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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 o
by yaddayadda 13y ago
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 [1] , with drastically better memory and cognition [2], and can't sleep more than 4 hours a night if they try.
[1] In the case of my colleague, she read everything she wanted, at which point she read the first Dewey decimal cataloged book in the local library and then started to read each subsequent book in progression. Less than three years after her accident she had almost finished every book in the local library and was already making plans to get a membership at the state's largest library.
[2] Neither have photographic memory, but it is something eerily close; and they make cognitive leaps that never cease to amaze me.
- toomuchtodo 13y agoThis verges on a procedure I would pay to have done to me.
- eurleif 13y agoSounds 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?
- bra-ket 13y agoI see startup potential here, "Head Knock LLC"
- camillomiller 13y ago9/10 would andreessen
- heffo 13y ago"Algernon LTD."
- pkaye 13y agoSchool of hard knocks
- yaddayadda 13y agoI absolutely envy my former colleague's gains and would gladly have my noggin knocked if I was guaranteed to have similar results! Unfortunately, because they both led ordinary lives, there were no scans of their brains prior to the accident (yes, I asked). And, there certainly weren't any brain related devices recording their accidents. So, I'm not aware of any easy way to identify the injuries with enough precision.
- toomuchtodo 13y agofMRI imaging while undergoing their savant-based tasks? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Functional_magnetic_resonance_imaging http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Functional_magnetic_resonance_i...
- PhasmaFelis 13y agoYeah, there's a lot I would give to have those abilities. Especially the one about not needing as much sleep. (Assuming they actually don't need it; waking up after four hours still exhausted would be less fun.)
- sitkack 13y agoI can't find the link, but there was an unsuccessful unethical study that tried to reproduce this. I think most of the test subjects died, none became savants.
- 3rd3 13y agoIt would be great if one could turn it on and off with a head implant.
- r00fus 13y agoI wonder if the quality of their life has changed significantly since their accidents?
- arjn 13y agoI 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 ?