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Today, British autistic savant Daniel Tammet is 10,220 days, or 245,280 hours old (that’s 28 years for you non-savants out there). He is blessed/cursed with the kind of savantism made famous by Dustin Hoffman in Rain Man (formerly known as “idiot” savantism), but Daniel manages to sustain relatively normal social interaction with others. (He credits growing up in a family of nine children, and thus being forced to socialize, for his normalcy relative to other savants, of which there are only about 50 known in the world.)
A lot of savants can do things that no normal person can do, like tell you what day of the week August 18, 1876 was without consulting an almanac, in about five seconds (it was a Friday), multiply 27 to the power of four in his head (531,441) or memorize and recite long strings of numbers with ease. But there are a few things he can do that even most savants cannot. For instance, he once learned functional Icelandic in a week, and recited pi to several thousand places from memory (without errors — it took more than five hours).
So how does he do it? As a recent profile of Daniel on 60 Minutes revealed, the answer may shed light on the abilities of all savants: he is a synesthetic. That is to say, he associates numbers with colors, just as composer Franz Liszt claimed to have associated music with color. (Hip-hop artist Pharrell Williams also claims to have synesthesia.)
Interesting note: one man who has done some crucial research in this area is Oxford professor of developmental psychopathology Simon Baron-Cohen, cousin of Borat star Sascha Baron-Cohen.
Comments (9)
Comment
I can’t perform those feats, but can tell you that August 18, 1876 is exactly one hundred years before I was born. I think 8/18/1976 was a Wednesday.
posted by Stephen on 1-31-2007 at 10:00 am
Synesthesia apparently effects 10% of the population… unfortunately, 10% of us can’t do such amazing computations in our heads, as well.
posted by Suzan on 1-31-2007 at 10:26 am
I’ve always associated certain things with colors such as letters, months, etc. I don’t see it with my eyes, per se, the figures are just associated with that color in my mind.
I just wrote a list of all the letters, days of the week, months, and decades of the past 100 years and the colors I associate with them. In a few months, I’m going to do it again and see if any match.
I did find it interesting that some letters don’t have colors, like Q. Others have 2 or 3 like M. I also noticed that nearly every number from 1-10 is associated with their corresponding billiard ball!
posted by Erak on 1-31-2007 at 10:27 am
I saw the 60 minutes piece, and thought it was interesting that he finds some numbers, like 289, to be ugly while 333 is beautiful.
posted by Johnny Cat on 1-31-2007 at 10:38 am
Just a slight correction - Simon Baron Cohen is professor at Cambridge University, not Oxford. I only know that cos my girlfriend got lectured by him there!
posted by woodywoodbine on 1-31-2007 at 12:34 pm
My ex used to say that she had idiots savants, cause she could remember obscure things about people, and phone numbers, and birthdays.
Since this was all she could really remember, I always thought she was just an idiot….
posted by nick on 1-31-2007 at 4:54 pm
Amazing feats by a brilliant mind. Happy Birthday to this man.
posted by michael ringwood on 2-1-2007 at 1:48 am
I need help, solve an arguement. Does a person who is an idiot have to have a savant talent? Is a savant always and idiot?
posted by Kim on 2-1-2007 at 12:28 pm
Daniel and Neil,
I’m sure the two of you are enjoying a birthday Daniel, happy birthday!!!
I was wondering if you receive the message I sent you??? I don’t think at the right, the guy with dyslexia.
The two of you enjoyed a birthday celebration!!
Take care
Casey
posted by Casey Tate on 2-1-2007 at 3:46 pm