If I could join someone for a meal, I’d probably go with Leonardo da Vinci. He’s this perfect storm of art, science, invention, and curiosity — a human bridge between imagination and engineering. He’d probably spend the first five minutes sketching the utensils and suggesting how to improve them.
The questions I’d throw at him would get weird fast:
“What did it feel like to imagine things centuries ahead of your time?”
“Which of your ideas do you think people still haven’t understood properly?”
“If you had access to modern technology, what would you build first — a flying machine, a robot, or something nobody’s dreamed up yet?”
“Do you think creativity is something you can teach, or is it more like a hunger that never stops?”
I imagine he’d respond with that blend of mischief and wonder — telling stories of dissecting bodies by candlelight, designing war machines he hoped would never be used, and painting expressions that still defy explanation. I think it’d be less about “deep wisdom” and more about catching sparks — the sense of restless curiosity that makes someone like him timeless.