The Boy With The Incredible Brain
This is the breathtaking story of Daniel Tammet. A twenty-something with extraordinary mental abilities, Daniel is one of the world's few savants. He can do calculations to 100 decimal places in his head, and learn a language in a week. This documentary follows Daniel as he travels to America to meet the scientists who are convinced he may hold the key to unlocking similar abilities in everyone. He also meets the world's most famous savant, the man who inspired Dustin Hoffman's character in the Oscar winning film Rain Man.
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comment #2997 Marliena
I have not watched the video yet. Howeveer I have a comment. I would assume his abilities are strictly computational and memorization based. While he seems to be like a computer in these areas, he has difficulty with theories and higher critical thinking. This is why he has not joined the ranks of of Stephen Hawking etc. I mean just because he can do calculations to 100 decimal places does not mean that he can place them in theoretical equations also. His ability as a savant is memory based not critical.
reply | permalinkcomment #1705 tc
Awsome doc.
reply | permalinkcomment #1701 Bendik
His accent while speaking Icelandic was, as far as I can tell, very good (being Norwegian). Good documentary.
reply | permalinkcomment #1699 Tigerass
Paul you are so right,
reply | permalinkwhy don't we just lock him in a lab with nothing but numbers in front of his head all day? He doesn't need food either, we'll feed him intraveinously; cut off his legs too, we don't want him getting any funny ideas.....
comment #1694 paul boege
It has always amazed me that in our society,that a person like danial, (with a special gift) has to capitalize financially just because of his ability to do what he does. The fact that he donates his time to science is a reward bigger than any paycheck.
reply | permalinkcomment #1551 rken
"what keeps him from becoming a world chess champion?"
reply | permalinkprobably his priority interest in the girl next door.
comment #1414 patrick bateman
Sounds to good to be true. If this guys is so good with numbers and has superior intellectual capabilities to perform large mathematical computations very fast and inside his brain as well as memory which allows to learn a new language in just 7 days, what keeps him from becoming a world chess champion? He could have memorized a great deal of chess games from books and use his computational skills to win each game. Or what about analyzing stock market data? Even world of Mathematics is swarm with open unproven number problems. There are a lot different real world scenarios where he could have really demonstrated his unique abilities, but for some reason he is not taking the advantage of any of them.... I know I would have.
reply | permalinkcomment #990 Oliver
C5, great job!
reply | permalinkcomment #610 Hubert Cross
This is a rather common ability among autistics. I saw it several times at our monthly gathering of AUTASTICS in San Francisco. If you want to see it for yourself, contact Adam Pollack at 415-648-8390 and ask him about the next gathering
reply | permalinkcomment #59 yan
I love this documentary one...
reply | permalinkcomment #49 killjelly
haha
reply | permalinkcomment #44 Fresca
Yes.
reply | permalinkcomment #16 JimmyTicer9
does this guy have an I.Q. number?
reply | permalink