Ask A Genius 762: Giga Society
Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen and Rick Rosner
Publication (Outlet/Website): Ask A Genius
Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2022/06/06
[Recording Start]
Scott Douglas Jacobsen: Is the Giga Society label legitimate? Or is it more aspirational?
Rick Rosner: Not legitimate but is it a meaningful distinction which is a less loaded way of asking it.
Jacobsen: I mean to me it sounds more aspirational but a serious effort.
Rosner: So anyway what else can you ask? What have you done outside of getting a Giga level score on a test that you could present as an indication that you are good at being in the world I guess or not being in the world? If you didn’t have a test score to say you were at the Giga level, what other things about you could you possibly use to justify that distinction?
Jacobsen: Also, what would you consider in your life outside of IQ tests to success?
Rosner: Okay, yeah all that too.
Jacobsen: We are recording right now. You can answer.
Rosner: Even though I’m funny I’m probably not giggle level funny but I was able to survive as a writer on a late night TV show which is for the highest level of people able to pump out jokes on them at a moment’s notice. I did that for 11 and a half years and yeah I did eventually get fired for sucking but I don’t think I sucked that bad. I lasted for a lot and that’s a tough thing to do. There have only been around 500 U.S late night show writers in history, maybe more because I’ve been gone for eight years, so make it 600 then since. But anyway it’s more of a statistical distinction than having played in the NBA or any other major Pro Sport League, so that’s the thing. I’ve been able to live a fairly normal life with a wife and family without starting a sex cult. I’m probably not gifted in starting a sex cult but I’m okay. I’m pretty decent at having stayed married which is not a deep statistical distinction but it’s not nothing.
We’ve had these talks for eight plus years and we’ve got this cosmology that even though I’ve been shitty about fully developing it, I do think is legit. There’s plenty of evidence that the universe is older than it appears to be and that the universe’s apparent age is proportional to the amount of information it contains and that the universe’s apparent age thing and being older than that apparent age is all part of the universe being a massive information processor that has something like consciousness. So, I mean if that turns out to be true, it seems likely to me, maybe not to anybody, that would be a big distinction.
In addition to having being married, having a family, I’ve been able to not go really really insane unlike some other like high IQ people.
Jacobsen: Most people are probably aware of those individuals.
Rosner: Yeah and I mean most high IQ people are not insane but there are plenty of ways to have high IQ be a component of being insane or dysfunctional. I’m not terrible with money. I’m not freaking the Wizard of Wichita or Berkshire Hathaway or Warren Buffett. I’m no Warren Buffett but I’ve managed to avoid making too many serious financial mistakes which is again not a huge statistical distinction but it’s not nothing. And there’s a bunch of other minor distinctions or a life competencies that are not super distinctive but added together, I’ve made… all right now I’m just talking in bullshitty circles.
[Recording End]
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