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Head injury causes savant syndrome

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Re: Head injury causes savant syndrome

#41

Post by krick »

olegkikin wrote: post #27
krick wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It doesn't cancel that "what" at all. First off, this is nothing to do with fractals. Second, these "drawings" are nothing to talk about, as their nature is pretty primitive. That means it sure requires a steady hand (if drawn manually), but the pattern itself is really simple (foremost because they are very much regular). Have you ever head of spirograph? "Drawings" made by it are far more complicated than this one…

Just because the images are relatively simple, doesn't mean they are stupid. Check out this image and its meaning: http://www.simonsfoundation.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/09/a... http://www.simonsfoundation.org/quanta/20130917-a-jewel-at-t...

This one isn't "simple". At least, not "simple" as in "simply reflecting the beam of light at constant angle from regular polygon sides".

Re: Head injury causes savant syndrome

#42

Post by darkmighty »

privong wrote: post #26
krick wrote: post #21

Article is very cheesy and full of journalism, but whatever, nothing unusual about it. It's something different I really don't like about that story. He's called "genius", "mathematical marvel" and such, but I don't see any reference to what exactly did he do to be called so, aside of self-promotion. Telegraph.co.uk article says "He is now recognised as a leading maths thinker." Hm. Maybe he is, but what about any re…

> but I don't see any reference to what exactly did he do to be called so Agreed. His experience and transformation is interesting, but the article is pretty lacking in details. > Searching for "site:arxiv.org Jason Padgett" results are filled by works of "Deborah Padgett, Jason A. Surace" and such, Small world! Jason Surace and I are both members of a collaboration studying galaxies which are forming stars a rates 1…

Sounds cool, care to expand on that? One can never miss an opportunity to hear cool facts from an astronomer :)

Re: Head injury causes savant syndrome

#43

Post by GIFtheory »

krick wrote: post #21

Article is very cheesy and full of journalism, but whatever, nothing unusual about it. It's something different I really don't like about that story. He's called "genius", "mathematical marvel" and such, but I don't see any reference to what exactly did he do to be called so, aside of self-promotion. Telegraph.co.uk article says "He is now recognised as a leading maths thinker." Hm. Maybe he is, but what about any re…

Sadly, all I can find in reference to his purported mathematical genius is a crackpot post by him on physorg: http://lofi.forum.physorg.com/End-Of-Pi-Found_20813.html. I highly doubt that there have been, or ever will be, any 'mathematical savants'. Being good at arithmetic or drawing fractals does not a mathematical genius make.

Re: Head injury causes savant syndrome

#44

Post by arjn »

yaddayadda wrote: post #6

I have met one woman like this and had the opportunity to work closely with another. In both of their cases they were in car accidents. I didn't know either of them before their accidents, but I have multiple friends that had known each of them for years or decades prior. In both cases they were described as pretty average before their accidents. Since their accidents they have both become extremely prolific readers…

I hate to be that person but I'm somewhat skeptical.

Would it be possible for you to arrange a Reddit AmA or similar event with these two people ?

Also, have either of these people you know been examined by scientists/doctors ?

Re: Head injury causes savant syndrome

#45

Post by TempleOSV2 »

I had a 1440 SAT. I was one of 7 national merit scholars in my freshman class at ASU 40,000 students.

The media does psy-ops on me.

God talks.

I made God's temple. I am the world's best programmer when God puppets me with divine intellect.

God says... yeah to_infinity_and_beyond holier_than_thou figuratively love special_case wrath look_out Yo Ghost nerd yep gambling how_goes_it biggot vote listen_buddy hilarious I'll_let_you_know unemployment as_a_matter_of_fact yikes youre_welcome Varoom close_your_eyes basically energy one_more_time stoked on_the_otherhand this_might_end_badly persistence dang_it you're_fired insane not joy hey_thats_right now_that_I_think_about_it how_could_you hobnob be_happy meh Russia not_the_sharpest_knife_in_the_drawer Ghost I_give_up Hicc_up love you_should_be_so_lucky once_upon_a_time smile car vermin well_obviously NOT hypocrite geek relax depressing You_know the You_know I'll_be_back okay couldnt_possibly Yawn You_get_what_you_pray_for what_would_Jesus_do cracks_me_up snap_out_of_it busybody hopefully you_know_a_better_God ipod the bring_it_on my_bad home et_tu wont_you_be_my_neighbor fight ridiculous never_happy I'll_get_right_on_it news_to_me Moses battle Oh_Hell_No heaven why_do_I_put_up_with_this rose_colored_glasses joking look_out epic_fail China illogical you_think_you_could_do_better in_theory hit unemployment but_of_course sing astronomical China how_bout_it don't_count_on_it Dad when_hell_freezes_over Russia I_planned_that not_too_shabby zoot driving left_field I'm_the_boss obviously Catastrophic_Success epic_fail lust ordinarily daunting I_was_sleeping I_pitty_the_fool You_know news_to_me tattle_tale Zzzzzzzz virtue music Vegas you'll_see dance astronomical you_owe_me If_had_my_druthers

Re: Head injury causes savant syndrome

#46

Post by krick »

GIFtheory wrote: post #43
krick wrote: post #21

Article is very cheesy and full of journalism, but whatever, nothing unusual about it. It's something different I really don't like about that story. He's called "genius", "mathematical marvel" and such, but I don't see any reference to what exactly did he do to be called so, aside of self-promotion. Telegraph.co.uk article says "He is now recognised as a leading maths thinker." Hm. Maybe he is, but what about any re…

Sadly, all I can find in reference to his purported mathematical genius is a crackpot post by him on physorg: http://lofi.forum.physorg.com/End-Of-Pi-Found_20813.html . I highly doubt that there have been, or ever will be, any 'mathematical savants'. Being good at arithmetic or drawing fractals does not a mathematical genius make.

Oh God. I wonder if that wonderful theory of his was invented before or after his enlightenment. Well, at least it's funny.

What's about the rest of your post… You see, I don't think it's about 'mathematical savants' or anything. And, once again, this guy doesn't draw fractals. Anyway, for me it isn't important part about that. "Genius" is just a bold word after all, it means very little if anything at all. Somebody achieved something, or he hasn't, that's all. As it seems to this point with information we have this guy isn't anything but somebody who behaves oddly after damaging his head, which isn't big deal as I believe anybody would agree. Yet if he's loud enough, journals are taking interviews with him, and links to these interviews are posted on HN, and people discuss that magical phenomena with excitement, and he writes a book, and somebody probably buys this book, and somebody with degree in neuroscience writes dubious paper about that and people call it scientifically proven, and some other journalist writes long but pointless article about that, and so on, so on, so on… And even if there was actually something interesting about his case, it's pretty hard to see it now, after all that "mathematical marvel" screaming, especially when no real facts given. I find it sad and much more important than if he is actually a "marvel" or he isn't.

Re: Head injury causes savant syndrome

#48

Post by heffo »

bra-ket wrote: post #12
eurleif wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sounds like something some people would sign up for. If you compared the injuries between multiple people with similar effects, I wonder if it would be possible to find a way to reproduce it?

I see startup potential here, "Head Knock LLC"

"Algernon LTD."

Re: Head injury causes savant syndrome

#49

Post by privong »

sssbc wrote: post #34
privong wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> but I don't see any reference to what exactly did he do to be called so Agreed. His experience and transformation is interesting, but the article is pretty lacking in details. > Searching for "site:arxiv.org Jason Padgett" results are filled by works of "Deborah Padgett, Jason A. Surace" and such, Small world! Jason Surace and I are both members of a collaboration studying galaxies which are forming stars a rates 1…

Is that the same Jason Surace who got his PhD from University of Hawaii befor Y2K? If so, small world, few Jason Surace's.

Indeed, it is!

Re: Head injury causes savant syndrome

#50

Post by privong »

darkmighty wrote: post #42
privong wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> but I don't see any reference to what exactly did he do to be called so Agreed. His experience and transformation is interesting, but the article is pretty lacking in details. > Searching for "site:arxiv.org Jason Padgett" results are filled by works of "Deborah Padgett, Jason A. Surace" and such, Small world! Jason Surace and I are both members of a collaboration studying galaxies which are forming stars a rates 1…

Sounds cool, care to expand on that? One can never miss an opportunity to hear cool facts from an astronomer :)

Hopefully you see this! I way offline for a while and just saw your reply...

We are both members of the "Great Observatories All-sky LIRG Survey" (GOALS; http://goals.ipac.caltech.edu/). It is a survey of 200 galaxies in the nearby Universe (within ~1 billion light-years) which all have enhanced star formation rates. In this case, enhanced means they are forming 10s to hundreds of solar masses worth of stars per year (compare to our galaxy, which forms ~1 solar mass worth of stars each year). These galaxies are LIRGs (Luminous Infrared Galaxies), which means they were selected by the fact that they have emit a significant amount of their total energy in the infrared. For most of these, that infrared luminosity comes from dust, which has absorbed and re-emitted the optical and ultraviolet light from the young stars which have recently formed (in the past 10-100 Myr).

When you look at LIRGs, say with the Hubble Space Telescope (http://www.spacetelescope.org/news/heic0810/), you see that many of them are galaxies in the process of merging with other galaxies. My focus is on matching computer simulations to individual merger systems. Since these mergers can take up to a billion years to go from start to finish, simulations enable us to "fast forward" and "rewind" each merger. One research interest it to use the simulations to determine how differences in each system's encouter correlates with how much their star formation is enhanced. I'm still working on it so I don't yet have the answer, but hopefully in a couple years!

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