h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

This has just come up in one of my threads, I was told I was obsessed with figuring out who the smartest hootooer was. It's now piqued my interest in finding out who folk generally consider that to be.

My vote goes to Gnomon: his breadth of knowledge is simply staggering and until today I'd never come across something he didn't know everything about. Noggin and Giford will have to fight it out for 2nd place.

So what do the rest of you think?

I consider myself to be quite clever but Im assuming we can't vote for ourselves, besides I am by no means the smartest. Gnomon probably, and my good friend Gif. I consider to be top contenders for this honour. I feel practically dumb when in their shadow.

Yes, I'd nominate Gnomon too.

Do we also get to vote for Hootoo Thicky 2009? We'd probably all enjoy that, for one reason or another.

Ah, but is the most knowledgeble the same as the smartest? Gnomon is a very good Researcher, to be sure, bt is that the same as the cleverest?

The OED (on line version) has smart as:
smart

• adjective 1 clean, tidy, and stylish. 2 bright and fresh in appearance. 3 (of a place) fashionable and upmarket. 4 informal having a quick intelligence. 5 chiefly N. Amer. impertinently clever or sarcastic. 6 quick; brisk.

So I'd say that Gnomon fits the bill for no 4.

Define smart?

Yeah, I'm defining smartest as most knowledgeable: raw intelligence can be hard to judge and is often misleading. I'm certain that Julzes has quite a lot of raw intelligence but I'd never call him smart.

Similar goes for me: I've got a fairly high IQ but I'm not amongst the smartest hootooers. I'm bright, don't get me wrong - I don't hold with that false modesty nonsense - but I'm smart enough to know when there are people far smarter.

Smart is a good word. It implies good attributes...

whereas being 'clever' can sometimes lead to a situation of one-up-manship, of trying to score points over other people. Too clever by half as they say.

I think I meant me in the last post - ie knowing when it is okay to say something and when it would be a better idea to keep quiet

I don't really know Gnomon at all; going purely by his contributions to threads and the Guide which I've read, I'd give my vote to Gnomon as well.

Among people I know fairly well, I've aways thought that Ivan and Iago were particularly articulate and erudite.

Another researcher I don't know personally but who seems very smart is Clive the Flying Ostrich.

Bloody hell, excepting Gnomon, they're all in this thread. Should've read the backlog first, so as not to embarrass anyone.

Too late.

any smart females?

Galaxy Babe is hugely knowledgeable about a lot of things, I definitely think of her in the Top 5, and Sho and Deakie seem to know everything there is to know about engineering and mechanics. Our own p-c never seems short of a good idea.

Hootoo is not lacking in brilliant ladies.

Malabarista, too.

Oh god yes, how could I forget her? I remember the time you set her a challenge in one of your QI questions

If memory serves it was the Pyramids of the Antarctic question. I asked for a reference on pyramidical architecture, and got a small essay (and I think technical floor plans) of a temple of Mormons or scientology or something, which had been the pet project of one of the architects Mal had been studying.

Like I think I said at the time, that'll teach me to go asking stupid questions to clever people.

Aye. that was the one.

F7180006?thread=6487179?thread=&skip=50&show=5

That did make me giggle.

Read all the way to the end - you got the most points.