One of the most fascinating things we learned so far, in my opinion, is that of the idiot savant. I find it so interesting how someone would be classified as unable to perform even the most menial task but can be so far advanced in a single skill. There are idiot savants who are capable of looking at an entire city for just a minute and then being able to draw an exact replica of the entire scene, or the one who is able to calculate what day of the week it was for any date that you ask, within seconds. The power of their minds are sort of a two -sided coin, impossibly smart on one side but then impossibly autistic on the other. It could be easy fro one of these idiot savants to tell you the first 7,000 digits of pi, but very difficult to tie their own shoe.
Researchers are still not exactly sure what causes or enables these people to have such incredible mental capabilities, but then be so restricted by their autism. However, imagine what will happen when they do figure it all out. There will no doubt be a movement to modify regular people's minds to have the same insane capabilities paired with a normal, non-autistic way of life. I know I will certainly be in line for that!
I agree that an idiot savant is quite fascinating--I couldn't have said it any better myself. If you're really interested in idiot savants, I suggest you see the movie Rain Man. It won Best Picture, among other awards, in 1988.
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