I previously saw an interesting discussion with NVIDEA Jensen Haung where in the context of AI he was asked: who is the smartest person you ever met?
Jensen Haung paused for quite a few moments thinking about the question before he answered.
Haung then redefined the word “smart.”
‘Smart’ is a word we have historically used in reference to ‘intelligence’. If a person was intelligent, we say that person is smart. However, in this era of AI at your fingertips, we must break this connection.
Intelligence, the assembly of knowledge about a particular matter of discussion, is no longer limited to educational or real-life training or study by people who focus intensely on subject material.
All of the knowing about a system, any system, process, history or discussion topic is now available almost instantly to anyone in this era of artificial intelligence.
The NVIDEA CEO then continued, therefore, once we break our historic reference connecting ‘intelligence’ and the generalized term ‘smart’, we can properly address the question you present.
Who is the smart man? Or, in the context of the originating question, “who is the smartest person?”
With this baseline established, Jensen Haung then outlined the traits of the smartest person. The smartest person is not the person with the greatest knowledge; the smart individual is the person who can tune into the frequency of the universal moment, look at the human reality of what is factually taking place that has not yet become an input into the AI capture record, and then predict the material outcome – the destination of knowledge that has not yet arrived.
Essentially, Haung explains the smart person is alone, tuning themselves into the vibration that is the consequence of human activity, financial interests, geopolitical movement, social transformation, economic shifts and cultural modifications. Then, positioning their interests at the place in the future where they predict all the activity will arrive.
The accuracy of prediction, or predictive positioning, then determines the scale of smart. The more accurate a person is under this perspective, the smarter they are.
I agree with this perspective.
All of human knowledge is now being assembled into AI databases for exploration by anyone with a keen interest or stake in the subject matter. Knowledge is no longer the valuation of ‘smart.’ The ability to predict the next step, phase or moment is the smart attribute.
With this context, we can now look back over the past few decades, not looking for the most intelligent voice, but rather looking at the accuracy of current position, contrast with the outline from the voices who make the predictions.
This interview about the ramifications of cultural change in Europe was given in 2010, sixteen years ago, centered on a book written by Mark Steyn and the context within the questioning is looking forward over a period of about 20 years.
Remember, this is 2010, written before the “arab spring, long before Brexit, well before President Donald Trump and the MAGA agenda as policy and before the U.K churned through seven prime ministers’ in a decade.
Remarkably, Steyn discusses/predicts what would happen if Islam tried to reform; if the U.S. pulled NATO resources out of Germany; if the U.K doesn’t radically alter direction and much more.
Watch the discussion or put the interview on play while listening to it in the background as you go about your tasks. Remind yourself at moments throughout the roughly 30 minutes, that the interview took place fifteen years ago.
Mark Steyn, a writer, political commentator, and friend of the Treehouse outlines his 2010 prediction about the destination of the Western world during a discussion with Peter Robinson.
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CTH has no financial association with any of this; I just find it super interesting, because my research folder is growing increasingly large with material behind a hemispheric shift. {TWEET}


Objecting to manipulation of word meanings is smart. Too many people who should be smart are allowing socialists to freely twist word meanings.
Love Mark. Hope he’s doing well. And I also agree with this characterization of “intelligent”. The expertise is becoming a commodity- just a prompt away. But discretion and thinking forward to create the future still remains an exclusively human endeavor. Glad that you (SD) are keeping up with the happenings in the AI world.
It’s Huang not Haung
Smart: People who make quick connections with a high degree of accuracy.
Toffler’s Future Shock is here, and the Mark Steyn interview only adds an exclamation mark to that fact!
If there is an overriding theme to the 38:19 minutes I spent listening to Steyn, it is that America is, absolutely and irrefutably, the hope of the world! Without the American beacon of personal freedom and unalienable rights bequeathed to us by God, a new and repressive dark age will surely envelope us all!
I’m an old man, old enough to have grown up on Baltimore streets teeming with kids, the progeny of Europe, here to become the future of America! A time when our b&w tv’s told us that Superman was “fighting an never-ending battle for truth, justice and the American Way!” and we all believed those words because truth and justice WAS the American Way!
Birth rates were high, dads sere breadwinners. mom’s were homemakers and boys grew into responsible men because of the example of their fathers and they came to understand unselfish love because of the sacrifices made by their mothers!
We have to get back to that way of life for America to prosper. There is no other way to do it!
What is truly amazing is what the people of the world who come over here for the World Cup see how beautiful and great our Country is and how blessed we are for everything we have. Just a quick example: In England it is standard for houses to only have one toilet and only one car if you are lucky. In the US 2 bathrooms are standard with 3 or 4 very common with cars being the same. And most of the people in this Country hate it here, go figure that one out.
The fact that none of my predictions have come true is merely proof of my farsightedness. ( :
Thank you, Sundance!
I frequently read a person’s writings that fit the paradigm.
I’ve worked for people who are/were absolutely convinced of their own brilliance and competence, yet were complete failures at managing their staff. Which then results in a fubar situation. I have a HS diploma and a handful of credits from community college, yet when placed in a management role I generally got the job done well. I had one previous manager had a masters degree from an Ivy League school who was unable to achieve the same results as I have. And let me tell you I drove him nuts, veins bulging, bug eyed nuts.