Master minds
TOP American sci-fi writer and trained chemist Isaac Asimov once said: “People who think they know everything are a great annoyance to those of us who do.”
A member of Mensa, he was a maths genius and professor of biochemistry at Boston University and is said to have taught himself to read when he was only five. His famous Foundation books have just been turned into a major series for Apple TV+ starring Jared Harris, and a crater on Mars also bears his name.
Asimov had an IQ of 160 but once claimed he pushed that number up to 300 by finishing an IQ test book in 15 minutes instead of the recommended 30 minutes.
But he said testing could be misleading and pointed out: “I have been a lifelong beneficiary of intelligence tests. I don’t think much of them. I believe they only test one facet of intelligence – the ability to answer the kind of questions other people with the same facet of intelligence are likely to ask.
“My 1Q rating has always been out of sight, but I am perfectly aware that in many respects I am remarkably stupid.”
Inventor and computing pioneer Sir Clive Sinclair was chairman of British Mensa for 17 years and joined in 1959. Sir Clive, who passed away last month at the age of 81, is said to have had an IQ of 159. He once said: “If the press gives the impression that Mensa is eccentric that is because it is.”
The average IQ is between 85 to 115 and experts believe scientist Albert Einstein would have scored 160 or more on the test – the same as Professor Stephen Hawking.
Mensa is the world’s oldest and largest IQ society and the only criteria to join is the ability to demonstrate you have an IQ in the top two per cent. It was founded 75 years ago in 1946 by barrister
Roland Berrill and scientist and lawyer Dr
Lance Ware and membership rose to almost
40,000 when Sir Clive Sinclair was in office.
Sir Clive brought computers into people’s homes with his ZX models and provided inspiration for some of today’s gaming industry bosses. Many learnt their craft on the ZX80 or ZX81 – or its rival the Commodore 64 – when they were growing up. And it was in the early 1970s that he invented the pocket calculator – a drastic reduction in size at the time.
Sir Clive launched his new electric vehicle the Sinclair C5 in 1985. The battery-powered one-seater tricycle cost £399 and was introduced as a means of revolutionising