Daniel Tammet, The Boy With The Incredible Brain
Having now seen the excellent documentary on the autistic savant, Daniel Tammet, and noting the subject's popularity, I've done a little Googling to get some more information for you...
This is the BBC News report of Daniel Tammet's attempt at the British and European record for reciting pi. This article goes some way towards explaining how Daniel Tammet is able to remember 22,511 decimal places of pi without using any special memory techniques.
'The Savant Syndrome' provides more background information on autistic savants. The article is by Dr. Darold Treffert who is widely published on this subject and was a consultant to the movie Rain Man. More on other autistic savants at Wikipedia.
New York Times review of the documentary.
Science Channel 'Brainman' site [contains extra video not in programme]
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Daniel Tammet is the most amazing man.
From what I am reading I am not sure, but would it be possible to induce savant abilities without brain damage of any kind? Maybe through some sort of intense meditation or the like?
My name is Jae Donnelly and i am a press photographer. I had to take pics of Daniel today and i felt so inspired by him it is a truly most priviledged meeting i will never forget. He seems a completely amazing person. You could sit with him for hours and talk about amazing things. I cannot wait to get my hands on his book!
could anyone help me get hold of a dvd of the brainman documentary? i would be very grateful if someone could email me at martynptk@hotmail.com
thank you