The Boy with the Incredible Brain

First off, if this is in the wrong forum, I apologise and would appreciate a mod moving it to the correct one.

Okay well, I was watching the Discovery Channel at about 3.00AM last night and there was a program called, "The Boy with the Incredible Brain."

His name is Daniel Tammet and he is a mathematical genius, he can recall pi to over 22,000 decimal places. He can answer very, very difficult mathematical questions in a very short period of time.

Not only that, he was invited to talk about his ability on live television in Iceland. In order to do that, he had one week to learn the Icelandic language.

I don't know about you, but it certainly takes me a hell of a lot longer than a week to learn a language.

Anyway, his language teacher didn't think he could do it... she was proven totally wrong as he spoke very fluently, using complex words.

"When I multiply numbers together, I see two shapes. The image starts to change and evolve, and a third shape emerges. That's the answer. It's mental imagery. It's like maths without having to think."

Daniel Tammet is talking. As he talks, he studies my shirt and counts the stitches. Ever since the age of three, when he suffered an epileptic fit, Tammet has been obsessed with counting. Now he is 26, and a mathematical genius who can figure out cube roots quicker than a calculator and recall pi to 22,514 decimal places. He also happens to be autistic, which is why he can't drive a car, wire a plug, or tell right from left. He lives with extraordinary ability and disability.

Links:

Daniel Tammet

Past Peak: The Amazing Daniel Tammet

Yeah, I saw this on British TV a few months ago. Remember, Icelandic is a very, very difficult language to learn, and the fact he managed it in a week is incredible. I remember at the end of the show they showed the interview in Iceland, he started off rather poorly, but as the interview progressed he was speaking almost like he was fluent.

Trouble is, he may be bright, but the old social skills are not too hot.

WOW

thats amazing, as a high school student i have to say that its...amazing,ive been doing frence for two years and the idea of speaking it fluently is...well lets just say...big....

its amazing how a physical expirience can totally change a brain

[edit on 25-11-2005 by noisy_brit_kid]

First off Daniel Tammet is an autistic savant but unlike many autistic savants, Daniel candescribe what he sees, and a little about how he thinks.

Tammet is calculating 377 multiplied by 795. Actually, he isn't "calculating": there is nothing conscious about what he is doing. He arrives at the answer instantly. Since his epileptic fit, he has been able to see numbers as shapes, colors and textures. The number two, for instance, is a motion, and five is a clap of thunder. "When I multiply numbers together, I see two shapes. The image starts to change and evolve, and a third shape emerges. That's the answer. It's mental imagery. It's like maths without having to think."... Source

I for one see numbers as shapes and colors as well. Numbers have a very special meaning in nature. They aren’t just symbols that describe the world around us, but they are symbols that make up nature, the economy, our sociology, and the way people view the world around them, no matter how subtle it may seem. I see the golden ratio almost in every object I see. Including milk in coffee, hurricanes, and even doorknobs.

What is the Golden Ratio?


The golden ratio is an irrational number, approximately 1.61803..., that possesses many interesting properties. Shapes defined by the golden ratio have long been considered aesthetically pleasing in Western cultures, reflecting nature's balance between symmetry and asymmetry and the ancient Pythagorean belief that reality is a numerical reality, except that numbers were not units as we define them today, but were expressions of ratios. The golden ratio is still used frequently in art and design. The golden ratio is also referred to as the golden proportion, golden mean, golden section, golden number, divine proportion or sectio divina.

Source

Examples of the golden ratio in nature







But lets more at who Daniel is as a person.

Daniel Tammet (born 1979) is a British autistic savant gifted with a facility for mathematics problems, sequence memory, and natural language learning.

en.wikipedia.org...

Some people say he is gay, but that may be something one of you readers would wish to research for yourself.

Now he sees numbers as actual things, and emotions. I believe what he has is open up to each one of us. We must learn from him and unlock our own savant abilities. We can create our own number’s shapes, emotions and color. This may help us calculate math, and remember long mathematical numbers easier. There is a lot unknown about Daniel’s brain but it is truly wonderful.

His ability to see math reminds me of something called “Vedic Math”

Basically Vedic math teaches users how to do mental mathematical processes that allowsthat person to process difficult math problems in their head , in very easy steps.

You may be interested in this so I provided a link.
www.vedicmaths.org...

Autistic Savants
(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), but also sometimes in art or music. Often savant skills are seen in the context of autism or mental retardation.

True savantism 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 recognized 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.

Source

Those are a few thoughts and ideas that I have on savants and Dan, so forgive me if they aren’t in some sort of fluent order.

Liquid out....


[edit on 033030p://555 by LiquidationOfDiscrepancy]

mod edit: image linking





[edit on 30-11-2005 by sanctum]

Anyway you look at it, the young man is sharp. He may be lacking some social skills which can be improved on as he matures. The amazing ability to recall numbers and work highly complex mathmaticle equations could benifit mankind if the people who support him keep him pointed in the right direction.
People like him are one of the worlds great mysteries, waiting to be unlocked by the medicle community whom at this moment in time, actually have little grasp on his condition. I hope and see a future for people with abilities such as his. Imagine if you could put all of the people in the world who are diagnosed as having the same medicle condition as Daniel. Then, have the scientific community pick a subject for them to work on such as a cure for cancer. See where I'm going w/this? All of these great minds in one location and working on a common problem. The benifits to man could be astounding. They may find a way for me to improve spelling as well

Despite people like this being scattered throughout the world and it's history, some of whom later get recognized as, "ahead of their time", mankind continues to handicap itself by rarely listening to those who aren't socially acceptable and communicate within limited, "normal" patterns.

I for one have never accepted that truth and beauty are subjective, as from very early childhood, I have been able to recognize patterns(equations) that, though I lack the language to explain, would prove themselves in things like being able to pick which of two statisticly equal animals would go on to produce, through future generations, consistantly superior quality.

Mathematicians understand that when complex problems are solved (proven/true) they display a recognizable beauty. There is also a recognized "condition" which causes otherwize "normal" people to see sounds, taste colours etc. with an integrity in their perceptions no different to us pulling our hands away from a heat that would burn us.

I don't know of an aspect of reality where patterns don't indicate whether something is true/false, beautiful/ugly, good/bad but our great difficulty seems to be that most can't recognize any, let alone all, of these patterns.

There was a wonderful feature in Omni magazine decades ago that showed the difference beteen natural things and man made. Microscopically, no matter how finely enginered and finished, man made things were jagged and ugly, lacking symetry and balance whereas even the roughest textured natural things were beautiful and balanced in their core structure.

Okay so the guiness book of world records holds Marilyn sos Savant as the person with the highest IQ (She is editor of People Magazine BTW). Now, is that where we got the term "savant?"

-P

anybody see that tv show about that person who used 10% more of his brain than normal he could lift objects without touching them i couldn't believe it at first and i still don't fully believe it but anybody know if it was true?

Nope, but it sounds like something I should have watched!

What time/channel/date was it on?

Yeah I've been hearing about this kid for a couple of years now and it's amazing what he can do.

What's more amazing is that he can actually explain it! I know that's been said but WOW!

We need to learn how this gift works so we can induce it in anyone who wants it. I for one would do it if they could get it to not impair social skills (which are really instincts and NOT skills but they CAN be learned as such)

This could be the tipping point pushing our species foward a million years over night so to speak.

Human induced evolution indeed...

Originally posted by Neutrino
anybody see that tv show about that person who used 10% more of his brain than normal he could lift objects without touching them i couldn't believe it at first and i still don't fully believe it but anybody know if it was true?

We use all of our brain we just don't use it more then 10% at any one moment.
If that happened you would go into seizure and in reality there is no place that
doesn't have some activity at any givin time of a normal 24 hour day.

kinda of amazing if u ask me brings a whole new meaning to the slur some autistics get called idiot savants. One thing did intrigue me was the way he gets the answers reminded me of something that was said about tesla that he had amazing imagery skills and could visualise machines in his mind as if they were real solid objects.
Would be interested if any brain scans show anything out of the norm for this guy i just have a feeling it wont.
Thanks for the initial post has certainly intrigued me.

Originally posted by Neutrino
anybody see that tv show about that person who used 10% more of his brain than normal he could lift objects without touching them i couldn't believe it at first and i still don't fully believe it but anybody know if it was true?

what channel was it on? anymore info on this??

Originally posted by perspicientia
Would be interested if any brain scans show anything out of the norm for this guy i just have a feeling it wont.

Actually I expect him to have unusally high activity in his visualization centers of his brain. Those parts also will be larger and more densely connected. I say this with near 100% certainty as that is what they found with Einstein and his visualization powers were extrodinary.

OO me bad did a lot of reading on the subject since ur post and have to say i didnt realise the complexities of autism brain.

Did find this website of which its homepage is very confusing however the writers own experiences of trying to understand autism in her own child from a scientific viewpoint.

Autism Help For You

However the article i found fasinating is here Click

Anyone interested in this further should really pick up a copy of the book "Morning of the Magicians" ... excellent read..

Originally posted by Neutrino
anybody see that tv show about that person who used 10% more of his brain than normal he could lift objects without touching them i couldn't believe it at first and i still don't fully believe it but anybody know if it was true?

what tv show was this called and who was this person?

Originally posted by postings
Okay so the guiness book of world records holds Marilyn sos Savant as the person with the highest IQ (She is editor of People Magazine BTW). Now, is that where we got the term "savant?"

-P

It's originally from Latin (sapier=to be wise). Latin was the language of scholars but crept into everyday languages in Europe. So, quite awhile before 1300 AD, it shows up in Old French (as "savior") and then as "savant" (one who is wise) about 1700:
www.etymonline.com...


(The English word, "savior", comes from "salavir", which means "healer" or "one who saves another by healing them." Just in case you wondered.)

I had a once in a lifetime similar experience....... for the 9th grade my dad was my teacher and then I came back to the states for the 10th grade......... one day the teacher wrote ten algebra problems in the blackboard and by the time he put the chalk down I walked up to him with my paper and the answers.

Him and the rest of the class started to laught because I was a very bad student but then the teacher check out my answers and they were all correct......but, I only wrote the answer with no problem solving notes.

He then gave me five more problems and as he gaves them to me I would give him the correct answer....... he then told me to solve the problem on the blackboard and I was unable to do it.......how or why? I have no idead.

This was the only time in my life that I was able to do something like this.

I just want to say that this boy really does have an incredible brain, but the fact is that everyone reading this has an incredible brain.

This boy can do with numbers what most of us will never do, but can he drive a car at seventy miles an hour while dialing his phone, shaving, reading a map, painting his toenails, or plucking his eyebrows?

When I drive I mostly think about driving, but I see an awful lot of people doing those things and the only ones who wind up on television are the ones who don't quite get it right and kill themselves and/or someone else.

We marvel at his talents, but we take for granted the myriad things that we manage to attend to in the course of a day.

Most of us negotiate a complex society, drive a car, ride a horse, cook a meal, play golf, raise kids, and innumerable other things with an IQ of 100.

Now that's incredible.

Well, not quite, but you get my drift. I hope.

[edit on 2007/6/7 by GradyPhilpott]