Homeless Man without an IQ Fails to Pick Up Million Dollar Lotto Prize
By Brian Madigan LL.B.
Well, let’s have a look at that statement:
1) Technically, he’s not homeless, but he lives with his mother on her $60/month pension
2) Technically, he’s not without any actual score, but his score cannot be measured
3) Technically, he didn’t enter the lotto, but there is a million dollar prize, and all he has to do is pick it up.
So, what’s the story?
Grisha (Grigory) Perelman, a bachelor and a recluse is 43 years of age and lives at home with his mother in St. Petersburg. He doesn’t have a job nor does he have any other means of financial support. Some believe that he suffers from Asperger’s Syndrome (that’s Autism light).
He certainly is different. His hobby was searching for mushrooms in the woods, but he has become quite reclusive and he doesn’t appear to do that anymore.
He has generally let his overall appearance “go”. He was often sighted with long shaggy hair, fingernails 4 to 5 inches in length and dishevelled clothing. Now, he rarely speaks to people.
The IQ
Let’s put it this way: he’s a pretty smart guy. He’s very good at conceptual thinking. Of the 6,842,000,000 people on earth, he’s probably the smartest.
So, what does that mean? It certainly means that he really couldn’t be tested or properly assessed in terms of his Intelligence Quotient. Who would make up such a test? Who would assess him? Who could say how smart he is? The IQ test is for dummies!
Grisha then, really doesn’t have an IQ.
Proof that Grisha is Smart
In 1982, he won the gold medal at the International Mathematical Olympiad with a perfect score. No one before, and no one after has achieved that mark.
However, Grisha seems to have a significant disdain for medals, awards and accolades. He has been awarded many of significant distinction in the mathematical field. He just won’t attend, and won’t pick them up.
Unlike the hero in “Good Will Hunting”, Grisha is a misfit and is frequently described as “socially inept”.
The Lotto Prize
The Clay Institute for Mathematics posed a problem and offered a million dollar prize to anyone who could come up with a solution. Just one condition, publish the answer in a mathematical journal so that it could be checked by scholars. Once you do that, all you have to do is pick up your prize.
So, the rules of the game seem simple enough, the only problem is figuring out the answer. The question was originally postulated in 1904. Known as the Poincare Conjecture it was first posed by the French mathematician, Jules Henri Poincare, and seeks to understand the shape of the universe by linking shapes, spaces and surfaces.
It wasn’t solved by Einstein and it wasn’t solved by Steven Hawking. But, Grisha Perelman figured it out and being the recluse that he is, posted it on the internet. After two years of checking by other mathematicians, it was finally determined that he had the right answer.
One little problem: he won’t publish it in a scientific journal. Even you and I can figure that one out: no money!
The prize is still there. He is the only one who can pick it up. His name is written all over it. There’s no expiry date.
Sir John Ball, president of the International Mathematical Union, travelled to St. Petersberg to meet with Perelman. He wanted Perelman to accept the prize.
Perelman stated:
1) accept and come;
2) accept and don’t come, and we will send you the medal later;
3) I don’t accept the prize.
So, the moral of the story I suppose is that “pure mathematics is pure mathematics”, or, perhaps that “there is more to life than money”.
But, a million dollars would go a long way to purchase a nice oceanfront property somewhere!
Brian Madigan LL.B., Broker is an author and commentator on real estate matters, Royal LePage Innovators Realty
905-796-8888
www.OntarioRealEstateSource.com
{ 1 comment… read it below or add one }
I just can’t tell you how annoying this story is to me. So Grisha Perlman is so smart he completely devalues his own existence? Or is it that he knows something the rest of us don’t, that money can’t make you happy, but Is Grisha happy? Is his mother? Has she no opinion about the $1M or the prospect of keeping Grisha out of trouble and hope of him one day taking some level of care for her when she’s too old to care for him? Asbergers robs the victim of any beneficial sense of humanity leaving an empty shell of a person – A nice supercomputer may be more social!