Stephen Wiltshire, the living camera

[Man In Black]

This man is amazing...he is an autistic savant, and can draw cityscapes mindblowingly precisely after just one look.

Video (http://www.boreme.com/boreme/funny-2006/rome-drawing-p1.php)


More info on Stephen Wiltshire
http://www.wisconsinmedicalsociety.org/savant/wiltshire.cfm

Some of the things autistic people are capable of is just mindblowing.

[Michael]

I believe that things like this are proof positive of our capabilities. We haven't even begun to see all of it either. A person of "normal" brain function couldn't handle a gift like this. I don't mean to imply that someone with Autism doesn't have "normal" brain activity, I just think God or whatever entity it is uses these vessels to show us that we have only began to evolve.

[jen]

Wow. Just, wow.

[Marc]

60 Minutes tonight included a segment on the "Brain Man (http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2007/01/26/60minutes/main2401846.shtml)", a nickname given to Daniel Tammet who is a savant living in Britain.

But unlike most savants, he has no obvious mental disability, and most important to scientists, he can describe his own thought process. He may very well be a scientific Rosetta stone, a key to understanding the brain.Scientists attribute his amazing mathematical and memory abilities to possible brain injury sustained while he was a child (from epilepsy, I think). It's left him with synesthesia which allows him to see numbers as colors, shapes, and textures. He's able to draw a picture of what numbers look like to him.

It was a pretty cool segment. The link above has the full text from the segment.

[Man In Black]

60 Minutes tonight included a segment on the "Brain Man (http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2007/01/26/60minutes/main2401846.shtml)", a nickname given to Daniel Tammet who is a savant living in Britain.



Scientists attribute his amazing mathematical and memory abilities to possible brain injury sustained while he was a child (from epilepsy, I think). It's left him with synethesia which allows him to see numbers as colors, shapes, and textures. He's able to draw a picture of what numbers look like to him.

It was a pretty cool segment. The link above has the full text from the segment.


"Daniel was also diagnosed with Asperger’s Syndrome—a mild form of autism."

[Philosofy]

The music from the OP's video clip is the same as the Mah Jongg game in our arcade!

[Mysteryman]

I heard one scientists theory that autism is the next step in human evolution. Essentially trading out social abilities for more computational/observational skills.

With how typical American society is, I can see where he's going. We aren't raising large families anymore, many adults are choosing to live single/never marrying, and even telecommuting kind of play into this idea.

[BrettStah]

I heard one scientists theory that autism is the next step in human evolution. Essentially trading out social abilities for more computational/observational skills.

With how typical American society is, I can see where he's going. We aren't raising large families anymore, many adults are choosing to live single/never marrying, and even telecommuting kind of play into this idea.
Living single/never marrying if fine, but if you don't reproduce then you won't be part of evolution. :)

[scoblitz]

That was amazing

[Mysteryman]

Living single/never marrying if fine, but if you don't reproduce then you won't be part of evolution. :)

Get with the 21st century! Fertility clinics aren't necessarily married, but they sure pop out lots of kids. ;)

[BrettStah]

I didn't mean to imply that they had to get married - just that they have to reproduce if their DNA is going to have anything to do with further human evolution - sperm banks would be one way of accomplishing this even if they can't attract females with whom to reproduce! :)