Rain Man – Kim Peek (2)

Kim Peek has really earned his nickname “Kimputer” (computer). Kim remembers everything as pure unfiltered data like a computer does. The real Rain Man knows two thousand years of calendar dates, all the dialing codes and high way systems in the USA, all of the historic dates of the world and every tune he’s ever heard. But he cannot fry an egg or dress himself. He will never have a driving license or a girlfriend. That would just be too much for his brain.

Kim Peek有一个名符其实的昵称“Kimputer”(电脑Computer的谐音)。Kim可以像电脑一样把所有东西都以纯粹的不经过滤的数据一样存储下来。这位真正的“雨人”记住了两千年的日历日期、美国所有的区号和所有的高速公路系统、世界上所有的历史性日期和他听到过的所有的曲调。但是他却连鸡蛋都不会煎甚至不会自己穿衣服。他永远不会获得驾驶执照或者找个女朋友。这些对于他的大脑来说都太多了。

Kim is over fifty but still lives with his father Fran in Salt Lake City. Every day his father dresses him, brushes his teeth and accompanies him to the city library. Over the years Kim’s read about 12,000 books and hasn’t forgotten a single word. He has never learned them by heart. He has simply read them every book exactly once. There are over 200 boxes’ worth of books sort on his brains hard drive.

Kim已经五十多岁了,但他还跟他父亲Fran一起住在盐湖城。每天他父亲给他穿衣,刷牙然后陪他到市图书馆。多年来Kim读过大概一万两千本书并且一个字都没有忘记。他从来没有用“心”来学习它们。他只是简单地每本书仅读一遍。在他大脑的硬盘里存储着相当于约200箱的书。

Fran: When they gave him a test and gave him 8 pages he read them in 53 seconds and two hours later had a 98.7% recall including the page numbers. So he got them all in order. So something in his optical system allows him to put things in order when his reading. I asked if I can take the same test coz his brain is the only thing everybody’s anybody’s studied. It took me 23 minutes to read what he read in 53 seconds and I had a 54% recall which was normal.

Fran:他们给他做过一个测试,给了他8页纸,他只用53秒就读完了,两个小时之后他能回想起98.7%的内容,包括每一页的页码。所以他把它们的顺序都记对了。所以他的视觉系统有某种东西能让他在阅读的时候把它们给理好顺序。我问我能不能做相同的测试,因为大家每个人都只研究过他的大脑。我花了23分钟读完他53秒读完的内容,并且只记住了54%的内容,而这是正常的。

 

Rain Man – Kim Peek

昨晚上电影课给学生们放了电影《雨人》(Rain Man)。这部电影我以前看过一次,然后完全忘了。在昨天下午准备电影课的时候再看了一遍,一边看一边想起来自己曾经看过。有意思的是Rain Man与我差不多相反,他可以做到过目不忘,并且是永远记着,让人羡慕不已。
我看电影不喜欢与人讨论演员、导演之类的,只想欣赏电影,然后思考。不过给学生讲的时候还是得提一提一些相关的资料,所以就查找了一下。原来这部电影是1988年拍的,还获得了4个奥斯卡奖。主演Dustin Hoffman和Tom Cruise都是很厉害的演员,不过据说88年那时候Tom还不是很厉害的:) 李东升告诉我他很喜欢Dustin Hoffman,说看到他就联想到了自己的爸爸。因为都是个头不高(其实Dustin Hoffman对于中国人来说不矮,一米七),看着上了年纪,有一种亲切感。他获得过两个奥斯卡奖。我们几个朋友中学时特别喜欢的一首歌Scarborogh Fair斯卡波罗集市就是因为他演的一个很著名的电影《毕业生》The Graduate(1967)而变得在中国非常流行。之后我会专门写一篇关于这首歌的。
看这个电影让我感兴趣的是人对自身的了解。虽然我们大多数人都是差不多的,但是像Rain Man这样的人在现实生活中是有的。这个电影中Rain Man的原型是美国的一个“白痴学者(Savant)”Kim Peek,Kim出生于1951年11月11日,据他父亲说在他大概16-20个月大左右开始就已经能记事了。他读完一本书大概花一个小时左右的时间,然后可以记住98.7%的内容,并且不会遗忘。他把记住的书倒着放在他的书架让,表示已经全记住了。到目前为止,他已经记住了大约12000本书。他能记住有关历史、文学、地理、数字、体育、音乐和日期等等的内容。但是他连自己衣服的扣子都不会系。很难进行逻辑推理和抽象思维。有一次他父亲让他说话小声点(to lower his voice),他就滑到椅子下面去了,他要把自己的喉咙(voice box)放低一点。 200
Kim Peek

未完待续……