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Oh, and one other thing that I find just intriguing as all get-out is the notion of "savant" abilities or cognitive singularity/exceptionality.

I think that most people have some sort of savant ability (and a mirror image weakness, too, often as not), even if it isn't extreme. I think that we only really recognize them when they are extreme or in particular areas such as music, visual arts, or mathematics. Perfect pitch, for example, or the ability to memorize pages of numbers at a glance; those are the things that we notice and label as "savant" abilities.

Just as remarkable (to me) are the people that 'just know' what a baby is thinking when it cries, can identify a particular blend of seasonings on food at a restaurant, or reproduce a conversation verbatim from memory.

If you talk to people, a lot of them even know what their particular savant ability is. It's fascinating.

I can't recall a phone number long enough to dial it without looking at it again. (Completely true) My savant ability is color memory/discrimination. It's not a very useful savant ability, as these things go, and I'd probably trade it for being able to remember a phone number long enough to find a pen and paper when I need to take a message, but hey...



I think that most people just assume that everyone shares their savant ability, so they don't think of it as remarkable unless it comes up in conversation. I only realized in my thirties that most people can't pick a paint sample/color out from memory.