Who is smarter Stephen Hawking or Ed Whitten?

Question

Just wondered what the people with the science degrees think about this one, since the media can so easily influence popular opinion.

Answer 1

If you ask Albert Einstein, he would respond that intelligence is relative.

Either scientist may be well educated and have superior minds, but neither may be smarter than the average person when it comes to fields that are not their areas of expertise.

Are they geniuses when it comes to music, or art? How about chemistry?

Sometimes mentally retarded people display qualities of being savant. Sometimes intelligent people do irrational or just plain stupid things.

It all depends on the subject being discussed. Some may have superior raw computational power, but I do not consider that intelligence, just the ability to process things quickly. Some have superior memory, but that does not denote intelligence, just data storage. Some exhibit great problem solving ability, but have otherwise illogical thought processes.

There is no single definition of smartness.

It would seem that most people have strengths and weaknesses. Some have great strengths and many small weaknesses, some have few strengths but few weaknesses, some have areas of incredible strength and areas of absolute incompetence.

Answer 2

A better question is "does it matter who is smarter?", and the answer is "no". Both men are accomplished physicists in their respective areas, though Hawking is certainly more well-known.

Answer 3

A better question is "does it matter who is smarter?", and the answer is "no". Both men are accomplished physicists in their respective areas, though Hawking is certainly more well-known.

Answer 4

level of education plays a less role than their contribution in the world of science.