The Boy With The Incredible Brain

[GoodCallYouWin]

This guy is nuts. He can recite pi to 22,000 decimal places.

http://video.google.ca/videoplay?docid=2351172331453380070

[Nielsio]

Yeah, he has a very visual brain.

However, he still believes in a literal god and not a metaphorical god, which means his realm of experience and abstract thought is severely hampered.

[Taraz]

Yeah, these autistic savants are crazy. It really shows you what the human brain is capable of. Check out this guy who has a photographic memory and amazing art skills:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jVqRT_kCOLI

[KipBond]

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However, he still believes in a literal god and not a metaphorical god, which means his realm of experience and abstract thought is severely hampered.

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But, he's also gay (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daniel_Tammet#Personal_life), and doesn't (seem to) have a problem with it, which means he's not a Fundamentalist, at least. I would be interested in hearing his religious views -- where did you find out about them? Maybe he believes in Einstein's God?

[Bill Haywood]

[ QUOTE ]
Yeah, he has a very visual brain.

However, he still believes in a literal god and not a metaphorical god, which means his realm of experience and abstract thought is severely hampered.

[/ QUOTE ]

But he can compensate weak parts of his brain with the strong sections. He is able to visualize abstract things that are beyond his experience, such as how an entire skyscraper could fall after removing just one of the floors.

[Nielsio]

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
However, he still believes in a literal god and not a metaphorical god, which means his realm of experience and abstract thought is severely hampered.

[/ QUOTE ]

But, he's also gay (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daniel_Tammet#Personal_life), and doesn't (seem to) have a problem with it, which means he's not a Fundamentalist, at least. I would be interested in hearing his religious views -- where did you find out about them? Maybe he believes in Einstein's God?

[/ QUOTE ]


I could be mistaking him for someone else. But I remember some sicko smart person thinking he could prove god theoretically.

Yeah, I think it was someone else. I'll have to look it up.


One thing about these types of persons though: what happens in their brain is an extreme stimulae for religious belief, because of the visuality of it. Susan Greenfield describes in her series Brain Story how this stuff happenes to people who have these types of seizures (van Gogh, others).

[Nielsio]

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
Yeah, he has a very visual brain.

However, he still believes in a literal god and not a metaphorical god, which means his realm of experience and abstract thought is severely hampered.

[/ QUOTE ]

But he can compensate weak parts of his brain with the strong sections. He is able to visualize abstract things that are beyond his experience, such as how an entire skyscraper could fall after removing just one of the floors.

[/ QUOTE ]


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_HCumUgISBk

[David Sklansky]

"I could be mistaking him for someone else. But I remember some sicko smart person thinking he could prove god theoretically."

Godel. The guy Not Ready should be reading about rather than Newton.

[knowledgeORbust]

[ QUOTE ]
Yeah, he has a very visual brain.

However, he still believes in a literal god and not a metaphorical god, which means his realm of experience and abstract thought is severely hampered.

[/ QUOTE ]

weeeaak. belief in god makes one stupider somehow? get real

[Vendal]

"I could be mistaking him for someone else. But I remember some sicko smart person thinking he could prove god theoretically."

Chris Langan?

[KipBond]

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
Yeah, he has a very visual brain.

However, he still believes in a literal god and not a metaphorical god, which means his realm of experience and abstract thought is severely hampered.

[/ QUOTE ]

weeeaak. belief in god makes one stupider somehow? get real

[/ QUOTE ]

It's a correlative link, not a causal one. But, start a new thread to discuss it -- or just find one of the others on the same subject.

[Bill Haywood]

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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_HCumUgISBk

[/ QUOTE ]

"We have been trained that the world is full of liars and deceit, always on the verge of striking out."

That doesn't sound like someone who sees evil cabals running huge conspiracies. I'm unclear why you sent me to this vid.

You feel emotional responses to alien ideas lead people to ridicule you? What I saw was people reacting to the plausibility of your views, not mobbing. Many individuals stayed very focused on 911 facts. Poking fun came later, after you kept dodging away from the nitty gritty. But you want to say it's that we lack emotional openness or empathy, not that pancaking buildings can reach high speed. Try concentrating on the details of the building collapse, not other people being unreceptive.

[NotReady]

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Godel. The guy Not Ready should be reading about rather than Newton.


[/ QUOTE ]

I'm concerned about trusting people so paranoid they would rather starve to death than eat. Though Newton was a bit quirky at times as well.

I was thinking about his theorem a while back, wondering if it has applications to philosophy. I went through quite a few mental gymnastics, made more difficult because I don't know the math, and spent a lot of time contemplating Turing machines, and don't remember it all, but came out with something like:

Any philosophical system derived by a finite mind, if complete, will be inconsistent(irrational,nonrational) and any system that is rational (consistent) will be incomplete. Has to do with self-referential stuff. Since God's mind is infinite He isn't bound by the self-referential limitations (paradoxes,contradictions), and therefore His system is both complete and rational. I'm pretty sure that proves God exists but I can't prove it.

[FortunaMaximus]

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But you want to say it's that we lack emotional openness or empathy, not that pancaking buildings can reach high speed. Try concentrating on the details of the building collapse, not other people being unreceptive.

[/ QUOTE ]

Certainly. Being able to describe the concept without accurately conveying the meaning...

It sucks. It's not the building or the floor. It's that in such a world of visualization, which seems natural and should be obvious coming from the individual's point of view, that it should also be obvious to everybody.

And I suppose it's that blindness that does not accurately convey that it's not lack of emotion, but that it is just one of many necessary elements. And I guess it is not the driving force.

Godel. Huh. Thought it would be more interconnected than incomplete.

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I'm pretty sure that proves God exists but I can't prove it.

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Tough nut. Two problems I can see is that no mind is ever complete, so in essence, no complete philosophical system can exist.

Also, the proof would have to be derived. From what? Yeah. It's never going to be an if x, then y or similar. The parameters do defy conventional logical axioms.

And there's conflict.

[Alex-db]

Here's the leak:

[ QUOTE ]

Any philosophical system derived by a finite mind, if complete, will be inconsistent(irrational,nonrational) and any system that is rational (consistent) will be incomplete. Has to do with self-referential stuff. Since God's mind is infinite He isn't bound by the self-referential limitations (paradoxes,contradictions), and therefore His system is both complete and rational. I'm pretty sure that proves God exists but I can't prove it.

[/ QUOTE ]

There's no reason to assume that.

Therefore you are saying: If we assume a God with an infinite mind exists, then I am sure he exists.

[GoodCallYouWin]

"There's no reason to assume that."

There's no 'reason' to assume anything related to religion (or to believe it, for that matter) but if you accept say Christianity as the religion we are discussing I think the bible indicates that if there is a God his mind is infinte; indeed, the bible claims that if there is a God he himself is infinte, and his mind being a subset of him will have that quality as well.

[Alex-db]

[ QUOTE ]
"There's no reason to assume that."

There's no 'reason' to assume anything related to religion (or to believe it, for that matter) but if you accept say Christianity as the religion we are discussing I think the bible indicates that if there is a God his mind is infinte; indeed, the bible claims that if there is a God he himself is infinte, and his mind being a subset of him will have that quality as well.

[/ QUOTE ]

True, but that means it is no use as any sort of theoretical proof of his existence.

Its a similar mistake to suggesting that anything we can imagine, which we imagine to have the qualities omnipotence etc, HAS to exist, since existing in possibilty + omnipotence = existing in actuality. Its just silly since we can suppose all sorts of FSMs and reach the same conclusions.

[GoodCallYouWin]

"True, but that means it is no use as any sort of theoretical proof of his existence."

Well, since God doesn't exist, everything is no use for proof of his existence.

[vhawk01]

[ QUOTE ]
"There's no reason to assume that."

There's no 'reason' to assume anything related to religion (or to believe it, for that matter) but if you accept say Christianity as the religion we are discussing I think the bible indicates that if there is a God his mind is infinte; indeed, the bible claims that if there is a God he himself is infinte, and his mind being a subset of him will have that quality as well.

[/ QUOTE ]

The Bible doesn't claim that at all. The Bible doesn't deal in if/then statements.

[GoodCallYouWin]

"
The Bible doesn't claim that at all. The Bible doesn't deal in if/then statements.
"

If work on sabbath = true villagers stone heretic.

[WiiiiiiMan]

[ QUOTE ]
Yeah, he has a very visual brain.

However, he still believes in a literal god and not a metaphorical god, which means his realm of experience and abstract thought is severely hampered.

[/ QUOTE ]

An Agenda aint your Frenda anymore then your Momma wants me to Benda.

So textbook your comment was.........

[vhawk01]

[ QUOTE ]
"
The Bible doesn't claim that at all. The Bible doesn't deal in if/then statements.
"

If work on sabbath = true villagers stone heretic.

[/ QUOTE ]

Haha, good point. Not really what I meant though.

[CrayZee]

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
"
The Bible doesn't claim that at all. The Bible doesn't deal in if/then statements.
"

If work on sabbath = true villagers stone heretic.

[/ QUOTE ]

Haha, good point. Not really what I meant though.

[/ QUOTE ]

Quick, someone contact Donald Knuth! (http://www.amazon.com/3-16-Bible-Texts-Illuminated/dp/0895792524/ref=pd_bbs_sr_2/104-1186926-2879118?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1184104438&sr=8-2) Get on this program.