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The violent attack that turned a man into a maths genius

39 points by uvesten 8y ago

aaron695 8y ago
:) Do people believe this shit? I get it makes for a great movie, which it is being made into, but a knock on the head a math genius not makes. Nor does it improve maths. Kudos to him for making money though. His TEDx talk shows some of his craziness. I guess if you believe this story you'll love the talk. Again conspiracy theories are interesting, I watch Sci-Fi which is just a conspiracy theory made for TV. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CyYQIcZacvA https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CyYQIcZacvA He might have brought on synesthesia though, which is actually interesting and perhaps real. Vibration theory of olfaction which he mentions in the TED talk - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vibration_theory_of_olfaction https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vibration_theory_of_olfaction
- YeGoblynQueenne 8y ago
  I agree with the skepticism expressed in your comment, but the tone of it is a little aggressive, which is probably why it was flagged and buried. Would you consider rewording your comment to make it less confrontational? I think it's important to challenge dubious stories like this one.
- Starwatcher2001 8y ago
  Synesthesia is definitely real, my wife has it. She sees numbers and letters as having colours. We'd been married a few years before either of us realised there was something different about her, she just thought everyone saw the world as she did. I didn't believe her at first, then asked her go through the entire alphabet and tell me the colours she saw for each letter. To this day they've never differed. Words written in coloured ink are difficult for her to read, and trying to read "rainbow" coloured text is virtually impossible as it makes her feel sick.
  - Zenbit_UX 8y ago
    Your comment about difficulty reading colored text gave me an idea for diagnosing synesthesia early in children. To what end, I have no idea but it sounds like it could work.
    - tuesdayrain 8y ago
      There's a simple test for this. You can generate a page with tons of the same letter or number, and a few outliers. A person with synesthesia will be able to instantly spot the outliers while a neurotypical person won't. Something like https://www.synesthesiatest.org/blog/synesthesia-test-variations https://www.synesthesiatest.org/blog/synesthesia-test-variat...
zelly 8y ago
I don't see any proof that he's a math genius. The attitude of the public seems to be that math is something you're supposed to just "get" automatically by having a gift in your brain, as if it's not a knowledge-based discipline that takes years of study. I think this comes from mental math being confused for actual math---and mental math ability is probably genetic.
wildylion 8y ago
Am I the onyl one who thinks he's similar to Louis Wain? Both guys seemed to be seeing fractals in their minds, after all. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Louis_Wain https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Louis_Wain
rofo1 8y ago
Most people think that mathematicians work with numbers, when the truth is far away from that. You are most likely to end up having to work with something that cannot be drawn or calculated and is superbly abstract, like some mappings from one theoretical concept to another. Sure, you can draw some "projections" from certain things to other things, or "draw" an analogy to something simpler, but still most of the things are highly abstract and are nowhere "simple" as numbers, or geometric figures or something similar. I think this is true at least in theoretical math research.

39 points by uvesten 8y ago

:) Do people believe this shit? I get it makes for a great movie, which it is being made into, but a knock on the head a math genius not makes. Nor does it improve maths. Kudos to him for making money though. His TEDx talk shows some of his craziness. I guess if you believe this story you'll love the talk. Again conspiracy theories are interesting, I watch Sci-Fi which is just a conspiracy theory made for TV. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CyYQIcZacvA https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CyYQIcZacvA He might have brought on synesthesia though, which is actually interesting and perhaps real. Vibration theory of olfaction which he mentions in the TED talk - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vibration_theory_of_olfaction https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vibration_theory_of_olfaction

YeGoblynQueenne 8y ago
I agree with the skepticism expressed in your comment, but the tone of it is a little aggressive, which is probably why it was flagged and buried. Would you consider rewording your comment to make it less confrontational? I think it's important to challenge dubious stories like this one.
Starwatcher2001 8y ago
Synesthesia is definitely real, my wife has it. She sees numbers and letters as having colours. We'd been married a few years before either of us realised there was something different about her, she just thought everyone saw the world as she did. I didn't believe her at first, then asked her go through the entire alphabet and tell me the colours she saw for each letter. To this day they've never differed. Words written in coloured ink are difficult for her to read, and trying to read "rainbow" coloured text is virtually impossible as it makes her feel sick.
- Zenbit_UX 8y ago
  Your comment about difficulty reading colored text gave me an idea for diagnosing synesthesia early in children. To what end, I have no idea but it sounds like it could work.
  - tuesdayrain 8y ago
    There's a simple test for this. You can generate a page with tons of the same letter or number, and a few outliers. A person with synesthesia will be able to instantly spot the outliers while a neurotypical person won't. Something like https://www.synesthesiatest.org/blog/synesthesia-test-variations https://www.synesthesiatest.org/blog/synesthesia-test-variat...

zelly 8y ago

I don't see any proof that he's a math genius. The attitude of the public seems to be that math is something you're supposed to just "get" automatically by having a gift in your brain, as if it's not a knowledge-based discipline that takes years of study. I think this comes from mental math being confused for actual math---and mental math ability is probably genetic.

wildylion 8y ago

Am I the onyl one who thinks he's similar to Louis Wain? Both guys seemed to be seeing fractals in their minds, after all. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Louis_Wain https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Louis_Wain

rofo1 8y ago

Most people think that mathematicians work with numbers, when the truth is far away from that. You are most likely to end up having to work with something that cannot be drawn or calculated and is superbly abstract, like some mappings from one theoretical concept to another. Sure, you can draw some "projections" from certain things to other things, or "draw" an analogy to something simpler, but still most of the things are highly abstract and are nowhere "simple" as numbers, or geometric figures or something similar. I think this is true at least in theoretical math research.