The average person is able to perform very basic calculations right away, with effort and concentration, or with the help of notes, more complicated calculations can be done. It is a known fact, but also a paradox, that while computers are way faster than our brains, our brains still outsmart any computer in speed and capacity. Then there are these very much non-average persons, who seem to have incredible abilities, like painting amazing pictures, reading super-fast and retain everything, or solving extreme puzzles as if it was a no-brainer. These persons are autistic, and oftentimes there abilities come at a price. They mostly cannot communicate with us, there language is some sort of childish, they are unable to express themselves, no one knows what is going on in their head.
The boy with the incredible brain: It cannot be explained yet, but he outsmarts every person on the planet when it comes to numbers
There is one person in England however, Daniel Paul Temmet, and he is from Great Britian. He has the almost unbelievable ability to perform most complex calculations without any conscious effort. He can multiply any number to the power of anything (like 37 to the power of 4), or calculate insane numbers such as 158 divided by 5869. The result would be 0.0269211109 and a lot more numbers after that. Daniel would have no problem telling you this result in an instant. In the documentary I am linking to in this post, he has been asked to perform a calculation that to me would seem to be impossible to calculate in my head, or it would take me very long with the help of paper. He however got the result right, then the same calculation was done on a Windows computer. The Windows calculator can display 32 decimal numbers, meaning 32 numbers after the dot (0.12345…). Daniel beat the Windows calculator by carrying on and stating the numbers that followed after the 32rd position.
As if this is not enough, his ability was about to be tested when he was asked in front of an audience in a library to state the first 22,500 decimal numbers of Pi. As we know, Pi is a number that apparently never ends. At least so far, we haven’t reached the end yet. Daniel stated all numbers in a row correctly. This, to me, appears to be impossible given our current abilities of the brain.
Such persons are called Savants, and are actively being researched. Science wants to know the reason as to why these people have these incredible abilities. Daniel however is a special case, probably a once in a lifetime opportunity for science, and may spawn an entire new field of research once it is better understood what is happening in Daniel’s brain. You see, oftentimes Savants have these unique abilities, but cannot speak correctly. Daniel has developed normal social skills, has no real drawbacks, and is even able to describe what he is seeing, what is happening in his head. He may hold the key to a truly revolutionary truth, or something, that can be unlocked in our brains to make them more efficient.
And if this is not enough, Daniel not only has the incredible super-power with numbers, he also speaks nine languages and has learned them without much effort. His language ability was also about to be tested when he was asked to learn the super-difficult language of Icelandic within one week, and then go live on national television. He passed. With mind-shattering results.
There may be one explanation to Daniel’s abilities. When he was four he says, he had some seizures, which may have caused something to change in his brain. The part for numbers and the part for visual things is nearby, and when they overlap, things can get mixed up – he says that he associates numbers with shapes, always sees some sort of sparks. But how can it be explained that he is able to even surpass state-of-the-art software in calculations? Or being able to calculate Pi in his head alone?
Maybe we all carry this in us. And maybe someday, we all can be like him, or even the Rain Man.
Watch this documentary. It is HIGHLY interesting.
Google Video: The Boy With The Incredible Brain
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1 comment
Detlef says:
May 18, 2011 at 3:40 pm (UTC 0)
As said in this article, this boy is by far not the only one – but usually this comes with the price of autism or at least another form of mental disability. But he is the first one in human history WITHOUT this kind of disability, even with the ability of speaking what exactly is happening in his mind when he does these incredible operations…
Even a person like me, being able to add in the supermarket all the prices of purchased items in my head and present the girl at the till the precise right amount on the cent (if I have it in my pocket) or executing logical operations up to the ninth level, feels small before that kind of guy…