External links
- Genius of the Species title listing at the Internet Speculative Fiction Database
 | This article about a science fiction short story (or stories) published in the 1950s is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it. |
"Genius of the Species" is a science fiction short story by American writer Reginald Bretnor (first published with the author name "R. Bretnor"), which originally appeared in the anthology 9 Tales of Space and Time edited by Raymond Healy.
The story is set in the Soviet Union where a rat problem is getting out of control due to the laziness of cats. This problem is solved by a government program to use artificial means to raise the intelligence of cats to an IQ of 20.2 so that they can be taught Marxism and subsequently realize catching rats is for the greater good. However, due to a calculation error on part of the scientist responsible for this program, the cats end up with an IQ of 202 rather than 20.2. With this superior intellect cats become the dominant species in the Communist world.
| | This article about a science fiction short story (or stories) published in the 1950s is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it. |
A genius is a person who displays exceptional intellectual ability, creative productivity, universality in genres, or originality, typically to a degree that is associated with the achievement of new discoveries or advances in a domain of knowledge. Geniuses may be polymaths who excel across many diverse subjects or may show high achievements in only a single kind of activity.
Reginald Bretnor was an American science fiction author who flourished between the 1950s and 1980s. Most of his fiction was in short story form, and usually featured a whimsical story line or ironic plot twist. He also wrote on military theory and public affairs, and edited some of the earliest books to consider SF from a literary theory and criticism perspective.
"Bart the Genius" is the second episode of The Simpsons' first season. It originally aired on the Fox network in the United States on January 14, 1990. It was the first episode written by Jon Vitti. It is the show's first normal episode as well as the first to use the signature title sequence, though this version is much different from the one used from the second season to the twentieth season. In the episode, Bart cheats on an intelligence test and is declared a genius, so he is sent to a school for gifted children. Though he initially enjoys being treated as a genius, he begins to see the downside of his new life.
9 Tales of Space and Time is an anthology of original science fiction stories edited by Raymond J. Healy, published in hardcover by Henry Holt in 1954. A British edition appeared in 1955, with the title rendered Nine Tales of Space and Time. No paperback editions are reported.
Intellectual giftedness is an intellectual ability significantly higher than average. It is a characteristic of children, variously defined, that motivates differences in school programming. It is thought to persist as a trait into adult life, with various consequences studied in longitudinal studies of giftedness over the last century. There is no generally agreed definition of giftedness for either children or adults, but most school placement decisions and most longitudinal studies over the course of individual lives have followed people with IQs in the top 2.5 percent of the population—that is, IQs above 130. Definitions of giftedness also vary across cultures.
Historiometry is the historical study of human progress or individual personal characteristics, using statistics to analyze references to geniuses, their statements, behavior and discoveries in relatively neutral texts. Historiometry combines techniques from cliometrics, which studies the history of economics and from psychometrics, the psychological study of an individual's personality and abilities.
Dysgenics is the study of factors producing the accumulation and perpetuation of defective or disadvantageous genes and traits in offspring of a particular population or species.
A feghoot is a humorous short story or vignette ending in a pun, where the story contains sufficient context to recognize the punning humor.
Social science fiction is a subgenre of science fiction, usually soft science fiction, concerned less with technology/space opera and more with speculation about society. In other words, it "absorbs and discusses anthropology" and speculates about human behavior and interactions.
Rubber science is a science fiction term describing a quasi-scientific explanation for an aspect of a science fiction setting. Rubber science explanations are fictional but convincing enough to avoid upsetting the suspension of disbelief. Rubber science is a feature of most genres of science fiction, with the exception of hard science fiction. It is also frequently invoked in comic books.
Kim Ung-Yong is a South Korean professor and former child prodigy, who claims to have held the Guinness World Records for the highest IQ, at 210.
"The Marching Morons" is a science fiction story by American writer Cyril M. Kornbluth, originally published in Galaxy in April 1951. It was included in The Science Fiction Hall of Fame, Volume Two after being voted one of the best novellas up to 1965.
A high-IQ society is an organization that limits its membership to people who have attained a specified score on an IQ test, usually in the top two percent of the population or above. These may also be referred to as genius societies. The largest and oldest such society is Mensa International, which was founded by Roland Berrill and Lancelot Ware in 1946.
IQ classification is the practice by IQ test publishers of labeling IQ score ranges with category names such as "superior" or "average".
Portals of Tomorrow is an anthology of science fiction stories edited by American writer August Derleth, intended as the first in a series of "year's best" volumes. It was first published by Rinehart & Company in 1954. The stories had originally appeared in the magazines Fantasy and Science Fiction, Future, Esquire, Fantastic Universe, Galaxy Science Fiction, Blue Book, Startling Stories, Orbit, Astounding Stories and Beyond Fantasy Fiction.
Flowers for Algernon is the title of a science fiction short story and a novel by American writer Daniel Keyes. The short story, written in 1958 and first published in the April 1959 issue of The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, won the Hugo Award for Best Short Story in 1960. The novel was published in 1966 and was joint winner of that year's Nebula Award for Best Novel.
Walter O'Brien is the fictional lead character in the American drama television series, Scorpion. The character is inspired by the Irish businessman and information technologist of the same name. The character, played by actor Elyes Gabel, follows a loose trajectory of Walter O'Brien's real-life exploits that thwart terrorism and disasters in each episode of the series.
The year 1911 was marked, in science fiction, by the following events.
Genius is an American digital media company founded in August 2009 by Tom Lehman, Ilan Zechory, and Mahbod Moghadam. The site allows users to provide annotations and interpretation to song lyrics, news stories, sources, poetry, and documents.
"The Gnurrs Come from the Voodvork Out" is a 1950 science fantasy short story by Reginald Bretnor. It was first published in The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction.