Christopher Michael Langan

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Christopher Michael Langan
Born c. 1957
San Francisco, California, United States
Spouse Gina Langan

Christopher Michael Langan (born c. 1957) is an American autodidact whose IQ was reported by 20/20 and other media sources to have been measured at around 195.[1] Billed as possibly "the smartest man in America",[2] he rose to prominence in 1999 while working as a bouncer on Long Island. Langan is author of the Cognitive-Theoretic Model of the Universe or CTMU (pronounced "cat-mew"), which he describes as "essentially a theory of the relationship between mind and reality."[3][4]

Contents

[edit] Life

Langan was born in San Francisco and spent most of his early life in Montana. He began talking at six months and reading at four years, and skipped over several grades in school.[5] Langan began weight training at the age of fourteen in response to domestic violence at the hands of his step-father.[6]

According to Langan, his later high school years were spent in independent study.[7] After earning a perfect score on the SAT,[6] he enrolled in college, first Reed College and later Montana State University, but did not graduate.[7]

Langan took a string of labor-intensive jobs. He worked as a construction worker, cowboy, forest service firefighter, farmhand, and for over twenty years, a bouncer on Long Island, in the meanwhile developing his Cognitive-Theoretic Model of the Universe. It was at this time, in 1999, that Esquire magazine published a profile of Langan and other members of the high-IQ community.[7] The article's account of the "smartest man in America" being a weight-lifting bouncer and its description of his CTMU "Theory of Everything" sparked a flurry of media interest. Board-certified neuropsychologist Dr. Robert Novelly tested Langan's IQ for 20/20, which reported that Langan broke the ceiling of the test, scoring "off the charts". [6]

Articles and interviews highlighting Langan appeared in Popular Science,[8] The Times,[9] Newsday,[5] Muscle & Fitness (which reported that he could bench 500 pounds),[10] and elsewhere. Langan was featured on 20/20[6] and interviewed on BBC Radio[11] and on Errol Morris's First Person.[12] He has written question-and-answer columns for New York Newsday,[13] The Improper Hamptonian,[14] and Men's Fitness.[15]

In 2004, Langan moved with wife Dr. Gina Langan (nee LoSasso), a clinical neuropsychologist, to northern Missouri where he owns and operates a horse ranch.[16]

[edit] Intelligent design

Langan is a fellow of the International Society for Complexity, Information and Design (ISCID),[17] a professional society which promotes intelligent design.[18] ISCID's stated purpose is to investigate complex systems using information- and design-theoretic concepts,[19] and Langan published a paper on his Cognitive-Theoretic Model of the Universe in the society's online journal Progress in Complexity, Information, and Design in 2002.[20] Later that year, Langan presented a lecture on the CTMU at ISCID's Research And Progress in Intelligent Design (RAPID) conference.[21] In 2004, Langan contributed a chapter to the book Uncommon Dissent, a collection of essays edited by ISCID cofounder William Dembski.[22]

Langan states that the CTMU says that reality evolves by self-replication and self-selection, undergoing a process which bears description both as "a cosmic form of natural selection" and as "intelligent self-design".[23] In Uncommon Dissent, Langan argues that neo-Darwinism and "intelligent design theory" are theories of biological causality which ultimately require a model accounting for the laws of nature and their role in natural processes.[24] He contends that both neo-Darwinism and ID theory are currently deficient in this regard,[25] and describes what he sees as a number of problems with the causality concept itself.[26] As a solution to these problems and a model of nature and causality, he proposes the CTMU and its "Self-Configuring Self-Processing Language" (SCSPL).[27] The CTMU, he says, synthesizes neo-Darwinism and ID theory within a reconciliatory framework, uniting teleology and evolution in an approach to biological origins and evolution he calls "Teleologic Evolution".[28][29]

Asked about creationism, Langan has said:

I believe in the theory of evolution, but I believe as well in the allegorical truth of creation theory. In other words, I believe that evolution, including the principle of natural selection, is one of the tools used by God to create mankind. Mankind is then a participant in the creation of the universe itself, so that we have a closed loop. I believe that there is a level on which science and religious metaphor are mutually compatible.[30]

Langan has said he does not belong to any religious denomination, explaining that he "can't afford to let [his] logical approach to theology be prejudiced by religious dogma."[30] He calls himself "a respecter of all faiths, among peoples everywhere."[30]

[edit] References

  1. ^ For the figure of 195, see Sager 1999, McFadden 1999, Fowler 2000, Wigmore 2000, O'Connell 2001, Brabham 2001, and Quain 2001. In Morris 2001, Langan relates that he took what was billed as "the world's most difficult IQ test" in Omni magazine, and gives his IQ as "somewhere between 190 and 210."
  2. ^ For the phrase "the smartest man in America", see Sager 1999, Fowler 2000, Wigmore 2000, and Brabham 2001. O'Connell 2001 (in the standfirst) uses "the smartest man in the world", and Quain 2001 (on the cover) uses "the Smartest Man Alive".
  3. ^ CTMU Q & A - What is the CTMU?
  4. ^ Preston, Ray (November 15, 2006). "Meet the Smartest Man in America".
  5. ^ a b Brabham, Dennis. (August 21, 2001). "The Smart Guy". Newsday.
  6. ^ a b c d McFadden, Cynthia. (December 9, 1999). "The Smart Guy". 20/20.
  7. ^ a b c Sager, Mike (November 1999). "The Smartest Man in America". Esquire.
  8. ^ Quain, John R. (October 14, 2001). "Wise Guy" (Interview with Christopher Langan and About Christopher Langan). Popular Science.
  9. ^ Wigmore, Barry. (February 7, 2000). "Einstein's brain, King Kong's body". The Times.
  10. ^ O'Connell, Jeff. (May 2001). "Mister Universe". Muscle & Fitness.
  11. ^ Fowler, Damien. (January 2000). Interview with Mega Foundation members. Outlook. BBC Radio.
  12. ^ Morris, Errol. (August 14, 2001). "The Smartest Man in the World". First Person.
  13. ^ Langan, Christopher M. (September 2001). Chris Langan answers your questions. New York Newsday. Melville, NY.
  14. ^ Langan, Christopher M. (2000-2001). HiQ. The Improper Hamptonian. Westhampton Beach, NY.
  15. ^ O'Connell, Jeff, Ed. (2004). World of knowledge: we harness the expertise of the brawny, the brainy, and the bearded to solve your most pressing dilemmas. Men's Fitness.
  16. ^ Preston, Ray (November 15, 2006). "Meet the Smartest Man in America".
  17. ^ ISCID fellows
  18. ^ Intelligent Design and Peer Review. American Association for the Advancement of Science. Retrieved on March 28, 2007. “[T]he International Society for Complexity, Information, and Design (ISCID), which promotes intelligent design...”.
  19. ^ ISCID
  20. ^ Langan, Christopher M. (2002). The Cognitive-Theoretic Model of the Universe: A New Kind of Reality Theory. Progress in Complexity, Information, and Design 1.2-1.3
  21. ^ RAPID conference schedule
  22. ^ Langan, Christopher M. (2004). Cheating the Millennium: The Mounting Explanatory Debts of Scientific Naturalism. In Uncommon Dissent: Intellectuals Who Find Darwinism Unconvincing, Wm. Dembski, Ed., Intercollegiate Studies Institute.
  23. ^ Langan 2002, p. 50.
  24. ^ Langan 2004, p. 236.
  25. ^ Langan 2004, p. 246.
  26. ^ Langan 2004, pp. 243–258.
  27. ^ Langan 2004, pp. 259–262.
  28. ^ Langan 2004, pp. 261–262.
  29. ^ From "Cheating the Millennium: The Mounting Explanatory Debts of Scientific Naturalism", Christopher Langan, 2003 (accessed 9 March 2007) :

    Given the dissonance of the neo-Darwinist and teleological viewpoints, it is hardly surprising that many modern authors and scientists regard the neo-Darwinian and teleological theories of biological evolution as mutually irreconcilable, dwelling on their differences and ignoring their commonalities. Each side of the debate seems intent on pointing out the real or imagined deficiencies of the other while resting its case on its own real or imagined virtues. This paper will take a road less traveled, treating the opposition of these views as a problem of reconciliation and seeking a consistent, comprehensive framework in which to combine their strengths, decide their differences, and unite them in synergy. To the extent that both theories can be interpreted in such a framework, any apparent points of contradiction would be separated by context, and irreconcilable differences thereby avoided.

  30. ^ a b c ABCNEWS.com Chat Transcript

[edit] External links

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