Actual Persons With Similar Conditions
The real-life case of Daniel Tammet (b. 1979), an autistic British savant, bears a certain similitude to fictional Ireneo Funes: he had epileptic seizures that may have a part in his unusual talents; his memory for numbers is prodigious (on March 14, 2004 - 'pi day', Tammet correctly recited 22,514 digits of the irrational number), and finally, he has explained that he has synesthesia, which allows him to "see" numbers as shapes, some of which are more pleasant than others.
Solomon Shereshevskii, a stage memory-artist (mnemonist) with a condition known as "hypermnesia", is described by the Russian neuropsychologist Alexander Luria in his book, The Mind of a Mnemonist', which some speculate was the inspiration for Borges's story. Luria discusses explicitly some of the trade-offs — hinted at by Borges — that come with supernormal memory power. (Further Skywriting on this topic.) American neuropsychologist Oliver Sacks cites Luria's book as the inspiration for his own book, Awakenings, which is dedicated to Luria.
Jill Price, along with 10 others, can remember with great accuracy most days of their lives starting from the average age of 11. The scientific term for their unique condition is "hyperthymestic syndrome" now more recently known as Highly Superior Autobiographical Memory (HSAM). Price has stated that she, like Funes, views her memory as a curse.
Read more about this topic: Funes The Memorious
Famous quotes containing the words actual, persons, similar and/or conditions:
“In the actual world—the painful kingdom of time and place—dwell care, and canker, and fear. With thought, with the ideal, is immortal hilarity, the rose of joy.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
“Dostoevski’s lack of taste, his monotonous dealings with persons suffering with pre-Freudian complexes, the way he has of wallowing in the tragic misadventures of human dignity—all this is difficult to admire.”
—Vladimir Nabokov (1899–1977)
“Our acceptance of an ontology is, I think, similar in principle to our acceptance of a scientific theory, say a system of physics; we adopt, at least insofar as we are reasonable, the simplest conceptual scheme into which the disordered fragments of raw experience can be fitted and arranged.”
—Willard Van Orman Quine (b. 1908)
“A society which is clamoring for choice, which is filled with many articulate groups, each urging its own brand of salvation, its own variety of economic philosophy, will give each new generation no peace until all have chosen or gone under, unable to bear the conditions of choice. The stress is in our civilization.”
—Margaret Mead (1901–1978)