Mensa in an international association which is also known as "the IQ society" because it welcomes members whose IQ is in the top 2% of the population regardless of their sex, age, race, national origin, religion, politics, culture and walk of life. It is no accident that the word "mensa" means "table" in Latin. In other words, Mensa is a round-table society for its members.
Mensa was founded in the UK in 1946 with the goal of creating an association of bright people who wanted to enjoy each other's company and participate in social and cultural activities.
Although several similar associations have been founded in the last decades of the 20th century, Mensa International remains the largest and the most popular, with more than 120,000 members, also known as "mensans", in more than 100 countries. Although the majority live in English-speaking nations such as the US and the UK, some members have also established domicile in the world's most remote places.
However, as technology evolves and becomes more sophisticated, mensans hang out not only in the real world, but also in the virtual world. The world famous 3D virtual environment "Second Life" has a region that provides a forum for intellectual exchange where mensans from all over the world hang out and have a good time.
Giuseppe Macario, PhD, is an entrepreneur, researcher and computer programmer, well-known in the Rome area, who is also a member of Mensa International in Vatican City. He explains that this kind of virtual environment allows you to communicate with a lot of members from any country, which would not be possible through traditional methods.
As a member of the Rome Chamber of Commerce, Macario is in charge of virtual reality technologies and has always been a strong advocate for virtual environments and headsets. After coordinating the Italian region for Reuters Second Life bureau, he decided to transform the same simulator into an independent region for Mensa International and the whole Second Life international community. It has been an extremely rewarding experience, he says. He also managed to find some Second Life residents willing to take a real IQ test in the hope of joining Mensa International.
