Top Ten Savants

Savants are a type of people under the condition "Savant Syndrome". A rare, yet exceptional syndrome that unlocks the person's specific ability to be greatly advanced compared to the average person. This ranges from mathematical, artistic, language, spatial, musical, and primarily, memory talents. There is a one from a million chance that you are naturally born with it, but you can also acquire this syndrome from head injury; this is very rare however and it's not recommended to injure yourself intentionally. Out of seven billion people, there are less than a hundred savants living today.
The Top Ten
1 Stephen Wiltshire

One of the most well-known autistic savants, renowned for his exceptional ability to paint detailed artworks within a glance of an eye. He was diagnosed within the spectrum in the age of three, and his talents showed at the age of five, ranging from animals to buildings and cities, even the a part of the detailed cityscape of London from just a helicopter ride. Show him an aerial viewpoint of Rome, and he can draw every detail of it in mere perfection. Due to his consistent masterpieces, he has gained quite a recognition worldwide.

2 Daniel Tammet

You may normally not associate the number 54 with the color "red" and the feeling "sad" or picture it with a swampy lush forest; Tammet sees things like numbers in a whole different concept (called synesthesia), being able to perfectly associate particular numbers with color, texture, motion, and a lot of different things. This is another unique autistic savant especially known for his mathematical, language, literacy, and memory skills without using a calculator. Being a hyperpolyglot capable of speaking nine languages fluently, Tammet even invented a language named Manti. This guy is also notable for winning the former record of recognizing digits of pi, which spanned 22,514 unique numbers based on his memory.

3 Temple Grandin

Known for her contributions, sharp relations to animals, and most notably her invention called the hug machine (a device that squeezes a person, usually autistic people, to calm them down). She is also known for her major contributions in animal (specifically cattle) treatment and behavior, and sharing the knowledge about her experiences in the spectrum disorder. She is ranked as part of the top 100 influential people worldwide according to TIME.

4 Kim Peek

Also known as the "megasavant" notably for his ability and multitasking skills. Even at the minor age of one, he had the ability to scan both pages of a book with one eye for each, while being able to retain almost every bit of information on those pages. Not only were those his skills, he could also provide accurate location routes in cities, precisely recall calendar information, and know a myriad of trivial facts thanks to his proficient reading skills, but at the cost of his social skills. Apparently, Kim Peek was mistaken as having autism, but he was born with a rare syndrome that caused him to acquire his skills. He also gave significant inspiration to the fictional character Raymond Babbitt in the movie "Rain Man".

5 Derek Amato

If you hit your head hard enough, most likely you would suffer bursts of agony, and eventually suffer mild to severe brain damage. However, this isn't really the case for this lucky yet unfortunate person; rarely, brain damage can give you extremely unique traits, and this case is no exception for this person. Derek Amato accidentally banged his head while he was diving towards the floor of a shallow pool back when he was playing football in 2006. This gained him the exceptional ability to play the piano fluently without any prior history of practice, but sadly this costed him a portion of his hearing, headaches and memory loss.

6 Tom Wiggins

Living in a time before autism was diagnosed, Tom Wiggins was born blind and in slavery, yet a prodigious master on the piano, and regarded as being one of the most recognized pianists from his career. He attained piano skills at the age of four, after hearing a piece of a piano song, and without instruction, he produced his first song at age five. Throughout his life, Wiggins had also retained thousands of songs, memory wise.

7 Jedediah Buxton

Born in 1707, this person may be the first one, or one of the first persons to be called an autistic savant. Despite his lack of knowledge, he had a fond interest of numbers and had very sharp arithmetic skills. A prime example of where he put this into use was Buxton went far as measuring the entire lands of Elmton, which spanned approximately several thousand acres across in different units, including square inches, and then square breadths, calculating in 48 on each sides of inch. He had also self taught himself to acquire this skill despite being illiterate.

8 Matt Savage

Diagnosed with preservative developmental disorder, this person is known for his prodigious musical skills who learned to read early at 18 months of his age. At age 6, he thought himself to read and play music. His intelligence is also notable than compared to other savants, eventually helping him to win a collection of awards.

9 Alonzo Clemons

Despite suffering severe brain injury that crippled his intelligence and his life in a young age, this guy's visual memory takes it to the next level. Clemons is known for his ability to create very well crafted animal sculptures from various materials with such precise accuracy, even within a few-second glance of a different animal. Many of his works have sold from hundreds to thousands of dollars.

10 Donald Triplett

This is not only an autistic savant, but also known as the first person to be diagnosed with autism. Triplett has a fondly skill of numbers and memory, such as being able to multiply numbers without the use of calculators.

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