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Kim Peek

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Re: Kim Peek

#41

Post by phaus »

narrator wrote: post #38
mlguide wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It is worth noting that Tammet is widely believed to use regular mnemonic techniques: https://forum.artofmemory.com/t/ask-a-memory-champion/28565/... "I’m a bit surprised by Helix’s idea that answering this question might get me into trouble, because it’s not something that’s debated among the people who go to competitions. It’s well known that he uses memory techniques like a ‘regular person’ - he was a regular at t…

I know a guy who competes and does well in memory sports. I'd say he's above average intelligence for sure, maybe in the top 5%, but not some sort of extreme freak of nature. He's spent thousands of hours drilling memory techniques though. "Moonwalking with Einstein" is a good book about memory sports and has an intro to some of the basic techniques. From what I've seen, it's really about deepening a set of specializ…

My passion for videogames led to a passion for computers in general. All kids spend thousands of hours playing.

Re: Kim Peek

#42

Post by umvi »

This guy is said to have memorized decades worth of newspaper articles, phone books, and other potentially PII. How does that jive with GDPR and Right to Be Forgotten? If people just start using him to do background checks, wouldn't that be a violation of RTBF?

Re: Kim Peek

#43

Post by umvi »

Is he actually comprehending what he is reading or just indexing it? I doubt he could comprehend an entire physics book in 1 hour, so I'm guessing this is purely memorization, not comprehension.

Re: Kim Peek

#44

Post by partyboat1586 »

corpuscallosum wrote: post #29
l5870uoo9y wrote: post #10

> In psychological testing, Peek scored low average (87) on general IQ tests. I would have presumed that would have been much higher.

IQ tests in my experience are better for logic, maths and abstract thinking, eg trying to spot the pattern in a series. Other tests which can be used to measure brain abilities, could be the brick test, where you are presented with a brick and have to list all the ways a brick could be used. This is somewhat dependant on life experience of course and its hard to know what someone has seen and thus experienced. Anothe…

I've always been good at the alternative uses test. I'm better with possible than probable. Is there some kind of standardised test I could take for it?

Re: Kim Peek

#45

Post by agency »

narrator wrote: post #38
mlguide wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It is worth noting that Tammet is widely believed to use regular mnemonic techniques: https://forum.artofmemory.com/t/ask-a-memory-champion/28565/... "I’m a bit surprised by Helix’s idea that answering this question might get me into trouble, because it’s not something that’s debated among the people who go to competitions. It’s well known that he uses memory techniques like a ‘regular person’ - he was a regular at t…

I know a guy who competes and does well in memory sports. I'd say he's above average intelligence for sure, maybe in the top 5%, but not some sort of extreme freak of nature. He's spent thousands of hours drilling memory techniques though. "Moonwalking with Einstein" is a good book about memory sports and has an intro to some of the basic techniques. From what I've seen, it's really about deepening a set of specializ…

Are memory sports techniques useful in general? I don't know much about them but they seem specialized for memorizing streams of rote information (like strings of numbers). Can they also be used to recall useful information?

Re: Kim Peek

#46

Post by majos »

narrator wrote: post #38
mlguide wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It is worth noting that Tammet is widely believed to use regular mnemonic techniques: https://forum.artofmemory.com/t/ask-a-memory-champion/28565/... "I’m a bit surprised by Helix’s idea that answering this question might get me into trouble, because it’s not something that’s debated among the people who go to competitions. It’s well known that he uses memory techniques like a ‘regular person’ - he was a regular at t…

I know a guy who competes and does well in memory sports. I'd say he's above average intelligence for sure, maybe in the top 5%, but not some sort of extreme freak of nature. He's spent thousands of hours drilling memory techniques though. "Moonwalking with Einstein" is a good book about memory sports and has an intro to some of the basic techniques. From what I've seen, it's really about deepening a set of specializ…

> One thing I told my nephew is that he can spend thousands of hours playing video games and then have his head full of video game trivia or he can spend thousands of hours learning to program or learning memory sports techniques and have almost as much fun, but instead wind up with something that he can actually use later in his life that doesn't involve working for a video game company.

I don't think there are so many people who find that learning to program or learning memory sports techniques is the same kind of fun as playing video games.

Re: Kim Peek

#47

Post by madaxe_again »

ggm wrote: post #12
YeGoblynQueenne wrote: post #7

>> Peek read by scanning the left page with his left eye, then the right page with his right eye. According to an article in The Times newspaper, he could accurately recall the contents of at least 12,000 books.[6] These are pretty extraordinary claims and I'm curious to know whether they were ever tested in controlled conditions. For example, how does one verify the recollection of the contents of "at least" 12,000…

I grew up in a house of books and have lived with a bookseller for most of my life. Having therefore owned and lived with 10,000 to 15,000 books, periodicals and related ephemera (catalogues, concordance &c) I can assure you I cannot recall even fractional amounts of most of these although I can recall significant amounts of many and quite inaccurately quote some small amount. So I too think the question demands test…

I’m not certain meaning is implied.

My memory is decent, but nothing spectacular, and I have numerous poems accurately committed to memory in multiple languages I do not speak, or did not know when I memorised them - and I’m talking lengthy tone poems and that sort of thing.

I memorised them using traditional spaced repetition techniques, but I wouldn’t be surprised if Peek’s recall was similar - content without meaning, a progressing pattern. I think it’s similar to learning music by rote - at any rate, the recall feels similar - flow pickup points, like key frames in animation, with everything following being a seemingly obvious progression from that seed.

Re: Kim Peek

#49

Post by rurban »

McKayDavis wrote: post #34

I recall seeing Kim Peek many times in the old downtown Salt Lake City library in the late 80s. I always saw him camped out at some table near the reference section under the escalators on the main floor. He would usually have a stack of phone books (The White Pages) from around the country and spend hours methodically scanning and memorizing every page.

It also helped that the new Salt Lake City Library is so beautiful to work in. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salt_Lake_City_Public_Library On of the world finest libraries imho.

Re: Kim Peek

#50

Post by kiba »

dahart wrote: post #39
Carpetsmoker wrote: post #21

As far as I know, Kim Peek has never made any scientific discoveries, or had any wisdom to tell the world, in spite of being able to remember ~12k books. It's a good reminder that knowledge does not equal intelligence or wisdom.

This is a natural reaction and it’s common for people to remark on his high memory yet low cognition, but nonetheless this comment somewhat bothers me. This is my issue, not yours, and I may be misinterpreting, but here’s my thinking... Why is scientific discoveries even something he’s compared against? What does that have to do with the post? Do all people with excessive talents of some kind have to make scientific…

Your comment also hints at a cultural narrative that is common but not true, where people tend to see someone with extraordinary talents and “remind” everyone that it also means there must be some extraordinary deficiencies there too, because balance.

It's not about balance. It's about what you can do with it or did with it.

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