I’ve always had a great fascination with savants since I saw a video back in junior high about them. They are usually mentally retarded (and out of those, usually autistic), but excel, almost to the point of superhuman ability, in one area of their mind. Most of the savants I’ve seen are musical savants (in fact, that was the first savant I saw in the video in junior high).
Here’s a video of one of my favorites - Stephen Wiltshire.
Stephen’s an autistic artist and his ability to memorize landscapes is friggin amazing. Savants usually have incredible memory in their area of specialty… I’ve seen a sculptor who remembers random people he met on the street, or animals he’s seen on farms and he makes amazingly intricate wooden sculptures of them. The musical savants usually have the ability to absorb any music they hear and play it back perfectly.
A mathematics savant, featured in a British documentary:
He’s known as the “original Rainman” cause of the large mathematical problems he’s able to solve in his head.
I’ll post more, but first I wanna give others a chance to post their favorites, if there happens to be anyone else as fascinated as I am with these extraordinary people.