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Daniel Tammet, a genius? (Not related to music)

PostPosted: Mon Sep 03, 2007 11:44 am
by Kivenkantaja
You've all heard of Kim Peek 'The rain man', right? The guy who has absolutely amazing memory and who for example remembers the name of every single city in the U.S.A.

Peek is an autistic savant and he suffers from many disabilities. He is not able to button up his shirt, walk normally or deal every day life just by himself.

This is where things get interesting. Daniel has far less disabilities and it's said that he is the only known savant who can actually describe the things going on his head. He has incredible mathematic and linguistic skills. (Unlike I do :D)

From what I've heard Dev has synesthesia, meaning that he can use two senses combined meaning that hearing a sound causes seeing a colour. Daniel says that every number up to 10,000 has it's own form, colour and feeling. Pretty...umm..interesting? Weird? Awesome? I don't know, come up with your own adjectives and superlatives.

Here's the unholy wikipedia link:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daniel_Tammet

And here's a document about this guy:
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AbASOcqc1Ss[/youtube]

(It's in 5 parts but there's links to all of them there.)



I'd like to hear what you think about this guy. Enjoy :D

PostPosted: Mon Sep 03, 2007 11:49 am
by Biert
Dude you found me....








:P

PostPosted: Mon Sep 03, 2007 11:52 am
by djskrimp
Makes sense, innit? I mean, to be able to utilize other neural pathways in order to boost cognitive abilities seems, to me, like the best way to maximize memory and application. If we could remember things in more than one way, it would be easier to retrieve the memories, and if we had different ways of processing information, it would process that much faster. (Much like duo core and quad core computers are faster processors.)

PostPosted: Mon Sep 03, 2007 12:03 pm
by Kivenkantaja
djskrimp wrote:Makes sense, innit? I mean, to be able to utilize other neural pathways in order to boost cognitive abilities seems, to me, like the best way to maximize memory and application. If we could remember things in more than one way, it would be easier to retrieve the memories, and if we had different ways of processing information, it would process that much faster. (Much like duo core and quad core computers are faster processors.)
It must be really exciting for neurology scientisct now that there is a savant who has even some sort of idea what the hell is going on in his brain. I find this guy pretty inspiring. He learned to speak icelandic in a week. :D

Oh and Biert, you have to be able to do better than that :D

PostPosted: Mon Sep 03, 2007 2:58 pm
by Mr. Jack
I love this kind of stuff.

Reminds me of Derek Paravicini. He is completely blind and autistic, but he's an amazing pianist and he has perfect pitch

There's a documentary on Youtube in 5 parts:
http://youtube.com/watch?v=1kwjDLHX92w

PostPosted: Mon Sep 03, 2007 4:30 pm
by Deathcom7000
I know this guy! I have an article about him right above my computer.

PostPosted: Tue Sep 04, 2007 6:53 am
by Kivenkantaja
Mr. Jack wrote:I love this kind of stuff.

Reminds me of Derek Paravicini. He is completely blind and autistic, but he's an amazing pianist and he has perfect pitch

There's a documentary on Youtube in 5 parts:
http://youtube.com/watch?v=1kwjDLHX92w
How can an autistic pianist have that much feeling in his playing?! This guy is great :D

PostPosted: Tue Sep 04, 2007 10:47 am
by damnuandurdog
Synaesthesia is pretty common - I have it with sounds and colors (though I do not have perfect pitch). A lot of people do not realize they have some form of it - the most common being (as mentioned in the original post) that most people will associate numbers and letters with colors even if they don't realize it.

PostPosted: Tue Sep 04, 2007 11:41 am
by Kivenkantaja
damnuandurdog wrote:Synaesthesia is pretty common - I have it with sounds and colors (though I do not have perfect pitch). A lot of people do not realize they have some form of it - the most common being (as mentioned in the original post) that most people will associate numbers and letters with colors even if they don't realize it.
Did you watch the document? 65 times 34. He pictures both numbers in his head and puts the side by side. The form that comes between is the answer. That is not pretty common :D

PostPosted: Tue Sep 04, 2007 12:28 pm
by sarai-chan
was the document aired in yle's channel a while ago?
he had to travel to here and there to participate in various
tests so they could find out if he was a fraud?

I agree with Mr. Jack here, these kind of things are
so interesting!
How can human mind be so .. so.. great :D

I can barely remember my new address (moved 2 yrs ago),
but for memorizing hard stuff I do use pictures or
music or sounds.

The fact that one can taste words was so mystic and cool until
I saw another document about synaesthesia :lol:
Now I know why I taste sweet things in my mouth when I imagine a big tasty bite of a white chocolate..
It's enough to taste something once and there it is :lol:

Maybe for the same reason I still can't eat mushrooms,
I had some when I was a kid and I thought they tasted like nasty bubblegum that you can't chew :lol:

That pianist guy is awesome, props to him!

PostPosted: Wed Sep 05, 2007 9:06 am
by damnuandurdog
Kivenkantaja wrote:
damnuandurdog wrote:Synaesthesia is pretty common - I have it with sounds and colors (though I do not have perfect pitch). A lot of people do not realize they have some form of it - the most common being (as mentioned in the original post) that most people will associate numbers and letters with colors even if they don't realize it.
Did you watch the document? 65 times 34. He pictures both numbers in his head and puts the side by side. The form that comes between is the answer. That is not pretty common :D


Ha, yeah I saw this documentary a while ago. Synaesthesia by itself is pretty common but having it to this degree is of course not. Granted I'm pretty sure this guy's subconscious is doing all the work...

PostPosted: Wed Sep 05, 2007 11:19 pm
by Persuader
This documentary was on Swedish TV a while ago, awesome stuff.

PostPosted: Thu Sep 06, 2007 12:57 am
by Shub
A lot of shamanic tribes use synaesthesia as part of getting to know nature and understand it better, everyone is capable of it, it is a good thing.

Admittedly they use ayahuasca to gain the better understanding of language and all that stuff and... Well... It's a pretty serious hallucinogen to say the least. But hallucinogens have an amazing affect on language, shaman have been teaching for millennia what has just been thought out in quantum physics now... Our thoughts, they do not describe the universe, but alter and create it.

I'm off topic now.

Piss.

PostPosted: Thu Sep 06, 2007 8:30 am
by Kivenkantaja
Shub wrote:Our thoughts, they do not describe the universe, but alter and create it.

I'm off topic now.

Yes you are. How did you come up with that? I mean, you're saying it like it's a fact.

PostPosted: Thu Sep 06, 2007 8:55 am
by Josiah Tobin
Kivenkantaja wrote:
Shub wrote:Our thoughts, they do not describe the universe, but alter and create it.

I'm off topic now.

Yes you are. How did you come up with that? I mean, you're saying it like it's a fact.

Reminds me of this.
Some people are gonna say it's bullshit, but I think it's cool. :P