“Two things are infinite: the universe and human stupidity; and I’m not sure about the universe.” The only thing Albert Einstein was ever wrong about. As the most intelligent life form on Earth, humans have evolved immensely over the centuries and achieved things other forms of life will never be able to no matter how much they evolve. From the Neolithic revolution after the nomadic era to the Fourth Industrial Revolution in a matter of 12, 000 years, humans are a one of a kind species whose intelligence is unlikely to ever be replaced by another living creature.

From his perspective, Einstein may have perceived humans as stupid, simple-minded creatures as the humans around him at the time likely could not keep up with his sheer intelligence, but does this make the whole human race stupid? The invention of transportation, architecture, technology and concepts about everything in the universe have revolutionised our lives. Sure, Einstein may have felt that humans were stupid, but this only reflects perspectivism and his own interpretation (similar to relativism); the only other forms of life we can compare humans to are animals, and from a greater perspective looking at all the known living creatures in the universe, humans are by far incomparable when it comes to intelligence. For starters, humans are the only creatures to be intelligent enough to study themselves and create and invent things to help them evolve, whereas animals rely purely on adapting to the changing world around them to ‘evolve’. We have the most advanced forms of communication, reasoning and development, and in relation to other living organisms, it is simply stupid of a human to consider humans stupid.

Einstein said that human stupidity was ‘infinite’. It is true that we have caused major, long-lasting environmental issues, killed our own kind, and damaged the very Earth we live on. But the fact that we as humans recognise these problems and recognise that a lot of the things we do are quite stupid speaks for itself, proving that we are not in fact stupid. Problems like global warming, deforestation and poverty are all issues that we have created ourselves, but at the same time, so much more is being done to fix them because we are intelligent enough to have the consciousness to realise that in the long-term, it will harm us in some way or another. Wild animals carry all sorts of diseases and parasites on them, but have any of them invented a cure for these illnesses instead of slowly watching their species die? Are they able to analyse their own minds and bodies or understand how the world works? Our initiative to fix major environmental and societal problems and to find better means of living by evolving current technology proves that we aren’t stupid at all and that our intelligence is unparalleled to that of any other animal.

Today, the news, media and current affairs are full of stories of human development, such as new inventions and theories. If humans really were the stupid, ignorant creatures Einstein believed they were, the current world we live in today would be more than enough to satisfy them, and no new developments would be made. The 21st century has seen advanced 3D printing, artificial body parts, gene editing and digital assistants to make our lives easier, and more importantly to benefit those in need. If Einstein was alive today, he might say that we are slowly wasting our lives away and losing independence, but little does he know that the intelligent human brain knows when enough is enough, and his perspective about humans being the infinite pinnacle of stupidity is therefore incorrect.