Genius that shocks and pains deep somewhere!
Posted : March 28, 2005 at 4:31 am [IST]
Many years ago, I heard about a genius named Ram Gobind Singh of Bihar (I might be forgetting the name) from my maternal uncle who is an intellectual and advocate by profession. Later on ‘The Telegraph’ of Kolkata published in its Sunday magazine a detailed story about him. He was prodigal boy. At the age when he would have cleared his school final, he could complete his master degree. He miraculously got through the formal education without any aid from anywhere and finally landed in NASA, USA. The story narrated how in a launch of a satellite when the computer stopped because of a power breakdown, he kept on writing down the steps of calculations. When the power got restored, all the steps were found to be correct. However, somewhere something happened and Gobind Singh lost his mental balance and was in hospital in Bangalore, courtesy Laloo Yadav. I don’t know what happened to him. (I wish someone would tell me the latest.)
I had also seen the show of Sakuntala Devi where she used to make huge calculations and surprise the spectator. Sakuntala Devi now does astrology and has many books to her credit.
When I read the story below, I was reminded of Singh. This story again pains me.
A genius explains
Daniel Tammet is an autistic savant. He can perform mind-boggling mathematical calculations at breakneck speeds. But unlike other savants, who can perform similar feats, Tammet can describe how he does it. He speaks seven languages and is even devising his own language. Now scientists are asking whether his exceptional abilities are the key to unlock the secrets of autism.Daniel Tammet is talking. As he talks, he studies my shirt and counts the stitches. Ever since the age of three, when he suffered an epileptic fit, Tammet has been obsessed with counting. Now he is 26, and a mathematical genius who can figure out cube roots quicker than a calculator and recall pi to 22,514 decimal places. He also happens to be autistic, which is why he can’t drive a car, wire a plug, or tell right from left. He lives with extraordinary ability and disability.
Tammet is calculating 377 multiplied by 795. Actually, he isn’t “calculating”: there is nothing conscious about what he is doing. He arrives at the answer instantly. Since his epileptic fit, he has been able to see numbers as shapes, colours and textures. The number two, for instance, is a motion, and five is a clap of thunder. “When I multiply numbers together, I see two shapes. The image starts to change and evolve, and a third shape emerges. That’s the answer. It’s mental imagery. It’s like maths without having to think.”
Tammet is a “savant”, an individual with an astonishing, extraordinary mental ability. An estimated 10% of the autistic population - and an estimated 1% of the non-autistic population - have savant abilities, but no one knows exactly why. A number of scientists now hope that Tammet might help us to understand better. Professor Allan Snyder, from the Centre for the Mind at the Australian National University in Canberra, explains why Tammet is of particular, and international, scientific interest. “Savants can’t usually tell us how they do what they do,” says Snyder. “It just comes to them. Daniel can. He describes what he sees in his head. That’s why he’s exciting. He could be the Rosetta Stone.”
Are interested in the whole story?
- Indra
Category: Tidbits |
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