Ordinary Genius?

Last night while perusing the aisles of a local book store, The Einstein Factor by Win Wenger and Richard Poe caught my eye. The first chapter begins with the simple question, "Are You A Genius?"

"Each of us does indeed possess a thinking machine vastly superior to our
feeble conscious minds. The mathematician John von Neumann once
calculated that the human mind can store up to 280 quintillion -- that's
280,000,000,000,000,000,000-- bits of memory...Estimates of the brain's
speed of operation have ranged from 100 to 100,000 teraflops ( a teraflop is
1 trillion flops, the standard measure of computing speed.) Compare that
speed to the world's fastest supercomputer... which clanks along at an
arthritic 100 gigaflops or 100 billion flops..."

Wow John von, I've heard of a gazillion, but had no idea about a quintillion (much less 280 of them). And teraflops, well the concept of 1 trillion flops is one with which I can identify!

The book goes on to discuss Einstein and his early life -- he was considered a slow starter and learned with difficulty, had poor language skills, suffered from dyslexia and in his mid-twenties "seemed destined for a life of mediocrity."

Apparently, his ability to freely imagine, "unrestrained by conventional inhibitions" was what enabled him to develop his brilliant theories.

Surely, we all have untapped intellectual resources hiding within... but could it be (as the authors propose) "that geniuses are little more than ordinary people who have stumbled upon some knack or technique for widening their channel of attention, thus making conscious their subtle, unconscious perceptions."

Could it be?

What an intriguing thought.

Bought the book.
Reading it now.
Storing up a few quintillion bits that may increase my teraflopping... but the jury is still out.