A small quibble with this sentence from the article: "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." Tammet is not a mathematical genius, as human calculating prodigies almost never are. It's a mistake to equate the ability to do astonishing mental calculations with aptitude for pure mathematics. While it's true that some great mathematicians have also been great calculators—for example, Newton, Euler, and Gauss—not all great mathematicians are great calculators—for example, Alexander Grothendieck. Indeed, Grothendieck, one of the greatest mathematicians of the 20th century, has admitted to not being very good at arithmetic, and there's a pretty funny story told about him (you can find it in this article on page 1196):
One striking characteristic of Grothendieck’s mode of thinking is that it seemed to rely so little on examples. This can be seen in the legend of the so-called “Grothendieck prime”. In a mathematical conversation, someone suggested to Grothendieck that they should consider a particular prime number. “You mean an actual number?” Grothendieck asked. The other person replied, yes, an actual prime number. Grothendieck suggested, “All right,take 57.”
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bump flag to read before my little, or last, theorem...
It added up!
That is about the most interesting piece of journalism I ever recall reading in the Guardian.
Wow. Bump.
Amazing coincidence, I'm an idiot savant. Well, except for the savant part...
btt
I thought Leslie Lemke sparked Dustin Hoffman to do "Rainman."
Lots to think about here.
This is an absolutely fascinating story.
Thanks for posting.
The same thought struck me as I was reading that.
The acid test of mathematical ability is to see how well the person can deduce a proof of theorem he's never seen before. That eliminates all of this memorizing/speed calculating tricks (not that they aren't in and of themselves impressive.) Notice also that these people are "recalling" the value of pi, not calculating it. To them, the value of pi is no differnt than the names/phone numbers in a phone book.
The impression I get from the description is that these folks have a fundamentally different "wiring" (firmware?) in their brains. It is as though they were a computer that was programmed to do ONE thing really well (data I/O and storage), at the expense of virtually every other brain function.
Notice also the strong flavor of OCD described in the behavior: things have to be done in the exact same order and time every day, shopping is uncomfortable because their mind is overloaded with possibilities they feel compelled to explore, and so one. In a sense it's almost like a combination of a brain hard-wired for memory acccess, overlaid with OCD and ADD.
As impressive as some of the feats are, it doesn't sound very pleasant to me.
This is the best description I've heard yet.
Targeting works like that.
I guess this is proof that I'm not a mad genius... I had to re-read this three times to get the joke.
Asperger's Syndrome is a term used when a child or adult has some features of autism but may not have the full blown clinical picture. A few people with Asperger's syndrome are very successful and until recently were not diagnosed with anything but were seen as brilliant, eccentric, absent minded, socially inept, and a little awkward physically.
Although the criteria state no significant delay in the development of language milestones, what you might see is a "different" way of using language. A child may have a wonderful vocabulary and even demonstrate hyperlexia but not truly understand the nuances of language and have difficulty with language pragmatics. Social pragmatics also tend be weak, leading the person to appear to be walking to the beat of a "different drum". Motor dyspraxia can be reflected in a tendency to be clumsy.
There is a general impression that Asperger's syndrome carries with it superior intelligence and a tendency to become very interested in and preoccupied with a particular subject. Often this preoccupation leads to a specific career at which the adult is very successful. At younger ages, one might see the child being a bit more rigid and apprehensive about changes or about adhering to routines.
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Here's one you might find enjoy. Remember the kid I met in the sandwich shop this past summer? He had a photographic memory and did complex math calculations in his head. He described how he saw words and numbers as colors and unfolding shapes. Interesting.
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Fascinating.