| John Bayne | cracked.comIs it possible to be too smart? Maybe. History is full of insane geniuses, humans who mentally put the pedal to the metal - and sometimes through the floor.Empedocles, Greek Scientist & Philosopher, 490-430 B.C.The Genius: Empedocles may have been among the most renowned geniuses in history if not for the fact that his stunning contributions to science are offset by his even more stunning contributions to bullshit. Some 450 years before Jesus, Empedocles discovered:- That light travels at a constant speed- That Earth is a sphere– Centrifugal force– That air is a substance, not an absence of substance.- An (admittedly very crude) theory of evolution- The Italian school of medicineThe Insanity: Empedocles believed he was a god. Not in the 80's hair-band sense or the guy who can beat Mario Bros 3 in 11 minutes sense, but in the literal thunderbolts-from-the-sky and immortality sense. To prove his immortality to his understandably skeptical peers, Empedocles announced that he would jump into a volcano, Mt Etna, and pop back out unscathed. |
