Polymaths usually score exceptionally well across several aptitudes and consequently excel in at least three fields, but they may sometimes blend rather blandly, whilst laying foundations for the supercharging of the spiritual and intellectual evolution of the human race.
Rarely will we find someone not turned on by intelligence, even if it’s simply on a platonic level.
Sapiosexuality is defined as a person attracted primarily to highly intelligent people and where IQ is considered the most important trait of a potential partner of whatever definition of gender.
This relatively new concept is found across the sexual spectrum, and it means that a typically straight person may be attracted to a partner of the same sex or vice versa, that a gay person may be attracted to a person of the opposite sex. Imagine how that adds some colour to our 72 LGBTIQ+ variables…
A political variable on homosexual intelligence in Canada from the ‘50s to the ‘70s had a herd following amongst psychiatrists who believed that it justified “queer fear” or “Lavender Scare” in mainstream society where shrewd gay men were considered as having a predatory and a security risk to society.
Many Canadian psychiatrists believed that homosexuality was contagious and would spread to the youth. Reading about this eye watering level of stupidity amongst scientists and psychiatrists, clearly demonstrates that some of the world’s most educated people are not endowed with superior intelligence. Can we therefore really draw intelligent conclusions from such siloist, myopic research?
Most people score closer in a ratio of either 30/70 or 70/30 for verbal versus non-verbal intelligence, depending on whether they are more left or right brain biased. Men tend to score higher on nonverbal intelligence and women tend to score higher on verbal intelligence. However, some people score more similarly on both.
Theoretically there may be some advantages in scoring closer to a 50/50 ratio, as this may help us connect more dots, in a simplified explanation, however an Einsteinian aptitude for maths needs little verbal aptitude for earning accolades with convincing debate.
Bear in mind that science like sexuality can be fluid, so theory could not be a constant… Flashback to the spearheading psychiatrists leading the charge in the “Lavender Scare”, projecting a psychedelic, LSD infused, “Merry Pranksters” counterculture scene from Tom Wolfe’s bestselling book, “Electric Acid Cool Aid Test.”
Over millennia polymaths continue to question our planetary vantage points and accelerate change by exposing the weaknesses of our siloist entrapment.
Johannes Gutenberg, a Renaissance Man, arguably had the greatest impact on the explosion of information during the past 700 years by inventing the printing press in 1450. He never married and was a gifted goldsmith and inventor who probably ended the Dark Ages by creating the building blocks of civilisation.
Today, 572 years later most of the world can read and write and canned knowledge, is merely a click away. However, we are inundated by a tsunami of mental clutter demanding crystal ball guidance in scrutinising facts and fiction, far more than past times.
Albert Einstein stated,” Success comes from, Curiosity, Concentration, Perseverance and Self Criticism.” These four traits drives all polymaths irrespective of the era they lived in or the number of diverse fields they ignite.
A tiny few people radically altered the course of the world’s history, but it would be impossible to list more than five polymaths due to space restriction of this article. However, do not let space restrictions stifle your curiosity in your personal quest for enlightenment.
Historically, Leonardi Da Vinci, our most famous polymath excelled in art, science, architecture, geology, cartography, history, botany, mathematics, music, anatomy, and writing. With no formal education, he pioneered more fields than anyone else in the evolution of mankind.
Leonardo loved the company of good-looking young men and left his estate to the mischievous Gian Giacomo Caprotti, also known as Salai (little devil) and the aristocrat Francesco Melzi who both moved with him to France late in his life. History is a bit vague on whether they were a throuple or not…
Other polymaths also played a role in this era of enlightenment during the Renaissance after the stifling Middle Ages, from 500 to about 1500 where humanity lived in Catholic Church sanctioned ignorance for approximately 1000 years after Rome was sacked.
Michelangelo was born a few years after Da Vinci, but he was a stubborn genius in his own right. Besides being the best sculptor known to man, he was also a magnificent painter, poet, and architect. His frescoes on the ceiling and altar wall of the Sistine Chapel in Rome are considered the ultimate frescoes in the history of a Western art. Architecturally, he designed the Laurentian Library and St Peter’s Basilica, which are rated amongst the greatest buildings of their time.
As a teenage boy he practised anatomy in secret, being banned by law. He perfected anatomy by dissecting corpses throughout his life, consequently his realistic statues surpassed all for centuries, crowning him as the grand master of anatomically detailed sculptural works of art. At the tender age of twenty-four he completed Pietà, which still is one of the most famous sculptures in the world with about 45 000 visitors per day.
Michelangelo fell deeply in love with Tommaso dei Cavalieri, a beautiful young Italian nobleman, thirty-four years younger than himself and they remained friends for life. The art-adoring Cavalieri remained devoted to Michelangelo until his death thirty years later when he held his hand as he drew his last breath.
Michelangelo, as a poet became the first artist to empower his words in perfect harmony with magnificent visual imagery. Although living a life of solitude, he still clashed with Leonardo da Vinci, but probably agreed with Leonardo’s famous quote stating, “Painting is poetry that is seen rather than felt, and poetry is painting that is felt rather than seen.”
Being smitten by Cavalieri, he expressed his passionate love for him in a series of love poems accompanied by six detailed drawings on mythological and allegorical subjects which was the ultimate expression of gay love yet observed. This incredible gift was the first substantial body of verses in a modern language from one man to another, transcending confessions of love with, multi layered expressions in drawings and poetry resulting in a new art form.
Just like Michelangelo, the Serbian American engineer Nikola Tesla preferred working alone but was fittingly born 400 years later around midnight on 10 July 1856, during a fierce lightning storm. He was a brilliant, enigmatic magician with electricity, endowed with a powerful mystical aura despite his solid foundation in engineering and science. His Michelangelo-like insane work ethic also sprouted from an insatiable mind that turned theory into reality. Unlike other geniuses like Albert Einstein, Tesla transformed theory into easily grasped reality which changed the world. Consequently. he became one of the ten most influential inventors in the world’s history, and worked deep into old age, just like Michelangelo, but died two years younger at age 86. Blessed with a photographic memory he memorised books and anything else required for the library of information in his head to enable the creation of anything he wished to solve or create. He spoke eight languages, held approximately 300 patents, and produced the first motor that ran on AC current.
As a child he was frequently accused of cheating as his teachers could not follow his brilliance with numbers. As a student he excelled but he was deeply affected by being ridiculed by a highly appropriately named Professor Poeschl, who drove him to dropping out of university.
Spending his life playing pool, chess and cards, he retreated socially into a life of self-study at the Klementinum Library 7 People’s Café, demonstrating that polymaths probably required no scholastic infrastructure to study. Suffering from serious mental health issues and depression, seemed to have little impact on his status as one of the most productive inventors in history.
“Be alone, that is the secret of invention; be alone, that is when ideas are born.” However, throughout his life he employed athletic assistants in their early twenties, and he described Anthony Szigeti, who he loved to take on sunset strolls, as having the body of an Apollo. A rather amusing comment, especially in the context of his statements declaring, “never touched a woman” and needing to be single for his work or, “I do not think you can name many great inventions that have been made by married men”.
On 23 June 1912, Alan Turing was born and became the father of computer science. Without Tesla’s inventions the age of the computer could not have happened. Turing needed to build a computer to solve an algorithmic problem known as the Entshceidungsproblem.
However, Turing discovered that there are some mathematical problems that cannot be solved by computers, known as the Church-Turing thesis, after the work of Alonzo Church, an American mathematician. Later during the second world war, Turing decoded the infamous German Enigma cipher machine which helped the Allied forces win the second world war. Without this breakthrough the Germans may have won and millions more lives would have been lost.
A few years later Turing was found guilty of loving a man which was against the law and was chemically castrated as punishment for loving a man. The British government finally apologised for its disgusting treatment of a war hero on 10 September 2009.
How fascinating that such a tiny handful of people changed the course of history and how the way of the world continues to change by so few. How is it possible to deny that a few brilliant gay people have altered the course of history? Pondering the disproportionately large number of gay polymaths, I wondered whether bullying played a role in rallying gay people into relishing becoming over achievers simply to set the record straight or whether not being hampered by marriage and children allows more intellectual freedom to explore all the complex variables of life or is it simply because many of us are connected to both sides of our brains which lubricates problem solving and learning.
Imagine our beautiful world without polymaths? Could removing just these five people turn the clock a thousand years back or not? Maybe trapping us in a Flinstonesque timewarp? Are many gay people gifted? Or are their talents rejected? What do you think?
