newscientist.com — Autistic savant Daniel Tammet shot to fame when he set a European record for the number of digits of pi he recited from memory (22,514). For afters, he learned Icelandic in a week. But unlike many savants, he's able to tell us how he does it. We could all unleash extraordinary mental abilities by getting inside the savant mind.
Jan 7, 2009 View in Crawl 4
kylejnJan 8, 2009
I was diagnosed with Asperger's when I was younger and, according to my teachers, picked up Japanese extremely quickly compared to other students. I've kind of dismissed this because I feel like I've still got such a long way to go, but I thought it might prove relevant to the discussion. I also studied Latin when I was younger and didn't find it that difficult.
Closed AccountJan 8, 2009
Thank you.I was curious to know if there were any differences in learning as he said he visualizes words and numbers.
sporJan 8, 2009
I agree with both rmxz and liquid to an extent. Her explanation does change the way you look at her actions, you can appreciate them more. I also feel like she doesn't even quite understand what is different about her. She seems a bit angry that people say she can't communicate. They don't mean that she is completely incapable of communication in all forms with anything. She is capable of deeper communication that we are, but that isn't what people mean. She doesn't seem to get that.
feignnuJan 8, 2009
In fairness you did say that, but you're talking about language relationships, which is a field that people can devote their entire lives to, without even using any common or accepted nomenclature. In other words, it's fairly obvious that you're talking out your ass. And even if we grant you the benefit of the doubt about what you meant, it's not at all clear why the writing system employed by a certain group of language speakers has any real bearing on the difficulty of learning that language. Certainly aspects like grammar, syntax, consistency of rules, use of idioms, etc., have a much greater bearing on the difficulty involved than the writing system used...
fryserJan 9, 2009
More or less true.We are all savant at the subconscious level. The brain at the base of the pyramid just see, feel, hear everything and memorise it without discrimination. Then more you go up in the pyramid more the information is conscious thus hard to process. That’s why people are so good in video games when they’re in the “Zone”. When the brain needs speed for and action, it builds over time a pipeline trough the pyramid to gain maximum speed. Autistic have, in different degrees, not a pyramid like us meaning every subconscious thoughts can just come over the conscious mind in anytime. But the avantage is a better control over the subconscious mind. In Reality you probably already read this whole digg page the first 2 second you loaded it. With the publicity, and all the s**t, papers, books around your screen right now, but at the subconscious level. The brain is a powerful tool, just a shame that no one have a “RTFB”
rentmitchumJan 10, 2009
I said I enjoyed it. I like watching people tip-toe, like I said, that's all.