As I was surfing through the net, as I do many hours a day (:P) I found this amazing documentary about Kim Peek.Documentary check out parts 2,3,4 and 5!
Who is Kim Peek you may ask. He is a 57 years old savant and one of the most brilliant man alive today. The savant syndrome is a mental illness in wich people with development disorders have one or more areas of expertise. They are mentally retarded individuals who can make incredible things in these areas that they found interesting. This is normally associated with autism, but there cases of non autistic savants too. They can't dress themselves, or some even talk to other people, but they can draw entire cities from memory with unmatched precision, they can tell you what day of the week was your birthday (or any other day for that matter) thay can do amazing math calculations and so on.
This has always interested me a lot, you know, the way the human mind works. Some of them say they don't think about numbers they feel them, see them and smell them. They don't try to do this amazing things, they are compeled to do it by their minds! And that amazes me! I heard a doctor trying to explain the savantism and he said our brain evolved to focus on other capabilities like social awareness or language and diminished other parts like memory or math calculation capabilities. Think about this for a minute. The potencial is there! In all of our minds! Great, right?!
Kim Peek, for example, he can read a page from a book, that would take us about 3 minutes, in 8 to 10 seconds, he reads the left page with his left eye and the right page with the right one. And then, he remembers about 98.7% of that book. That's just part of what he can do. He is, easilly, one of the most astonishing human beings that ever existed!
Anyway, what really made me write this post was a quote I heard Kim say at that documentary that made me think:
"You don't have to be handicap to be different. Everyone is different".
I just liked it...
3 comments:
I agree with you, it´s very interesting and passionate subject. But, one question: Would you rather have some of that amazing capabilities , but loose the «savoir faire»? Cause most of the times, if you are really extraordinary in one or two areas, You suck in almost everything else. So, if you could choose... What would it be?
P.S- How many times have you saw «Rainman»? ;)
No doubt, I like having the ability to talk to people and "be social" =) I wouldn't give that up... What's amazing about it, in my opinion, is the tought that all of us may have this capabilities inside of us, like hidden deep in our brains. We are already "at the top of the food chain", but we are capable of so much more, you know...
Oh and by the way... Rain Man, curious thing: I saw it once, then I learned it was inspired in this Kim Peek guy and I stop liking it that much... He is so much more than Hoffman portrayed. Not saying I didn't like his role in the movie, and the hole movie, but it gained a "commercial" aspect I did not fancy... :P
lol I understand your point. Me, in the other hand, what puzzles me is to believe that some extraordinary people can move objects with their minds, for exemple. My passion goes for things that are more esoteric and questionable... But in the end, it´s the same idea: we have so much potential, and we use so little of it...
But again, I prefer to mantain my social capabilities ;) cause what we normally see is that those extraordinary people don´t have both: high IQs and emotional intelligence are not the same.
Post a Comment