How to recite Pi to 22,514 decimal places

February 23, 2005 in Science

Stories of humans performing astounding feats of memorization and/or mathematical calculation have always amazed me.  I guess it’s because I have the same tool in between my ears and I am so naturally curious about how to harness it’s power.  Is there a day coming in the future when we figure out how to rewire our brains to suit specific needs?  When we do, will the human brain be superior to even the world’s fastest supercomputers?

If you ask me to remember a seven digit phone number, I have trouble.  I have to sing it so myself and formulate some type of rhythm or rhyme so I don’t forget it.  And even then, it only stays in my brain until I jot it down or copy it into my cell phone.  So how in the world can essentially the same mass of cells and nerves in Daniel Tammet’s brain work so much differently?  The feat of reciting Pi to 22,514 decimal places is absolutely mind-boggling to me.  I can’t even imagine being able to recite it to 100 places.

The Pi feat is only one in a handful of exceptional abilities which are everyday activities for Tammet, an 26-year-old autistic savant from Australia.  He is very much like Rain Man with his incessant loves of counting and reading.  He is very different, however, in a remarkable way.  Tammet has the rare ability of being able to explain how he thinks.  He is giving scientists never-before-seen insight into the mind of a true savant.  Here is a brief excerpt from an article about Tammet by Richard Johnson in the UK’s popular newspaper, The Guardian:

Professor Allan Snyder,
from the Centre for the Mind at the Australian National University in
Canberra, explains why Tammet is of particular, and international,
scientific interest. "Savants can’t usually tell us how they do what
they do," says Snyder. "It just comes to them. Daniel can. He describes
what he sees in his head. That’s why he’s exciting. He could be the
Rosetta Stone."

It will be interesting to see how much we can learn from Daniel Tammet’s incredible abilities.  Check out the full article/interview here.  (via digg)