Leonardo da Vinci is pretty high on my list.
I think those Renaissance polymaths were amazing, and he's the most impressive of all.

'Flights of the Mind' by Charles Nicoll is a superb biography - all taught me a load of stuff I had no idea about. I highly recommend it:
www.amazon.co.uk/Leonardo-Vinci-Flights-Charles-Nicholl/dp/0140296816
( Monty Boyce, My cheese game is strong, Thu 10 Mar 2011, 11:18, 2 replies, latest was 15 years ago)

I think we're so used to the idea of brilliant minds/geniuses nowadays that it's easy to forgot how awesome his ideas were for his time.
I would guess that today's equivelant would be Stephen Hawking designing a machine for time travel.
( girlinthehole, Thu 10 Mar 2011, 11:23, Reply)

Stephen Hawking can't even design a proper car, let alone a time machine.

( Bartleby A dead man on vacation, Thu 10 Mar 2011, 11:26, Reply)

And he has that awful fake American accent too.
I say he's a pretentious cunt. He gets loads of fanny though.
( Monty Boyce, My cheese game is strong, Thu 10 Mar 2011, 11:27, Reply)

I hear that he has a carbon fibre rod inserted into little stephen so he can perform.
And that he prefers black holes.
( Bartleby A dead man on vacation, Thu 10 Mar 2011, 11:33, Reply)

da vinci was the man
someone being that good at so much stuff is just unheard of these days

it's the equivalent of stephen hawking builing a time machine and being a fucking brilliant artist
( Vipros. clever got me this far, then tricky got me in, Thu 10 Mar 2011, 12:00, Reply)