the real rain-man

[da jake]

who's also pretty clever musically

&search=Savant

[BoliverAllmon]

insane

[jason2711]

That's incredible, I always wonder what people like that actually end up doing with their lives... it seems a gift that amazing should be put to use more than just as some sort of 'freak show'.

He's able to recall everything but I'm not sure if there's much thought going into it, it's really strange.  The memory is awesome, and his perfect pitching/ aural memory would be great for music.  However, with that sort of ability, he'd be able to do a lot of useful things in many different fields...  I think I might try and find that film to watch

[BoliverAllmon]

his memory is phenomenal, but I wonder if his common sense and problem solving skills are good. If they aren't, he wouldn't be able to accomplish much.

[prometheus]

This is not amazing, but it is very unusual.


The human brain is very powerful. But its power is usually used for different things. A friend of mine can read persons in such a way it seems she can read people's minds. That is what humans are good at. Recognising a face require enormous calculations. Then recognising all the facial experssions and emotions of that face require enormous amounts of calculatons as well. Then a person has to place this in relationship to all the complex and different kinds of emotions stored in a 'database' and make sense out of this. All people can do this and on one finds this amazing.

We know how easy it is to build and program a computer that can store information with total recall. We know how hard it is to build and program a computer that can recognise faces and their expressions. Of course the nature of our computers are different from the brain and their nature is more useful for tasks like memorisation instead of pattern recognition.

[BoliverAllmon]

you sound jealous

[prometheus]

Of my friend, yes.

I have an excellent memory. I think I would gladly exchange it for the ability to 'read people'.

[BoliverAllmon]

no, you sound jealous of rain-main

[jason2711]

i don't think I would be jealous... he doesn't seem very happy, and his independant though powers don't seem that great.  Would be cool to have a memory like that, but not at the expense of other things which he seems to have

[henrah]

It seems all amazing savants have a disability of some kind. Wouldn't it be cool to have a savant that was completely normal in everything but what his ability excelled in? Or maybe that's not the definition of a savant...

[da jake]

It seems all amazing savants have a disability of some kind. Wouldn't it be cool to have a savant that was completely normal in everything but what his ability excelled in? Or maybe that's not the definition of a savant...

Daniel Tammet:

&search=daniel%20tammet

Very well-adjusted savant. The expert estimates that there are less than 50 people on the planet capable of what Daniel does...that means that this guy is around 1 in over 100 million. Incredible.

[henrah]

I remember seeing this on Channel 5 a while ago, and it was amazing that he could calculate pie to something like a million places. At least I think it was that many, it took him over 5hours to do it, so I think it might have been. Or something just as amazing
Henrah

[prometheus]

I think those pi people generally memorise the number. Not something you and I couldn't do but something we don't want to do.
Also when you said 'pie' I became confused.

[pianolearner]

I remember seeing this on Channel 5 a while ago, and it was amazing that he could calculate pie to something like a million places. At least I think it was that many, it took him over 5hours to do it, so I think it might have been. Or something just as amazing
Henrah

1 million? Unlikely. He would need to recite 55 numbers per second to do it in around 5 hours. That alone would be a world record.

The current record is 83,431 decimal places.

https://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/asia-pacific/4644103.stm

[henrah]

Well calculating an apple pie to a million places will be just as significant as pi

[da jake]

LOL, henrah. 

I think those pi people generally memorise the number. Not something you and I couldn't do but something we don't want to do.

Maybe, but these are the same people that can raise 34^4 in (Daniel Tammet) and calculate the 13th roots of 200 digit numbers in their heads (Alexis Lemaire).

Scientists think there's a possibility that normal brains can be trained to perform some degree of those skills, but in the case of Tammet and Lemaire their brains are just freakishly more powerful than ours. (sorry!)

[prometheus]

Has it been proven that their brains have overall more power? I would like to read about that.

[edit]
Wikipedia says that Tammet has autism, synaesthesia, and epilepsy.

[anekdote]

Their brains do not have more power than ours.

Believe it or not, incredible mathematical calculations can be learned with tools such as the abacus. After becoming extremely well acquainted with an abacus, some people are actually able to visualize the abacus in their mind, and this enables them to perform quick calculations of large numbers in their head. It is believed that the mathematical savant's mind may operate similarly (Daniel Tammett reports that he associates all numbers with a unique symbol).

I recommend watching the TV documentary "Brain Man" which is about Daniel Tammett. Very interesting and amazing.

[prometheus]

I can't find that documentary online...