Ed Carp writes:
EC+There is a class of people called "idiot savants" who contain people who can
+also solve such
+problems by inspection - their IQs are often much lower than 100, so that
+blows Albert's theory. These so-called "idiot savants" can easily factor
+100 digit numbers. The ability to solve such problems is not tied to IQ,
+as there are many such people with IQs of 150+ who cannot solve them.
Many idiot savants can multiply extremely large numbers, though I have
not read of numbers with a hundred digits being involved. Factoring
large numbers is an extremely different kettle of fish, and I know of
no writing about idiot savants doing difficult factoring. If you have
references to any such performances, I'd like to read them.
Szent Georgi's remark was addressed to general intelligenc in everyday
life, not to bravura arithmetic. My scepticism about all things IQish
was supposed to be indicated by my use of quotation marks on "IQ".
Cheers,
-dlj.
[email protected]
* 1st 1.11 #3818 * A piano is a piano is a piano. -- Gertrude Steinway.