Rain Man
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- stem
Anybody see this?
The Boy With The Incredible Brain: Extraordinary People (Documentary)
Time - 21:00 - 22:00 Monday - FiveWhen - Monday 23rd May on five
Documentary. How can Daniel do calculations to 100 decimal places in his head? Or remember over 20,000 numbers? Could he learn one of the world's hardest languages in just one week? Leading scientists explore the extraordinary world of this British 'Rainman'.See:
- stem0
- kelpie0
that was really cool - that lad's amazing.
The bit where he's in NYC and all the buildinds look like 9's to him was wicked - and the card counting without counting? like something out of Dune ;)
Wicked TV :)
- nografik0
yeah watched it last nite, that boy is genius!
- phatlee0
wow
- waynepixel0
Watch it last night. That Pie thing was amazing. And I love the way he described how he managed to do this in his mind.
- kelpie0
mm hmm - num,bers describing landscapes in his minds eye...
great stuff
- waynepixel0
Is it me, or is "Five" getting better.!
- stem0
Very difficult to get my head round it, The fact that it was all done subconscious.
Made me question our attitudes towards disbility.
I liked what he had to say about his school days...
The 'bullys' never bothered with me, I guess they couldn't find a 'way in' to pick on me. Total class
- kelpie0
Is it me, or is "Five" getting better.!
waynepixel
(May 24 05, 02:33)everyone else is getting shitter, I think...
- stem0
The big thing is understanding why or how it has happened - and can you make a 'normal' brain do this with the help of a little surgery?
The kids with abacus were amazing too. Especially when they had to do it without the abacus.
When the programme finished, I just felt thick as fuck - like a dumb animal...
- kelpie0
whether he's what we'd cal a "genius" is what I found most interesting - at first I thought that what makes a genius is the very human leaps in thought that push ideas beyond the standard "envelope" (for want of a better word); I saw his gift as something robotic which fell outside that definition. Later I started to wonder if what was really fascinating wasn't the super calculating power, but whether his gift is a glimps of the processes underneah our conscious thought which allow us to make those leaps. Maybe he defines that spark of genius and that's why he's so interesting. (?)
- kelpie0
deeeeeeep, huh? ;/
- stem0
Yeah, I find it difficult to use the term genius - although I guess in dictionary definition - he fits the description.
The main trouble with savants in the past is that they have tended to lack developent in other areas of their lives - mainly having trouble with social development.
Should we only use the genius label when all other aspects of someones life is deemed 'developed'?
- voxel10
If you liked that then check out the film PI.
It would have been good to see what he made of the torah.
- kelpie0
The main trouble with savants in the past is that they have tended to lack developent in other areas of their lives - mainly having trouble with social development.
Should we only use the genius label when all other aspects of someones life is deemed 'developed'?
stem
(May 24 05, 03:04)I think genius is used too much anyway - surely unless the skills they have are coupled with some ability to bend that toward some use, some advance in what we know/can do then they don't qualify (?)
his casting light on the visual layer of his talents is what interests me, the way his brain constructs a kind of interface for him with the calculations which produces the answer. How abstract his gift is compared to the conscious, learned approach of the abacus kids (who were cool as fuck btw).
- randoman0
Kelpie brings some intresting points.
I personally see genius in people with powerfull imaginations and insight, not so much people who are able to process numbers, resite books from front to back, etc. would you call your PC or Mac a genius? (ok bad question).
But what Kelpie sais about the mechanics of the brain, or even how our imaginations work and generate dreams or the such... the underlying layer of interactions and data going about that we can't see or don't so much...
It's possible that some people such as this have the ability to tap into the abstractions of thought or materialize the dream or vision as a sequence of data or numbers.
Imagination and data/numbers/patterns can also collide. Being able to interperate a vision or thought into a series of data objects, take this data and then reassemble it elsewhere on a machine (brain) that can translate it back into thought or imagination, in theroy could do alot of intresting things.
- kelpie0
that's what I'm getting at Randoman, you must have had more coffee than me this morn ;-) The definition of genius in particular...
It's that "Eureka moment" thing, the leaps that a machine can't make, I wonder if he sees an abstraction of this, specificaly centered around strings of numbers and characters in his case.
- randoman0
No coffee over here Kelpie...
and please, call me Rando.
- kelpie0
just out of interest Rando (see that?) why don't you link your site? it's nice...
- randoman0
I have an email addy there, but don't work there, so I don't link it up.