Idiot savant does calculations in head or hoax?

This post is a work in progress-- there are reference links at the bottom that I'll comment on later-- The subject of this video has a blog. My thoughts on this are that the video is a hoax and this guy is a con artist. The entire thing rests on our ability to suspend our disbelief that this guy has this ability. The documentary makes it easy to suspend disbelief. Melody maxim recently referred to suspension of disbelief with respect to SA Inc-- which I think is a good line of thought-- in fact the entire idea of cryonics-- or anything for that matters-- reqiures suspension of disbelief to move forward-- whether or not it has anything to do with reality or not... a good sitcom requires suspension of disbelief... or ability to suspend our disbelief knows no bounds and is the key to the world's hoaxes-- including the hoaxed manned moon landing-- so that's actually why I'm considering this video today-- as a general apparoch to examining how we suspend our disbelief in things.

{+] Is this a hoax or not? 42 min video

This guy recites thousands of decimal places of pi-- how? What's going on here? Strange power or just memorized? Does calculations in his head....claims to do massive calculations since age 4. Says he had a series of seizures-- had epilepsy. The fits changed something in his brain. Sees "pictures" in his mind. Saw patterns in numbers. Injuries to brain lead to some sort of talent...

Another guy can recall calendar dates that "pop right into his head"-- computes calendar dates accurately for every year.... which is odd because the actually calendar is something of a cultural artifact. This documentary and all documentaries like it could be a hoax in my view.

Rainman, the movie with Dustin Hoffman, portrays a character like this. The "mix of ability and disability " in the person affliceted with this is seen in many people. This main subject of this video cried all the time... according to his mother. This is categoriezed as autism-- "asperger's syndrom" and it's alleviated with repetitive music. These people are seen as not integrating socially-- this aspect of "autism" has never made sense to me. The guy says numbers were fascinating and people were not.

the subject of this video, Daniel, DID integrate socially. he managed to adapt to "our world". He's considered "lucky" because most people with this ability are handicapped in social spheres.

Another guy, Dane, is see as a gifted "drawer". He draws with "extraordinary precision". This kid is particularly out of his mind-- pays attnetion to minute details and cries when inturrupted. The inclusion of this guy with daniel in the same video is a clue that the entire thing is a hoax.

It seems to me that the TV program Numbers might be based on this guy although the TV program involves statistics and is much more believable. This guy says there are other senses associated with numbers which is nuts. Every number up to 10,000 is seen as a distinct entity. Sounds like bs.... There is reference to "synethsesia". This is suppored to validate Daniel's ability. Complex imagery is supposed to be the key-- a "synethetic landscape".

He goes to New York and memorizes a chess board among street players. He says he memorizes the board according to imagery. I don't see the point of this. And it's not clear from the video that this is actually what took place-- they could all be paid actors-- The whole thing is contrived and rediculous-- and it interferes with the chess games being played.

Another guy-- the 'world's most famous savant"-- the guy who the movie Rainman was based on-- is part of this video. Daneil meets him. The Rainman guy is said to have a "photographic" memory-- he remembers all facts-- as though he's on the internet... with a search engine in his brain. Everything he reads, he maintains. At 9 months, he was diagnosed as severely mentally retarded yet read encyclopedias at age 4. This appears to me to be a hoax as well.

He reads a page it normally takes 10 min to read in 4 seconds. He can cite exact calendar dates and recall minute details of numerous things-- apprently-- as though from an almanac. Doesn't seem credible to me.

Daniel travels to vegas to see if he can beat the house. He tries to count but it doesn't work... which is odd. He uses intuition-- using the "imagery in his head"-- his 6th sense, they say-- and he wins. And that was Vegas. This is not repeated. Then the narrator asks "does he really have a 6th sense". He meets skeptical scientists next.... recognize primes, divisions-- etc

When he meets the "skeptical scientists" in this video he proves himself. Of course-- because this is not about Daniel or any idiot savant... this is really about "suspending disbelief" and the power of "video documntaries". I can't find a source for this documentary.

Next we're taken to a classroom where kids are learning to use the abacus. Once the kid enough practise, they can do huge calculations without the abacus. They can do superfast mental calculation. Daniel says he's not doing calculation-- he's doing it spontaneously through imagery. Daniel is asked to model numbers he sees with playdough. Seems absurd. He also experiences emotions with numbers. A skeptic can't believe that Daniel gets a nice feeling from pi-- but tricked him. He was put on lie detector.. and shows a bastardized pi-- as I look at the landscape, there's a pit.... it's wrong.. how could you do that? he asks-- so this shows he has emotion...

Again,, this is a video-- and even the sketpics in the video could be paid actors... who are paid to say things like "you know what? this is legit"... The entire documentary is highly questionable.. I can't find a source-- who the narrator is, who paid for it etc. It's very likely a psyop of some sort.

Daniel is flown to ICeland-- to leanr Icelandic-- a difficult language-- to learn in a week and then appear on TV-- appears to be a parlor trick again-- he appears on tv and speaks Icelandic-- consistent with the point of this video.

Steve Gooder, Focus Productions made this film.

Nominees: The Boy with the Incredible Brain - Martin Weitz, Toby Trackman, Steve Gooder (Focus Productions/Five)
http://www.dfgdocs.com/News/BAFTA_Television_Awards_-_Winners_Announced.aspx
http://www.google.com/search?num=100&hl=en&lr=lang_en&safe=off&client=safari&rls=en&q=%22steve+gooder%22+%2B+%22focus+productions%22&btnG=Search

Huw Wheldon Award for Specialist Factual
Winner: Holocaust, a Memorial Film From Auschwitz(BBC / BBC Two)
Nominees: The Boy with the Incredible Brain (Focus Productions / Five); Life in the Undergrowth (BBC Natural History Unit / BBC One); No Direction Home (Spitfire Pictures / BBC Two)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_Academy_Television_Awards_2006

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Five_%28channel%29

http://www.google.com/search?num=100&hl=en&lr=lang_en&safe=off&client=safari&rls=en&q=%22the+boy+with+the+incredible+brain%22&btnG=Search

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daniel_Tammet

http://www.optimnem.co.uk/

http://www.blogger.com/profile/06218659842875531748

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=110133129131&ssPageName=ADME:L:LCA:UK:31

http://www.optimnem.co.uk/blog/2007/05/falsifiability-and-god-hypothesis.html

3. If the Universe were shown to be only one of an infinite number of 'multiverses' - So far, we have zero evidence for any universe but our own.

However one such well-publicised attempt - Memetics - has largely failed; its Journal ceasing publication in 2005 and many of its advocates having moved away from it.

„Why is he holding a bar code-- known to have 666 in it? [+]