Greatest Nerd of All Times: Jonathan Vos Post!
I have just found a person on the internet that I believe brings a whole new meaning to the word NERD. This is a person that is member of a group called “the Ubergeeks” and breaks all records, by far. He is additionally a very interesting person with a very special character.
Let me present to you Jonathan Vos Post!
Some of his highlights
- Programmed in 30 computer languages including Java, XML/XSL, Netscape Application Server (Kiva), Oracle 8i, APL, Assembly Language, BASIC, CITRAN, COBOL, FORTRAN IV, FORTRAN 77, HAL, LISP, PL/1, Pop-2, SNOBOL, TRAC and more.
- Taught 12 computer languages
- Part-time Professor in Astronomy, Computer Science, English Composition, Mathematics and Physics
- Has also taught Anthropology, Ecology, Literature, Philosophy, Psychology, Sociology and other subjects
- 820+ publications, presentations and broadcasts
- Widely published author of science fiction, mystery, poetry, opera, Math, Drama, 210 space publications and much more.
- He has a Ph.D in Molecular Cybernetics
- He wrote the world’s first doctoral dissertation on Nanotechnology
- He has a Master of Science in Computers and Information Science (Artificial Intelligence)
- He has a Bachelor of science degree in Mathematics (Advanced Logic) as well as in English Literature
- Owns a company called “Sherlock Holmes Resume Service”
- Has management expertise in Aerospace, Computers, Research and Marketing
- Has been working for Boeing, European Space Agency, NASA, Systems Development Corporation, U.S. Army, U.S. Navy, U.S. Air Force and many more
- Held Secret clearance through 1991; never denied clearance
- He is sitting in the board of directors of at least 3 different foundations
- In his so-called spare time, he wins elections for local political offices and produces operas, as Secretary of Euterpe Opera Theatre.
Some of his most extreme Ubergeek works that qualified him for the title of the Biggest Nerd of All Times includes:
- A 57 page publication:
“What numbers can be made with Four Nines“ - A 84 page publication:
“What numbers can be made with four copies of the number “pi”, or p?“ - A list of 4468 Mystery/Detective Authors and Fictional Characters inserted in a periodic table and written in pure HTML.
- A 8 page document of Word Oddities and Trivia
- A 294 page HTML document:
“Table of Figurate Numbers, Sorted, Through 10,000“ - A 567 page HTML document:
“Table of Polytope Numbers, Sorted, Through 1,000,000“ - A 1370 page HTML compilation of a list of Sci-Fi Authors
His most interesting works:
- Timeline of 2010-2020 and timeline of the Cosmic Future Until Infinity
- His handbook: “How to Talk to an Extraterrestrial”
Nomitated by myself to have the most ugly professional presentation of himself in the whole world:
http://www.magicdragon.com/jvp.html
His web site Magicdragon.com is one of the most interesting sites I have ever seen:
- 200,000 visitors per month (according to the site)
- 4,307 pages according to live.com
- Ranking number 4 on Google for the extremely hard word Science Fiction:
- Written in pure HTML!
- Ugly looking!
The internet is really a way of connecting people — so Magic Dragon Multimedia has information about, and/or links to, over 11,000 people worldwide who have something important or entertaining to tell you.
Read more and see an index of the site here.
His LiveJournal profile sums it up pretty well:
Jonathan Vos Post is a part-time Professor of Mathematics, who has also taught Anthropology, Astronomy, Computer Science, Ecology, Literature, Philosophy, Psychology, Sociology, and other subjects. He is also a professional Science Fiction author who has co-authored or co-edited with Ray Bradbury, Richard Feynman, Sir Arthur C. Clarke, and many others, for his nearly 900 publications, presentations, and broadcasts. A failed actor, who has sold some plays; a failed musician, whose lyrics have made it to MTV; he has finally suceeded as a husband and father, and is thus a happy man, eager to share his delight in life. His primary concern is attempting to answer three little questions: (1) what is the universe, and how does it work?; (2) what is a human being?; and (3) what is the place of a human being in the universe? His web domain, magicdragon.com, gets over 15,000,000 hits per year.
External links:
- MagicDragon.com
- His LiveJournal Profile
- His recent entries from 2006 on LiveJournal
- Resume of Jonathan Vos Post
- Comments from Jonathan from Making Light
- Text about him on an author page
- Entry on NECSIWiki
- Presentation of himself
- Teaching version of resume
- More about him
- The Ubergeeks
- Sherlock Holmes Resume Service
- His wife
Jim Westergren is a company owner from Sweden who lives together with his wife and son. Some of his interests are SEO, web development, writing and
dude, linux is not a programming language
With all the stuff this guy has ‘done’, I think that even his existence is questionable… And Wikipedia’s got nothing on him so I think that its obvious…
Awesome man,,,,,
Such people exist on this earth. I was shocked while looking at his biodata.
Great post
regards
aditya
Ok, I changed that. I was quoting from his resume.
What about this: http://necsi.org/community/wiki/index.php/Jonathan_Vos_Post
I looked at is resume too…You really need to take that with a pile of salt. That business about him writing the first dissertation on nanotechnology is …interesting.
First of all, materials scientists, physcists, and chemists were working in the nanoscale in the mid-seventies, and I’m sure there were plenty of dissertations on nano-stuff at the time. Admittedly, “Nanotechnology” was not a buzzword at the time, but since when do marketing terms used by scientists to get funding from people who do not understand science matter?
I’d also like to point out that he was not awarded a PhD for said dissertation. I’m curious why.
Remember that most people do embellish their resumes a bit.
Even though he could probably beat most folks in a pub quiz his design skills could be better. That presentation of himself is pretty sore on the eyes. =P
It’s good to see a lot of stuff about Scotland on MagicDragon though.
Damn….thats one topic i want to include on my spawners.Really good.I didnt even think a person can have knowledge in so many things…awsome
Well, he can’t be good at everything you know.
Is this guy for real. ohh men, very impress, but does he play video games?
This guy is for real, yes.
Doesn’t play video game, he plays with math.
Really an Outstanding Man!
DR said,
November 14, 2006 @ 2:02 am
Trust me, he is very real.
Nicholas Post
(His brother number 3)
Hi Nicholas!
Nice to hear from you, did I get all right in my article?
Has Jonathan seen it? How did he like it? Was he angry, happy ?
Jim Westergren said,
January 5, 2007 @ 11:46 am
Jim,
My wife, Roxana asked me if it is true that he is the “Greatest Nerd of All Times”. I replied that he might be, in a way or other but not of all time, more like of this generation. There were others in the past like Albert Einstein, Newton, Gailieo, etc.
Nicholas
I can attest that Jonathan is real; and I’ll agree that he is a very amusing character (and I intend that here as a compliment). Greatest nerd of all time??? There’s a lot of contenders, I think, but sure, I’d vote for him!
Jim Westergren, I think that you did a magnificent job!
I say that as, for instance, the last person to have published in a mainstream Encyclopedia (albeit one on Computer Science) a biography and bibliography of the leate great super-Nerd Isaac Asimov, which did not mention that he died of AIDS, that fact having been embargoed.
I apologize for not thanking you sooner for your thoroughness, perceptiveness, patience, and professionalism. First, I didn’t know until a friend emailed me . That friend, by the way, being the great nerd John Sokol, who may be the first person ever to send video through the young internet. he’s a prodigiously talented inventor, and software pioneer.
Second, I was interested by the blogs linking toyour posting, which assert that I must be a hoax, and/or a 55-year-old virgin. The former is fun, and I’d rather not disabuse them of the notion. The latter is silly, given that your page links to a photo of my very attractive Physics professor wife.
Third, I am humbled by those who assert that I do, in fact, exist. My brother Nicholas is a brilliant artist, socially active, fascinating in his own right. Dr. Geoffrey Landis outdoes my credentials in many ways: he’s the more succesful science fiction author (Hugo, Nebula!), more successful professor (Named chair at MIT!), more succesful scientist/engineer (experiments on several Mars rovers!), and his web site (although much smaller than mine) has a higher signal to noise ratio.
Fourth, I did not want to suggest to cynical readers that you were connected to me in any way, by personal acquaintance, monetary connection, or sockpuppetry. You found me, Ghod knows how, and then acted with precision and respect.
Your selection of my “best” pages was very perceptive indeed. I’m biased, because you picked some of my favorites.
Jonathan!
Nice that you answer here. To be honest I was a bit worried wether you would like my article or not. Nice that you like it.
How did I find you?
In 1999 I stumbled across your time line and found it incredible interesting. I am a SF writer myself (not yet published) and I wanted to study your writings closely and so I saved all the time line documents in word files on my computer. This was later forgotten about.
7 years later I stumbled across your site magicdragon.com again. I don’t remember how. I find the site extremely interesting and special and so I do some research on who is owning this site. I find your name and I found out more about you. After I read your live journal profile and found more incredible interesting documents (such as this) I decide that I have to write about this special person.
Why did I write this article?
- I found you extremely interesting with many similarities like me. I also write SF, own web sites, like science, is a nerd and I also try to find the deep questions of life. My thought was that if my history had been different this could have been me in the future …
- It was an experiment with internet marketing using the link bait technique with social network sites. This article got over 7 000 visitors so I consider the experiment a success. I am currently practicing this technique so that I can learn on doing it for clients web sites. (I own a internet marketing company).
And now I have some questions for you
- Did I get most of the things in the article right? Anything needed to be edited?
- The hundreds of pages you wrote about pi and those thousands of pages you compiled about writers, are you still doing that kind of stuff? If not, what year was that?
- Are you making progress on finding answers on lifes deep questions? I myself made some progress if you are curious.
- Why don’t you have a modern blog?! Should I make one for you?
PS: I had some email contact with Dr. Geoffrey Landis as he had technical problems to make a comment here. I had no idea he also had such kind of credentials.
I think his web site need to be updated. It’s current format and colors are pretty old.
I don’t know about his modern blog. he is up to his neck with almost everything else.
Excellent article. Interesting subject.
Jim Westergren, I think that you did a magnificent job
Look at the picture very funny… Ubergeek!
This guy is for real
ehehe that’s so funny
This guy is incredible.. My fresh programming experiences are telling me that I schould learn from big fishes
Regards
Jimi
website: tworzenie stron www
Whoa… that’s all I can say. This has also got to be one of the most busiest nerds of all time. This guy looks like he is permanently working! You’re right when you say that he has ’so-called’ spare time. I bet, though, that he doesn’t really do the book writing, but rather gets someone to ghost write for him. That, or being a super-nerd, he probably manages to write a book a night! This guy seems incredible – is he married? Does he have kids? If he’s married, I really wonder how he pulls all of this off. It seems to be way too much for one human being (well, maybe he isn’t a human being…)
To reply to toys:
Yes, he is real. He is married to a wonderful wife with PhD from Scotland and has a son who enrolled at the age of 13 years old.
Yes, he write and co-authored many books.
But, I don’t know if he ever sleeps. Which explains his “spare time”.
Nicholas Post
(his younger brother)
Cool list! One question though – what are the criteria for someone to be considered a nerd? I noticed that most nerds look messed up but super intelligent.
Oil pet said,
“Cool list! One question though – what are the criteria for someone to be considered a nerd? I noticed that most nerds look messed up but super intelligent.”
My reply:
I believed some or most nerds wised up about their appearances. Now they no longer stereotyped as plain nerds. They now look like anyone one of us, in any style; cool, normal, rich, etc.
can u send me ur life story pls
he does in fact exist and is in my teaching credential classes right now at Cal State LA, because he wants to try and do something useful in public service.
The question I’d like to ask is “Does Jon still write poetry as he did back in the UMass graduate school days?”
(1) Yes, I’ve published over 220 poems, in places as unusual for poetry as “Science” and “Analog”, some with rather famous coauthors such as Nobel laureate Richard Feynman (that one has been anthologized and used as lyrics for hypermodern musical composition), and Ray Bradbury (3 times).
(2) If this is the Debi that I think about, who for example had dinner with me and her parents and my father at the Harvard Club in New York City, do please get in touch with me, to exchange personal family information.
The blogmaster here, Jim Westergren , knows my not-widely-known preferred email address.
Yes, that would be me. I sent a message to Jim Westergren with my email address but haven’t heard anything yet. Is there an easier way to do this?
Jonathan is a polymath, does any university offer an official title of Polymath?