This article is for you, Ozzy . . .

[ZEE]

we need another war here.

come on dammit Poly was trolling noobs when most other sites admins were in diapers

[ZEE]

[OzzyKP]

How is this a troll thread?

Seems obvious this guy should be able to study in Africa. This just shows how silly age discrimination is. Glad he is doing something about it.

[MrFun]

How is this a troll thread?

Seems obvious this guy should be able to study in Africa. This just shows how silly age discrimination is. Glad he is doing something about it.

Cause I find the whole idea of equal rights for youth to be, ah . . .

amusing.

[Asher]

The following is serious: On all of the "child geniuses", they almost always seem to be in fields that require memorization and knowledge more than anything else. It's quite possible these people just have great reading skills and great memories (it's my understanding these are linked in the brain). This facilitates passing all kinds of high school tests, and also tests in university...so long as the subject is, say, evolutionary biology.

I'm not sure the brains of these kids are developed enough to tackle harder subjects that require more original thought rather than regurgitation.

[MrFun]

Okay, now a [serious] post. I suppose this case may not be as ridiculous as other things that youth rights advocates argue for - such as lowering age for voting, lowering age for full-time employment, and so on.

[Heraclitus]

I'm not sure the brains of most humans are developed enough to tackle harder subjects that require more original thought rather than regurgitation.

FTFY

You do realize the bell curve has a lower half right? What harm could it possibly cause for the kid to be allowed to attend some makework university? He won't be a bigger burden than any of the adults that go get such degrees.

[OzzyKP]

The following is serious: On all of the "child geniuses", they almost always seem to be in fields that require memorization and knowledge more than anything else. It's quite possible these people just have great reading skills and great memories (it's my understanding these are linked in the brain). This facilitates passing all kinds of high school tests, and also tests in university...so long as the subject is, say, evolutionary biology.

I'm not sure the brains of these kids are developed enough to tackle harder subjects that require more original thought rather than regurgitation.

I don't have any ideas about smart kids in general, but just last night I happened to be watching Nova and they featured a bit on a 12-year-old who got into studying Mayan hieroglyphs. He wrote and had published some scholarly paper on the subject at 12 or 13. By like 18 he had uncovered a new interpretation of the glyphs that unlocked a great deal about the Mayan glyphs and allowed people to fully understand them at last.

That definitely involves a lot of original thinking. Also, don't most physicists who do ground breaking work generally do it before like 25 or so?

[Ecofarm]

Original thinking starts after one's master's, whatever the degree. Below that level, people think they are original but it's old crap that everyone knows. Only a dissertation requires unique contribution to scientific work.

And 13 year olds have no business conducting research in foreign developing countries, unless they are a super genius.