
Posted by at 1:57 PM on May 15
Remarkable that Stephen Hawkings feels it necessary to find examples of black genius on the Dark Continent, a quality that has somehow eluded discovery and exploitation for tens of thousands of years. One would have thought that such an expedition would prove much more productive in East or Central Asia or in the former Soviet satellite countries.
It’s not quite clear to me whether Hawkings is seeking to tap a mother lode of human genius for the benefit of all mankind or whether he’s trying to fire up a new affirmative action program at the ultimate source of all other such programs.
Posted by john at 2:15 PM on May 15
Someone should have reminded the esteemed Stephen Hawking that the most noteworthy developments coming out of Africa since throwing off their “colonial oppressors” included hacking the arms off children and adults for the crime of belonging to another tribe. Or implementing CANNIBALISM as a means of terrorism during tribal wars and feuds. Also murdering young children to use their organs in voodoo and black magic rituals. Then there’s also that charming African custom of tying the victim, then placing a gasoline soaked tire around his neck and lighting it.
Come back, Stephen Hawking. You’re simply wasting your time (and money) on a truly ridiculous quest!
Posted by Fed Up at 2:40 PM on May 15
After scouring the continent, he may well find a few hundred bright students. After all, the stats says he has to. Will he find another Einstein? Highly unlikely. And since when does one actually look for an Einstein? I mean, wouldn’t they appear of their own accord with some lofty ideas that few people can understand. One poster pointed out that many of the “Africans” may turn out to be White. That reminds me of a headline I saw in the paper a few years ago, titled (in rather large print) “First African in Space”. The photo accompanying the article was of a White guy. For a few seconds I wondered what that picture was doing within the border of the article. Within moments, of course, I learned the “African” was Mark Shuttleworth, a White South African who is as white as you can get (and the funder and developer of Ubuntu, one of the most popular Linux distributions)
Posted by Lonely Jew at 3:29 PM on May 15
Well, I must say this is the best laugh I have had all week!
Here we go, with the one sentence that really takes the cake:
“‘The world of science needs Africa’s brilliant talents and I look forward to meeting prospective young Einsteins from Africa,’ said Hawking”
Keep looking into this black hole Comrade Hawking, you might just see the origins of the universe and Karl Marx too?
The British government was quite correct not to waste it’s money on this boondoggle of blackness; also, Comrade Hawking has clearly begun to have his mind degrade, to the point where it will soon resemble his withered and worthless body. Normally, I am reluctant to make such insensitive remarks about the handicapped, but not here. I must say, not in the least at all here, either; Comrade Hawking has clearly made the choice to join the irrational Multi Cult, and that cannot be ignored.
Moreover, this statement below:
“Hawking is expected to repeat his call for a global effort to enable humanity to colonise space, starting with the moon and then Mars.”
Is simply put, even more ludicrous then the rest of this stupid and abhorrently naive article. Comrade Hawking’s call for this effort on “humanity’s” part, simply boils down to allowing the Third World parasites access to feeding off of the West’s (particularly the USA’s) future accomplishments in space, as they do here on Earth in the present. Come on folks, let’s face it, who will colonize Mars and the Moon, should this ever happen?
India?
China?
Zimbabwe?
Mexico?
Or would it be the USA?
Yes, perhaps: Russia, Japan, or Europe, might give us a run for our money; or even cooperate with us in such an endeavor, but would they ever beat us to the punch? Think about it, and then ask yourself what these Western countries might not be able to offer, that Angola or Cuba will?
The only thing I can think of for these latter two (or China, India, and Zimbabwe too) is that “magic” substance called diversity. We landed on the Moon without it (conspicuously so) and I would believe that future colonization projects to there or Mars, would be possible without it as well.
In fact, given the state of affairs in Detroit or LA at present, I should say in spite of it?
In ending here, I will state the obvious. This being, that in an effort to dispel all thought on Dr. James Watson’s prescient observations about the noble African, £75 million will be wasted. No African Albert Einstein or Bill Gates will be found, since they do not exist; if they did, the Western “business” fools would not be employing Comrade Hawking and £75 million to find them.
We would be employing him and the money, to compete with them!
As always, God help us all!!!
Posted by John PM at 5:33 PM on May 15
You posters don’t get it. This boondoggle gives Stephen Hawking and his buddies access to government funding and good paying jobs. It’s all about the money.
Posted by at 5:58 PM on May 15
I can’t help but laugh at this. This sounds like something a writer for the Onion or the Weekly World News would dream up during a two day nitrous oxide binge. Just picture Hawking trekking through the African savanna in his motorized wheelchair looking for Zulu rocket scientists.
Posted by qwerty at 7:40 PM on May 15
Looking for an Einstein-level genius in deepest, darkest Africa is, to paraphrase quantum physics pioneer Edwin Schroedinger, like a blind man in a dark room searching for a black cat that isn’t there.
Given the average African intelligence level of IQ 70, with IQ 54 prevalent (see work by Richard Lynn) in some parts of the Congo Basin, the probability of a true African genius IQ of 160 or above being discovered would be a 6- or 7-sigma event - an event so improbable that normal Gaussiam statistics become unreliable, an event on the order of one out of ten- to one hundred million.
Good luck, Steven!
Posted by Pasadena Mike at 11:01 PM on May 15
“Want to bet they’ll find someone? This sort of exercise always comes up with something. He’ll (bound to be male) be paraded around for a short time then disappear into obscurity.”
They’ll just find someone with something like 135 IQ, and then the media will artificailly inflate his accomplishments. “Imbamba Mokebe created an innovative irrigation system to grow yams!”. “Wow!”. “Ooooh!”. “He’s a genius!”.
Posted by at 11:05 PM on May 15
Lonely Jew your comment on looking for an Einstein is so timely. There is an article in Men’s Journal magazine about a physicist who has introduced a grand unifying theory not based on strings. It is based on a 248 dimensional object mathematicians call E8. His name is Garrett Lisi and he is a ski/surf bum who got his PHD in theoretical physics awhile back but never did academia or the work/slave route. Kinda like Einstein doing his best work just hanging around the empty patent office.
Some physicists think he is deluded some are warming to it. Time will tell. Even he admits, however, that it may not be provable.
Posted by Mark in LA at 11:05 PM on May 15
So one genius doesn’t respect another genius in his own
field. Hawking knows better than a man who has spent his life
studying these things. How would he like it if the shoe was on
the other foot; if Watson called Hawking’s views on Physics ri-
diculous just because they weren’t politically correct? Just
another sign we are far down the river heading towards the rap-
ids and the rocks below. Distinguished men respecting and co-
operating with each other: that creates culture. When such men
betray each for cheap acclaim-that destroys it.
Posted by Freyr at 12:02 AM on May 16
Someone once said that Metaphysics was the search for a
black cat in a dark room that isn’t there. And Theology is the
same except it finds the cat. These definitions relate to Hawk-
ings Quest I think. And he will find the black cat because pol-
itical correctness is a religion. And the “Black Cat” will be oh
so superior and speak very learnedly, but never accomplish any-
thing at all.
Posted by John Johnson at 12:36 AM on May 16
I couldn’t stifle a chuckle when I noticed in the article that the British government, notorious for wasting taxpayers’ money, declined to contribute funds for this hairbrained scheme.
How many scholarships for disadvantaged Britons would this $75 million provide?
Posted by Michael C. Scott at 12:37 AM on May 16
“Comrade Hawking has clearly begun to have his mind degrade to the point where it will soon resemble his withered body.
Normally, I am reluctant to make such insensitive remarks about the handicapped, but not here. Comrade Hawking has made the choice to join the irrational Multi Cult, and that cannot be ignored.” - JohnPM
………………………………….
I quite agree. Hawking has chosen to cast his lot with our mortal enemies bent on our elimination, the fanatical Multicultists. That cannot be treated with indifference. There comes a point where patience with nonsense must have its end. His choice is pathetic.
Posted by ghw at 1:03 AM on May 16
If they want to find Africa’s best minds, they should start by looking for outstanding auto mechanics, electricians, carpenters, and so on. People with superior mental abilities will stand out from whatever crowd they happen to be in. Transport Einstein back 10,000 years, and you’d find him making the best bows and arrows anyone had ever seen. So if they can’t find a decent plumber, they can just pocket the research money, ‘cause there ain’t going to be any chemists either.
Posted by Schoolteacher at 5:56 AM on May 16
James Watson said he was “‘inherently gloomy about the prospect of Africa’ because ‘all our social policies are based on the fact that their intelligence is the same as ours - whereas all the testing says not really.’” (VDare.com article quoting Sunday Times of London) That is apparently the “negative stereotype” that Hawking and Turok are trying to “overturn.” Let me say this: Hawking and Turok are cowardly and contemptible human beings. Rather than use their rare abstract reasoning skills to help suffering peoples on the continent of Africa, they revel in petty self-righteousness.
Posted by larry k at 11:23 AM on May 16
The talent of Africa is seen everywhere—-they are surviving and reproducing; we are not.
So we are to perish, laughing and pointing our fingers at the “ignorant” Africans, upbraiding them for their lack of “higher” intelligence!
We should not be so smug. The intelligence of Africa, such as it it, could be waiting for only one more ingredient to set it alight. That ingredient could be a faith that is more conducive to African interests; i. e., Islam.
(Tell me, how many children did Einstein have?)
There are many people of all colors who can do their own plumbing, carpentry, brickwork, auto mechanics, etc. Einstein had trouble even tying his own shoes.
Posted by Mordecai at 1:41 PM on May 16
Hopefully Stephen Hawking will also delve into that incredible history of Black Africa… predating the onset of the slave trade. After all, we are ‘informed’ Africa was the ‘cradle of civilization.’ That magnificent universities and centers of higher education were found all over Ethiopia and Zimbabwe. That early Black Africans discovered, learned, invented and found out everything and anything our modern European civilization really rests on. Bearing in mind of course, those noble Africans were simply far too modest to actually make claims for amassing the knowledge, learning and technology we enjoy today.
A pity this great thinker’s mind finally went.
Posted by Fed Up at 3:24 PM on May 16
“They’ll just find someone with something like 135 IQ,”
Lettuce take a look. 135 minus 67 (median IQ of sub-Sahara Afreeka) = 68 IQ points difference.
Assuming 15 points for one SD, 68/15 = 4.53 SD’s, or approximately one of 300,000.
Assuming 12 points for one SD, 68/12 = 5.67 SD’s. or approximately one 0f 143,000,000
(SD means standard deviation)
Don’t hold your breath waiting to find one.
Posted by belle kerve at 5:03 PM on May 16
This is interesting, because I am 3.5 standard deviation points above the US norm of 100, as tested by the feds. Hawking is looking for 4.5 standard deviation points. How would one test for that in the chaos in Africa?
The “best” is the enemy of “good enough.”
Posted by Michael C. Scott at 11:27 PM on May 16
Bellekerve,
That’s why the IQ estimates for Africa are just wrong. After all, there many more than 6 living Africans with doctorates in Physics and Mathematics. Google “Mathematicians of the African Diaspora” for just a small self-reporting sample of Africans just in the area of mathematics.
Posted by OCCAM at 10:10 AM on May 17
Mordechai: Einstein played the violin. I seriously doubt that he was so fumble-fingered that he couldn’t tie his shoes. More generally, there is a peculiar anomaly in Jewish mental abilities. While Ashkenazi Jews have an average IQ of 115, doing well on both math and verbal sections, they are relatively deficient in the quality known as spacial relations, exactly the thing needed for tying shoes. As for the manual skills of scientists in general, they are superior, though nowadays they are not likely to be trained in any practical art. Back in the early part of the last century, British scientists were taught to build their own scientific apparatus. For example, the scientists who developed and improved radar throughout WW2 created their own machines from scratch.
I still maintain, a person of superior mental ability will tend to seek an outlet that employs their mind fully, and that if you wish to find such people in primitive societies, look for the well-built canoe or the most beautiful pottery. Perhaps in Africa, the most finely honed machete.
Posted by Schoolteacher at 2:22 PM on May 17
“Exactly what drugs is Hawkins on? …. finding an Einstein in black Africa. The chances are very remote, indeed, what with a mean IQ of 70.
In fact, the history of the world and its cultures is a refutation to the entire project. In ten thousand years black Africa has produced nothing of worth.”
“Remarkable that Hawkings feels it necessary to find examples of black genius on the Dark Continent, a quality that has somehow eluded discovery and exploitation for tens of thousands of years.”
————-
And why, anyway, does he find it necessary to go looking for genius specifically in Africa? Is that kind of selectivity not being “racist” in itself? It’s like special blacks-only beauty contests where they don’t have to compete with others. If he were truly color-blind, wouldn’t it be sufficient to find talent wherever it exists?
They are going to be combing the savannahs and jungles of Africa in search of a black genius, squandering a fortune on this fool’s errand, while depriving a potential Newton or daVinci right at home, who is not of the right color.
Also, the fact that he has to mount a deliberate search for genius, focused exclusively on black Africa, is a tacit admission that Africa has spectacularly failed to produce any without this special coaxing.
Posted by at 2:23 PM on May 17
Turning paper into gold.
Who would try such things?
Posted by alchemy
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Why, yes! I see the ancient dream of the alchemists of the Middle ages is still alive. It’s just taken on a new form, in harmony with the obsession of our age: turning blacks into whites.
Posted by mephisto at 2:35 PM on May 17
“A race of people, let alone its “best and brightest,” who would even entertain the possibilty of racial equality in this day and age is NOT fit for survival.”
Don’t discredit Hawking yet. Racial equality is a pretty acceptable theory nowadays (though not in this community obviously). And theories need to be tested. Seems to be what these guys are doing. Let’s just follow the outcome.
Posted by thefellid at 2:49 PM on May 17
“Some of the world’s leading high-tech entrepreneurs and scientists have backed the £75m plan to create Africa’s first postgraduate centres for advanced maths and physics, after the British government declined to provide funding.”
Generally, you learn to walk before you try to run. On the piano, you learn to play scales before you attempt to play a concerto.
Wouldn’t it make more sense to foster basic education and literacy in a continent so backward, rather than providing “centres for advanced math and physics” in a place where most cannot even read?
What, then, is he trying to prove here? It is obvious that this is less about “genius” than it is about race.
Posted by at 2:57 PM on May 17
Here is a calculator for Z scores:
http://www.danielsoper.com/statcalc/calc02.aspx
For example, enter 3.5. The answer is .9997673 (99.98% have lower IQ’s). Subtract this from from one, to the result .0002327. Take the reciprocal (1/X on the pocket calc) or divide into one. 1/.0002327 equals one of 4297.
So, a group of 430,000 (assume median IQ = 100) would have 100 members with IQ’s 152 or higher.
Posted by belle kerve at 3:19 PM on May 17
More to say. From the White median IQ of 100, 135 is 2.33 SD’s away. This is one of fifty (traditional Mensa cutoff- upper two percent).
One of fifty (White) vs. one of three-hundred thousand (black African):
There are SIX-THOUSAND times more Whites with IQ’s >= 135 than there are africans with IQ’s >= 135. (Rates per million, not absolute numbers).
And this assumes the african bell curve is as wide as the White (SD = 15)…
Posted by belle kerve at 3:49 PM on May 17
“Mordechai: The talent of Africa is seen everywhere—-they are surviving and reproducing; we are not.”
Interesting observation, Mordechai. According to nature, the only measure of the superiority of a species, is its ability to reproduce itself and increase its numbers. Using that measure, rats and mice are, by nature’s biological standard, vastly superior to tigers. The number of rats and mice is booming, while tigers are endangered.
In a recent column, Pat Buchanan revealed the results of a recent study, that showed that the black population will increase by 300 percent by 2070. On the other hand, the white population is projected to decline by a horrifying 200 million people by that time, due to failure to produce babies.
In the early 1900s, whites were nearly 40 percent of the world’s population. In 2070, whites will be less than 10 percent of the world’s people. With massive third world immigration, whites may not even have majorities in their own countries.
Civilizations have come and gone over the millennia, but the white race has survived. The health of a race is always more important than material things, which soon crumble into dust. If whites cannot arrest the decline of their numbers in the coming decades, then, by nature’s standard, they will have proven themselves less fit. And the blacks, mestizos and other races, will have the last laugh.
Posted by VonWagner at 6:25 PM on May 17
“Wouldn’t it make more sense to foster basic education and literacy in a continent so backward, rather than providing “centres for advanced math and physics” in a place where most cannot even read?” (Posted by at 2:57 PM on May 17)
No, clearly our efforts to hold these geniuses back in our own country by making them sit through curricula that’s below their intellectual level is the explanation for their disruptive classroom behavior here.
Besides, I’m curious to see how “advanced math and physics” fares as an oral tradition.
Posted by H. Dumpty at 10:05 PM on May 17
When I was younger I hoped that the exploration of space would be the great adventure of this century.
But no, a quest even more challenging, more filled with the romance of the impossible, will focus our energies and attention: finding “an African Einstein”!
Where will the search for this lost treasure begin—the Congo? Sudan? Cameroon? This quest will make Dr. Livingstone’s adventures pale.
Posted by H. Dumpty at 10:25 PM on May 17
Occam continues to promote “mathematicians of the African diaspora” even though the thoroughly unimportant quality of their work has been exhaustively pointed out to him on these boards by a university mathematician. What on earth is the point of maintaining that black Africa is a treasure house of talent in mathematics and science?
Belle Kerve’s IQ figures for Africa are accurate and have been established by the same mathematics Occam wants to believe Africans master to the same level and extent as everyone else.
Posted by Cassiodorus at 10:46 PM on May 17
“According to nature, the only measure of the superiority of a species, is its ability to reproduce itself and increase its numbers.”
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Among all the excellent comments above, those of Mordechai and Von Wagner, which took a different perspective, stood out.
We must realize that the blacks and browns are having the last laugh, and having it at our expense. We are actually subsidizing their birth booms with our aid, our medicines, all our social programs, and ultimately by inviting them into our countries to replace us (while even suppressing and punishing any complaints from the original inhabitants).
Yes, truly “demography is destiny”, and “the fertile shall inherit the earth” … while those who have lost the will to survive, or defend their territory, will become extinct.
Even insects will fiercely defend their territory. I can’t think of ANY examples in nature where a species of creature invites in another to replace it. Something extremely strange is going on here.
Posted by at 11:31 PM on May 17
A large site, with all you need to know about science in afreeka.
http://www-sul.stanford.edu/depts/ssrg/africa/science.html
Posted by uncle & mrs. cremus at 12:13 AM on May 18
Stephen Hawking would have more success in trying to get wool from a donkey, than in finding the sub-Saharan Einstein.
Posted by Soprano Fan at 4:31 PM on May 18
Apparently the search for the unified field theory wasn’t hard enough!
Posted by Dougie (Edinburgh) at 5:20 PM on May 18
Once again we see the high and anointed sowing their seeds on barren ground. I don’t doubt a few blades will sprout up. But think how much more would be accomplished if that £75m was spent on educating gifted white children.
Posted by WR the elder at 11:29 PM on May 20