Brand X

Kevin Langdon

Here are brief excerpts from Chris Langan's remarks about Mega in his "Introduction to the Mega Society" on his Web site,  http://www.ultrahiq.net/MegaSociety/MegaSociety.html:

Originally founded by philosopher and test designer Ronald K. Hoeflin in 1982, the Mega Society merged with another one-in-a-million group, the Noetic Society, in 1991.

A little strange not to mention that this other group was also founded by Ron Hoeflin.

While the combined group kept the Mega name, it adopted the Noetic Society journal Noesis as its forum. This site contains  the electronic edition of that journal, Noesis-E, consisting mainly of selected articles from prior editions (you may contact the Editor of Noesis at: C.M. Langan, P.O. Box 131, Speonk, NY 11972 U.S.A.).

Here is an example of Chris' continuing misrepresentation of his unauthorized version of Noesis as the official organ of the Mega Society. This is highly objectionable.

Mega Society Qualification Standards
Because only one out of every million people is able to qualify for Mega membership, the organization has taken pains to ensure that no potential qualifier need be turned away due to a lack of credentials (i.e., standardized test scores) or inability to retain a professional psychologist for testing purposes.

Which, of course, is a policy that would compromise Mega's admission standards, were we so unwise as to accept Chris' reasoning and adopt it.

Nevertheless, in view of the scarcity of potential qualifiers, Mega continues to consider scores on timed supervised tests as part of an applicant's materials, provided that they are well-normed, have high ceilings, and possess reasonable validity and reliability by mainstream standards.

Mega does nothing of the kind. Here Chris is misrepresenting the Mega Society again.

In 2001, additional considerations have been made.

Qualify

To qualify for Mega membership, simply do one of the following (use the Editor's address given above).

1. Submit documentation to the effect that you have scored at or above IQ 176 on a reputable standardized intelligence test (e.g., the Stanford-Binet).

The Stanford-Binet is known to yield many too many very high scores. The best estimate of the real meaning of such scores is that on John Scoville's Web page, "Statistical Distribution of Childhood IQ Scores" <http://sac.uky.edu/~jcscov0/ratioiq.htm>.

According to the table on Scoville's page, an IQ of 176 on the Stanford-Binet corresponds to a deviation IQ of only 160--100 times more common!

2. Order a copy of one of the untimed, unsupervised high-ceiling adult IEQ tests accepted by us for admission, complete it, and  obtain and submit a qualifying score report.

Impossible at present, as all the tests with sufficient ceiling for which credible normings exist have been compromised.

3. Submit proof that you, and you alone, have produced the solution for at least one major, high-profile, hyperdifficult  real-world problem that a large number of smart and dedicated people tried and failed to solve, preferably over the course of decades or centuries (sorry; since we have only limited time and technical expertise, you'll probably have to produce ample  in-field corroboration for your achievement).

Would that Chris were willing to live with this with regard to his own work!

Examples: deciding the Riemann hypothesis, quantizing gravity, deciphering the secret of artificial intelligence, finding a cure for Lyme disease, or writing the Great American Novel (good luck!).

Adding alternative admission criteria is a can of worms that Chris should know better than to open.