Test your wits against rest of the world

There’s smart, and then there’s the World’s Smartest Person.

Thousands around the world are currently vying for that title, playfully offered by the International High IQ Society. Its founder has compiled a 25-question test to challenge (baffle? frustrate?) those who care to participate (visit www.highiqsociety.org). Deadline is Oct. 31.

First prize is $500 along with a lifetime premium membership in the organization (value: $500), which has nearly 20,000 members worldwide. It describes itself as “an egalitarian community full of opportunities for its members to share the life of the mind, unencumbered by the restrictions of physicality.”

Nathan Haselbauer (IQ 162) created the group. An average adult’s IQ is generally around 100; members have submitted proof of an IQ of 124 or higher. They pay a one-time fee of $79.95 for basic membership, which includes access to its lively Web forums.

Within the high-intelligence community, Haselbauer said, are some 20 similar clubs, such as the well-known Mensa International.

“We’re more online. We run our chess tournaments online, we don’t have local meetings or a chapter system,” as Mensa does, Haselbauer said from his home in New York City, where since 2002 his full-time job has been overseeing the society and its site.

Among the super-intellect clubs is the Giga Society, which began as a parody but morphed into an actual organization, Haselbauer said. Giga reportedly has only six members, whose IQs are all 190 or above – that means scoring better than the 99.9999999th percentile, equal to about one in 1 billion adults. Tests for membership include the ominous “Test to End All Tests.”

Intelligence and its measurement have long fascinated humans.

“Someone’s intellectual capacity tells us a lot about who they are and what they can do,” said Jonathan Plucker, professor of educational psychology at Indiana University in Bloomington. “And as a society we love to quantify things, to measure ourselves and others.”

Plucker maintains a Web site that takes an in-depth look into human intelligence testing, history and controversies at www.indiana.edu/~intell/.

Douglas K. Detterman has researched and lectured on intelligence for decades. He’s chairman of the psychology department at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland. He doesn’t know his own IQ. Never will.

“I’ve seen so many IQ tests I’ve probably been corrupted,” Detterman said.

But, he added, those who’d like to know theirs should seek a professional, such as a psychologist or university researcher, “someone with training in psychometrics,” for an examination. (Psychometrics focuses on design, administration and interpretation of psychological tests.)

The World’s Smartest Person Challenge may seem similar to many online intelligence quizzes, more for fun and mental stimulation than serious measurement. But this test is unique, said Haselbauer, who also writes puzzle books.

He spent about a year developing it. “For this one I wanted something totally different, I wanted to create something new,” he said. Other IQ tests rely heavily on arcane number sequence problems that demand advanced math skills. Haselbauer said this test uses “simple universal concepts” that anyone with high-school math will know.

His last World’s Smartest Person test was also his first – in 2003, when he drew more than 50,000 entries. That winner had a doctorate in computer science.

“Right now we’re averaging more entries than last time,” Haselbauer said.

His only hint: The name of each puzzle figures into its solution.

One potential Smartest Person is society member David McDermott, an engineer who lives in Novi, Mich.

“I have to give Nathan credit for structuring a good test,” McDermott said. “It’s not all one type of problem. Some I look at and say, ‘This is over my head’; some I’m surprised are so easy.”

McDermott (IQ around 150) has spent about 12 hours so far on the questions, although he anticipates “pondering this until October.”

For him, being active in the club, both online and in local social gatherings, provides a camaraderie lacking elsewhere.

“A lot of members have the same stories to tell,” McDermott said. “We all get comments like, ‘You’re so smart, you go figure it out.’ Or we’re always expected to take the lead. Or people say, ‘What do you do for fun, sit around and do math problems?’

“It’s intellectual discrimination,” he added.