An Autistic Savant Mind

I found an interesting article on Daniel Tammet, the man who memorized the first 22,514 numbers of pi. He did an interview with editor Jonah Lehrer and Tammet revealed a lot about the way that he thinks.

Tammet said that when he was a young child in school, he was not even close to being seen as smart. He had difficulties learning things the way teachers taught them because his mind worked in a total different way. He saw numbers especially in a different way. Tammet sees numbers as all having some kind of relationship with one another and later, this is what he explained helped him remember that many decimal places of pi. To Mr. Tammet, "numbers to [him] have their own shapes, colors and textures" and are much more than just ink on a page. Also, Tammet had a hard time figuring out people's emotions, understanding their body language, and looking people in the eye. These are all complications of autism and Tammet had to acquire these skills that come naturally to others.

He moves on to talk about how he was able to learn the numbers of pi and it is very interesting.
Tammet says that "a simple example would be the number 37, which is lumpy like oatmeal, and 111 which is similarly lumpy but also round like the number three (being 37 x 3). Where you might see an endless string of random digits when looking at the decimals of Pi, my mind is able to “chunk” groups of these numbers spontaneously into meaningful visual images that constitute their own hierarchy of associations," This is why Tammet is not able to simply just remember one more number because for him, again, they are not that simple and there has to be a relationship between them.

When asked if he is ever surprised by the way he thinks and his amazing abilities, Tammet simply replies that he finds it strange that not everyone thinks this way. Personally, I think that it is amazing that his mind is able to see numbers this way and process other information so differently from the way that most people do. It was a very good article and everyone should read it =).

http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?id=savants-cognition-thinking