_The r-word_ (UNCLASSIFIED)

[Wilson Gray]

On Thu, Feb 23, 2012 at 9:18 AM, Jonathan Lighter
<wuxxmupp2000 at gmail.com> wrote:
> The theory is/was that the savants' condition enables/compels them to focus
> almost all of their attention on one extremely narrow galaxy of
> information, like math and musical relationships or the weather. Â It wasn't
> clear to me whether their memory for ordinary things is impaired.

Yes. That's what I've heard, too. That seems to be a reasonable suggestion.

The twins appeared to have ordinary recall of ordinary stuff, like
having been picked upon as chirrin. But they had savant-recall of the
days and dates of their favorite TV shows. Their brother;s wife
anecdoted that she once took them to the beach without asking what
they usually did. The twins can't tell time but they know when their
shows are on. Picture eight-year-old twins embarrassing you by
throwing a tantrum in public, except that they're 51-year-old women.

Annoyingly, the TV show was more of a trivial soap-opera about how
much it sucked to be an _idiot_-savant - victimization by bullies;
their mother had tried to kill them, after becoming aware that they
would forever be an anchor around her neck - whereas, if you were a
_normal_-savant, like, e.g., Einstein, Newton, Toscanini, Bobby
Fischer, Michael Jordan, etc., you'd be called a "prodigy," be
world-renowned, and even wealthy.

There was no attempt at an in-depth - in depth? indepth? - discussion.

Speaking of savant-like tricks, I can't STAND to be awakened, to an
extent that I can't possibly describe. So, if I know what time it is
when I go to sleep, then I simply wake up at the required time, be it
one hour later or twelve. No alarm, no shaking, no calling, etc.,
necessary. I have no idea how I do this. But I'm *intensely* motivated
to avoid the, for me, *mind-bending*, *soul-destroying* SHOCK! of
being awakened unexpectedly - for some reason, knowing that an alarm
is going to go off doesn't make it expected - by some outside force.

--
-Wilson
-----
All say, "How hard it is that we have to die!"---a strange complaint
to come from the mouths of people who have had to live.
-Mark Twain

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