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Date: Fri, 24 Jun 2005 09:44:10 -0400
From: Mike Ryder
Subject: pi man
To: [Family member B]
Cc: [Family member A]
Hi
I guess you are referring to Daniel Tammet. Apparently he is a
high functioning autistic savant - see below.
My ideas? It's a very interesting psychological phenomena that
appears to manifest itself in the brain of a few people who have
suffered developmental abnormalities af the brain. I think it
indicates that we have a relatively crude understanding of the brain.
There is a school of thought that suggests that a brain is logically
incapable of understanding the functioning of the brain. ie there
is some sort of logically induced metaphorical feedback loop. I'm not
sure how I feel about this - it's been a long time since I've thought
about it.
**************************
Daniel Tammet (born 1979) is a British autistic savant gifted with a
facility for mathematics problems, sequence memory, and natural
language learning.
Unlike many savants, Tammet is not severely developmentally disabled.
He is independent and, although reportedly nervous around large groups
of people, does not have the severe lack of social skills that many
autistic savants have. Significantly, he is therefore able to
articulate his savant experience. describing his mathematical
calculations in terms of shape-form and visualizations and emotionally
sensitive reactions (a particular fondness for pi) rather than by
traditional methodical processes. Tammet holds the European record for
remembering and recounting pi, recounting it in a several hour session
to its 22514th digit. [1]
(http://www.admin.ox.ac.uk/po/news/2003-04/mar/15.shtml)
Professor Allan Snyder at the Australian National University said of
Tammet: "Savants can't usually tell us how they do what they do," says
Snyder. "It just comes to them. Daniel can. He describes what he sees
in his head. That's why he's exciting. He could be the Rosetta Stone."
He was the subject of a documentary in the UK titled The Boy With The
Amazing Brain that was broadcast on Five on May 24, 2005. It showed
highlights of his feat of recalling Pi as well as his meeting with the
American autistic savant Kim Peek. In one emotional moment of the show,
Peek hugged Tammet and told him "I hope you are as brilliant as me one
day."
***************************************
Autistic savant
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
An autistic savant (more commonly known as an idiot savant) is a person
who expresses extraordinary mental abilities, often in the fields of
numerical calculation (not to be confused with mathematics) (see also
mental calculator), art, or music but usually set within the context of
autism or mental retardation.
Contents [showhide]
1 Abilities
2 Famous autistic savants
3 In movies and literature
4 See also
5 Further reading
6 External links
[edit]
Abilities
When one has an extraordinary single skill in an otherwise
unexceptional intellect, he or she may simply be described as a savant,
without qualifier, although savant is usually meant to mean a person of
learning, especially one of great knowledge in a particular subject,
without remarking on the person's overall state of intellect.
It is a rare phenomenon which occurs in some autistic people and/or
people with certain developmental disorders. Some people have acquired
savant-like abilities after suffering from head injuries.
Autistic savantism is usually recognised during childhood and is often
but not always found in autistic children. However it is also sometimes
acquired in an accident or illness, typically one that impairs the left
side of the brain. There is some research that suggests that it can be
induced, which might support the view that unusual savant abilities are
innate within all of us but obscured by the normal functioning
intellect.
Most autistic savants have very extensive mental abilities, called
splinter skills. They can memorize facts, numbers, license plates,
maps, and extensive lists of sports and weather statistics. Some
savants can mentally note and then recall back perfectly a very long
series of music, numbers, or speech.
Some other autistic savant skills include:
* lightning-fast arithmetic calculations, including
finding prime factorizations
* precisely estimating distances by sight
* calculating the day of the week for any given date over
the span of tens of thousands of years
* perfect perception of passing time without a clock
Why autistic savants are capable of this sort of astonishing ability is
not quite clear. Some savants have obvious neurological abnormalities,
but the brains of most such individuals savants are anatomically and
physiologically normal.
Examples of autistic savants include Blind Tom, who had exceptional
musical ability although no musical education, and Richard Wawro, who
is an exceptional autistic artist.
[edit]
Famous autistic savants
* Jebediah Buxton, US savant calculator
* Alonzo Clemons, US wax sculptor
* Blind Tom, blind and mentally handicapped pianist in the
1860's USA
* Tony DeBlois, US blind and autistic musician
* Jonathan Lerman, US autistic artist
* Leslie Lemke, US blind musician with brain damage
* Vito Mangiamele, Sicilian savant calculator
* Thristan Mendoza, Filipino autistic marimba prodigy
* Gottfried Mind, German autistic artist in 18th century
(b. 1768)
* Hikari Oe, Japanese developmentally delayed composer
* Derek Paravicini, US blind musician with learning
disability
* Kim Peek, US autistic with eidetic memory and model for
Rain Man
* James Henry Pullen, British deaf-mute "Genius of
Earlswood Asylum"
* Matthew Savage, US autistic jazz prodigy
* Gilles Trehin, French autistic artist and creator of the
fictitious city of Urville
* Richard Wawro, Scottish autistic artist
* Stephen Wiltshire, British autistic artist
* Ben Philibain, Australian autistic savant calculator
* Daniel Tammet, UK synaesthetic high-functioning autistic
savant
bravenet.com