Kim Peek, the autistic savant who inspired the Oscar-winning film Rain man has died, aged 58, He suffered a heart attack on Saturday night.
Born in 1951 in Salt Lake city, Mr Peek was diagnosed as severely mentally retarded and his parents were advised to place him in an institution and forget about him. Thirty years later, he was classified as a "mega-savant," a genius in about 15 different subjects, from history and literature and geography to numbers, sports, music and dates.
He had read and memorised over 9000 books by the time of his death, he would read 8 books a day each taking only 10 seconds a page, also incredibly reading 2 pages at a time, his left eye reading one page while his right eye read the other. He can read the books even if they are upside down or laying sideways, he is the only Savant in the world who can do this.
This remarkable man for all his genius though could not do simple things like dress himself or comb his hair and needed constant care, care that was provided by his father Fran who after meeting Dustin Hoffman (who portrayed him in the Oscar winning Rain Man) was advised by the actor to “share him with the world” and not hide him away.
Following that advice Kim was put on the stage where he astounded audiences by answering the most obscure of questions while they tried to catch him out.
I have since watching Rain Man been fascinated by a “Savant” and like everybody else would love to know how they do what they do, having a mind that cant remember how to dress but yet can look at the sky and notice a change in star formation, that can retain and repeat word for word thousands of books, yet is unable to make his own dinner.
Sadly Kim has died at a young age, but there are other Savants in the world though none in the class of Kim, maybe scientists will one day unlock the secret of their amazing minds.
His obituary makes fascinating reading, published in today’s times newspaper.
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/obituaries/article6965115.ece
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