William James Sidis was an American child prodigy with exceptional mathematical and linguistic skills who is known for his 1920 book The Animate and the Inanimate, in which he speculates about the origin of life in the context of thermodynamics. His parents, who wanted him to be gifted, raised him in a particular manner to nurture in him a precocious love of knowledge. He became a polyglot like his father and was the youngest person to enroll at Harvard University at 11. Upon graduation at 16, he taught mathematics, but was deterred by the negative media publicity he received and his treatment by students older than him. He was active in politics in his youth and fought against interference into public life, by individuals or governments. He eventually became a social recluse and shunned mathematics altogether, preferring to “operate an adding machine”. Even though his mother and sister often exaggerated about his achievements, he received praise for his intellect from contemporaries like Norbert Wiener, Daniel Frost Comstock and William James.
