Christopher Michael Langan is an American horse rancher, former bar bouncer, and independent writer who gained public attention for his exceptionally high IQ scores. Born in 1952, Langan achieved prominence when he was featured in the Guinness Book of World Records' high IQ section under the pseudonym Eric Hart. Despite his intellectual capabilities, Langan did not pursue a traditional academic career, dropping out of college twice and spending much of his life working in blue-collar roles. His life story and the discrepancy between his high cognitive test scores and his conventional career path became a central focus of journalist Malcolm Gladwell's 2008 book Outliers: The Story of Success, which compared Langan's trajectory to that of physicist J. Robert Oppenheimer.
As a writer and theorist, Langan is best known for developing the "Cognitive-Theoretic Model of the Universe" (CTMU), a philosophical and cosmological theory which proposes that reality functions as a self-simulation. He self-published a book detailing this model in 2002. Beyond his cosmological work, Langan has expressed a variety of controversial and fringe beliefs in his self-published writings and interviews. These include advocacy for eugenics to combat what he terms "genomic degradation," opposition to interracial relationships, and support for conspiracy theories such as the 9/11 truth movement. His political commentary and fringe views have garnered him a significant following within alt-right circles.