Heartwarming and inspirational story of an autistic savant

He's a Savant they say only ~100 of them in the world. Stephen is said to be the most distinguished Savant in the world due to his abilities. For those that are not interested in the lengthy video (a treat you're missing) I will summarize:

Stephen has a "camera" mind due to the wiring in his brain because of Autism. He's renowned amongst the great architects and engineers of the world. He takes quick 10-15 min fly-overs of major global cities (no pen or paper) and then draws (panoramic) the entire city skyline building for building and detail for detail in just days.

What a beautiful mind. I've heard of these Savants before and it is indeed strange. Life can work in odd and mysterious ways. He has his own art gallery in the UK in Piccadilly Circus and the National Gallery behind Her Majesty's Theater. I will pay a visit next time I'm in London.





Stephen's Website

The mind is a mysterious and wonderful thing.

I know a young man that has severe ADHD. It was explained to me how his mind functions differently by pointing out that upon entering a room and staying for a few minutes many with that affliction could tell you every detail of everything in the room ( Color of the walls, number of windows, number of ceiling tiles ) minutes after leaving it. I tried it with this young man who I knew to be a counter(just counts things like his own footsteps) and knew the license plate # of every car on his block. I asked him to describe in detail the room in which a school board meeting was held that we attended together for an extracurricular project. He nailed it.
The curse that comes from that ability is the inability to function in a normally accepted social way. This young man had trouble with understanding emotion and empathy. Science and math are easy for him. Arts, not so much. Some can be very artistic. It differs with individuals but the common symptom is the inability to adapt to social mores.

Yep It's usually some brain dysfunction that triggers Savant thinking. I remember reading a story of a guy who was beaten badly and put in a coma. When he awoke he was a total math genius.

Well just googled here's the story:

In 2002, two men savagely attacked Jason Padgett outside a karaoke bar, leaving him with a severe concussion and post-traumatic stress disorder. But the incident also turned Padgett into a mathematical genius who sees the world through the lens of geometry.

"I see shapes and angles everywhere in real life" — from the geometry of a rainbow, to the fractals in water spiraling down a drain, Padgett told Live Science. "It's just really beautiful.

With Padgett's new vision came an astounding mathematical drawing ability. He started sketching circles made of overlapping triangles, which helped him understand the concept of pi, the ratio of a circle's circumference to its diameter. There's no such thing as a perfect circle, he said, which he knows because he can always see the edges of a polygon that approximates the circle

Check out some of his math drawings. This shit is crazy.

Source

Wow!!!!!! Now thats great!