The prime number guy was my example, I saw him on a video. He was given a large integer and asked if it was prime, he closed his eyes, tilted back his head, and after a few seconds said, "yes."
It appeared to be an enjoyable experience.
I've spent a total of weeks of my life factoring six or more digit numbers in my head. Stuck in traffi…
The prime number guy was my example, I saw him on a video. He was given a large integer and asked if it was prime, he closed his eyes, tilted back his head, and after a few seconds said, "yes."
It appeared to be an enjoyable experience.
I've spent a total of weeks of my life factoring six or more digit numbers in my head. Stuck in traffic with a license plate in front of me, it was almost involuntary, but I was doing trial division. Divide by two, divide by three, divide by five (two and five are easy to bypass in base ten), usually ending up with one large factor that I knew to be prime because I had already passed its square root. The pleasure was in being able to hold the factors I had already identified while I did the next trial division.
But this took me a long time, and the guy in the video was obviously doing something much more advanced than trial division.
Then there are the people who can tell you everything they did on a day thirty years ago, any day of their lives, in as much detail as you could want.
Yes these are savant abilities but not all savants are idiots. They have one anomalous skill and it cannot be used as a general measure of intelligence.
But god dayum I would sure like to know how that guy recognizes primes.
I used "idiot" savant to magnify the issue of smart about something while not generally smart. I do understand that savant ability is not always paired with an idiot extreme.
The prime number guy was my example, I saw him on a video. He was given a large integer and asked if it was prime, he closed his eyes, tilted back his head, and after a few seconds said, "yes."
It appeared to be an enjoyable experience.
I've spent a total of weeks of my life factoring six or more digit numbers in my head. Stuck in traffic with a license plate in front of me, it was almost involuntary, but I was doing trial division. Divide by two, divide by three, divide by five (two and five are easy to bypass in base ten), usually ending up with one large factor that I knew to be prime because I had already passed its square root. The pleasure was in being able to hold the factors I had already identified while I did the next trial division.
But this took me a long time, and the guy in the video was obviously doing something much more advanced than trial division.
Then there are the people who can tell you everything they did on a day thirty years ago, any day of their lives, in as much detail as you could want.
Yes these are savant abilities but not all savants are idiots. They have one anomalous skill and it cannot be used as a general measure of intelligence.
But god dayum I would sure like to know how that guy recognizes primes.
I used "idiot" savant to magnify the issue of smart about something while not generally smart. I do understand that savant ability is not always paired with an idiot extreme.
It's just that "idiot savant" is a pairing as common as "economic freedom." The prime number guy was well-spoken.
There's an old song about rushing in where angels fear to tread. I considered that when I wrote it, and then I wrote it. ;0)