ABSTRACT
One way to understand the history of human civilization is via its inventions and discoveries. All human cultural development builds on the amazing technological, scientific, educational, and moral achievements of the human mind. People of exceptionally high ability thus remain an extremely important source of cultural innovation and renewal. By “high ability,” we mean exceptional human abilities referred to by terms like giftedness, talent, creativity, genius, child prodigies, innovation, and wisdom. Despite the evident social importance of highly able people, the phenomenon of high ability is far from well understood.
