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The theory on infant prodigies


Many people are astounded by the high intellect displayed by certain gifted children. The little geniuses show abilities one would not even expect from most university professors. Infant prodigies can from the age 5 be able to reel off all prime numbers that are divisors of 327.539.178.013 in two seconds, or recite all words of The Brothers Karamazov that in Swahili starts with Ng-, or direct a symphony orchestra with such excellence that Karajan goes and hangs himself in the woods. It seems incontestable that these children must possess more than an average intelligence. 

Or does it? One can think of another reason for these gifted childrens' astonishing abilities: That they are merely ordinary kids, who for some unknown reasons are incredibly lucky. It is statistically possible to guess the titles of all of Rembrandt's paintings by sheer luck. It is neither inconceivable that one can play Clair de Lune as a music academy graduate simply by pressing the keys in a random, but lucky sequence. Neither is it unlikely that one can recite all poems by T. S. Elliot in Sanskrit just by talking nonsense and hope for the best.

We must realise and accept that certain people can be ludicrously lucky from early childhood, and thus be reluctant to dupe them as infant prodigies. They may well be called gifted, as such luck is without doubt a great gift, but we must not think that they are extraordinary intelligent. Some people are just plain lucky - not only once in a while, but all of the time. The laws of chance do sometimes work that way. 

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