I’m currently reading The Puzzle Master by Danielle Trussoni. The premise of the book is fascinating: as a young man, Mike Brooks suffered a brain injury which resulted in acquired savant syndrome. “He had a photographic memory that allowed him to reproduce structures and images with perfect recall and an ability to do instant numerical calculations, including calendar counting, reciting pi places into the thousands, and calling up numerical solutions to complex equations in seconds.”
I’ll talk more about the book when I’ve finished it (I have some reservations about the plot line right now) but the fascinating thing is- acquired savant syndrome is a real thing. It’s incredibly rare, but regular, ordinary people have been known to acquire extraordinary skills in math, music, and art after a head injury alters their brain.
Does this mean that my brain is actually capable of incredible mathematical feats? Is mathematical genius hidden in my brain, just waiting for a sharp knock to unlock it? I don’t mean to make light of brain injuries- I know that’s a serious subject. But this particular type of brain injury is intriguing.
In the book I read before this, Death’s End by Cixin Liu, there’s a part of the story where the characters experience life in four dimensional space. Unlike acquired savant syndrome, this is obviously entirely fictional. No one in real life has entered four dimensional space (or- at least that I know of) but that doesn’t mean it doesn’t exist. ‘The world exists in three dimensions”; “I’m terrible at math”; are these “truths” really true?
Did you know that some insects and birds can see patterns on leaves and plants that we can’t see? We think a leaf is green- but that’s only what our minds are perceiving. Other eyes see something else.
Sometimes I like to challenge my own beliefs- am I sure this is true? Could something else be true if I looked at it in a different way? Are the way things seem the way they really are? Is my brain actually capable of reciting pi into the thousands (ummm… on that last one I’m going to have to say no way, Jose.)
Thanks for indulging my Deep Thoughts!
Have you read anything lately that really fascinated you?
Top photo by Sachin Khadka on Unsplash
21 Responses
I didn’t expect to come here and have an existential crisis this morning… J/K
But seriously, I too wonder about this all the time: “Did you know that some insects and birds can see patterns on leaves and plants that we can’t see? We think a leaf is green- but that’s only what our minds are perceiving. Other eyes see something else.”
What are my puppies thinking? What are my students thinking? What the heck are my kids thinking? lol
Yeah, I know. How are other people perceiving the world??? We really don’t know.
Very interesting.
I’m reading liane Moriartys latest about a passenger on a plane that can predict when and how people will die.
Would I want to know? Would you?
I read that book! When I was reading it I decided I would NOT want to know.
I agree!
I read that book but did not care for it but I seem to be the outlier. I didn’t like the occult theme. But I think that’s what NGS really liked about it! Different strokes for different folks!
Paul is color blind and we suspect Will is as well (my dad is color blind so they each had a 50% chance of being color blind). So I have a lot of thoughts about what exactly they are seeing. And then I wonder, do we all see the same color? Does red look the same to all of us? We’ll never know. It makes my head hurt to think about it!
Oh, Engie liked it???????? Maybe that’s where I heard about it. I finished it last night- I officially didn’t like it.
Yes, living with someone who’s color blind definitely makes you think about what they’re seeing vs. what you’re seeing. I would love to be in someone else’s mind for just a minute.
My husband is color blind. He won’t go leaf peeping with me in the fall. He says all the leaves look the same. How sad is that?
I have that book in my to-read stack, but now that I see Lisa’s comment, I may want to avoid it!
My father-in-law is colour blind and I remember being so relieved when both my kids passed the colour test at the eye-doctor. Not that it’s a huge deal, but it is crazy to think that some people aren’t seeing the same colours I am seeing.
Elisabeth, I’m talking about that book in tomorrow’s post, but, spoiler alert- I didn’t like it.
I think about perception every time I walk the dog. She doesn’t see colors the way I do and I don’t smell (or hear) the same things she does. We’re on the same walk, but we’re not, you know what I mean?
Yes I do! I think about that with our cats all the time. How are they perceiving all this???
It is interesting that people see things differently. I was unaware that a brain injury could lead to that sort of things. I don’t think this book is for me. I haven’t read anything that covers anything this mind blowing.
Honestly, other than the fact that I learned about acquired savant syndrome, I could have happily skipped this book.
Sign me up for acquired savant syndrome please! Wait, I guess I should research whether that just means that I become a savant or if there are some downsides that come with it. Hold the request for right now.
It is interesting to think about what we *could* do vs what we think we can do, and how my perception is different from someone else’s. I don’t have a grand conclusion to draw from all of this, but sometimes we all think Big Thoughts.
Ha, I thought the same thing- I want that! I think it can come with downsides, but nothing debilitating. I would take that risk.
I definitely think about this, but more in terms of my dog! She loooooooves to sniff on our walks and I know her sense of smell is like 10,000 times better than mine, but she can’t see all the same colors that I can, so the way she goes through life is very different, and I wish I could get in her head because it would be very interesting to know why she does certain things that seem to make no sense!
Also, apparently not every person talks to themselves in their own head which I find fascinating. I always have an internal monologue going on, and often make up fake scenarios in my head that I imagine could happen but never do, and to think some people don’t experience it is wild!
Yes, I have heard that! I definitely talk to myself and was astonished to find that other people don’t. I also recently met someone who can’t picture things in his mind. Like if you say “imagine a table” he can’t. I asked if he’s really bad at drawing and he said YES.
It’s weird the way our eyes perceive the world. Like, I just learned that polar bears aren’t actually white. That’s just the way our eyes PERCEIVE their color based on a lot of complex science-y terms. And now I’m learning this stuff about patterns on leaves? IS ANYTHING REAL?
Thinking about all of this stuff for too long makes my brain hurt, ha.
WHAT. Polar bears aren’t white- what’s going on? My brain is starting to hurt too.
this post makes me think of a few things – one is the saying that we are all just “extras” in others’ lives (i.e., we all take “center stage” in our own lives, and our roles in others’ lives are always peripheral…plus, our perceptions of how others see us are nearly always inaccurate). And, of course, thinking about all there is in the world that we do not yet know. Just 25 years ago, scientists thought there were 100,000 genes in the human genome. We actually have about 20,000. We are learning new things ALL THE TIME – who knows what animals and people who perceive the world differently than “the norm” could teach us? (Sorry for the long, random comment, but this post was SO interesting! :>)