[quectophoton]

I have deep respect for these geniuses of the past.

Imagine what they could have achieved if they have had access to modern tools, even "just" something like a graphing calculator[1].

[1]: I like https://www.desmos.com/calculator

[GuB-42]

I actually think the tools and environment are more important that the genius.

There are thousands, maybe millions of people with genius-level intellect, all capable of being the next Leonardo or Einstein. Out of them only a small fraction grew up in the right environment, usually wealthy families, but that's still a lot of people. The next, and I think most important requirement are the tool needed to make the discovery, or even just to know that a discovery is to be made.

For example, if you don't have the tools needed to notice that the speed of light isn't infinite, special relativity makes no sense. General relativity requires even more tricky measurement, in fact it didn't came long after people noticed something was wrong with Newtonian mechanics.

Tools are in the general sense. Physical object like a computer or a good telescope, manufacturing techniques and even maths, think of the "shoulders of giants" thing.

So it would be more like giving the graphing calculator the genius it needs rather than going back in time and giving the genius a graphing calculator.

[david927]

Nicely said. Alan Kay talks a lot about this.

[xeonmc]

Desmos? You mean a full-blown Turing-complete simulation platform[0]?

[0] https://www.desmos.com/calculator/vjnhlumjiw

[anoncow]

That website is (chef’s kiss) and I don’t understand what it is about.

[ZiiS]

My worry is giving someone with da Vinci's thirst for knowledge Wikipedia and they may never have time to achieve anything.

[kwhitefoot]

What Leonardo needed was staff. He needed to run a research institute and offload the implementation to people who were less easily distracted.

[mo_42]

Yes! During his lifetime, he was mainly seen as an artist. He probably earned well but still magnitudes lower than what he would have needed to get something done. Just imagine if there would have been something like venture capitalists.

I guess in terms of the big five, he was super-high in openness but no so high in conscientiousness. In today's world he would fit better because he could run an institute or a company.

[rerdavies]

Even better, imagine what he could have achieved if he had access to modern calculus!