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The Boy Genius of Ulan Bator
An anonymous reader writes "A lot of us grew up tinkering with electronics and cherishing the one or two reference books we could find that explained exactly what we wanted to know. Nowadays, with internet access widely available and online educational materials coming into their own, we're going to see a lot more kindred spirits coming out of places all over the globe. The NY Times has a story about one such, a lad from Mongolia who hacked together complex sensors at the age of 16 and was one of the 0.2% of students to get a perfect score on MIT's first Massive Open Online Course. From the article: 'Battushig, playing the role of the car, moved into the sensor's path to show me how it worked, but it was clear he was not entirely satisfied with his design. "The use of the long wires is very inconvenient for my users," he said, almost apologetically, clasping his hands together in emphasis. He realized that contractors would be reluctant to install the siren in other buildings if they had to deal with cumbersome wiring, so he was developing a wireless version. ... Battushig has the round cheeks of a young boy, but he is not your typical teenager. He hasn't read Harry Potter ("What will I learn from that?") and doesn't like listening to music (when a friend saw him wearing headphones, he couldn't believe it; it turned out Battushig was preparing for the SAT). His projects are what make him happy. "In electrical engineering, there is no limit," he said.'"
"In electrical engineering, there is no limit,"
In real life, there is.
When we could simply call him "Master"?
Not taking anything away from this young man's abilities but what struck me most about the article was his high school principal, Enkhmunkh Zurgaanjin. To quote from the article:
The answer has to do with Battushig's extraordinary abilities, of course, but also with the ambitions of his high-school principal. Enkhmunkh Zurgaanjin, the principal of the Sant School, was the first Mongolian to graduate from M.I.T., in 2009, and he has tried since then to bring science and technology labs to his students. "My vision," he told me, "is to have more skilled engineers to develop Mongolia. To do that, everything has to start from the beginning."
Here is a man who graduated from M.I.T. but rather than entering the private sector to cash in on his hard work he instead went back to his home country to bootstrap his fellow countrymen. Kuods to this man.
Seriously - Every couple of weeks there is news that some 12 - 18 year old spark somewhere in the world has come up with something ingenious. Anything from devices that create/save electricity, to some bio-trick that means that treated food doesn't spoil or decompose easily. And then comes - drumroll - NOTHING AT ALL. We never hear a word about these young geniuses again. We never see ingenious products/inventions created by them on the market. In all likelihood these "young geniuses" get recruited by some multinationals, and disappear into the belly of said multinationals, into some company lab, never to be heard from again. And its been this way for a while. The only "magic innovation" from a young genius that HAS made it into the market recently is Euclideon's Geoverse software. And with that one, everybody said/swore it was "vapourware", despite realtime videos showing the Euclideon 3D tech working as it should. ------ Wake me 5 years from now when these "young geniuses" have contributed something tangible to the real world; Something you can buy/lease/use in some way. My 2 Cents....
Why did the chicken cross the road? Because Elon Musk put an AI chip in its head.
He hasn't read Harry Potter ("What will I learn from that?")
Confirmed for replicant.
Wow, it really says something about the mentality of the reporter..."you're young therefore you read Harry Potter." WTF? These are not universal values, they are just YOUR values from inside the bubble.
Hurrah for his response, by the way. Stick it to 'em.
Shutting down free speech with violence isn't fighting fascism. It IS fascism!
He hasn't read Harry Potter ("What will I learn from that?") this is both an ignorant and arrogant statement. an intelligent individual would read the books and then say there was nothing to learn from them, yet this kid assumes there is nothing to learn from it. the fact of the matter is that one can learn something from anything, it's merely dependent on perspective. he could learn things like loyalty, courage, conviction, friendship....many life lessons that he won't learn unless he pushes himself outside of his comfort zone of academic achievement. just like he needed help from others to make his reality a possibility.
"I want to make good things for humans."
how can he do good things for humans if he doesn't understand humans or have perspective? but the kid isn't smart enough to figure that out. some genius.
Not only has mathematical ability been correlated with music, people who don't enjoy music scare me a little. Someone once said that liking at least one song by Nina Simone was a prerequisite for humanity. Shakespeare regularly had his antagonists show an indifference to music. I think he might have been on to something.
refactor the law, its bloated, confusing and unmaintainable.
From the article: 'Battushig, playing the role of the car
Huh? What car?
moved into the sensor's path to show me how it worked
How what worked?
"The use of the long wires is very inconvenient for my users,"
Well, obviously.
He realized that contractors would be reluctant to install the siren in other buildings
What siren?
TL;DR: Next time, pick a paragraph from the article that makes sense in isolation.
systemd is Roko's Basilisk.
Ulan Bator is based on a misunderstanding. The correct spelling is Ulaanbaatar.
It means 'Red Hero' and, surprisingly, predates Communism despite its reference to the color red. The city is named for a historical character whose real name, deeds etc have been forgotten. All that it is remembered is that they were a woman.
In the free world the media isn't government run; the government is media run.
I'll believe it when he build me a hoverboard. He has 2 years.
who prays for Satan? Who in 18 centuries has had the humanity to pray for the 1 sinner that needed it most? ~Mark Twain