No Ordinary Family

[Dannyalcatraz]

It may be crap in the real world, but whoever wrote that stinker set a precedent for the show. Hopefully it's just a matter of the characters grasping at straws to explain the unexplainable.

I hope so too. Otherwise, this show is going to piss me off like some other recent sci-fi shows. Sanctuary had a plotline resolve by having a being cancel out a tsunami by creating a counter-tsunami- anyone who ever dropped a couple of rocks in a still pond knows better than that.

Kids don't just go from boarder line remedial level to genius over night.

Two years ago, I'd have agreed with that statement without reservation.

A year and a half ago, however, Discovery aired a documentary about some of the world's smartest living humans, like the guy who learned Icelandic in a week.

A German guy depicted had been an average student for most of his life, then something clicked: not only is he a Math whiz, he can speak multiple languages...forward and backwards (they played an unintelligible portion of his interview backwards, revealing it to be slightly accented English in reverse).

Perhaps he was the inspiration for the kid's character.

 

[John Crichton]

Two years ago, I'd have agreed with that statement without reservation.

I still do. The examples you brought up don't dispel the notion at all.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

I still do. The examples you brought up don't dispel the notion at all.

How so? The German went from mediocre/average student to being an internationally recognized math & linguistic genius.

(The other guy I mentioned only because he was the centerpiece of the show.)

Edit: Daniel Tammet is the name od the one who learned Icelandic...still searching for the German.

Edit #2: he's Rüdiger Gamm, and didn't show any superior mental abilities until age 21.

 

[John Crichton]

How so? The German went from mediocre/average student to being an internationally recognized math & linguistic genius.

Because it proves nothing and we don't know the whole story. Also, those situations are absolutely the exception especially in the case of the kid showing mastery of multiple advanced sciences.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

Because it proves nothing and we don't know the whole story.

Proves nothing? This is a RW person who went from nondescript, average student to math/language genius at age 21. What more story do you need?

Wired Magazine
In Germany, a young man named Rüdiger Gamm, who is not autistic and did poorly at math in school, has trained himself to divide prime numbers to the 60th decimal point, calculate fifth roots, and raise numbers to the ninth power in his head - skills previously thought to be the lofty province of math geniuses and savants like the calculating twins.

People typically use short-term memory to solve math problems, but PET scans show that Gamm has recruited areas of his long-term episodic memory - the neurological archive of his life story - to perform his lightning calculations. Brian Butterworth of the Institute for Cognitive Neuroscience in London compares what Gamm is doing to the way "computers extend the capacity of RAM by using swap space on the hard drive to create a larger 'virtual memory.'"

And that's just a RW guy without any superwhatzit altering his brain.

Also, those situations are absolutely the exception especially in the case of the kid showing mastery of multiple advanced sciences.

I don't get what you're driving at- I'm comparing very rare RW "beautiful minds" with one in fiction who exhibits some similar abilities.

 

[John Crichton]

Proves nothing? This is a RW person who went from nondescript, average student to math/language genius at age 21. What more story do you need?


And that's just a RW guy without any superwhatzit altering his brain.


I don't get what you're driving at- I'm comparing very rare RW "beautiful minds" with one in fiction who exhibits some similar abilities.

And I'm saying they aren't the same and only similar on the surface. Awesome memory is indeed awesome. That's not what JJ can do. It's barely a fraction. People can lift some pretty awesome weights as well. But not nearly as much as what Jim can do.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

First of all, Rüdiger isn't memorizing, he's calculating.

Secondly, the main reason I brought him up wasn't to say that he- or other RW geniuses, savants or synesthetes- are just like the kid in terms of capabilities, but to illustrate that the change from mundane to magnificent can happen in the RW and with alarming speed.

Rüdiger's transformation was not literally overnight, but it did happen in months.

And Tannet's feat of achieving fluency in one of the world's toughest languages is no mean feat either. That wasn't memorization either: he participated in an unscripted live interview to prove his mastery. How many out there sti can't pronounce Eyjafjallajökull despite months of practice?

 

[Crothian]

Even still if this happened no teacher is first going to to think "Wow, we have another Rüdiger!" If you hear hoof beats think horses not zebras and the horses say the kid is cheating.

 

[John Crichton]

First of all... sti can't pronounce Eyjafjallajökull despite months of practice?

Yes, those feats are impressive. No, they are not common in the slightest bit. Yes, they are a small fraction of what JJ can do which is the same thing as an impressive feat of strength.

So it still stands very true that one doesn't go from struggling student to genius overnight. A statement that you don't agree with that I still do.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

Even still if this happened no teacher is first going to to think "Wow, we have another Rüdiger!" If you hear hoof beats think horses not zebras and the horses say the kid is cheating.

Which is why if accused of cheating, I, at least, would insist on being given a chance to prove I'm not a cheat. And parents who believe in their kid's honesty would ask for the same (especially parents who are living as not just zebras, but winged zebracorns). A pop quiz covering math the teacher had and had not taught would be a pretty good indicator- barring continued idiocy over "attention-focusing" drugs- that he's not cheating.

So it still stands very true that one doesn't go from struggling student to genius overnight. A statement that you don't agree with that I still do.

It seems we have a failure to communicate.

Rüdiger's case of incredible transformation within what was seemingly an impossible timespan is a documented RW fact (one which I suggested may be an inspiration for the son's character).

This being so, his abilities are far more within the realm of possibilities than anyone else in the family, and if tested, would more likely be seen as the latest example of redefining what is possible for humanity at the upper extreme of the bell curve.

IOW, unlike the rest of his family, if the full extent of his abilities WERE revealed, he'd more likely be compared to people like Rüdiger or Tannet than his Mom to Usain Bolt, his Dad to Mark Henry, and his sister to anything but "a freak.". This is because we have exemplars who seem to be able to do similar feats to what he does; nobody on Earth runs 40mph, much less 400mph+; nobody jumps for miles; nobody reads minds (sis would definitely be able to claim the Randi Prize).