Daniel has Asperger's Syndrome, a form of autism. He is one of perhaps 50 Savants in the world. His area of specialty is numbers and math. He makes images in his head of numbers, and has drawn the "Landscape of Pi" shown here. He has also written a book about his life. I plan to find it at my library and read it.




Tammet, now 26, is an autistic savant with prodigious abilities similar to those that Dustin Hoffman portrayed in the film Rain Man. There are only about 50 savants in the world (all men), but Tammet is unique in being able to describe how his mind works. "I'm lucky," he says, "because most others who have rare abilities are also seriously disabled."

Two years ago, Tammet became famous for reciting pi to 22,514 decimal places with the same ease the rest of us can reel off 3.142. Even more remarkably, he says he could still do it: his memory retains everything.

In "Born on a Blue Day," Tammet describes growing up with numbers as his only friends. He writes so elegantly that the book's oddness dawns slowly: there is no dialogue, no humour, none of the "silly-me" stuff that you might expect. Instead, he tells his story dead straight, with an eager desire to explain himself.

At times, he goes into excessive detail about his enthusiasms, one of which is the structure of language. He is able to pick up, almost osmotically, those things with which most people struggle - maths and syntax (he mastered Icelandic in a week). His struggle has been to acquire the skills that others take for granted: communication, empathy and the ability to see the big picture, not the detail.

"My brain breaks everything down into concretes and tangibles," he says. "I find intangibles hard to understand."

Daniel Tammet has Asperger's syndrome, a form of autism, which was evident from birth. As a baby, he cried nonstop and only repetitive motion soothed him. He never played with other children or toys. "Numbers were my toys," he says.

To him, numbers have colors, shapes, textures, personalities. This cross-connection between senses is known as synaesthesia and he does not know whether it predated - or resulted from - the epileptic seizures he suffered at four, but the tangibility of numbers makes it possible for him to travel in his mind through the undulating landscape that makes up pi. "To me it is as beautiful as the Mona Lisa." One of Daniel's favorite numbers is 333, which he describes as "Beautiful, bubbly."

This may sound simplistic, but I understand more about Pi looking at his drawing than I ever did in math class.

Comments:

I have always been fascinated with those with extrasensory, mysterious gifts. I recently read "The Lost Memoirs of Edgar Cayce." He was born in rural Kentucky in 1880, a deeply religious man even from his youth, and later dubbed "The Sleeping Prophet." He would go into non-drug, self-induced trances, giving "readings" for those seeking his gift. His prophesies, however, would fail if he tried to divine the next rich oil field, or other pecuniary such endeavor. Even several early 20th Century US Presidents sought out Edgar Cayce for readings. Savants also have intrigued me, wondering whether there is some special divine gift bestowed on them, despite their usual demonstration of poor social skills.

Take care
RE

It's an amazing concept to think of numbers as colors and shapes. This fellow is OBVIOUSLY much more talented and gifted than I am. To be honest with you, when I saw the picture of PI, what I saw was a throw-pillow. Sorry.

There was a special about him recently on one of the satellite channels. They paralleled the movie and characters with him. If I am not mistaken, he worked with the crew in order to portray the savant correctly. His ability is truly amazing as well as all the other savants.