Hacker News Reader

I used to harbor similar fantasies (witness my username and the television series 'Pretender'). But you can't just put some supergenius 8-year-old in a special school and have 'em pop out with the diligence required to achieve great things early in adolescence.

That's sort of the basis of Plato's Republic, no?

Oh yeah, a Chosen One fantasy: http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/TheChosenOne

For the darker side of that fantasy, see: Firefly