Welcome to Mr. Kirby's AP Euroblog. This site is for all CHS students and guest to comment on topics relating to AP Modern European history.
Tuesday, September 15, 2009
Modern Day Da Vinci
Is there a modern day DaVinci? Can you think of anyone in our time who may be looked upon in the same light centuries down the road? If so, who and why? If not, why not?
It is extremely difficult to pinpoint any modern person as centuries ahead of his or her time, given that those centuries have yet to unfold. It is more troublesome still to compare anyone to the great Leonardo Da Vinci, for no one seems quite as versatile as the master himself. A few names come to mind, yet they all are remarkably similar; merely highly accomplished scientists in their respective fields. I personally feel that a modern-day Da Vinci should be so named because of his or her vast skill set in multiple disciplines, of which science need not be included. When I ponder this instead, only one name, to me, adequately fulfills these requirements: the Right Honourable Sir Winston Leonard Spencer-Churchill, etc. etc. Churchill seems the most qualified candidate mainly because he achieved a tremendous amount over the course of his lifetime, helping to shape the world into the one which we are now familiar with-much like Da Vinci-but in a decidedly different manner.
Da Vinci was the epitome of a “Renaissance Man.” So much so in fact that his name even has become synonymous with the term, and his legacy the standard to which most critics hold potential candidates. His fortes were apparently limitless and so he is renowned as an: anatomist, inventor, engineer, painter, sculptor, mathematician, and so on. It is nigh-impossible to nowadays find anyone, especially a chronic procrastinator and stubborn polymath (which Da Vinci was known to be), whose merit would ever more than pale in contrast to the accomplishments of the iconic homo universalis. Leonardo conceptualized tanks, helicopters, solar power, calculators, and even plate tectonics in an era in which running water didn’t exist (remarkably disappointing, considering the Romans had a vast network or pipes and aqueducts millennia earlier). And still on the opposite side of the spectrum, his paintings such as the Mona Lisa and the Last Supper are arguably two of the most famous paintings on the planet. His Virtuvian Man is recognized easily by anyone. Leonardo Da Vinci’s legacy can be seen simply by the way in which we live today. Much of what we take for granted was thought up by or inspired by Da Vinci, from automatic bobbin winders on sewing machines to the helicopters that bring us the news and save lives.
Winston Churchill, though no great scientist, shares more than just one of his names with this Renaissance legend. England and, indeed, the world as a whole have become better in every sense of the word as a direct result of his ingenuity, diplomacy, and philosophy. Churchill’s multi-faceted nature became quickly apparent. He rose swiftly through the ranks of the British armed forces, but not without first overcoming several difficult obstacles. Churchill failed the admittance exam thrice ere he was accepted into England’s Royal Military Academy. (He even had to switch his position from infantryman to cavalryman so that he would receive an easier examination.) Such dedication is the mark of a true difference-maker, and of a different sort of genius. After his distinguished military service, Churchill decided that he could and should continue to serve his country as a politician. Yet again, he faced adversity: he lost his first major election campaign. But this did not daunt the young Churchill. His perseverance eventually paid off. By the outbreak of WWI, less than twenty years after gaining office, he was one of the most influential politicians in the country. By the outbreak of WWII, he was the single most important politician in all England. He was also a phenomenal orator, despite a lisp and speech impediment, and a gifted artist (he often used art to escape from massive depression that plagued him for the duration of his life).
It is clear then that Winston Churchill is one of the most accomplished men of our time, and one of the crafters of this time. He was no master of science other than political science. His inventions were his policies that resulted from wisdom and good sense and leadership in times of crises. His great masterpieces were his speeches that captured the hearts of millions of people whom despair had overpowered. Churchill was, in fact, so well-received by the world and by America that he was named the first (of only six all-time and only two during his or her lifetime) Honorary Citizen of the United States of America by a unanimous resolution of both houses of Congress. Furthermore, in a BBC poll to decide the 100 Greatest Britons, he claimed the top slot in a landslide victory. All these are the achievements of an awkward little child with a speech impediment who could not even get into the military on his first try. His enduring legacy is a clear indication of the fact that he will forever be one of the greatest men of all time, a true peer of Leonardo Da Vinci.
When thinking about the question of if there could be a “modern day Da Vinci”, it is probably not something that will just come to you right off the bat. One person that did come into mind however was Bill Gates. Although he did not go far out into different fields of the electronic world, he did provide us with Microsoft, which is now branching off into new and better things. Although Bill Gates did provide us with some of these essential things, there are many other people who can make an argument saying they have done the same as Gates. So simply put, I believe there is no modern day Da Vinci. Da Vinci was an Italian, scientist, mathematician, engineer, inventor, painter, sculptor, architect, musician, and writer. In my opinion, there are few, or no people present day that can say they have accomplished all of this and made a huge impact on people’s lives lie Da Vinci did. Even though it may happen one day in the future, as of right now there is has only been one Leonardo Da Vinci.
While Leonardo Da Vinci was the unquestionable leader in almost every field of study during the Renaissance, in the 20th and 21st centuries many people have vied for the title of “Modern Day Da Vinci.” Few if any have rightfully deserved it because, quite simply, they were only the masters of one or perhaps two fields. Da Vinci was an engineer, artist, anatomist, scientist, writer and philosopher whom few can match in terms of vast scope of knowledge and subject mastery. With that said, I will focus on Da Vinci as a revolutionary man, one who proposed ideas that had not even been dreamt of at the time. Da Vinci took those ideas and made them reality, or at least toyed with the idea of their conceptual possibility. So, while no one can come close to Da Vinci’s prowess as master of several disciplines, I believe that at least one individual can match Da Vinci in terms of having a revolutionary idea and acting on it, and that man is Muhammad Yunus.
Muhammad Yunus is the founder of Grameen Bank, a bank designed to give credit and buying power to the rural poor in third world countries. It’s goals are to eliminate the exploitation of the poor by money lenders; create opportunities for self-employment for the vast multitude of rural poor; and reverse the age-old vicious circle of being born into poverty, staying in poverty, and dying in poverty. It does this by teaching the poor and underprivileged how to use banks, credit, and loans and then supplies the aforementioned poor with banks, credit, and loans. Grameen Bank has been wildly successful, with a 97.72 rate of recovery, a statistic that measures the amount repaid as a percentage of amount due. The average household income of Grameen Bank members is about 50 percent higher than the target group in the control village, and 25 percent higher than the target group non-members in Grameen Bank villages. The landless have benefited most, followed by marginal landowners. There has been a sharp reduction in the number of Grameen Bank members living below the poverty line, 20 percent compared to 56 percent for non-Grameen Bank members. There has also been a shift from agricultural wage labor to self-employment. The idea has been so successful and inspiring that Yunus was awarded the 2006 Nobel Peace Prize in conjunction with Grameen Bank “for their efforts to create economic and social development from below,” as well as the Presidential Medal of Freedom in August of this year.
The achievements of Leonardo Da Vinci are so immense that it would be extremely difficult to match them. Even though there have been many modern day advancements due to the extensive knowledge of many individuals I do not feel any of them can be considered “a modern day Da Vinci”. Just being ahead of your time period can not categorize you as “a modern day Da Vinci”. Da Vinci’s knowledge was not only advanced but widespread as well. He was an artist, inventor, mathematician, scientist, writer and more, and excelled in all these subjects. People today may work with others in different fields in order to develop such knowledge as Da Vinci, while he accomplished all his works alone. Without modern technology he was able to discover information 500 years ahead of his time. His knowledge was so advanced that it is still helping people today with discoveries and expanding their knowledge. In my opinion there is no one today that has the ability to have an impact such as Da Vinci’s which covered a number of different topics.
I doubt that there is any figure who is more of a Renaissance Man/Woman than Da Vinci, although bestowing the title on a select few recent people would not be too outlandish. Without scrolling through the countless entries for “modern Da Vinci” through Google (over six million results, I checked just for the sake of this sentence) I’m going to go with Albert Einstein, final answer. I’m not going to pretend to understand many (any, really) of Einstein’s contributions to science although I know they don’t just give away the Copley Medal of the Royal Society of London, the Franklin Medal of the Franklin Institute, or the Nobel Prize (Da Vinci doesn’t have one of those, does he?). Einstein advised Franklin Delano Roosevelt, opposed Hitler as well as organized religion, and we all know of his Theory of Relativity even if we don’t know what it means. He may not out–Da Vinci Da Vinci, but he comes closer than anyone else.
When thinking about what modern day person could relate to Da Vinci, few people came to mind. However, one person who I believe fits this description almost perfectly is Dr. Ronald Mallet. Although Dr. Mallet does not possess the artistic qualities as Da Vinci had, his way of thinking can relate to Da Vinci’s thoughts and designs. Like Da Vinci, Dr. Ronald Mallet is thinking ahead of his time with the idea of time travel. Da Vinci was always thinking centuries before his time with his blueprints for a giant cross bow, an airplane, and more. Experiments have proven that Da Vinci’s designs are very accurate and resemble high intelligence for the time period. The fact that Professor Mallet is also thinking into the future with his designs for time travel is very impressive. What makes this professor different from others who believe in time travel is that he has devised a system of equations in which time travel can be made possible. He has studied the art of physics along with Einstien’s theories of relativity, time, and space to develop a feasible experiment. His blueprints for the experiment, when put into affect, could prove the accuracy of his equations. If time travel is made possible through his experiment, this discovery will have a huge impact on the world just as Da Vinci had. Dr. Ronald Mallet is a Physics professor at the University of Connecticut. He is currently in the process of developing a time machine primarily based on the laws of physics. Professor Mallet was able to interpret Einstein’s theories of mass, energy, and relativity to develop a few basic equations for time travel. These equations he hopes will break the time barrier allow time travel to be perfected. The physics professor’s interest in time travel developed at the early age of ten after his father’s sudden death. His dream was to be able to travel back in time to save his dad from this tragedy. Based on Einstein’s equations along with his own scientific discoveries and beliefs, Dr. Ronald Mallet believed that a parallel universe exists. With his findings and theories, the professor was able to devise an experiment in which he can make a circulating light beam warp into space by the proper arrangement of mirrors. He hopes to observe that these short lived subatomic particles will have a longer life time. If this is done, the particles have passed the time barrier and flowed into future. It is believed that time is affected by motion. If Dr. Mallet’s experiment runs flawlessly, he will be known as the first person to have made time travel possible. **Dr. Mallet has made his observations and discoveries available to the world through various television segments and publications. One of his most famous publications is “Time Traveler: A Scientist’s Personal Mission to Make Time Travel a Reality”.
In my mind, Leonardo Da Vinci will always be one of the most well-rounded and remarkable individuals in the history of mankind. No one I know envisions the world the he did, so much so that it is difficult to believe that Da Vinci has the same mind workings as Homo sapiens. As many have said, he was a man with a mind well ahead of his time. It has been proven that Da Vinci wrote many journals, filled with all the ideas constantly gushing from his mind, which contained diagrams and designs for machines and thoughts unthinkable to others during his time. Some well known contraptions and ideas are the flying machine and the Vitruvian man. Da Vinci is also known for his masterful paintings, notably the Mona Lisa. What is truly remarkable about this piece is not the fact that it was wonderfully done, but the fact that it has been able to withstand the test of time. In a documentary on this piece I learned that the method in which Da Vinci painted the Mona Lisa allowed it to not crack violently as other old pieces do, as well as prevent outrageous discoloration. When scientists “rewinded” the clock to see what the original Mona Lisa might have looked like, they found very little difference from the first few days of its creation and its appearance today. Other works include the Last Supper and Madonna on the Rocks (also known as The Virgin of the Rocks) Having said this, I do not think there is one person who can be considered a modern day Da Vinci. Now-a-days in order to master any one subject it takes at least one-quarter of a life time. Right away, this eliminates many who might have seemed eligible for the title “Modern Day Da Vinci”. For those who are left, it is highly unlikely that they would be able to master as many different fields of study as Leonardo did. He was masterful in the fields of the human body, engineering, literature, philosophy, art, as well as many others. Though this reason may seem like it may be the only one, there is another that I can think of. Today there are many distractions from life that can contribute to a narrowing of the mind. In America capitalism has created greedy for money, great desire for fame, and a general lacking of civility. As a result, we disregard our natural surroundings, trying to prefect our lives without looking at the fundamental parts of life that allow us to survive; the aspects of nature. In a way one can say humans have forgotten where they were from and have become a scheming and cruel species. This is very different from Da Vinci, who was acutely aware of nature (this can be noted in the creation of his artificial heart/ the diagrams for this idea.) Even environmentalists and those who study nature cannot compare because even though they claim that nature is the most important part of their lives, they are unable to look at it from all angles and develop the passiveness (by passive I mean a lack of attachment to what is being observed, but not so much that it seems inhumane) toward Earth the Leonardo did, which I believe truly allowed his mind to turn the way it did. Though there are many other reasons that can be covered to explain how a modern day Da Vinci is highly unlikely to appear, I think that the most important and noteworthy are those that I mentioned; no one can possibly achieve the level of genius in so many areas of the arts and sciences as Da Vinci did and today’s society has narrowed the minds of humans to a degree where a passive person is impossible to find.
To the best of my knowledge there isn’t really a strong case for an individual who possesses as well-rounded an intellect as Leonardo Da Vinci. The most astonishing aspect of Da Vinci was that he had mastered not one, but many fields of study. Thousands of people have devoted the majority of their lives studying a single field, such as science, and yet, haven’t reached the level of mastery Da Vinci had. This is especially impressive because Da Vinci was a master in several fields. Da Vinci has made designs for the first parachute, the first helicopter, and the first aero plane. He also painted the world famous Mona Lisa and The Last Supper. Da Vinci was a scientist, musician, inventor, artist, and a mathematician. Just because someone is successful in one field of study, doesn’t guarantee they will be successful in all other fields of study. To put this into perspective, imagine if there was a professional athlete who was a top player in the National Football League, the National Hockey League, and Major League Baseball! Clearly, being a master at so many different fields, as Da Vinci was, is truly remarkable.
Although there is no individual that seems to be a modern day Da Vinci, that does not mean that years from now someone could be viewed as an equal to the astonishing Da Vinci. It is possible that decades from now a long-lost blueprint could be discovered for something advanced, like a working time machine. After further investigation, the creator of said blue print could be viewed as a genius years and years ahead of his time in more than one field. However, if such a person exists he or she has not yet been recognized. Perhaps the next Da Vinci will emerge soon with technology centuries ahead of his or her time, we will have to wait and see what the future has in store for us.
When asked the question “is there a modern day Da Vinci?” I have to answer “no.” Leonardo Da Vinci was not only the original “Renaissance Man” but also the best example that history has ever provided. His expertise spanned multiple sections of art, science, and engineering. There is no one like this today. In the modern world, the leading minds of any field tend to be exclusively focused on only one. It can be argued that in the modern world there is so much knowledge to be acquired in any field that one could not be a true expert in more than one. Even if I were to narrow my view to just one of his fields, I would still have difficulty thinking of a suitable person. For example, as an artist Da Vinci excelled at both painting and drawing. In modern times, most artists focus on one medium. Though use of multiple media is not unheard of, it is uncommon. His broad spectrum of studies was even vaster as a scientist and engineer. He worked in engineering, architecture, anatomy, astronomy, zoology, geography, geology, and paleontology. There is no one in modern day that can come close to claiming expertise in so many fields. This, I think, is partly due to Da Vinci’s incredible intellect and partly due to the fact that so much more is known in such fields and so much more needs to be learned before one can be called “an expert.” Inn the field of engineering alone Da Vinci excelled in far more subsections of the field than modern engineers could ever hope to achieve. The other reason why there is no modern Da Vinci is that not only were his ideas centuries ahead of his time, but the details of those plans were equally advanced. Today we have physicists who speculate about such futuristic technology as faster-than-light travel, particle weapons, sentient computers, and antimatter as an energy source. As advanced as these theories are, scientists are currently at a loss to devise a way to make such dreams into reality. Like Da Vinci, they know why their machines will work, but unlike Da Vinci, they have no idea how to build such machines. Da Vinci knew exactly how to build the machines about which he theorized; his detailed technical drawings are some of his most famous works. Unlike engineers today who have no idea how to build a warp drive engine, Da Vinci’s only limitation was the lack of suitable and sufficient materials with which to build his machines. Da Vinci was a spectacular individual, and while there are spectacular individuals today, they cannot hope to compete with the achievements of Leonardo Da Vinci.
Thinking back on Leonardo Da Vinci, I am still always amazed by the numerous advancements he was capable of introducing to our world. Whether it was in terms of science, math, or the arts, Da Vinci constantly had something new in mind. If that doesn’t tell you enough, Da Vinci was known as the one and only “renaissance man” and today he is still considered the greatest painter of all time. For example, if you were to mention the words Mona Lisa to just about anybody, they would know exactly which painting you were referring to even though it was painted about 500 years ago. In addition, he designed multiple inventions or concepts which are still used in society today. Two of his famous inventions are the 50 foot crossbow and a human flying machine. Although he may not have actually created the actual mechanisms himself, he was the one to draw the original blueprints from which the inventions are based upon. Overall, Da Vinci was extremely talented in diverse ways. Whether it was by means of art, science, or math, Da Vinci influenced and affected almost everyone in one way or another. In terms of a modern day Da Vinci, I personally believe we have yet to experience another renaissance man as himself. Despite this, there have plenty of individuals who have excelled in one particular field. For instance, Bill Gates comes to mind in terms of modern technological inventions. Being the inventor of Microsoft, he is well known throughout the whole world as being extremely successful in that field. When it comes to musicians, I think of Michael Jackson. Known as the “king of pop”, he will be remembered for centuries to come. However, unlike Da Vinci, Michael was gifted solely in the field of performing arts. Similarly, James Watson is highly recognized in the field of science. Overall, people today tend to stick to one particular field and work to perfect a single talent. As a result, although these people will all be remembered for their own discoveries and talents, none of them come close to expressing the numerous levels of talent Da Vinci possessed. In my opinion, to this day no one person has been diversified enough to even compare to the great Leonardo Da Vinci.
While many people in modern day history have greatly attributed to society, I don't think that anyone can be labeled as a modern day DaVinci. I don't think that people can label anyone in the modern world a "DaVinci" because many of the things that made him so brilliant weren't fully realized and appreciated until decades after his death. Another thing that makes DaVinci so unique was the fact that he was the perfect example of the "Renaissance man". Not only did he explore into the areas of science, but also into the areas of art. Today, I don't think there are many, if any at all, who use their creative right side of the brain along with their analytical left brain. Most people today either focus in on the sciences or the arts. I think that the key reason why I can't think of a modern day DaVinci is because he was not only a scientist, engineer, and artist but he was also a futurist and a salesman all in one. He was so ahead of his time in his thinking and I think that those types of people only come around once in a millennium. What I also think is unique about DaVinci was the fact the he was a salesman of himself and his ideas through himself. Wealthy lords would hire him to invent let's say a weapon. They didn't hire the weapon, they hired him. Many of the great salesmen of the modern world sell products, not themselves as the product. This is where I think DaVinci has all scientist, artists, futurists, and engineers beat. DaVinci had all of the qualities that make them unique. The last thing that I think gives DaVinci an edge is the fact that he is lucky. I think that if he was born in a different time period or brought up differently, he wouldn't be the DaVinci that everybody knows as brilliant. There might not have been the available information or resources that he used in construction, or in formulating his ideas. In conclusion, there very well may be a "DaVinci" among us, but currently I don't think there is. After all, some people in DaVinci's time thought that he was nothing more than a intellectual figure and didn't realize the actual impact he had on the world. I think it is too early in modern history to come to any conclusions. To label someone as a "Modern Day DaVinci" would be one of the greatest honor a person could ever receive, but one that should not just be handed out if they don't meet the same standard DaVinci met.
In my opinion, there is no one person in our time that can truly be considered a “modern day DaVinci.” Not only was he an extremely talented artist, but he was also a writer, engineer, scientist, and inventor. Historians still speculate how he possibly could have acquired such extensive knowledge, simply through the method of observation. Many even believed him to be an archetype of what the Renaissance man should encompass.
Although it is hard to imagine that one person’s achievements could ever compare with that of DaVinci’s, there are several accomplished figures of our time, that may be looked upon in a similar light centuries down the road. The person that first comes to my mind is Steve Jobs, the co-founder of Apple Inc. I believe that Steve Jobs will be remembered centuries from now for several reasons. He has invented a world wide phenomenon beginning with the Apple i-pod. He continues to expand their corporation with annual product launches and enhancements of their already existing merchandise.
Today, it is unusual to be in public area, and not see Apple products being used. Some do not realize how many aspects of our lives this new technology has influenced. It has transformed the way we listen to music, navigate, and most notably, how we communicate with each other.
Overall, Steve Jobs has introduced a new form of technology to our generation, which has ultimately changed the way we operate our daily lives.
Of all those who have advanced in any one or more fields, the one who is most readily comparable to Leonardo Da Vinci is author Ayn Rand. Rand was a Russian immigrant author, who first started gaining public attention and praise with her novel The Fountainhead, which was about the alarming loss of individuality post World War I was starting to succumb to. But it was not until her “manifesto”, Atlas Shrugged, that she created a whole movement that to this day still echoes in philosophy classes, as well as popular music (the band Rush’s lyrics are full of quotes and references to Rand). Atlas Shrugged depicted the United States as falling to the more negative aspects of Socialism, and every industry is starting to collapse upon itself, taking down every related or unrelated industry in its descent. Because of this, there are government interventions in every single business in the country, except for those who simply refuse and suddenly vanish from the earth. Although this novel was intended as a satire of President Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s New Deal, it was more realistic to the recent recession. Like Da Vinci, Rand proceeded with what she wanted, and ultimately came out ahead of her time. She described an (arguable) reality that was yet to manifest, and was frighteningly explicit, although partially being unintentional. Much like Da Vinci’s drawing of the heart valve, before modern science was aware that blood circulated throughout the body. Rand showed the world what could happen if not for change, as did Da Vinci, although one was negative and the other was positive, respectively. Although few people have even come close to being in the same kingdom as Da Vinci, Ayn Rand’s combination of philosophy, satire, clairvoyance, and science with Atlas Shrugged is the closest to have come to Leonardo Da Vinci.
Personally, I believe that no one can compare to the great Leonardo Da Vinci. He personified the essence of the Renaissance Age, and even today his knowledge of vast fields including science, math, engineering, philosophy and art is quite simply unparalleled. It astonishes me how he came to conclusions that we today have found to be true. For example, I remember in the video we watched during class he was able to determine how blood circulates in the heart by observing patterns in nature. Doctors who have tested that theory using modern-day technology have found this to be correct. This displays how Da Vinci’s thinking and thought process was centuries ahead of his time. The thing I find most interesting about Da Vinci is that he did not come to these conclusions by complicated processes, he just took in his surroundings and tried to logically explain it using observations he made about the world. However, what makes Da Vinci incomparable is the fact that he was not only the master of one subject, as many people are today, but he had accurate and detailed knowledge about numerous fields. Today, people go to college for many years to just specialize in one field and only study one field for most of his life. He was the first person to illustrate his inventions, and they are still studied today, showing how much he understood mechanics. His anatomical drawings of the human body are stunningly accurate, and his paintings, most famously the Last Supper and Mona Lisa have withstood the test of time and are considered some of the finest paintings ever. Da Vinci is truly the definition of a well-rounded man.
Although I don’t believe anyone can come close to Da Vinci’s achievements, if I had to choose I would definitely go with another great scientist Albert Einstein. Einstein probably has made the most significant contributions that anyone ever has in the scientific field. He has explained and formed countless of legitimate theories and equations. His contributions were so momentous that he won the Nobel Peace Prize for Physics, and his name has become almost synonymous for the word genius. Although he only did focus on one field, his contributions are so enormous that I consider him to be the closest to Da Vinci that there ever was.
"Is there a modern-day DaVinci?" This question left me searching for an answer that would surprise, that would astound, that would leave everyone agreeing with me. However, upon pondering and thinking about many different people, I was left with a simple response: No. Leonardo DaVinci was almost like a jack-of-all-trades, but excellent at each and every trade he partook in. His paintings, such as the powerful "Last Supper" and incredible "Mona Lisa" were works of greatness. Not only was he an artist, though, he was an engineer, an inventor, a mathematician, a sculptor, an architect. All of his work is revered and admired, even today.
Although I do not think that there is anyone like DaVinci, I do believe that it is possible to come close. One man I thought of is Steve Jobs, co-founder of Apple, Inc. He created one of the most successful companies in history, which is ridiculously diverse, selling iPods to iMacs to iPhones. Especially forward, in my opinion, was the invention of the iMac. Although he didn't come up with anything in the company on his one, making him inferior to the "Renaissance Man," he headed the company that came up with the idea of making a computer that was a part of the desktop. He is CEO of the company that allows music players to take video, shuffle songs with a simple shake, and call people using the touch, not tap, of the finger.
Though Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak founded a company far ahead of its time in my opinion, I do not think that they will be looked upon in the same light in a few hundred years as DaVinci is today. Sure, Jobs started a groundbreaking multimillion dollar corporation, but it is much more simplistic that the work of DaVinci. Jobs only worked with a company centered around technology and design; DaVinci was advanced in a broad spectrum of things.
In conclusion, Leonardo DaVinci cannot be compared closely with anyone - yet. Only time, though, will tell.
It is very difficult to label someone as a modern Da Vinci. Leonardo was unquestionably a genius centuries beyond his own time. Therefore, it is difficult to find someone in our own time that is as advanced as he was because we do not know what is to come in the future. More importantly, Da Vinci was a master of many fields. Not only was he a talented artist, but he was also a brilliant inventor, anatomist, mathematician, and much more. Most professionals in our world today have narrowed down their studies to only one subject, and why they are undoubtedly brilliant, they cannot be compared to Leonardo who was disciplined in a broad category of skills.
However, if I was to pick one person of our age that I thought represented a modern Leonardo da Vinci, I would choose Johnny Depp. Although this choice may seem unthoughtful at first, I think that he is one of the closest examples as a modern Leonardo. Of course, Depp is most famously known for his acting career. There is no doubt that he is a brilliant actor, but this is not his only talent. Although most people may not know, he is also a musician, winemaker, and artist. Johnny Depp recorded a solo album and has also been featured in the soundtrack of several movies. He also owns his own vineyard where he grows his own grapes. Finally, although few people knew, he is also a successful portrait artist. So although Johnny Depp is obviously not the genius that Leonardo da Vinci was, he shows the same characteristics. Da Vinci is thought to be the quintessential Renaissance man because he was multi-talented, much like Johnny Depp. While it is not difficult to find brilliant scientists and master painters, it is most certainly difficult to pinpoint a man who is talented in many different fields.
It is hard to say that anybody in modern time can even compare to Da Vinci. Da Vinci was a very talented man with a great mind. He was an artist, an inventor, a scientist, and several other things. He was talented at everything, there was pretty much nothing he couldn't do. I can't think of anybody who is as smart as Da Vinci was and think it would be extremely hard for anyone to come close to it. Another aspect that makes Da Vinci so unique is his background and environmental surrounding as a child. Growing up with his father, Da vinci was completely surrounded by text books of all different catagories, he was able to read about all different things which helped expose his mind to different subjects and give him a broader view on life. At age fifteen Da Vinci's father apprenticed him with an artist and then, even as an apprentice, he was able to demonstrate his talent of painting and sculpting. It was quite evident that Da Vinci was much better than his masters. In this conclusion, it is hard to compare Da Vinci to anybody because he was so great and so talented a person.
Da Vinci has been deemed a “Renaissance man.” The problem with comparing da Vinci as such to a modern day figure, and trying to find a “Renaissance man (or women)” in them, is that the definition of this word has a different meaning in its historical context than in its modern context. Even though da Vinci lived in a new age of enlightenment, his world was still far more limited than ours is today. There simply was much more knowledge to discover than there already was to learn. This, perhaps, is one of the main reasons why, even though he is considered a genius, da Vinci was able to become a master at so many different topics and areas of study than anybody is able to today. This is why, today, the definition of a Renaissance man is that of a person who “by long study has gained mastery in one or more disciplines,” and the definition of a Renaissance man from the Renaissance is someone who “could know almost everything about many topics.” In his day, da Vinci was already marked as a figure above the ordinary. Rising above and beyond his contemporaries, he traveled the path which labeled him as a master of the arts, architecture, oceanography and aerodynamics. Much of this was due to his careful observations of nature, to which he applied his wealth of knowledge. Recognized always as a remarkable painter, especially for works such as the Mona Lisa and the Last Supper, he also is now remembered as the inventor of many breath-taking (both for their beauty and usage) inventions, such as his idea for a flying machine. This machine was so advanced for his time that it would not even be attempted for over 500 years. Today in the 21st century, our life is much faster paced in general than da Vinci’s was during the 15th century. A modern day da Vinci would have to have just as a great impact on our society today, and the society in years to come, than da Vinci’s had on his own. Such a person would have to have such a wealth of knowledge that it must take more than one lifetime to learn all this. Today, to become a true master of a subject, it is assumed that one will dedicate a lifetime to it. Therefore, it seems impossible to become a master of everything anymore, and as such there cannot be a modern day da Vinci.
In today’s society I do not believe that anyone can come close to the many achievements of Leonardo Da Vinci. He had over 30,000 different papers of advanced studies on topics such as astronomy, anatomy, and many others. He was an artist, scientist, and an inventor all in one and in today’s society I can not think of anyone who has even accomplished as much as Da Vinci has in just one of those fields much less all three.
In the video Leonardo Dream Machine Da Vinci was proved to be ahead of his time when his glider set flight and at one point was higher than the Wright brothers’ first flight which came centuries later. Also he made anatomical studies which are still used to this day such as his extremely accurate drawings of the heart valve. He also proved he was ahead of his time with his man and machine philosophy which was seen in his technical drawings of robots, also seen centuries later. This list of achievements can go on for many more pages, but it’s obvious that a great mind like Da Vinci’s only comes around once and I believe no one can come close to matching his genius.
To choose a Leonardo De Vinci of our time is a very difficult thing to do. It would be a great honor to be considered a man or women who is centuries ahead of their time like De Vinci was. He was scientist, mathematician, engineer, inventor, anatomist, painter, sculptor, architect, and writer. His life was amazing and unparrelled, but a name does come to mind when thinking of one as brillant as he. This name is none other then Stephen Hawking a world renowed physicist. His main contributions are in the fields of cosmology and quantum gravity, especailly his work with black holes. Stephen has a Presidential Medal of Freedom(the highest civilian award in the U.S). He also is a Honorary Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts, and a lifetime member of the Pontifical Academy of Science. Hawkings advances in physics are very impresive, but he only excels in one field. He is not an equal to Leonardo De Vinci, whose works on many different fields of study are still being used and admired today. From his breathtakeing paintings like “The Virgin of The Rocks” to his ingenious machines of war. Hawkings cant hold a candle when compared to the great Leonardo, but he is the closet mind we have when compared to that of the master.
Unquestionably, Leonardo da Vinci was one of the most influential people of all time. His unquenchable curiosity and obsessive observation of nature led him to make many important contributions in wildly different fields. His theories in the fields of engineering and science were so ahead of their time that some wouldn’t be realized until centuries later; he theorized flying machines and submarines, for instance. His artwork is also some of the most iconic of the Renaissance; one of his most famous works is the The Last Supper. To be crowned a modern day da Vinci would mean being acknowledged as a master of several completely different areas of study. One would have to make significant contributions in a variety of scientific and artistic disciplines.
By this definition, I believe that there is not a person from our lifetime in that will be regarded a modern da Vinci, for the reason that the modern sciences are too fragmented and take too many resources to conduct research in to imagine any one person making contributions as varied or comparable in impact as da Vinci’s in one lifetime. If a person were to somehow make important breakthroughs in more than one scientific field, they wouldn’t have time to create artistic works like da Vinci did.
Fields in science and engineering are so diverse and complex that it’s hard to imagine making any contribution to a discipline at all without a college degree; most likely, to be doing important, grant-funded research, one would need a Ph.D. This is because in order to conduct any research that could possibly be as innovative as da Vinci’s, one must utilize million-dollar lab equipment that only large corporations or universities can afford. These corporations and universities will not waste resources allowing an average person to explore personal curiosities. Thus, in order to be able to utilize this equipment, one must have a Ph.D. or similar degree. Ph.D.’s are incredibly specialized; a glance over MIT’s website shows that grad students can participate in research in fields as varied and specific as Genetic Toxicology, Cellular and Molecular Neuroscience, Geoenvironmental Instrumentation, and Chemical Oceanography, to name a few. Furthermore, in order to just be allowed to do research, one would have to spend many years just earning their degree in one of these fields. It would be impossible to make significant contributions to any of these fields alone without years upon years of study and experience. To make significant contributions in more than one scientific field would take a lifetime if one were lucky. Perhaps in da Vinci’s time, merely observing nature using simple instruments was enough to come to such revolutionary conclusions. Not today.
Even if one somehow managed to make many important contributions to different fields of science and engineering, he or she would probably not be able to also contribute worthwhile art pieces. It’s not easy to imagine a Nobel Prize winning physicist who also made important contributions to biology spending his or her free time painting the next Last Supper.
Because important contributions to science today are primarily made with extremely expensive equipment used by Ph.D.s, and extremely important pieces of art were made by people who devoted their whole lives to their work, it doesn’t seem possible that someone from our lifetime will be regarded as the next Leonardo da Vinci.
Leonardo da Vinci was a man of many talents, many passions, and of many mysteries. In my opinion, Da Vinci set a precedent that has yet to be fully satisfied by someone else. Centuries down the road I doubt there will be anyone capable of standing out as Da Vinci has . What sets Da Vinci apart from modern day scholars, engineers, and artists is the fact that he was the quintessential example of a polymath. He was incredibly knowledgeable in fields from anatomy to astronomy, painting to engineering and so on. He was a revolutionary in the sense that he conceptualized many ideas, and as a result, allowed others to turn those ideas into realities further down the road. If there is one person of our time who could be looked at in the same light as Da Vinci, that person is Bill Gates. Bill Gates has been at the fore front of technological progression over the past few decades. His work has been groundbreaking and tremendously influential in the world. Gates's work was and still is a huge factor in how technology has been integrated into our every day lives. Aside from his work in technology, Bill Gates has also become the "archetype" of a true philanthropist. His work in philanthropy has been almost as influential as his work in technology. He has started a movement in philanthropy in that many of the world's wealthiest people are themselves getting involved with. In conclusion, Leonardo da Vinci was in many ways his own breed. His extraordinary and unsurpassed talents have set him apart from other men for centuries in the past, and in all likelihood, centuries to come.
Plain and simple, no. I don't think that there is a person today who can be singled out and placed on the same level as da Vinci. He was a man who mastered practically anything he wanted. He was an expert painter, sculptor, architect, inventor, anatomist, scientist, mathematician, observer... the list goes on and on. There isn't a single person today that i can think of that has become a distinguished member of any number of fields as great as da Vinci. Most people working in similar areas as him dedicate their entire lives to their fields of study and never gain major recognition, let alone anything near what has been achieved by da Vinci.
However, I do feel that there are plenty of people today and in the future who will be remembered long after they have passed, as da Vinci has. The person who cures cancer, solves world hunger, ends poverty, or creates world peace will be able to comfortably sit on a pedestal next to the great da Vinci.
He isn't just a man who was years ahead of his peers, he is a representation of a time period to be remembered in history forever. One couldn't try to explain what the Renaissance was without mentioning Da Vinci and some of his many works. To be remembered as long as he has, one must have such a great impact that they not only affect the people of their time, but also the people of tomorrow. Da Vinci's Mona Lisa is stilled visited everyday by thousands of people so they can all wonder, what was his motivation? why doesn't she have eyebrows? etc. etc. If someone's work has the ability to endure the centuries as da Vinci's has, then I hope that I have the luck to be impacted by it in my lifetime so I can say I saw a modern day da Vinci.
After spending some time learning about Leonardo da Vinci in class and at home in chapter 12 has definitely sparked my interest concerning him and his ideas. I have always known that he was one of the greatest painters during the Renaissance era along with the Mona Lisa and the Last Supper being some of his finest paintings. However after watching the da Vinci Code in class I learned so much more about him, his craft, and his lifestyle, which was dictated by nature and natural factors. Additionally, nature had an ample presence in his painting, in fact he even dissected human bodies to see more clearly how nature really worked. I also learned that many of his philosophies and volumes clashed with the Catholic Church because they were too worldly and did not conform to the moral standards of the day, for instance he wanted to create a human machine. I was astounded by how devoted he was to learning about how body functions, and especially the heart. He made significant medical and technological breakthroughs, for instance he found out that blood circulates throughout the entire body, his meticulously detailed and accurate diagrams of the human anatomical structures that doctors still follow today, and how he was the first to incorporate man and nature to provide solutions for daily issues. What enlightened me the most was his profound work on the study of flight, which was solely inspired by birds and bats or nature. It proved to be greatly accurate in fact going back to the in class video I was amazed by how the modern day engineers precisely recreated a glider designed by da Vinci himself centuries ago while staying faithful to the original design and received inspiring results that proved da Vinci truly understood the elements of flight and whether he was actually the first one to fly, which raises the question, if the Wright brothers were really the ones first to experience flight. Therefore, I thought da Vinci was extremely sophisticated for his time, especially since he did not have access to the advanced technology that we have today. He work still resonates in modern day and I am sure he has inspired countless people over time. Unfortunately, it is a shame that most of his work had been lost or destroyed and that we only have access to approximately ten percent of the 100,000 volumes he left behind. Just imagine how much more we could have learned about him, his innovations and the certain topics that he ardently researched. Thus, I believe that no one during our time can actually top da Vinci. He really went out of his way, worked in secret, and faced ample controversy for his modern ideas and perceptions. As a result, he has definitely proven to be one of the greatest people that ever lived.
I do not believe that there is a current day Leonardo da Vinci because he really was ahead of his time. Da Vinci was a scientist, mathematician, sculptor, architect, musician, writer, and an engineer. There really is no one who I can think of that is all of those, in this current day. He was often described as an archetype of the Renaissance. An archetype is a model or a prime example. He was also seen as one of the greatest painters of all time. Some of his works include The Last Supper, the Mona Lisa, and the Vitruvian man. However, one man was described as the “Russian Leonardo da Vinci.” Pobisk Kuznetsov is he name. He is famous in the science field for his new concept of the phenomenon of life which led to a critique of the entropy theory. Entropy is a theoretical concept applied in physics and mathematics. Kuznetsov’s works in the biophotonics and biochemistry fields led to a new approach to biology problems, such as the problem of aging. He also created new hypotheses about the origin of language and elements in human mental processes. Kuznetsov is a current day da Vinci in the science field, but the real da Vinci was unique because he was a master in all fields, which no one currently is. There are da Vincis in their own fields of work, but not across the whole spectrum. The most interesting of da Vinci's inventions was his flying machine. We watched a documentary on it in class, and it was similar to the Wright brothers' inventions. da Vinci's invention was hundreds of years ahead of his time. There is no one who I can think of that has inventions or ideas that will be popular 400 years from now. Da Vinci is truly unique because his ideas and inventions covers everything.
I do not believe that there is anyone alive today (or recently) that can compare to Leonardo Da Vinci. While there are many highly intelligent people in our time, it has become the unchallenged norm to only master one or two fields. Also if one were to master more than one field, most of the time those fields fall under the same general discipline, or are somehow connected. Like someone could study the history of a certain region and connect it to the evolution of language in that area, or a person could study astronomy and physics. To my knowledge no one in recent history has branched out as much as Da Vinci to study art, engineering, anatomy, philosophy, literature, and science. I believe that this is because it takes not only great intelligence, but also a truly extraordinary mind to be open to all of these different fields. We say that some people’s brains are wired for writing, some are wired for math, some for art, some for science, etc. but Da Vinci’s mind was wired for all of them. I simply do not believe that exists in the world today. Also Da Vinci truly was centuries ahead of his time. Looking at his technical drawings (a type of drawing he developed) we see amazing things. He thought of making the leading edge of a wing wider than the back to aid lift, and the even the Wright Brothers didn’t think of that. By looking at the currents in a stream he figured out how blood moved through the heart, and designed a model almost exactly like the ones we have today. This introduces my next point. Da Vinci had the sense to look around him. He studied nature, saw how things worked, and applied those findings to his inventions and theories. In today’s society, very few people think to look to nature for inspiration for anything outside of the arts. Da Vinci realized how much nature had to teach us and took advantage of it. Finally what makes Da Vinci undeniably unique, and what proves that there is no Da Vinci in our time, is that he is so well known. You can ask almost anyone in third grade or above and they will at least know him for his most famous work of art the Mona Lisa. Once they hit middle school, most students will know him as an inspired inventor, as well as a great artist. In high school, you can get a glimpse of the full extent of his brilliance. We of course cannot tell what will be remembered in centuries to come, but I doubt that anyone will ever reach the same level of recognition as Leonardo Da Vinci.
Since the European Renaissance, our society has made remarkable leaps forward in all of the areas that the innovator Leonardo Da Vinci first made discoveries. Because of our current knowledge in the fields of anatomy, astrology, aviation, art, biology, literature, philosophy, and others, we are now able to see what many of Da Vinci’s contemporaries failed to; that his observations and discoveries were not only ground-breaking, but centuries ahead of his time. Da Vinci has rightfully earned his reputation as an entirely one-of-a-kind inventor, scientist, and artist. In our modern world of extensive technology and communication, it seems impossible that just one person could be credited with the discovery of anything of the magnitude or diversity of the things that Da Vinci uncovered in his time. It tends to feel like all normal earthly mysteries have been uncovered, leaving nothing left but the extreme questions to be answered. In order to compare someone of today’s society to Da Vinci, it is necessary to alter our expectations. The fact is, a modern Da Vinci would have to be as unexpected and radical as Da Vinci was in his time, and viewed by the public in virtually the same way as he was in his time. Da Vinci was condemned by the church, and only well liked by certain secular leaders for his ideas. This basic outline makes the most sense if we were to find someone like Da Vinci today; essentially, someone who is only vaguely well known, only well liked by a small population, and characterized by original, radical ideas. One individual who comes to mind with these characteristics is author Chuck Palahniuk. His most popular book-turned-movie is Fight Club, which is only one of his many inventive, surprising, and eye-opening novels. Others include Lullaby, Choke, Diary, Invisible Monsters, and Survivor. Although he does not branch into many fields or invent, from both a literary and a philosophical standpoint, Palahniuk is about as unexpected and radical as Da Vinci may have been seen in his time. Palahniuk’s novel structure and syntax are extremely original, and rarely follow traditional methods. Basic character, setting, and plot rules seem to not apply. Characters in his books are flawed, disillusioned, and entirely individualistic… perhaps a reflection of our future society. Furthermore, the concepts and observations that Palahniuk weaves into his story lines are unique, to say the least; and seem to reflect a possibly futuristic set of morals and ideals. His concepts of society, human nature, life after death, and are all woven into his books with a clever combination of humor and irony. So, maybe as our society progresses, a Da Vinci may not be seen as an inventor or observer of tangible things, but of ideas and conceptions.
I don't think that are any modern day daVincis, as people's skills are too specialized. daVinci is thought about about the way he is now because he excelled and made huge strides in so many different fields, instead of just in one field. He was an expert scientist, figuring out many things about nature, one of histories great inventors, and a master artist. Nowadays there are probably people who would have the ability to do the things that he did, he wasn't anything superhuman so that kind of intelligence and creativity is ever present in select humans. However, people now are encouraged to specialize in one subject, because of college majors and etc. instead of them having a broad field of study, like was encouraged during the Renaissance. This may not be a bad thing, because it benefits society more, as people are more likely to push farther in their field than if they were also focusing on other things. daVinci was actually overwhelmed with all of his interests, and wasn't able to finish a lot of his studies before he died. Specialization makes it so people are more likely too finish their studies, as they are only focusing on that. In conclusion, daVinci is a unique historical figure, only applicable in his time because of the lack of specialization. There is no modern daVinci.
To say that Leonardo Da Vinci was a highly skilled and intelligent person would be a total understatement. Da Vinci excelled in every single subject that he studied and was by far, the most brilliant person of his time. It can even be argued that his mind’s capacity and acumen are up to modern day standards when he lived back in the 15th and 16th century. What really differentiates him apart from other people like him is the test of time. His inventions and creations were far beyond his time and were extremely rare. No one else understood what he had clearly been able to not only comprehend but to accomplish. Some of his inventions, such as the massive crossbow and the flying machine are still being tested and used today, thousands of years down the road. Some of his ideas and designs have also sparked new technological advances in the modern world. He was also skilled in a wide range of subjects such as astrology, art, biology, architecture, and civil engineering. Thus, I believe it is safe to say that nobody in the modern time can reach his level of expertise and knowledge. However, there one person that I feel comes close to Leonardo Da Vinci’s height of talent and that is Bill Gates. Of course he does not have as wide a range of capability, but his one remarkable and true specialty is computer software. The invention of his software was a great leap in his field and changed the course of computers for the better. His company, Microsoft, has made it possible for most all people to be able to enjoy and use computers to its full extent. Also, his love and commitment for software and computers made his technological advances revolutionary. Millions of people everyday are taking advantage of his aptitude for what he does by using what he has created for a great variety of things. Just like Leonardo Da Vinci, his effort in producing such a product will withstand the test of time. He will always be remembered for bettering the computer world and with providing us with the basis of a software that can only be improved.
I do not believe there are modern day Da Vincis in such a specialized society as that of today's. It is difficult to pin a name on a contemporary polymath that exemplifies the breadth and depth of Da Vinci's intelligence as exhibited by his artistic expression, inventive genius, and natural curiosity in all fields. Today's structured education system now emphasizes the development of a major or specialization, an approach which is very different from the more loosely structured systems of the Renaissance in which artists commonly studied several fields at one time (as in the term "Renaissance Man"), and in which humanism emphasized knowledge of several disciplines as in the liberal arts.
One reason this does not exist today may simply be that there is much more material to learn; in order to make advancements in a field, one must learn much of existing discoveries, making it difficult to pursue a variety of specialties at once with such adeptness as Da Vinci did during the Renaissance, when many questions about the way the universe worked were still in question.
To say that polymaths do not exist in today's society, however, is also invalid. Scientists, thinkers, revolutionaries - the people who change our world today rarely demonstrate talents in only one field. One name that comes immediately to mind is that of Richard Feynman, who is best known as a world-class physicist and Nobel Laureate. Feynman was a member of the Manhattan Project, but nursed inhibitions about the atomic age after the bombs he helped create were dropped on civilians in Japan. Throughout his life, he pioneered new applications and technologies such as quantum computing and nanotechnology. He was also a member of the Rogers Commission which investigated the Challenger disaster. During this time he undertook an experiment with the effects of cold temperature on O-Rings, which was the eventually the discovered cause of the explosion. As a result of this experience, he began to develop the stance that the government, in their idealism for space missions, had begun to convey unrealistic, fantastical estimates of success, and continued to warn of the dangers of this in lectures such as that published in "The Meaning of It All: Thoughts of a Citizen Scientist".
However, outside of physics, Feynman also displayed a serious interest in varied pursuits such as biology, lockpicking, percussion (while teaching students in Brazil, he learned how to play samba music on the bongos, quite well allegedly), and painting. His lectures (which are on both physics and commentary on politics) and books (which describe his life) are still widely distributed today. However, it must be noted that many of these pursuits were later discarded or never came to true fruition, as much of Feynman's time and talent was concentrated of his true love, physics.
Throughout modern history, there have been thousands, if not millions, out there like Feynman, who demonstrate talent and intelligence in a variety of ways. However, due to the rapid expansion of knowledge and the modern difficulty of attaining a expert-level grasp of fields, it is difficult to find even one who demonstrates deep knowledge and talent for several separate fields, as the quintessential Renaissance Man, da Vinci, did. Perhaps it should be considered anachronistic to refer to modern-day Renaissance Men, as increasingly the idea of a generalist such as Da Vinci becomes harder to attain, and leads instead to misguided attempts to become a jack of all trades (but more commonly, a master of none).
Leonardo Da Vinci not only was an amazing inventor and scientist he was much more. He was an artist, sculptor, mathematician, engineer, architect, astronomer and a real “Renaissance Man” many centuries ahead of his time. He was able to identify the way blood flows through the heart, which was not discovered until the late 20th century. He even made designs to create an artificial heart and an artificial man. His greatest aspiration flight was also very advanced for he designed a glider featuring an air foil, something not actually created until WWI. His painting, the Mona Lisa still remains one of the greatest works of art to date and was one of the first artists to use atmospheric perspective in his landscape backgrounds. The list of Da Vinci’s achievements and successes could go on and on, but could the genius that is Leonardo Da Vinci ever be recreated. Will there or could there ever be another Da Vinci? Although there are some great genius’s of modern day I don’t think they can match the work of Da Vinci. Not only were Da Vinci’s achievements in each field astounding, but it was that he was able to make so many contributions to so many fields that made him truly remarkable. In this day and age I don’t think that someone like Da Vinci could truly exist. During the Renaissance there was not so much of a focus to find a certain career, people like Da Vinci were able to study and experiment in several different fields. In today’s society people work and study more as a job not just to learn more, as Da Vinci did. While Da Vinci was hired to develop weapons or do a painting he there wasn’t as much of set careers. He had time to study and develop his ideas in whatever area’s he chose. This is not as much possible today. Also today the scientific field is much greater so pinpointing one main leader would be very difficult when so much work is being done. Also many discoveries are made in teams and by several people, which increases this difficulty. Thus there really will never be another true Da Vinci. After researching there are some people who do show great aptitude in many fields and could be considered kind of like a modern day Da Vinci. One of these examples is Santiago Calatrava an artist, engineer, and architect. Like Da Vinci he combined his vast knowledge to create biomorphic bridges and buildings, such as the Milwaukee Art Museum, which features a wing-like sunscreen that opens and closes over the glass reception hall. Another example of a modern Da Vinci could be Alan Bodner who is working on who is working on creating a new sort of underwater breathing apparatus. Like Da Vinci Bodner has taken inspiration from nature as he is trying to create a system to extract the oxygen dissolved in water as fish do. The team of Soo-in Yang and David Benjamin have also been inspired by aquatic animals. They have been working on creating a window that when activated by high-levels of carbon dioxide in a room will allow oxygen to pass into the room through gill-like splits and after the morphing plastic will regain its original shape. James DeLaurier, an aerospace engineer, could also be an example. He is currently working on a project to create a full scale ornithopter, which is a flying machine that mimics that flying patterns of a bird. The machine is 780 pounds and has a 41 foot wingspan; it is set to fly later this year. Da Vinci’s greatest obsession was flight and in his own designs he tried to copy the idea of how birds fly. While these men and women may not be truly modern Da Vinci’s as the number of contributions and vastness of fields they work in don’t come close to his as no one’s really can they are extremely gifted individuals. They have kept on work similar to Da Vinci’s like his use of nature in designs and combinations of science, engineering, and art to create his amazing achievements, which makes them great followers of Da Vinci and modern versions of him.
I believe the incredible mind of Leonardo da Vinci is something the world will most likely never see again. His revolutionary concepts such as his invention of technical drawings, and the way he was able to pick apart nature into the most finite details, created foundations which modern science is still building off of today. For example his experiment to find how the aortic valve of a human heart functions, was used as a bases over 500 years later by modern biologists. When I say I don’t believe in the existence of a modern day da Vinci, I’m not eluding to any conclusion that this era doesn’t have its share of brilliant minds. Steven Hawking, Bill Gates, and Steve Wosniak, are all extremely intelligent, but I don’t think that in hundreds of years that they will be looked at the same way Leonardo is today. Da Vinci’s ideas were too far ahead of their time then the ones of these modern day genius’s. The mind of Leonardo da Vinci is something that simply hasn’t been matched yet.
Leonardo Da Vinci was one of the most brilliant and incredible men of all time. The thoughts that he put forth in art, science, mathematics, aviation and medicine just to name a few are so immense and revolutionary that they still form some of the core ideas of modern day thinking. To be able to become a master of some many fields some of them that seem so obscurely non-related is so astounding that it is a feat that I believe can never be matched. Especially with so much knowledge that has been gathered over the centuries since in these fields. Nowadays to be come a master in a specific field takes a life’s devotion and to be a master in so many fields and then put forth a plethora innovative ideas would be an accomplishment so outrageous that it simply can’t be done. A person may be able to do this in one field and be remembered but to have one person’s ideas form the core of thinking for variety of fields for centuries would take divine like talent that was possessed by only Da Vinci.
I highly doubt that there is a modern day Da Vinci. I believe Leonardo Da Vinci was truly a one of a kind man. Da Vinci was remarkably talented; from an artist, scientist, to a mathematician, and so forth. His achievements were so great that it would probably be impossible to match them. I feel that in Leonardo Da Vinci’s time, it was only possible for him to exist or become such an excelled person, given that unlike today, there were not as many technologies and advances available to him. Subsequently, he had to work alone and harder to find the explanations or reasoning to many things. Only what surrounded him and nature allowed for him to come up with immense logics. However, in today’s world, there are countless amounts of knowledge from the past and present that we can obtain, so it would rather be secondary talent rather than primary if one came as close to Da Vinci, since he previously accomplished those talents. Furthermore, this blog response has made me ponder if in today’s world, Could there or Would there be a person just as equivalent to Leonardo Da Vinci? The world today is shifting at such a rapid rate that it would be impractical to become a modern day Da Vinci. In other words, who would take the time, as did Da Vinci, to go so deeply into painting religious paintings or inventing a flying machine? People today are instead worrying about Global Warming and the worsening of the economy. Therefore, in my opinion, Leonardo Da Vinci was quite a spectacular individual and there is not one person that could compare to his prominence.
The problem with deciding on a modern day Da Vinci is that much of Leonardo Da Vinci’s acclaim came many centuries after he had died. While it is true that he was extremely famous for his talent and inventiveness while he was alive, this is true of other men of his day. What sets Da Vinci apart was how truly advanced he was for his time- something that has not been discovered until recently. Leonardo Da Vinci invented workable flying machines centuries before the Wright brothers. He designed weapons, such as his crossbow catapult, that are more effective then their modern counterparts. He figured out how our heart worked without ever looking at a living one. These accomplishments are remarkable, yet they were not even known about in his time. While Leonardo Da Vinci’s art was extremely sought after when he lived, the information in his private journals were private. Some of them were even destroyed after he died, truly showing how some in the Renaissance had no idea how amazing he was. To find someone of our time who is like Da Vinci? We’d have to wait decades, possibly even centuries, to find out if their private sketches are the workings of a master.
Another complication in finding a modern day Da Vinci comes from a cultural difference between the Renaissance and today. Now we have television, movies, and the Internet, modern celebrities are nothing like what they were in Da Vinci’s day. The people who are studied are not done so because they have incredible minds, but because of how they look. The skills that are valued today are also different, being a ‘Renaissance man’ now means you can sing, dance, and act. Those in the intellectual world also tend to mainly focus on one subject, PhDs do take 5-7 years to receive, and because our culture emphasizes education, with good reason, without training in academia it is very hard to be taken seriously. All of these factors contribute to the immense difficulty of finding a modern Da Vinci, so I believe that the only possible way to ever find one is to wait until their true genius is revealed, most likely many years in the future.
Beyond doubt, Leonardo Da Vinci was one of the greatest masterminds of all time. Many of his inventions were decades, even centuries ahead of his time. To this day, people are still discovering new things about Da Vinci’s work and then applying these innovations to help improve our life. Whether it was by means of art, science, or math, Da Vinci has influenced everyone in the world in some way. Centuries after his death, people still refer to Da Vinci as almost a demy-god, who possessed unnatural wit power and could invent machines that were centuries ahead of its time. Such a figure has yet to appear in history that can be labeled as a “Modern Day Da Vinci”.
Even though no one person can be labeled as the ‘Modern Da Vinci”, there are some people who have affected our lives greatly. One such person, who comes into mind, is Bill Gates. It is mainly thanks to Bill Gate’s company - Microsoft - that people all around the world have a personal computer at their homes. Without these computers many people all over the world would be completely lost in their daily life. Bill Gates influence has mostly been on the technological field, unlike Da Vinci, who influenced the fields of science, art, sculpture and warfare. Even though Bill Gates has influenced our lives greatly, he has not had as much of an impact as Da Vinci. Only the future can tell us if such a man as Da Vinci will ever some into existence.
AnnMarie Augusto AP European History Mr. Kirby 18 September 2009
Leonardo Da Vinci was a man of inexplicable intelligence and modesty during the sixteenth century. He has been known as a voracious and artistic individual who acquired a fantastic power of invention and development. The continued high regard toward Da Vinci from other mathematicians, scientists, artists, and historians is inconceivable. Although not understood by others at the time, Da Vinci drew countless sketches of new techniques and ideas he came up with. He is credited with coming up and drawing numerous creations such as; a single span bridge, flying machines, hang gliders, helicopters, bows, and his curiosity about the heart valve. Da Vinci has also portrayed his inquisitiveness about the world around him by painting several pictures including, “The Mona Lisa,” “The Last Supper,” and “The Virgin on the Rocks.” Da Vinci is well known for his broad array of aptitude in copious fields of study. After reading about Leonardo Da Vinci in Spielvogel, and watching a film dedicated to him, I have realized how much of an impact he has made on the society we live in today. Without knowing, Da Vinci was shaping the future of the world as he critically thought up his sketches and how everything was to work correctly. I do not believe one can pin point a specific person that could possibly have such an assortment of interests and talents as Da Vinci had. As we enter college, we decide on a major; what we want to do for our career when we get out of high school. As people are growing and expanding their knowledge in an educational environment, they are deciding on what they are good at, and what they feel they can pursue as a lifelong career. It is almost impossible today to not just focus on one, but over ten specific professions. Da Vinci was a one-of-a-kind genius that cannot be compared to. It is obscurely false to declare that there are not people that are incredibly smart that have the potential to change the world. Steve Wozniak and Steve Jobs created an enormous monopoly that altered the way people live their life. As the inventors of the Apple Computer, they have changed peoples’ priorities in life as well as made it more convenient and comfortable to live. Da Vinci also revealed these characteristics when he helped mankind understand the heart valve and provided a start on how people could visit other countries in the future by commencing the idea of flying. Although Da Vinci and Wozniak have some common goals, they are exceptionally different. Wozniak only focused on science. As a little boy, he was driven in mathematics and science and viewed it as a puzzle in life to solve. Unlike Wozniak, de Vinci was gifted in all areas of study and therefore was able to contribute an idea from each of his subjects. Only time can tell what the future holds for us. One can not say whether there is or is not someone out there who is secretly coming up with new inventions that will surface in the future like Da Vinci, or if someone famous will make an everlasting impression due to their remarkable works. Da Vinci is a legend that no one can measure up to because of his vast array of knowledge and astounding success in all areas of study.
Printed in the late 1490s, the Last Supper vividly depicted the biblical scene of Christ’s last supper with the disciples before his capture and crucifixion. The painting was done by the hand of the foremost High Renaissance figure signore Leonardo Da Vinci, one of the most extraordinary artists ever existed on Earth. Born to a wealthy merchant and a peasant woman, Da Vinci’s incredible craftsmanship and artistic skills made him a distinctive character. One may ask what really made him an unique Renaissance character and one of the most extraordinary artists that I assert him to be.
This multi-talented genius was a painter, sculptor, anatomist, scientist, and engineer. In anatomy, Da Vinci correctly predicted the mechanism behind the pumping of human blood. He predicted this hundreds of years before the x-ray machine was invented. Da Vinci, a fervid nature-lover predicted that the shine of the moon came from the reflection of the sun. He also accurately envisaged the formation of rocks. The brilliant mind stunned the predecessors again by his manuscripts on thousands of scientific inventions. He had fascinating designs such as the bobbin winder, the glider, the calculator, the concentrated solar power, and a tank—to name a few. In short, Da Vinci’s mind undoubtedly was ahead of his time. In addition, I venerate Da Vinci for his compassion. Known to few individuals, he was a vegetarian and led a austere life. He was disgusted by the pleasures that the human body desired, thus denied himself meat and physical needs. Records showed that while the eccentric mastermind lived in Florence, he used to buy caged birds from local fairs so that he could set them free.
By definition, it is an arduous task to find an equal of Da Vinci in our present-day society. However to say that no modern man deserves the title “Modern Day Da Vinci” is rather harsh on the human race. So I choose to believe that there may be men who attain some of Da Vinci’s traits, men such as the theoretical phycist Stephan Hawking. Suffering from amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, Hawking is almost completely paralyzed. Tragedy struck when he was only 21 years old, Hawking has been using a wheel chair ever since. Nevertheless disability did not thwart him from achieving greatness. Through an electronic voice synthesizer, Hawking was able to communicate his brilliant mind.During his career, Hawking published the acclaimed Hawking Radiation discovery and singularities theorems. Additionally, the witty Hawking is also well-known for his humanitarian effort in supporting the SOS Children’s Villages UK. Similar to Da Vinci, Stephen Hawking strove for the betterment of the human race, his unmatched aptitude, and great achievements; therefore I boldly claim that he closely resembles Da Vinci.
Leonardo Da Vinci is incomparable in nearly all aspects. Selecting simply one person that embodies the accolades of Da Vinci would be an insult to his name. If you were able to take a group of people of various fields and then compare them to Da Vinci, it would accurately represent his plethora of accomplishments. I also cannot personally predict someone in the future that could even come close to such achievements.
Not only did Da Vinci transform common ideals and innovate for his own era, he set the standard for innovations to come. From human flight, to the human body, Da Vinci covered nearly all aspects of our lives, and discovered ways to improve them. From art, to engineering, to literature, and theology, Da Vinci covered it all! His unparalleled ability to observe the natural world around him, and find ways to use it to his advantage, was so unique and original.
So to assume that anyone could ever come close to his almost superhuman ability to foresee such advancements would not compare to anyone of the past, present, or even the near future.
It’s sad but I presume to be true that there is no one in modern day who could be looked upon in the same light as we look upon the great intellectual Leonardo Da Vinci. Da Vinci is considered one of the greatest painters of the Italian Renaissance. However, he was not only a painter but simultaneously a man with high expertise in the field of art, science and engineering, mathematics, anatomy, philosophy and many more. We can simply say Leonardo Da Vinci was a polymath and held many theoretical ideas that we have just recently found out to be accurate. It is considered that only one-third of his work is available to us today and many of which still consist mysteries to be yet resolved. Taken all together, there can be no one in the world in modern day who could possess so much talent and expertise in so many variety of fields. A few names of expert such as Bill Gates, Albert Einstein, etc do arise in my mind whose ideas and works are being greatly valued for years and most likely would be valued the same way in future, but all of them were only experts in a their particular fields unlike Da Vinci who is a polymath and held great ideas and works even though we only have a fraction of his works available.
Modern day highly qualified scholars are trying to gain expertise in a particular field in order to achieve success. The branching of major fields today is making one person expert at only a particular thing. People no more find the luxury of time to be able to broaden their expertise in a wide range of fields. Each refined field today consists of so much facts, knowledge, innovations, and mysteries that scholars have a tough time becoming an expert at just that particular field they are studying. So, today I think it is almost impossible to have someone who could be looked upon in the same way as we look upon the great Italian intellectual Leonardo Da Vinci.
Although I'm not aware of many modern day "Da Vinci's" I still feel like there are skilled individuals with exceptional ideas. When I think of successful inventors, I think of the technology that I use every day and who created it. Although I am not sure the name of the individual, Honda invented and produced the first hybrid car. I find this an important invention, because it's useful, practical, and helpful. Today, a big issue is protecting the environment, which the hybrid car is successfully doing. Not only is it safer for the environment but it is also practical for the economy. Da Vinci created inventions and theories that are still used today. I believe that in the future hybrid cars will be an important invention that will not only help the environment, but also inspire inventors the further improve the car's benefit. On the other hand, I still feel as though Leonardo is one of his kind, and although there are many inventors in the modern world, Da Vinci is still the leading competitor. Despite Da Vinci having to work with primitive supplies, he still made creations that rival today's work.
I feel there is no person that could be compared to a modern day da Vinci. Da Vinci was completely ahead of his time in every aspect; his detailed drawings of the human body, all of the inventions, and the painting that he did I don’t feel that anyone today posses all of the skills and progressive thoughts and ideas da Vinci brought to the table in 14 and 1500’s. His drawings of the human body are still used today by doctors and five hundred years after his death, the Mona Lisa is the single most recigizable pice of art work in the world, and his drawing and ideas of the flying machine, when recreated today work 400 years before the Wright brothers attempt. I don’t feel anyone will be looked at as a da Vinci of our time. He contributed too much to many different aspects of the world and was so advanced in all of his thinkings. Many people have done great things for this world we live in today but don’t have the same skills that da Vinci possessed.
The "Renaissance Man" Leonardo Da Vinci was unarguably the most brilliant and influential men of his time. He singlehandedly shaped our methods of approaching science and nature. I feel it would be impossible to justify naming a modern individual this era's Da Vinci. I think what strikes me most about Da Vinci's accomplishments was his ability to explore science with only the comparatively primitive tools available to him. However, this did not inhibit him from becoming one of the most respected scientists of all time. In fact, it could be argued that such a deprivation of tools enabled Da Vinci to make his most well-known discoveries. With limited technology available, Da Vinci was forced to use his imagination to explore the world around him. This allowed him to observe things in nature that many a modern scientist could see without batting an eyelid. Such led to the earliest attempts at creating a It was this ingenuity that I believe made Leonardo Da Vinci the highly respected scholar that remains to this day.
It is difficult to know whether or not someone is a "modern day Da Vinci" when he/she wont be known as one until 400 or so years down the road. in Da Vinci's time, his ideas seemed completly out of the realm on possibility. That is why today we recognize him as a genius well ahead of his time because we invented things that he had already thought of when he was alive. Today, however, almost everything that man can think up can be made without much backlash. That is why there almost certainly cna't be a "modern day Da Vinci," at least not now
I feel like there is no one who can be the "Modern Day Da Vinci" because no one had the various talents such as art work, sculptures, inventions, human anatomy,and many more. Yes there are genius's that can do an incredibly difficult problem in their head before anyone else can solve it it using a calculator, but does that really make them a modern day Da Vinci. I do beleive that there will be a new Da Vinci in the years to come for certain. With all the new technology that has erupted into the hands of mainstream society today, its like we strive off of it. There will be a modern day Da Vinci who creates not just one invention but a couple that will benefit society in a positve way. There will be someone soon to come, but there is not a moder Da Vinci known today. No one living today can compare to Leonardo Da Vinci.
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It is extremely difficult to pinpoint any modern person as centuries ahead of his or her time, given that those centuries have yet to unfold. It is more troublesome still to compare anyone to the great Leonardo Da Vinci, for no one seems quite as versatile as the master himself. A few names come to mind, yet they all are remarkably similar; merely highly accomplished scientists in their respective fields. I personally feel that a modern-day Da Vinci should be so named because of his or her vast skill set in multiple disciplines, of which science need not be included. When I ponder this instead, only one name, to me, adequately fulfills these requirements: the Right Honourable Sir Winston Leonard Spencer-Churchill, etc. etc. Churchill seems the most qualified candidate mainly because he achieved a tremendous amount over the course of his lifetime, helping to shape the world into the one which we are now familiar with-much like Da Vinci-but in a decidedly different manner.
Da Vinci was the epitome of a “Renaissance Man.” So much so in fact that his name even has become synonymous with the term, and his legacy the standard to which most critics hold potential candidates. His fortes were apparently limitless and so he is renowned as an: anatomist, inventor, engineer, painter, sculptor, mathematician, and so on. It is nigh-impossible to nowadays find anyone, especially a chronic procrastinator and stubborn polymath (which Da Vinci was known to be), whose merit would ever more than pale in contrast to the accomplishments of the iconic homo universalis. Leonardo conceptualized tanks, helicopters, solar power, calculators, and even plate tectonics in an era in which running water didn’t exist (remarkably disappointing, considering the Romans had a vast network or pipes and aqueducts millennia earlier). And still on the opposite side of the spectrum, his paintings such as the Mona Lisa and the Last Supper are arguably two of the most famous paintings on the planet. His Virtuvian Man is recognized easily by anyone. Leonardo Da Vinci’s legacy can be seen simply by the way in which we live today. Much of what we take for granted was thought up by or inspired by Da Vinci, from automatic bobbin winders on sewing machines to the helicopters that bring us the news and save lives.
Winston Churchill, though no great scientist, shares more than just one of his names with this Renaissance legend. England and, indeed, the world as a whole have become better in every sense of the word as a direct result of his ingenuity, diplomacy, and philosophy. Churchill’s multi-faceted nature became quickly apparent. He rose swiftly through the ranks of the British armed forces, but not without first overcoming several difficult obstacles. Churchill failed the admittance exam thrice ere he was accepted into England’s Royal Military Academy. (He even had to switch his position from infantryman to cavalryman so that he would receive an easier examination.) Such dedication is the mark of a true difference-maker, and of a different sort of genius. After his distinguished military service, Churchill decided that he could and should continue to serve his country as a politician. Yet again, he faced adversity: he lost his first major election campaign. But this did not daunt the young Churchill. His perseverance eventually paid off. By the outbreak of WWI, less than twenty years after gaining office, he was one of the most influential politicians in the country. By the outbreak of WWII, he was the single most important politician in all England. He was also a phenomenal orator, despite a lisp and speech impediment, and a gifted artist (he often used art to escape from massive depression that plagued him for the duration of his life).
It is clear then that Winston Churchill is one of the most accomplished men of our time, and one of the crafters of this time. He was no master of science other than political science. His inventions were his policies that resulted from wisdom and good sense and leadership in times of crises. His great masterpieces were his speeches that captured the hearts of millions of people whom despair had overpowered. Churchill was, in fact, so well-received by the world and by America that he was named the first (of only six all-time and only two during his or her lifetime) Honorary Citizen of the United States of America by a unanimous resolution of both houses of Congress. Furthermore, in a BBC poll to decide the 100 Greatest Britons, he claimed the top slot in a landslide victory. All these are the achievements of an awkward little child with a speech impediment who could not even get into the military on his first try. His enduring legacy is a clear indication of the fact that he will forever be one of the greatest men of all time, a true peer of Leonardo Da Vinci.
When thinking about the question of if there could be a “modern day Da Vinci”, it is probably not something that will just come to you right off the bat. One person that did come into mind however was Bill Gates. Although he did not go far out into different fields of the electronic world, he did provide us with Microsoft, which is now branching off into new and better things. Although Bill Gates did provide us with some of these essential things, there are many other people who can make an argument saying they have done the same as Gates. So simply put, I believe there is no modern day Da Vinci. Da Vinci was an Italian, scientist, mathematician, engineer, inventor, painter, sculptor, architect, musician, and writer. In my opinion, there are few, or no people present day that can say they have accomplished all of this and made a huge impact on people’s lives lie Da Vinci did. Even though it may happen one day in the future, as of right now there is has only been one Leonardo Da Vinci.
While Leonardo Da Vinci was the unquestionable leader in almost every field of study during the Renaissance, in the 20th and 21st centuries many people have vied for the title of “Modern Day Da Vinci.” Few if any have rightfully deserved it because, quite simply, they were only the masters of one or perhaps two fields. Da Vinci was an engineer, artist, anatomist, scientist, writer and philosopher whom few can match in terms of vast scope of knowledge and subject mastery. With that said, I will focus on Da Vinci as a revolutionary man, one who proposed ideas that had not even been dreamt of at the time. Da Vinci took those ideas and made them reality, or at least toyed with the idea of their conceptual possibility. So, while no one can come close to Da Vinci’s prowess as master of several disciplines, I believe that at least one individual can match Da Vinci in terms of having a revolutionary idea and acting on it, and that man is Muhammad Yunus.
Muhammad Yunus is the founder of Grameen Bank, a bank designed to give credit and buying power to the rural poor in third world countries. It’s goals are to eliminate the exploitation of the poor by money lenders; create opportunities for self-employment for the vast multitude of rural poor; and reverse the age-old vicious circle of being born into poverty, staying in poverty, and dying in poverty. It does this by teaching the poor and underprivileged how to use banks, credit, and loans and then supplies the aforementioned poor with banks, credit, and loans. Grameen Bank has been wildly successful, with a 97.72 rate of recovery, a statistic that measures the amount repaid as a percentage of amount due. The average household income of Grameen Bank members is about 50 percent higher than the target group in the control village, and 25 percent higher than the target group non-members in Grameen Bank villages. The landless have benefited most, followed by marginal landowners. There has been a sharp reduction in the number of Grameen Bank members living below the poverty line, 20 percent compared to 56 percent for non-Grameen Bank members. There has also been a shift from agricultural wage labor to self-employment. The idea has been so successful and inspiring that Yunus was awarded the 2006 Nobel Peace Prize in conjunction with Grameen Bank “for their efforts to create economic and social development from below,” as well as the Presidential Medal of Freedom in August of this year.
The achievements of Leonardo Da Vinci are so immense that it would be extremely difficult to match them. Even though there have been many modern day advancements due to the extensive knowledge of many individuals I do not feel any of them can be considered “a modern day Da Vinci”. Just being ahead of your time period can not categorize you as “a modern day Da Vinci”. Da Vinci’s knowledge was not only advanced but widespread as well. He was an artist, inventor, mathematician, scientist, writer and more, and excelled in all these subjects. People today may work with others in different fields in order to develop such knowledge as Da Vinci, while he accomplished all his works alone. Without modern technology he was able to discover information 500 years ahead of his time. His knowledge was so advanced that it is still helping people today with discoveries and expanding their knowledge. In my opinion there is no one today that has the ability to have an impact such as Da Vinci’s which covered a number of different topics.
I doubt that there is any figure who is more of a Renaissance Man/Woman than Da Vinci, although bestowing the title on a select few recent people would not be too outlandish. Without scrolling through the countless entries for “modern Da Vinci” through Google (over six million results, I checked just for the sake of this sentence) I’m going to go with Albert Einstein, final answer. I’m not going to pretend to understand many (any, really) of Einstein’s contributions to science although I know they don’t just give away the Copley Medal of the Royal Society of London, the Franklin Medal of the Franklin Institute, or the Nobel Prize (Da Vinci doesn’t have one of those, does he?). Einstein advised Franklin Delano Roosevelt, opposed Hitler as well as organized religion, and we all know of his Theory of Relativity even if we don’t know what it means. He may not out–Da Vinci Da Vinci, but he comes closer than anyone else.
When thinking about what modern day person could relate to Da Vinci, few people came to mind. However, one person who I believe fits this description almost perfectly is Dr. Ronald Mallet. Although Dr. Mallet does not possess the artistic qualities as Da Vinci had, his way of thinking can relate to Da Vinci’s thoughts and designs. Like Da Vinci, Dr. Ronald Mallet is thinking ahead of his time with the idea of time travel. Da Vinci was always thinking centuries before his time with his blueprints for a giant cross bow, an airplane, and more. Experiments have proven that Da Vinci’s designs are very accurate and resemble high intelligence for the time period. The fact that Professor Mallet is also thinking into the future with his designs for time travel is very impressive. What makes this professor different from others who believe in time travel is that he has devised a system of equations in which time travel can be made possible. He has studied the art of physics along with Einstien’s theories of relativity, time, and space to develop a feasible experiment. His blueprints for the experiment, when put into affect, could prove the accuracy of his equations. If time travel is made possible through his experiment, this discovery will have a huge impact on the world just as Da Vinci had.
Dr. Ronald Mallet is a Physics professor at the University of Connecticut. He is currently in the process of developing a time machine primarily based on the laws of physics. Professor Mallet was able to interpret Einstein’s theories of mass, energy, and relativity to develop a few basic equations for time travel. These equations he hopes will break the time barrier allow time travel to be perfected. The physics professor’s interest in time travel developed at the early age of ten after his father’s sudden death. His dream was to be able to travel back in time to save his dad from this tragedy. Based on Einstein’s equations along with his own scientific discoveries and beliefs, Dr. Ronald Mallet believed that a parallel universe exists. With his findings and theories, the professor was able to devise an experiment in which he can make a circulating light beam warp into space by the proper arrangement of mirrors. He hopes to observe that these short lived subatomic particles will have a longer life time. If this is done, the particles have passed the time barrier and flowed into future. It is believed that time is affected by motion. If Dr. Mallet’s experiment runs flawlessly, he will be known as the first person to have made time travel possible.
**Dr. Mallet has made his observations and discoveries available to the world through various television segments and publications. One of his most famous publications is “Time Traveler: A Scientist’s Personal Mission to Make Time Travel a Reality”.
In my mind, Leonardo Da Vinci will always be one of the most well-rounded and remarkable individuals in the history of mankind. No one I know envisions the world the he did, so much so that it is difficult to believe that Da Vinci has the same mind workings as Homo sapiens. As many have said, he was a man with a mind well ahead of his time. It has been proven that Da Vinci wrote many journals, filled with all the ideas constantly gushing from his mind, which contained diagrams and designs for machines and thoughts unthinkable to others during his time. Some well known contraptions and ideas are the flying machine and the Vitruvian man.
Da Vinci is also known for his masterful paintings, notably the Mona Lisa. What is truly remarkable about this piece is not the fact that it was wonderfully done, but the fact that it has been able to withstand the test of time. In a documentary on this piece I learned that the method in which Da Vinci painted the Mona Lisa allowed it to not crack violently as other old pieces do, as well as prevent outrageous discoloration. When scientists “rewinded” the clock to see what the original Mona Lisa might have looked like, they found very little difference from the first few days of its creation and its appearance today. Other works include the Last Supper and Madonna on the Rocks (also known as The Virgin of the Rocks)
Having said this, I do not think there is one person who can be considered a modern day Da Vinci. Now-a-days in order to master any one subject it takes at least one-quarter of a life time. Right away, this eliminates many who might have seemed eligible for the title “Modern Day Da Vinci”. For those who are left, it is highly unlikely that they would be able to master as many different fields of study as Leonardo did. He was masterful in the fields of the human body, engineering, literature, philosophy, art, as well as many others. Though this reason may seem like it may be the only one, there is another that I can think of. Today there are many distractions from life that can contribute to a narrowing of the mind. In America capitalism has created greedy for money, great desire for fame, and a general lacking of civility. As a result, we disregard our natural surroundings, trying to prefect our lives without looking at the fundamental parts of life that allow us to survive; the aspects of nature. In a way one can say humans have forgotten where they were from and have become a scheming and cruel species. This is very different from Da Vinci, who was acutely aware of nature (this can be noted in the creation of his artificial heart/ the diagrams for this idea.) Even environmentalists and those who study nature cannot compare because even though they claim that nature is the most important part of their lives, they are unable to look at it from all angles and develop the passiveness (by passive I mean a lack of attachment to what is being observed, but not so much that it seems inhumane) toward Earth the Leonardo did, which I believe truly allowed his mind to turn the way it did. Though there are many other reasons that can be covered to explain how a modern day Da Vinci is highly unlikely to appear, I think that the most important and noteworthy are those that I mentioned; no one can possibly achieve the level of genius in so many areas of the arts and sciences as Da Vinci did and today’s society has narrowed the minds of humans to a degree where a passive person is impossible to find.
To the best of my knowledge there isn’t really a strong case for an individual who possesses as well-rounded an intellect as Leonardo Da Vinci. The most astonishing aspect of Da Vinci was that he had mastered not one, but many fields of study. Thousands of people have devoted the majority of their lives studying a single field, such as science, and yet, haven’t reached the level of mastery Da Vinci had. This is especially impressive because Da Vinci was a master in several fields. Da Vinci has made designs for the first parachute, the first helicopter, and the first aero plane. He also painted the world famous Mona Lisa and The Last Supper. Da Vinci was a scientist, musician, inventor, artist, and a mathematician. Just because someone is successful in one field of study, doesn’t guarantee they will be successful in all other fields of study. To put this into perspective, imagine if there was a professional athlete who was a top player in the National Football League, the National Hockey League, and Major League Baseball! Clearly, being a master at so many different fields, as Da Vinci was, is truly remarkable.
Although there is no individual that seems to be a modern day Da Vinci, that does not mean that years from now someone could be viewed as an equal to the astonishing Da Vinci. It is possible that decades from now a long-lost blueprint could be discovered for something advanced, like a working time machine. After further investigation, the creator of said blue print could be viewed as a genius years and years ahead of his time in more than one field. However, if such a person exists he or she has not yet been recognized. Perhaps the next Da Vinci will emerge soon with technology centuries ahead of his or her time, we will have to wait and see what the future has in store for us.
When asked the question “is there a modern day Da Vinci?” I have to answer “no.” Leonardo Da Vinci was not only the original “Renaissance Man” but also the best example that history has ever provided. His expertise spanned multiple sections of art, science, and engineering. There is no one like this today. In the modern world, the leading minds of any field tend to be exclusively focused on only one. It can be argued that in the modern world there is so much knowledge to be acquired in any field that one could not be a true expert in more than one. Even if I were to narrow my view to just one of his fields, I would still have difficulty thinking of a suitable person. For example, as an artist Da Vinci excelled at both painting and drawing. In modern times, most artists focus on one medium. Though use of multiple media is not unheard of, it is uncommon. His broad spectrum of studies was even vaster as a scientist and engineer. He worked in engineering, architecture, anatomy, astronomy, zoology, geography, geology, and paleontology. There is no one in modern day that can come close to claiming expertise in so many fields. This, I think, is partly due to Da Vinci’s incredible intellect and partly due to the fact that so much more is known in such fields and so much more needs to be learned before one can be called “an expert.” Inn the field of engineering alone Da Vinci excelled in far more subsections of the field than modern engineers could ever hope to achieve.
The other reason why there is no modern Da Vinci is that not only were his ideas centuries ahead of his time, but the details of those plans were equally advanced. Today we have physicists who speculate about such futuristic technology as faster-than-light travel, particle weapons, sentient computers, and antimatter as an energy source. As advanced as these theories are, scientists are currently at a loss to devise a way to make such dreams into reality. Like Da Vinci, they know why their machines will work, but unlike Da Vinci, they have no idea how to build such machines. Da Vinci knew exactly how to build the machines about which he theorized; his detailed technical drawings are some of his most famous works. Unlike engineers today who have no idea how to build a warp drive engine, Da Vinci’s only limitation was the lack of suitable and sufficient materials with which to build his machines. Da Vinci was a spectacular individual, and while there are spectacular individuals today, they cannot hope to compete with the achievements of Leonardo Da Vinci.
Thinking back on Leonardo Da Vinci, I am still always amazed by the numerous advancements he was capable of introducing to our world. Whether it was in terms of science, math, or the arts, Da Vinci constantly had something new in mind. If that doesn’t tell you enough, Da Vinci was known as the one and only “renaissance man” and today he is still considered the greatest painter of all time. For example, if you were to mention the words Mona Lisa to just about anybody, they would know exactly which painting you were referring to even though it was painted about 500 years ago. In addition, he designed multiple inventions or concepts which are still used in society today. Two of his famous inventions are the 50 foot crossbow and a human flying machine. Although he may not have actually created the actual mechanisms himself, he was the one to draw the original blueprints from which the inventions are based upon. Overall, Da Vinci was extremely talented in diverse ways. Whether it was by means of art, science, or math, Da Vinci influenced and affected almost everyone in one way or another.
In terms of a modern day Da Vinci, I personally believe we have yet to experience another renaissance man as himself. Despite this, there have plenty of individuals who have excelled in one particular field. For instance, Bill Gates comes to mind in terms of modern technological inventions. Being the inventor of Microsoft, he is well known throughout the whole world as being extremely successful in that field. When it comes to musicians, I think of Michael Jackson. Known as the “king of pop”, he will be remembered for centuries to come. However, unlike Da Vinci, Michael was gifted solely in the field of performing arts. Similarly, James Watson is highly recognized in the field of science. Overall, people today tend to stick to one particular field and work to perfect a single talent. As a result, although these people will all be remembered for their own discoveries and talents, none of them come close to expressing the numerous levels of talent Da Vinci possessed. In my opinion, to this day no one person has been diversified enough to even compare to the great Leonardo Da Vinci.
While many people in modern day history have greatly attributed to society, I don't think that anyone can be labeled as a modern day DaVinci. I don't think that people can label anyone in the modern world a "DaVinci" because many of the things that made him so brilliant weren't fully realized and appreciated until decades after his death. Another thing that makes DaVinci so unique was the fact that he was the perfect example of the "Renaissance man". Not only did he explore into the areas of science, but also into the areas of art. Today, I don't think there are many, if any at all, who use their creative right side of the brain along with their analytical left brain. Most people today either focus in on the sciences or the arts. I think that the key reason why I can't think of a modern day DaVinci is because he was not only a scientist, engineer, and artist but he was also a futurist and a salesman all in one. He was so ahead of his time in his thinking and I think that those types of people only come around once in a millennium. What I also think is unique about DaVinci was the fact the he was a salesman of himself and his ideas through himself. Wealthy lords would hire him to invent let's say a weapon. They didn't hire the weapon, they hired him. Many of the great salesmen of the modern world sell products, not themselves as the product. This is where I think DaVinci has all scientist, artists, futurists, and engineers beat. DaVinci had all of the qualities that make them unique. The last thing that I think gives DaVinci an edge is the fact that he is lucky. I think that if he was born in a different time period or brought up differently, he wouldn't be the DaVinci that everybody knows as brilliant. There might not have been the available information or resources that he used in construction, or in formulating his ideas. In conclusion, there very well may be a "DaVinci" among us, but currently I don't think there is. After all, some people in DaVinci's time thought that he was nothing more than a intellectual figure and didn't realize the actual impact he had on the world. I think it is too early in modern history to come to any conclusions. To label someone as a "Modern Day DaVinci" would be one of the greatest honor a person could ever receive, but one that should not just be handed out if they don't meet the same standard DaVinci met.
In my opinion, there is no one person in our time that can truly be considered a “modern day DaVinci.” Not only was he an extremely talented artist, but he was also a writer, engineer, scientist, and inventor. Historians still speculate how he possibly could have acquired such extensive knowledge, simply through the method of observation. Many even believed him to be an archetype of what the Renaissance man should encompass.
Although it is hard to imagine that one person’s achievements could ever compare with that of DaVinci’s, there are several accomplished figures of our time, that may be looked upon in a similar light centuries down the road.
The person that first comes to my mind is Steve Jobs, the co-founder of Apple Inc. I believe that Steve Jobs will be remembered centuries from now for several reasons. He has invented a world wide phenomenon beginning with the Apple i-pod. He continues to expand their corporation with annual product launches and enhancements of their already existing merchandise.
Today, it is unusual to be in public area, and not see Apple products being used. Some do not realize how many aspects of our lives this new technology has influenced. It has transformed the way we listen to music, navigate, and most notably, how we communicate with each other.
Overall, Steve Jobs has introduced a new form of technology to our generation, which has ultimately changed the way we operate our daily lives.
Of all those who have advanced in any one or more fields, the one who is most readily comparable to Leonardo Da Vinci is author Ayn Rand. Rand was a Russian immigrant author, who first started gaining public attention and praise with her novel The Fountainhead, which was about the alarming loss of individuality post World War I was starting to succumb to. But it was not until her “manifesto”, Atlas Shrugged, that she created a whole movement that to this day still echoes in philosophy classes, as well as popular music (the band Rush’s lyrics are full of quotes and references to Rand).
Atlas Shrugged depicted the United States as falling to the more negative aspects of Socialism, and every industry is starting to collapse upon itself, taking down every related or unrelated industry in its descent. Because of this, there are government interventions in every single business in the country, except for those who simply refuse and suddenly vanish from the earth. Although this novel was intended as a satire of President Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s New Deal, it was more realistic to the recent recession.
Like Da Vinci, Rand proceeded with what she wanted, and ultimately came out ahead of her time. She described an (arguable) reality that was yet to manifest, and was frighteningly explicit, although partially being unintentional. Much like Da Vinci’s drawing of the heart valve, before modern science was aware that blood circulated throughout the body. Rand showed the world what could happen if not for change, as did Da Vinci, although one was negative and the other was positive, respectively.
Although few people have even come close to being in the same kingdom as Da Vinci, Ayn Rand’s combination of philosophy, satire, clairvoyance, and science with Atlas Shrugged is the closest to have come to Leonardo Da Vinci.
Personally, I believe that no one can compare to the great Leonardo Da Vinci. He personified the essence of the Renaissance Age, and even today his knowledge of vast fields including science, math, engineering, philosophy and art is quite simply unparalleled. It astonishes me how he came to conclusions that we today have found to be true. For example, I remember in the video we watched during class he was able to determine how blood circulates in the heart by observing patterns in nature. Doctors who have tested that theory using modern-day technology have found this to be correct. This displays how Da Vinci’s thinking and thought process was centuries ahead of his time. The thing I find most interesting about Da Vinci is that he did not come to these conclusions by complicated processes, he just took in his surroundings and tried to logically explain it using observations he made about the world. However, what makes Da Vinci incomparable is the fact that he was not only the master of one subject, as many people are today, but he had accurate and detailed knowledge about numerous fields. Today, people go to college for many years to just specialize in one field and only study one field for most of his life. He was the first person to illustrate his inventions, and they are still studied today, showing how much he understood mechanics. His anatomical drawings of the human body are stunningly accurate, and his paintings, most famously the Last Supper and Mona Lisa have withstood the test of time and are considered some of the finest paintings ever. Da Vinci is truly the definition of a well-rounded man.
Although I don’t believe anyone can come close to Da Vinci’s achievements, if I had to choose I would definitely go with another great scientist Albert Einstein. Einstein probably has made the most significant contributions that anyone ever has in the scientific field. He has explained and formed countless of legitimate theories and equations. His contributions were so momentous that he won the Nobel Peace Prize for Physics, and his name has become almost synonymous for the word genius. Although he only did focus on one field, his contributions are so enormous that I consider him to be the closest to Da Vinci that there ever was.
"Is there a modern-day DaVinci?" This question left me searching for an answer that would surprise, that would astound, that would leave everyone agreeing with me. However, upon pondering and thinking about many different people, I was left with a simple response: No.
Leonardo DaVinci was almost like a jack-of-all-trades, but excellent at each and every trade he partook in. His paintings, such as the powerful "Last Supper" and incredible "Mona Lisa" were works of greatness. Not only was he an artist, though, he was an engineer, an inventor, a mathematician, a sculptor, an architect. All of his work is revered and admired, even today.
Although I do not think that there is anyone like DaVinci, I do believe that it is possible to come close. One man I thought of is Steve Jobs, co-founder of Apple, Inc. He created one of the most successful companies in history, which is ridiculously diverse, selling iPods to iMacs to iPhones. Especially forward, in my opinion, was the invention of the iMac. Although he didn't come up with anything in the company on his one, making him inferior to the "Renaissance Man," he headed the company that came up with the idea of making a computer that was a part of the desktop. He is CEO of the company that allows music players to take video, shuffle songs with a simple shake, and call people using the touch, not tap, of the finger.
Though Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak founded a company far ahead of its time in my opinion, I do not think that they will be looked upon in the same light in a few hundred years as DaVinci is today. Sure, Jobs started a groundbreaking multimillion dollar corporation, but it is much more simplistic that the work of DaVinci. Jobs only worked with a company centered around technology and design; DaVinci was advanced in a broad spectrum of things.
In conclusion, Leonardo DaVinci cannot be compared closely with anyone - yet. Only time, though, will tell.
It is very difficult to label someone as a modern Da Vinci. Leonardo was unquestionably a genius centuries beyond his own time. Therefore, it is difficult to find someone in our own time that is as advanced as he was because we do not know what is to come in the future. More importantly, Da Vinci was a master of many fields. Not only was he a talented artist, but he was also a brilliant inventor, anatomist, mathematician, and much more. Most professionals in our world today have narrowed down their studies to only one subject, and why they are undoubtedly brilliant, they cannot be compared to Leonardo who was disciplined in a broad category of skills.
However, if I was to pick one person of our age that I thought represented a modern Leonardo da Vinci, I would choose Johnny Depp. Although this choice may seem unthoughtful at first, I think that he is one of the closest examples as a modern Leonardo. Of course, Depp is most famously known for his acting career. There is no doubt that he is a brilliant actor, but this is not his only talent. Although most people may not know, he is also a musician, winemaker, and artist. Johnny Depp recorded a solo album and has also been featured in the soundtrack of several movies. He also owns his own vineyard where he grows his own grapes. Finally, although few people knew, he is also a successful portrait artist.
So although Johnny Depp is obviously not the genius that Leonardo da Vinci was, he shows the same characteristics. Da Vinci is thought to be the quintessential Renaissance man because he was multi-talented, much like Johnny Depp. While it is not difficult to find brilliant scientists and master painters, it is most certainly difficult to pinpoint a man who is talented in many different fields.
It is hard to say that anybody in modern time can even compare to Da Vinci. Da Vinci was a very talented man with a great mind. He was an artist, an inventor, a scientist, and several other things. He was talented at everything, there was pretty much nothing he couldn't do. I can't think of anybody who is as smart as Da Vinci was and think it would be extremely hard for anyone to come close to it.
Another aspect that makes Da Vinci so unique is his background and environmental surrounding as a child. Growing up with his father, Da vinci was completely surrounded by text books of all different catagories, he was able to read about all different things which helped expose his mind to different subjects and give him a broader view on life.
At age fifteen Da Vinci's father apprenticed him with an artist and then, even as an apprentice, he was able to demonstrate his talent of painting and sculpting. It was quite evident that Da Vinci was much better than his masters.
In this conclusion, it is hard to compare Da Vinci to anybody because he was so great and so talented a person.
Da Vinci has been deemed a “Renaissance man.” The problem with comparing da Vinci as such to a modern day figure, and trying to find a “Renaissance man (or women)” in them, is that the definition of this word has a different meaning in its historical context than in its modern context. Even though da Vinci lived in a new age of enlightenment, his world was still far more limited than ours is today. There simply was much more knowledge to discover than there already was to learn. This, perhaps, is one of the main reasons why, even though he is considered a genius, da Vinci was able to become a master at so many different topics and areas of study than anybody is able to today. This is why, today, the definition of a Renaissance man is that of a person who “by long study has gained mastery in one or more disciplines,” and the definition of a Renaissance man from the Renaissance is someone who “could know almost everything about many topics.”
In his day, da Vinci was already marked as a figure above the ordinary. Rising above and beyond his contemporaries, he traveled the path which labeled him as a master of the arts, architecture, oceanography and aerodynamics. Much of this was due to his careful observations of nature, to which he applied his wealth of knowledge. Recognized always as a remarkable painter, especially for works such as the Mona Lisa and the Last Supper, he also is now remembered as the inventor of many breath-taking (both for their beauty and usage) inventions, such as his idea for a flying machine. This machine was so advanced for his time that it would not even be attempted for over 500 years.
Today in the 21st century, our life is much faster paced in general than da Vinci’s was during the 15th century. A modern day da Vinci would have to have just as a great impact on our society today, and the society in years to come, than da Vinci’s had on his own. Such a person would have to have such a wealth of knowledge that it must take more than one lifetime to learn all this. Today, to become a true master of a subject, it is assumed that one will dedicate a lifetime to it. Therefore, it seems impossible to become a master of everything anymore, and as such there cannot be a modern day da Vinci.
In today’s society I do not believe that anyone can come close to the many achievements of Leonardo Da Vinci. He had over 30,000 different papers of advanced studies on topics such as astronomy, anatomy, and many others. He was an artist, scientist, and an inventor all in one and in today’s society I can not think of anyone who has even accomplished as much as Da Vinci has in just one of those fields much less all three.
In the video Leonardo Dream Machine Da Vinci was proved to be ahead of his time when his glider set flight and at one point was higher than the Wright brothers’ first flight which came centuries later. Also he made anatomical studies which are still used to this day such as his extremely accurate drawings of the heart valve. He also proved he was ahead of his time with his man and machine philosophy which was seen in his technical drawings of robots, also seen centuries later. This list of achievements can go on for many more pages, but it’s obvious that a great mind like Da Vinci’s only comes around once and I believe no one can come close to matching his genius.
To choose a Leonardo De Vinci of our time is a very difficult thing to do. It would be a great honor to be considered a man or women who is centuries ahead of their time like De Vinci was. He was scientist, mathematician, engineer, inventor, anatomist, painter, sculptor, architect, and writer. His life was amazing and unparrelled, but a name does come to mind when thinking of one as brillant as he. This name is none other then Stephen Hawking a world renowed physicist. His main contributions are in the fields of cosmology and quantum gravity, especailly his work with black holes. Stephen has a Presidential Medal of Freedom(the highest civilian award in the U.S). He also is a Honorary Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts, and a lifetime member of the Pontifical Academy of Science. Hawkings advances in physics are very impresive, but he only excels in one field. He is not an equal to Leonardo De Vinci, whose works on many different fields of study are still being used and admired today. From his breathtakeing paintings like “The Virgin of The Rocks” to his ingenious machines of war. Hawkings cant hold a candle when compared to the great Leonardo, but he is the closet mind we have when compared to that of the master.
Unquestionably, Leonardo da Vinci was one of the most influential people of all time. His unquenchable curiosity and obsessive observation of nature led him to make many important contributions in wildly different fields. His theories in the fields of engineering and science were so ahead of their time that some wouldn’t be realized until centuries later; he theorized flying machines and submarines, for instance. His artwork is also some of the most iconic of the Renaissance; one of his most famous works is the The Last Supper. To be crowned a modern day da Vinci would mean being acknowledged as a master of several completely different areas of study. One would have to make significant contributions in a variety of scientific and artistic disciplines.
By this definition, I believe that there is not a person from our lifetime in that will be regarded a modern da Vinci, for the reason that the modern sciences are too fragmented and take too many resources to conduct research in to imagine any one person making contributions as varied or comparable in impact as da Vinci’s in one lifetime. If a person were to somehow make important breakthroughs in more than one scientific field, they wouldn’t have time to create artistic works like da Vinci did.
Fields in science and engineering are so diverse and complex that it’s hard to imagine making any contribution to a discipline at all without a college degree; most likely, to be doing important, grant-funded research, one would need a Ph.D. This is because in order to conduct any research that could possibly be as innovative as da Vinci’s, one must utilize million-dollar lab equipment that only large corporations or universities can afford. These corporations and universities will not waste resources allowing an average person to explore personal curiosities. Thus, in order to be able to utilize this equipment, one must have a Ph.D. or similar degree. Ph.D.’s are incredibly specialized; a glance over MIT’s website shows that grad students can participate in research in fields as varied and specific as Genetic Toxicology, Cellular and Molecular Neuroscience, Geoenvironmental Instrumentation, and Chemical Oceanography, to name a few. Furthermore, in order to just be allowed to do research, one would have to spend many years just earning their degree in one of these fields. It would be impossible to make significant contributions to any of these fields alone without years upon years of study and experience. To make significant contributions in more than one scientific field would take a lifetime if one were lucky. Perhaps in da Vinci’s time, merely observing nature using simple instruments was enough to come to such revolutionary conclusions. Not today.
Even if one somehow managed to make many important contributions to different fields of science and engineering, he or she would probably not be able to also contribute worthwhile art pieces. It’s not easy to imagine a Nobel Prize winning physicist who also made important contributions to biology spending his or her free time painting the next Last Supper.
Because important contributions to science today are primarily made with extremely expensive equipment used by Ph.D.s, and extremely important pieces of art were made by people who devoted their whole lives to their work, it doesn’t seem possible that someone from our lifetime will be regarded as the next Leonardo da Vinci.
Leonardo da Vinci was a man of many talents, many passions, and of many mysteries. In my opinion, Da Vinci set a precedent that has yet to be fully satisfied by someone else. Centuries down the road I doubt there will be anyone capable of standing out as Da Vinci has . What sets Da Vinci apart from modern day scholars, engineers, and artists is the fact that he was the quintessential example of a polymath. He was incredibly knowledgeable in fields from anatomy to astronomy, painting to engineering and so on. He was a revolutionary in the sense that he conceptualized many ideas, and as a result, allowed others to turn those ideas into realities further down the road.
If there is one person of our time who could be looked at in the same light as Da Vinci, that person is Bill Gates. Bill Gates has been at the fore front of technological progression over the past few decades. His work has been groundbreaking and tremendously influential in the world. Gates's work was and still is a huge factor in how technology has been integrated into our every day lives.
Aside from his work in technology, Bill Gates has also become the "archetype" of a true philanthropist. His work in philanthropy has been almost as influential as his work in technology. He has started a movement in philanthropy in that many of the world's wealthiest people are themselves getting involved with.
In conclusion, Leonardo da Vinci was in many ways his own breed. His extraordinary and unsurpassed talents have set him apart from other men for centuries in the past, and in all likelihood, centuries to come.
Plain and simple, no. I don't think that there is a person today who can be singled out and placed on the same level as da Vinci. He was a man who mastered practically anything he wanted. He was an expert painter, sculptor, architect, inventor, anatomist, scientist, mathematician, observer... the list goes on and on. There isn't a single person today that i can think of that has become a distinguished member of any number of fields as great as da Vinci. Most people working in similar areas as him dedicate their entire lives to their fields of study and never gain major recognition, let alone anything near what has been achieved by da Vinci.
However, I do feel that there are plenty of people today and in the future who will be remembered long after they have passed, as da Vinci has. The person who cures cancer, solves world hunger, ends poverty, or creates world peace will be able to comfortably sit on a pedestal next to the great da Vinci.
He isn't just a man who was years ahead of his peers, he is a representation of a time period to be remembered in history forever. One couldn't try to explain what the Renaissance was without mentioning Da Vinci and some of his many works. To be remembered as long as he has, one must have such a great impact that they not only affect the people of their time, but also the people of tomorrow. Da Vinci's Mona Lisa is stilled visited everyday by thousands of people so they can all wonder, what was his motivation? why doesn't she have eyebrows? etc. etc. If someone's work has the ability to endure the centuries as da Vinci's has, then I hope that I have the luck to be impacted by it in my lifetime so I can say I saw a modern day da Vinci.
After spending some time learning about Leonardo da Vinci in class and at home in chapter 12 has definitely sparked my interest concerning him and his ideas. I have always known that he was one of the greatest painters during the Renaissance era along with the Mona Lisa and the Last Supper being some of his finest paintings. However after watching the da Vinci Code in class I learned so much more about him, his craft, and his lifestyle, which was dictated by nature and natural factors. Additionally, nature had an ample presence in his painting, in fact he even dissected human bodies to see more clearly how nature really worked. I also learned that many of his philosophies and volumes clashed with the Catholic Church because they were too worldly and did not conform to the moral standards of the day, for instance he wanted to create a human machine. I was astounded by how devoted he was to learning about how body functions, and especially the heart. He made significant medical and technological breakthroughs, for instance he found out that blood circulates throughout the entire body, his meticulously detailed and accurate diagrams of the human anatomical structures that doctors still follow today, and how he was the first to incorporate man and nature to provide solutions for daily issues. What enlightened me the most was his profound work on the study of flight, which was solely inspired by birds and bats or nature. It proved to be greatly accurate in fact going back to the in class video I was amazed by how the modern day engineers precisely recreated a glider designed by da Vinci himself centuries ago while staying faithful to the original design and received inspiring results that proved da Vinci truly understood the elements of flight and whether he was actually the first one to fly, which raises the question, if the Wright brothers were really the ones first to experience flight.
Therefore, I thought da Vinci was extremely sophisticated for his time, especially since he did not have access to the advanced technology that we have today. He work still resonates in modern day and I am sure he has inspired countless people over time. Unfortunately, it is a shame that most of his work had been lost or destroyed and that we only have access to approximately ten percent of the 100,000 volumes he left behind. Just imagine how much more we could have learned about him, his innovations and the certain topics that he ardently researched. Thus, I believe that no one during our time can actually top da Vinci. He really went out of his way, worked in secret, and faced ample controversy for his modern ideas and perceptions. As a result, he has definitely proven to be one of the greatest people that ever lived.
I do not believe that there is a current day Leonardo da Vinci because he really was ahead of his time. Da Vinci was a scientist, mathematician, sculptor, architect, musician, writer, and an engineer. There really is no one who I can think of that is all of those, in this current day. He was often described as an archetype of the Renaissance. An archetype is a model or a prime example. He was also seen as one of the greatest painters of all time. Some of his works include The Last Supper, the Mona Lisa, and the Vitruvian man. However, one man was described as the “Russian Leonardo da Vinci.” Pobisk Kuznetsov is he name. He is famous in the science field for his new concept of the phenomenon of life which led to a critique of the entropy theory. Entropy is a theoretical concept applied in physics and mathematics. Kuznetsov’s works in the biophotonics and biochemistry fields led to a new approach to biology problems, such as the problem of aging. He also created new hypotheses about the origin of language and elements in human mental processes. Kuznetsov is a current day da Vinci in the science field, but the real da Vinci was unique because he was a master in all fields, which no one currently is. There are da Vincis in their own fields of work, but not across the whole spectrum. The most interesting of da Vinci's inventions was his flying machine. We watched a documentary on it in class, and it was similar to the Wright brothers' inventions. da Vinci's invention was hundreds of years ahead of his time. There is no one who I can think of that has inventions or ideas that will be popular 400 years from now. Da Vinci is truly unique because his ideas and inventions covers everything.
I do not believe that there is anyone alive today (or recently) that can compare to Leonardo Da Vinci. While there are many highly intelligent people in our time, it has become the unchallenged norm to only master one or two fields. Also if one were to master more than one field, most of the time those fields fall under the same general discipline, or are somehow connected. Like someone could study the history of a certain region and connect it to the evolution of language in that area, or a person could study astronomy and physics. To my knowledge no one in recent history has branched out as much as Da Vinci to study art, engineering, anatomy, philosophy, literature, and science. I believe that this is because it takes not only great intelligence, but also a truly extraordinary mind to be open to all of these different fields. We say that some people’s brains are wired for writing, some are wired for math, some for art, some for science, etc. but Da Vinci’s mind was wired for all of them. I simply do not believe that exists in the world today.
Also Da Vinci truly was centuries ahead of his time. Looking at his technical drawings (a type of drawing he developed) we see amazing things. He thought of making the leading edge of a wing wider than the back to aid lift, and the even the Wright Brothers didn’t think of that. By looking at the currents in a stream he figured out how blood moved through the heart, and designed a model almost exactly like the ones we have today.
This introduces my next point. Da Vinci had the sense to look around him. He studied nature, saw how things worked, and applied those findings to his inventions and theories. In today’s society, very few people think to look to nature for inspiration for anything outside of the arts. Da Vinci realized how much nature had to teach us and took advantage of it.
Finally what makes Da Vinci undeniably unique, and what proves that there is no Da Vinci in our time, is that he is so well known. You can ask almost anyone in third grade or above and they will at least know him for his most famous work of art the Mona Lisa. Once they hit middle school, most students will know him as an inspired inventor, as well as a great artist. In high school, you can get a glimpse of the full extent of his brilliance. We of course cannot tell what will be remembered in centuries to come, but I doubt that anyone will ever reach the same level of recognition as Leonardo Da Vinci.
Since the European Renaissance, our society has made remarkable leaps forward in all of the areas that the innovator Leonardo Da Vinci first made discoveries. Because of our current knowledge in the fields of anatomy, astrology, aviation, art, biology, literature, philosophy, and others, we are now able to see what many of Da Vinci’s contemporaries failed to; that his observations and discoveries were not only ground-breaking, but centuries ahead of his time. Da Vinci has rightfully earned his reputation as an entirely one-of-a-kind inventor, scientist, and artist.
In our modern world of extensive technology and communication, it seems impossible that just one person could be credited with the discovery of anything of the magnitude or diversity of the things that Da Vinci uncovered in his time. It tends to feel like all normal earthly mysteries have been uncovered, leaving nothing left but the extreme questions to be answered.
In order to compare someone of today’s society to Da Vinci, it is necessary to alter our expectations. The fact is, a modern Da Vinci would have to be as unexpected and radical as Da Vinci was in his time, and viewed by the public in virtually the same way as he was in his time. Da Vinci was condemned by the church, and only well liked by certain secular leaders for his ideas. This basic outline makes the most sense if we were to find someone like Da Vinci today; essentially, someone who is only vaguely well known, only well liked by a small population, and characterized by original, radical ideas.
One individual who comes to mind with these characteristics is author Chuck Palahniuk. His most popular book-turned-movie is Fight Club, which is only one of his many inventive, surprising, and eye-opening novels. Others include Lullaby, Choke, Diary, Invisible Monsters, and Survivor. Although he does not branch into many fields or invent, from both a literary and a philosophical standpoint, Palahniuk is about as unexpected and radical as Da Vinci may have been seen in his time. Palahniuk’s novel structure and syntax are extremely original, and rarely follow traditional methods. Basic character, setting, and plot rules seem to not apply. Characters in his books are flawed, disillusioned, and entirely individualistic… perhaps a reflection of our future society. Furthermore, the concepts and observations that Palahniuk weaves into his story lines are unique, to say the least; and seem to reflect a possibly futuristic set of morals and ideals. His concepts of society, human nature, life after death, and are all woven into his books with a clever combination of humor and irony. So, maybe as our society progresses, a Da Vinci may not be seen as an inventor or observer of tangible things, but of ideas and conceptions.
I don't think that are any modern day daVincis, as people's skills are too specialized. daVinci is thought about about the way he is now because he excelled and made huge strides in so many different fields, instead of just in one field. He was an expert scientist, figuring out many things about nature, one of histories great inventors, and a master artist. Nowadays there are probably people who would have the ability to do the things that he did, he wasn't anything superhuman so that kind of intelligence and creativity is ever present in select humans. However, people now are encouraged to specialize in one subject, because of college majors and etc. instead of them having a broad field of study, like was encouraged during the Renaissance. This may not be a bad thing, because it benefits society more, as people are more likely to push farther in their field than if they were also focusing on other things. daVinci was actually overwhelmed with all of his interests, and wasn't able to finish a lot of his studies before he died. Specialization makes it so people are more likely too finish their studies, as they are only focusing on that. In conclusion, daVinci is a unique historical figure, only applicable in his time because of the lack of specialization. There is no modern daVinci.
To say that Leonardo Da Vinci was a highly skilled and intelligent person would be a total understatement. Da Vinci excelled in every single subject that he studied and was by far, the most brilliant person of his time. It can even be argued that his mind’s capacity and acumen are up to modern day standards when he lived back in the 15th and 16th century. What really differentiates him apart from other people like him is the test of time. His inventions and creations were far beyond his time and were extremely rare. No one else understood what he had clearly been able to not only comprehend but to accomplish. Some of his inventions, such as the massive crossbow and the flying machine are still being tested and used today, thousands of years down the road. Some of his ideas and designs have also sparked new technological advances in the modern world. He was also skilled in a wide range of subjects such as astrology, art, biology, architecture, and civil engineering. Thus, I believe it is safe to say that nobody in the modern time can reach his level of expertise and knowledge.
However, there one person that I feel comes close to Leonardo Da Vinci’s height of talent and that is Bill Gates. Of course he does not have as wide a range of capability, but his one remarkable and true specialty is computer software. The invention of his software was a great leap in his field and changed the course of computers for the better. His company, Microsoft, has made it possible for most all people to be able to enjoy and use computers to its full extent. Also, his love and commitment for software and computers made his technological advances revolutionary. Millions of people everyday are taking advantage of his aptitude for what he does by using what he has created for a great variety of things. Just like Leonardo Da Vinci, his effort in producing such a product will withstand the test of time. He will always be remembered for bettering the computer world and with providing us with the basis of a software that can only be improved.
I do not believe there are modern day Da Vincis in such a specialized society as that of today's. It is difficult to pin a name on a contemporary polymath that exemplifies the breadth and depth of Da Vinci's intelligence as exhibited by his artistic expression, inventive genius, and natural curiosity in all fields. Today's structured education system now emphasizes the development of a major or specialization, an approach which is very different from the more loosely structured systems of the Renaissance in which artists commonly studied several fields at one time (as in the term "Renaissance Man"), and in which humanism emphasized knowledge of several disciplines as in the liberal arts.
One reason this does not exist today may simply be that there is much more material to learn; in order to make advancements in a field, one must learn much of existing discoveries, making it difficult to pursue a variety of specialties at once with such adeptness as Da Vinci did during the Renaissance, when many questions about the way the universe worked were still in question.
To say that polymaths do not exist in today's society, however, is also invalid. Scientists, thinkers, revolutionaries - the people who change our world today rarely demonstrate talents in only one field. One name that comes immediately to mind is that of Richard Feynman, who is best known as a world-class physicist and Nobel Laureate. Feynman was a member of the Manhattan Project, but nursed inhibitions about the atomic age after the bombs he helped create were dropped on civilians in Japan. Throughout his life, he pioneered new applications and technologies such as quantum computing and nanotechnology. He was also a member of the Rogers Commission which investigated the Challenger disaster. During this time he undertook an experiment with the effects of cold temperature on O-Rings, which was the eventually the discovered cause of the explosion. As a result of this experience, he began to develop the stance that the government, in their idealism for space missions, had begun to convey unrealistic, fantastical estimates of success, and continued to warn of the dangers of this in lectures such as that published in "The Meaning of It All: Thoughts of a Citizen Scientist".
However, outside of physics, Feynman also displayed a serious interest in varied pursuits such as biology, lockpicking, percussion (while teaching students in Brazil, he learned how to play samba music on the bongos, quite well allegedly), and painting. His lectures (which are on both physics and commentary on politics) and books (which describe his life) are still widely distributed today. However, it must be noted that many of these pursuits were later discarded or never came to true fruition, as much of Feynman's time and talent was concentrated of his true love, physics.
Throughout modern history, there have been thousands, if not millions, out there like Feynman, who demonstrate talent and intelligence in a variety of ways. However, due to the rapid expansion of knowledge and the modern difficulty of attaining a expert-level grasp of fields, it is difficult to find even one who demonstrates deep knowledge and talent for several separate fields, as the quintessential Renaissance Man, da Vinci, did. Perhaps it should be considered anachronistic to refer to modern-day Renaissance Men, as increasingly the idea of a generalist such as Da Vinci becomes harder to attain, and leads instead to misguided attempts to become a jack of all trades (but more commonly, a master of none).
Leonardo Da Vinci not only was an amazing inventor and scientist he was much more. He was an artist, sculptor, mathematician, engineer, architect, astronomer and a real “Renaissance Man” many centuries ahead of his time. He was able to identify the way blood flows through the heart, which was not discovered until the late 20th century. He even made designs to create an artificial heart and an artificial man. His greatest aspiration flight was also very advanced for he designed a glider featuring an air foil, something not actually created until WWI. His painting, the Mona Lisa still remains one of the greatest works of art to date and was one of the first artists to use atmospheric perspective in his landscape backgrounds. The list of Da Vinci’s achievements and successes could go on and on, but could the genius that is Leonardo Da Vinci ever be recreated. Will there or could there ever be another Da Vinci?
Although there are some great genius’s of modern day I don’t think they can match the work of Da Vinci. Not only were Da Vinci’s achievements in each field astounding, but it was that he was able to make so many contributions to so many fields that made him truly remarkable. In this day and age I don’t think that someone like Da Vinci could truly exist. During the Renaissance there was not so much of a focus to find a certain career, people like Da Vinci were able to study and experiment in several different fields. In today’s society people work and study more as a job not just to learn more, as Da Vinci did. While Da Vinci was hired to develop weapons or do a painting he there wasn’t as much of set careers. He had time to study and develop his ideas in whatever area’s he chose. This is not as much possible today. Also today the scientific field is much greater so pinpointing one main leader would be very difficult when so much work is being done. Also many discoveries are made in teams and by several people, which increases this difficulty. Thus there really will never be another true Da Vinci.
After researching there are some people who do show great aptitude in many fields and could be considered kind of like a modern day Da Vinci. One of these examples is Santiago Calatrava an artist, engineer, and architect. Like Da Vinci he combined his vast knowledge to create biomorphic bridges and buildings, such as the Milwaukee Art Museum, which features a wing-like sunscreen that opens and closes over the glass reception hall. Another example of a modern Da Vinci could be Alan Bodner who is working on who is working on creating a new sort of underwater breathing apparatus. Like Da Vinci Bodner has taken inspiration from nature as he is trying to create a system to extract the oxygen dissolved in water as fish do. The team of Soo-in Yang and David Benjamin have also been inspired by aquatic animals. They have been working on creating a window that when activated by high-levels of carbon dioxide in a room will allow oxygen to pass into the room through gill-like splits and after the morphing plastic will regain its original shape. James DeLaurier, an aerospace engineer, could also be an example. He is currently working on a project to create a full scale ornithopter, which is a flying machine that mimics that flying patterns of a bird. The machine is 780 pounds and has a 41 foot wingspan; it is set to fly later this year. Da Vinci’s greatest obsession was flight and in his own designs he tried to copy the idea of how birds fly. While these men and women may not be truly modern Da Vinci’s as the number of contributions and vastness of fields they work in don’t come close to his as no one’s really can they are extremely gifted individuals. They have kept on work similar to Da Vinci’s like his use of nature in designs and combinations of science, engineering, and art to create his amazing achievements, which makes them great followers of Da Vinci and modern versions of him.
I believe the incredible mind of Leonardo da Vinci is something the world will most likely never see again. His revolutionary concepts such as his invention of technical drawings, and the way he was able to pick apart nature into the most finite details, created foundations which modern science is still building off of today. For example his experiment to find how the aortic valve of a human heart functions, was used as a bases over 500 years later by modern biologists. When I say I don’t believe in the existence of a modern day da Vinci, I’m not eluding to any conclusion that this era doesn’t have its share of brilliant minds. Steven Hawking, Bill Gates, and Steve Wosniak, are all extremely intelligent, but I don’t think that in hundreds of years that they will be looked at the same way Leonardo is today. Da Vinci’s ideas were too far ahead of their time then the ones of these modern day genius’s. The mind of Leonardo da Vinci is something that simply hasn’t been matched yet.
Leonardo Da Vinci was one of the most brilliant and incredible men of all time. The thoughts that he put forth in art, science, mathematics, aviation and medicine just to name a few are so immense and revolutionary that they still form some of the core ideas of modern day thinking. To be able to become a master of some many fields some of them that seem so obscurely non-related is so astounding that it is a feat that I believe can never be matched. Especially with so much knowledge that has been gathered over the centuries since in these fields. Nowadays to be come a master in a specific field takes a life’s devotion and to be a master in so many fields and then put forth a plethora innovative ideas would be an accomplishment so outrageous that it simply can’t be done. A person may be able to do this in one field and be remembered but to have one person’s ideas form the core of thinking for variety of fields for centuries would take divine like talent that was possessed by only Da Vinci.
I highly doubt that there is a modern day Da Vinci. I believe Leonardo Da Vinci was truly a one of a kind man. Da Vinci was remarkably talented; from an artist, scientist, to a mathematician, and so forth. His achievements were so great that it would probably be impossible to match them. I feel that in Leonardo Da Vinci’s time, it was only possible for him to exist or become such an excelled person, given that unlike today, there were not as many technologies and advances available to him. Subsequently, he had to work alone and harder to find the explanations or reasoning to many things. Only what surrounded him and nature allowed for him to come up with immense logics. However, in today’s world, there are countless amounts of knowledge from the past and present that we can obtain, so it would rather be secondary talent rather than primary if one came as close to Da Vinci, since he previously accomplished those talents. Furthermore, this blog response has made me ponder if in today’s world, Could there or Would there be a person just as equivalent to Leonardo Da Vinci? The world today is shifting at such a rapid rate that it would be impractical to become a modern day Da Vinci. In other words, who would take the time, as did Da Vinci, to go so deeply into painting religious paintings or inventing a flying machine? People today are instead worrying about Global Warming and the worsening of the economy. Therefore, in my opinion, Leonardo Da Vinci was quite a spectacular individual and there is not one person that could compare to his prominence.
The problem with deciding on a modern day Da Vinci is that much of Leonardo Da Vinci’s acclaim came many centuries after he had died. While it is true that he was extremely famous for his talent and inventiveness while he was alive, this is true of other men of his day. What sets Da Vinci apart was how truly advanced he was for his time- something that has not been discovered until recently. Leonardo Da Vinci invented workable flying machines centuries before the Wright brothers. He designed weapons, such as his crossbow catapult, that are more effective then their modern counterparts. He figured out how our heart worked without ever looking at a living one. These accomplishments are remarkable, yet they were not even known about in his time. While Leonardo Da Vinci’s art was extremely sought after when he lived, the information in his private journals were private. Some of them were even destroyed after he died, truly showing how some in the Renaissance had no idea how amazing he was. To find someone of our time who is like Da Vinci? We’d have to wait decades, possibly even centuries, to find out if their private sketches are the workings of a master.
Another complication in finding a modern day Da Vinci comes from a cultural difference between the Renaissance and today. Now we have television, movies, and the Internet, modern celebrities are nothing like what they were in Da Vinci’s day. The people who are studied are not done so because they have incredible minds, but because of how they look. The skills that are valued today are also different, being a ‘Renaissance man’ now means you can sing, dance, and act. Those in the intellectual world also tend to mainly focus on one subject, PhDs do take 5-7 years to receive, and because our culture emphasizes education, with good reason, without training in academia it is very hard to be taken seriously. All of these factors contribute to the immense difficulty of finding a modern Da Vinci, so I believe that the only possible way to ever find one is to wait until their true genius is revealed, most likely many years in the future.
Beyond doubt, Leonardo Da Vinci was one of the greatest masterminds of all time. Many of his inventions were decades, even centuries ahead of his time. To this day, people are still discovering new things about Da Vinci’s work and then applying these innovations to help improve our life. Whether it was by means of art, science, or math, Da Vinci has influenced everyone in the world in some way. Centuries after his death, people still refer to Da Vinci as almost a demy-god, who possessed unnatural wit power and could invent machines that were centuries ahead of its time. Such a figure has yet to appear in history that can be labeled as a “Modern Day Da Vinci”.
Even though no one person can be labeled as the ‘Modern Da Vinci”, there are some people who have affected our lives greatly. One such person, who comes into mind, is Bill Gates. It is mainly thanks to Bill Gate’s company - Microsoft - that people all around the world have a personal computer at their homes. Without these computers many people all over the world would be completely lost in their daily life. Bill Gates influence has mostly been on the technological field, unlike Da Vinci, who influenced the fields of science, art, sculpture and warfare. Even though Bill Gates has influenced our lives greatly, he has not had as much of an impact as Da Vinci. Only the future can tell us if such a man as Da Vinci will ever some into existence.
AnnMarie Augusto
AP European History
Mr. Kirby
18 September 2009
Leonardo Da Vinci was a man of inexplicable intelligence and modesty during the sixteenth century. He has been known as a voracious and artistic individual who acquired a fantastic power of invention and development. The continued high regard toward Da Vinci from other mathematicians, scientists, artists, and historians is inconceivable. Although not understood by others at the time, Da Vinci drew countless sketches of new techniques and ideas he came up with. He is credited with coming up and drawing numerous creations such as; a single span bridge, flying machines, hang gliders, helicopters, bows, and his curiosity about the heart valve. Da Vinci has also portrayed his inquisitiveness about the world around him by painting several pictures including, “The Mona Lisa,” “The Last Supper,” and “The Virgin on the Rocks.” Da Vinci is well known for his broad array of aptitude in copious fields of study.
After reading about Leonardo Da Vinci in Spielvogel, and watching a film dedicated to him, I have realized how much of an impact he has made on the society we live in today. Without knowing, Da Vinci was shaping the future of the world as he critically thought up his sketches and how everything was to work correctly. I do not believe one can pin point a specific person that could possibly have such an assortment of interests and talents as Da Vinci had. As we enter college, we decide on a major; what we want to do for our career when we get out of high school. As people are growing and expanding their knowledge in an educational environment, they are deciding on what they are good at, and what they feel they can pursue as a lifelong career. It is almost impossible today to not just focus on one, but over ten specific professions. Da Vinci was a one-of-a-kind genius that cannot be compared to.
It is obscurely false to declare that there are not people that are incredibly smart that have the potential to change the world. Steve Wozniak and Steve Jobs created an enormous monopoly that altered the way people live their life. As the inventors of the Apple Computer, they have changed peoples’ priorities in life as well as made it more convenient and comfortable to live. Da Vinci also revealed these characteristics when he helped mankind understand the heart valve and provided a start on how people could visit other countries in the future by commencing the idea of flying. Although Da Vinci and Wozniak have some common goals, they are exceptionally different.
Wozniak only focused on science. As a little boy, he was driven in mathematics and science and viewed it as a puzzle in life to solve. Unlike Wozniak, de Vinci was gifted in all areas of study and therefore was able to contribute an idea from each of his subjects.
Only time can tell what the future holds for us. One can not say whether there is or is not someone out there who is secretly coming up with new inventions that will surface in the future like Da Vinci, or if someone famous will make an everlasting impression due to their remarkable works. Da Vinci is a legend that no one can measure up to because of his vast array of knowledge and astounding success in all areas of study.
Printed in the late 1490s, the Last Supper vividly depicted the biblical scene of Christ’s last supper with the disciples before his capture and crucifixion. The painting was done by the hand of the foremost High Renaissance figure signore Leonardo Da Vinci, one of the most extraordinary artists ever existed on Earth. Born to a wealthy merchant and a peasant woman, Da Vinci’s incredible craftsmanship and artistic skills made him a distinctive character. One may ask what really made him an unique Renaissance character and one of the most extraordinary artists that I assert him to be.
This multi-talented genius was a painter, sculptor, anatomist, scientist, and engineer. In anatomy, Da Vinci correctly predicted the mechanism behind the pumping of human blood. He predicted this hundreds of years before the x-ray machine was invented. Da Vinci, a fervid nature-lover predicted that the shine of the moon came from the reflection of the sun. He also accurately envisaged the formation of rocks. The brilliant mind stunned the predecessors again by his manuscripts on thousands of scientific inventions. He had fascinating designs such as the bobbin winder, the glider, the calculator, the concentrated solar power, and a tank—to name a few. In short, Da Vinci’s mind undoubtedly was ahead of his time. In addition, I venerate Da Vinci for his compassion. Known to few individuals, he was a vegetarian and led a austere life. He was disgusted by the pleasures that the human body desired, thus denied himself meat and physical needs. Records showed that while the eccentric mastermind lived in Florence, he used to buy caged birds from local fairs so that he could set them free.
By definition, it is an arduous task to find an equal of Da Vinci in our present-day society. However to say that no modern man deserves the title “Modern Day Da Vinci” is rather harsh on the human race. So I choose to believe that there may be men who attain some of Da Vinci’s traits, men such as the theoretical phycist Stephan Hawking. Suffering from amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, Hawking is almost completely paralyzed. Tragedy struck when he was only 21 years old, Hawking has been using a wheel chair ever since. Nevertheless disability did not thwart him from achieving greatness. Through an electronic voice synthesizer, Hawking was able to communicate his brilliant mind.During his career, Hawking published the acclaimed Hawking Radiation discovery and singularities theorems. Additionally, the witty Hawking is also well-known for his humanitarian effort in supporting the SOS Children’s Villages UK. Similar to Da Vinci, Stephen Hawking strove for the betterment of the human race, his unmatched aptitude, and great achievements; therefore I boldly claim that he closely resembles Da Vinci.
Leonardo Da Vinci is incomparable in nearly all aspects. Selecting simply one person that embodies the accolades of Da Vinci would be an insult to his name. If you were able to take a group of people of various fields and then compare them to Da Vinci, it would accurately represent his plethora of accomplishments. I also cannot personally predict someone in the future that could even come close to such achievements.
Not only did Da Vinci transform common ideals and innovate for his own era, he set the standard for innovations to come. From human flight, to the human body, Da Vinci covered nearly all aspects of our lives, and discovered ways to improve them. From art, to engineering, to literature, and theology, Da Vinci covered it all! His unparalleled ability to observe the natural world around him, and find ways to use it to his advantage, was so unique and original.
So to assume that anyone could ever come close to his almost superhuman ability to foresee such advancements would not compare to anyone of the past, present, or even the near future.
Salman N. Rahman
AP European History
Mr. Kirby
It’s sad but I presume to be true that there is no one in modern day who could be looked upon in the same light as we look upon the great intellectual Leonardo Da Vinci. Da Vinci is considered one of the greatest painters of the Italian Renaissance. However, he was not only a painter but simultaneously a man with high expertise in the field of art, science and engineering, mathematics, anatomy, philosophy and many more. We can simply say Leonardo Da Vinci was a polymath and held many theoretical ideas that we have just recently found out to be accurate. It is considered that only one-third of his work is available to us today and many of which still consist mysteries to be yet resolved. Taken all together, there can be no one in the world in modern day who could possess so much talent and expertise in so many variety of fields. A few names of expert such as Bill Gates, Albert Einstein, etc do arise in my mind whose ideas and works are being greatly valued for years and most likely would be valued the same way in future, but all of them were only experts in a their particular fields unlike Da Vinci who is a polymath and held great ideas and works even though we only have a fraction of his works available.
Modern day highly qualified scholars are trying to gain expertise in a particular field in order to achieve success. The branching of major fields today is making one person expert at only a particular thing. People no more find the luxury of time to be able to broaden their expertise in a wide range of fields. Each refined field today consists of so much facts, knowledge, innovations, and mysteries that scholars have a tough time becoming an expert at just that particular field they are studying. So, today I think it is almost impossible to have someone who could be looked upon in the same way as we look upon the great Italian intellectual Leonardo Da Vinci.
Although I'm not aware of many modern day "Da Vinci's" I still feel like there are skilled individuals with exceptional ideas. When I think of successful inventors, I think of the technology that I use every day and who created it. Although I am not sure the name of the individual, Honda invented and produced the first hybrid car. I find this an important invention, because it's useful, practical, and helpful. Today, a big issue is protecting the environment, which the hybrid car is successfully doing. Not only is it safer for the environment but it is also practical for the economy. Da Vinci created inventions and theories that are still used today. I believe that in the future hybrid cars will be an important invention that will not only help the environment, but also inspire inventors the further improve the car's benefit. On the other hand, I still feel as though Leonardo is one of his kind, and although there are many inventors in the modern world, Da Vinci is still the leading competitor. Despite Da Vinci having to work with primitive supplies, he still made creations that rival today's work.
I feel there is no person that could be compared to a modern day da Vinci. Da Vinci was completely ahead of his time in every aspect; his detailed drawings of the human body, all of the inventions, and the painting that he did I don’t feel that anyone today posses all of the skills and progressive thoughts and ideas da Vinci brought to the table in 14 and 1500’s. His drawings of the human body are still used today by doctors and five hundred years after his death, the Mona Lisa is the single most recigizable pice of art work in the world, and his drawing and ideas of the flying machine, when recreated today work 400 years before the Wright brothers attempt.
I don’t feel anyone will be looked at as a da Vinci of our time. He contributed too much to many different aspects of the world and was so advanced in all of his thinkings. Many people have done great things for this world we live in today but don’t have the same skills that da Vinci possessed.
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The "Renaissance Man" Leonardo Da Vinci was unarguably the most brilliant and influential men of his time. He singlehandedly shaped our methods of approaching science and nature. I feel it would be impossible to justify naming a modern individual this era's Da Vinci. I think what strikes me most about Da Vinci's accomplishments was his ability to explore science with only the comparatively primitive tools available to him. However, this did not inhibit him from becoming one of the most respected scientists of all time. In fact, it could be argued that such a deprivation of tools enabled Da Vinci to make his most well-known discoveries. With limited technology available, Da Vinci was forced to use his imagination to explore the world around him. This allowed him to observe things in nature that many a modern scientist could see without batting an eyelid. Such led to the earliest attempts at creating a It was this ingenuity that I believe made Leonardo Da Vinci the highly respected scholar that remains to this day.
It is difficult to know whether or not someone is a "modern day Da Vinci" when he/she wont be known as one until 400 or so years down the road. in Da Vinci's time, his ideas seemed completly out of the realm on possibility. That is why today we recognize him as a genius well ahead of his time because we invented things that he had already thought of when he was alive. Today, however, almost everything that man can think up can be made without much backlash. That is why there almost certainly cna't be a "modern day Da Vinci," at least not now
I feel like there is no one who can be the "Modern Day Da Vinci" because no one had the various talents such as art work, sculptures, inventions, human anatomy,and many more. Yes there are genius's that can do an incredibly difficult problem in their head before anyone else can solve it it using a calculator, but does that really make them a modern day Da Vinci. I do beleive that there will be a new Da Vinci in the years to come for certain. With all the new technology that has erupted into the hands of mainstream society today, its like we strive off of it. There will be a modern day Da Vinci who creates not just one invention but a couple that will benefit society in a positve way. There will be someone soon to come, but there is not a moder Da Vinci known today. No one living today can compare to Leonardo Da Vinci.
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