Dr. Martin Hash Podcast

In the spectrum of human achievements, some people's success can only be explained through amazing luck, or something we don't quite understand. Folks have always recognized this, and have attributed these extremes to "grace of God," or some other mystical aspect like karma. If you aren't a believer, if you are a science person, then how do you explain Donald Trump? "Meta" is as good a word as any; it has a long history in terms like metaphysics, and certainly has been explored extensively in comic lore; but is it real? And how would you recognize if someone was a "Meta"? Perhaps they can be identified by the number of things they're good at, or by their inexplicable success?

A Meta is a level of awareness and all-round intellectual capability that people don't currently possess outside of imaginative stories. It's problematic to call historical figures Meta: Benjamin Franklin seems like a good bet, but notable people like Isaac Newton, though he was certainly admirable, a cursory examination of his life in unconvincing. Modern-day Metas are even more controversial to try and identify: Elon Musk? Richard Branson? Dr. Dre and p-diddy stand out as incomprehensibly successful; what about them? There's probably even a Meta or two at the top of large crime syndicates. Just mentioning the Meta concept gets a lot of people's hackles up, triggering some deep-seated psychological insecurity. For others, Metas are fun to talk about but impossible to say.