Daniel Tammet is an autistic savant. He can produce stunning mathematical calculations at breakneck speed. But unlike other savants, he is able to describe how this happens. Daniel speaks seven languages ​​and even designs his own. Scientists are wondering if his exceptional abilities are the key to unlocking autism.
Daniel Tammet: interesting facts
Tammet says. And while he does this, he studies the shirt of the interlocutor and counts the stitches. Ever since Daniel had an epileptic seizure at the age of three , he became obsessed with counting. Now he is 37, he is a mathematical genius who can calculate cubic roots faster than a calculator and memorize 22514 digits of Pi. In addition, he is autistic and cannot drive, plug in a power outlet and distinguish between left and right. He has unlimited and limited abilities.
Daniel Tammet (photo posted later in the article) multiplies 377 by 795. In fact, he does not perform any calculations, and there is nothing conscious about what he does. The answer comes instantly. Since an epileptic seizure, he has been able to see numbers as shapes, colors and textures. Number two, for example, represents movement, and five is a peal of thunder. When he multiplies, he sees two figures. The image begins to change and develop, transforming into a third form. This is the answer. These are mental images. It’s like mathematics that you don’t need to think about.
One in a hundred
Who is Daniel Tammet? He is a savant, a man with amazing, extraordinary mental abilities. According to experts, 10% of autists and 1% of non-autists are savants, but no one knows exactly why. A number of scientists hope that Daniel can help figure this out. Professor Allan Snyder of the Center for the Mind at the National University of Australia at Canberra explains why Tammet is of particular scientific interest. According to the scientist, savants usually cannot tell us how they do what they do. The answer simply “comes” to them. But Daniel can. He describes what he sees in his head. That's what makes him interesting. It can become the new Rosetta stone.
There are many theories that explain this phenomenon. Snyder, for example, believes that all people have extraordinary abilities. The only question is how to access them. Savants usually have a damaged brain. This is either the beginning of dementia, or a blow to the head, or, in the case of Daniel, an epileptic seizure. It is brain damage that creates savants. Therefore, a perfectly normal person can also access these abilities.
Brain scans of autistic savants suggest that the right hemisphere compensates for damage in the left. Although many autists have difficulty coping with languages ​​and understanding (skills related primarily to the left hemisphere), they often have amazing abilities in the field of mathematics and memory. They have a limited vocabulary, but Tammet does not.
Estonian-Finnish conlang
Daniel creates his own artificial language based on the Northern European-rich vowels and images. He already speaks French, German, Spanish, Lithuanian, Icelandic and Esperanto. The vocabulary of his Mänti language reflects the relationship between different things. The word ema, for example, translates as “mother,” and ela is what she creates: “life.” Päike is the "sun", and päive is what happens thanks to the luminary: "in the afternoon." Tammet hopes that his study of words and their relationship will be distributed in academic circles.
Phenomenal memory
Daniel Tammet broke the European record by recalling the largest number of decimal places of Pi. It was easy for him - he didn’t even have to think. According to him, Pi is not an abstract set of numbers; it is a visual story, a film projected before his eyes. Last year, he learned the number in both directions and spent five hours remembering it before the jury. He remembered 22,514 characters, technically being an invalid. Tammet wanted to show people that disability is not a hindrance.
French and Spanish courses
Daniel Tammet was never able to work from nine to five. It was difficult for him to live up to conventional life, as he had to do everything at the same time. Instead, Daniel set up a home-based business with Optimnem e-mail courses in foreign languages, arithmetic and letters. This reduced human communication to a minimum and gave him time to work on the verb structures of his konglang.
Autistic savants have shown a wide range of abilities, from word-for-word repetition of all nine volumes of the Grove Music Dictionary to determining the exact distances with the naked eye. Blind American Leslie Lemke played a Tchaikovsky concert for piano and orchestra No. 1 after he heard it for the first time, although he had never taken lessons on this instrument. And the British savant Stephen Wiltshire, from memory, drew an accurate map of London after a single helicopter trip over the city. However, Tammet is considered more important to science.
Daniel Tammet: biography
Daniel was born on January 31, 1979 in a poor suburb of London. This date makes him smile, as he notes that the numbers 31, 19, 79 and 1979 are prime. And this is a kind of sign. At birth, he had a different surname, Roots, but it did not match the way he saw himself. He found the word "tammet" on the Internet. In Estonian, it means "oak", and he liked this association. In addition, Daniel has always loved Estonian-rich vowels.
As a child, he hit his head against a wall and constantly shouted. No one knew what happened to him. His mother was alarmed and rocked him so he fell asleep. She breast-fed him for up to two years. Doctors said that the child did not have enough incentives. And then, when he was playing with his brother in the living room, he had an epileptic seizure.
He was given a cure for epilepsy and was forbidden to be in the sun. The boy had to visit the hospital every month for regular blood tests. He hated it, but knew that it was necessary. To compensate for this, his father always bought him a glass of juice while they sat in line. Daniel's grandfather died of epilepsy, and everyone was very worried about him.
Tammet's mother was an assistant secretary, and his father worked with sheet steel. They both graduated without qualification, but made the children feel special — all nine. Daniel was the oldest. His younger brothers and sisters swam better than he, caught and hit the ball, but they loved him because he was their big brother and could read fairy tales to them.
Amazing abilities
Temmet remembers how he was given a book about an account at four. When he looked at the numbers, he saw pictures. He felt that this place was intended for him, and it was great. Daniel escaped to another reality at every opportunity. He sat on the floor of his bedroom and counted, not noticing how time was passing. And only when his mother called for lunch or someone knocked on the door, he came out of this state.
Once, his brother asked him to multiply the number 82 four times. Daniel looked at the floor and closed his eyes, his back straightened, and his hands clenched into fists. But after 5 or 10 seconds, the answer simply flew out of his mouth. Brother asked a few more questions and got the right answers. Tammet's parents were not surprised. And they never forced him to show his abilities to his neighbors. They knew that Daniel was different, but they wanted him to have a normal life as much as possible.
Daniel Tammet liked to attend church because then he could sing hymns. The notes in his head formed into pictures, just like the numbers. The remaining children did not know what was happening to him, and teased him. At breaks, Daniel hurried into the school yard, not to play football, but to count the leaves on the trees.
Passion for collecting and languages
When Tammet got older, he developed a passion for collecting everything from chestnuts to newspapers. He remembers the first time he saw a ladybug. He liked her so much that he gathered hundreds of bugs and showed them to his teacher. He was amazed, and taking something with him, he handed over a box of ladybugs to Daniel's classmate, so that he would free them. Tammet was so upset that he cried when he found out about it. Teacher did not understand the world of Daniel.
After graduating from high school in history, French and German, he decided that he wanted to teach, but not in a very traditional way. To begin with, he went to Lithuania, where he worked as a volunteer. Since he was there of his own free will, he received a lot of freedom. Classes were not tough, and the program was compiled by him. He was first introduced by name, and not as "a guy who knows how to do strange things in his mind." It was a pleasant relief for him. Returning home, he lived with his parents and found a job as a math tutor.
Personal life
Tammet met his first love, software engineer Neil Mitchell, online. It all started with photo sharing via email, but ultimately ended in a meeting. Daniel could not drive a car, and Neal offered to pick him up from his house and take him to Kent County. He was silent all the way. Tammet thought that nothing good would come of it. But before they even got to the Nile’s house, he stopped the car and pulled out a bouquet of flowers. And only then it became clear that he was laconic, as he was always very focused at the wheel.
Neal was as shy as Daniel Tammet. Their personal life was happy. The only aspect of autism that causes problems is the lack of empathy. Jews say that if someone has a hanged relative, do not ask him where to hang his coat. Daniel constantly has to remind himself of this.
In her free time, Tammet likes to hang out with her friends on the church team of experts. His knowledge of pop culture is not great, but he is on a horse when it comes to mathematics. Daniel loves numbers. And this is not only something intellectual, he really feels the presence of emotional attachment, concern for numbers. Just as a poet animates a river or tree through metaphors, Daniel’s world allows him to feel numbers as individuals. According to him, although this sounds silly, the numbers are his friends.
Best-selling author
Daniel Tammet's literary work began in 2005. His first book, Born on a Blue Day, subtitled Asperger's Memoirs and Extraordinary Mind, was first published in the UK in 2006 and became the Sunday Times bestseller. Published in the USA in 2007, it has been on the New York Times bestseller list for 8 weeks. In 2008, the American Library Association named it the best book for young people. More than 500 thousand copies were sold worldwide, and it has been translated into more than 20 languages.
In 2009, Daniel Tammet published The Embracing the Wide Sky, a personal review of modern neuroscience. The French edition, in the translation of which the author himself participated, has become one of the best-selling popular science books of the year. She has also appeared on bestseller lists in the UK, Canada, and Germany, and has been translated into many languages.
Thinking in Figures, Tammet's first essay collection, published in August 2012.
In 2008, Daniel emigrated to France, to Paris, where he lives with Jerome Tabet, a French photographer, whom he met while distributing his biography.
In 2012, he was elected a member of the Royal Society of Arts.