Certain autistic people exhibit extraordinary mental abilities. I heard about a blind guy that could tell you what day of the week any date was. He has autism and sits around talking to himself sometimes. I told him my birth date and he told me it was a Saturday. I checked it and he was correct. I was told by other people that he never misses. It took him about a second and a half to do that. I asked him how he did it, and he said it comes to him like a memory.
Here is an article on autistic savants:Autistic Savant

Written by Stephen M. Edelson, Ph.D.
Center for the Study of Autism, Salem, Oregon
The autistic savant is one of the most fascinating cognitive phenomena in psychology. "Autistic savant" refers to individuals with autism who have extraordinary skills not exhibited by most persons. Historically, individuals with these exceptional skills were called 'idiot savants,' a French term meaning unlearned (idiot) skill (savant). In a 1978 article in Psychology Today, Dr. Bernard Rimland introduced a more appropriate term 'autistic savant,' which is the current label.

The estimated prevalence of savant abilities in autism is 10%, whereas the prevalence in the non-autistic population, including those with mental retardation, is less than 1%.

There are many forms of savant abilities. The most common forms involve mathematical calculations, memory feats, artistic abilities, and musical abilities. A mathematical ability which many autistic individuals display is calendar memory. They could be asked a question like: 'What day of the week was May 22, 1961? and they can determine the answer within seconds--Monday. Others can multiply and divide large numbers in their head and can also calculate square roots and prime numbers without much hesitation.

Examples of some memory feats include: remembering everything about presidents (birth/death, term in office, names and birth dates of family members, cabinet members, etc.), memorizing the U.S. highway system, and remembering everyone's birth date, even after meeting the person once and not seeing him/her for 20 years.

Some autistic individuals with savant abilities are incredible artists. Dr. Rimland's son, Mark, is quickly establishing himself as an excellent watercolor artist. A child named Nadia drew beautiful pictures of horses, and her drawings have been compared to those of Rembrandt. Interestingly, she lost her drawing abilities when she started to learn to speak. Another artist with autism, Richard Wawro, who was described in an issue of Reader's Digest, is legally blind and draws in crayons. His works sell for up to $10,000, even the Pope owns one of his paintings.

Music is another common savant ability. Many performers with autism have perfect pitch and also have a great memory for music. In some cases, a person can hear a classical piece once and play it back in its entirety. Tim Baley, who also has Fragile X, is a concert pianist and the piano player for Hi Hopes, a musical group of singers and performers with autism and/or mental retardation. Hi Hopes played at the Los Angeles autism conference a few years ago and have even played at the White House. (Tim's mother wrote a book about his life. If you would like to obtain a copy of her book or learn more about Tim, you can write to: Mrs. Baley, Box 8207, Anaheim, CA 92812).

The movie Rain Man exposed millions of people to autism as well as the autistic savant phenomenon. (Unfortunately, some people now have the impression that all autistic individuals have these abilities.) In the movie, Raymond displayed a great memory for ball player statistics, memorized parts of the telephone book, and counted cards in Las Vegas. One wonders why this year's national autism conference is being held in Las Vegas!

The reason why some autistic individuals have savant abilities is not known. There are many theories, but there is no evidence to support any of them. For example, Dr. Rimland speculates that these individuals have incredible concentration abilities and can focus their complete attention to a specific area of interest. Admittedly, researchers in psychology feel that we will never truly understand memory and cognition until we understand the autistic savant.


My opinion on this phenomenon can be explained by the bible. The bible shows, as Jesus Christ said, that all things are possible to him that believes.
Aparently the autistic Savant, at some time in his life, developed an unwavering belief that he could do something extraordinary and in response to that belief, God gave him the ability to do it.
How might something like that happen?
Well, perhaps they remembered what day of the week a date fell on that was just a few days ago, and being autistic they did not realize that they were not supposed to be able to do that for any date. So, they believed they could do it for any date, and God gave them the ability in response to that belief.


Matthew 17:20 And Jesus said unto them, Because of your unbelief: for verily I say unto you, If ye have faith as a grain of mustard seed, ye shall say unto this mountain, Remove hence to yonder place; and it shall remove; and nothing shall be impossible unto you.

Matthew 21:21 Jesus answered and said unto them, Verily I say unto you, If ye have faith, and doubt not, ye shall not only do this [which is done] to the fig tree, but also if ye shall say unto this mountain, Be thou removed, and be thou cast into the sea; it shall be done.

Mark 11:23 For verily I say unto you, That whosoever shall say unto this mountain, Be thou removed, and be thou cast into the sea; and shall not doubt in his heart, but shall believe that those things which he saith shall come to pass; he shall have whatsoever he saith.

Savants certainly are interesting and probably by being more carefully studied considerable about how human mind functions can be learned.

I try to understand the things that are strange / unusual etc. the same way I try to understand the ordinary things. Thus, I do not think it useful to substitute the mystery of how a God, Sprit etc. can interfer or change the mental processes that routinely occur in brains.

I do not understand where the universe came from but it is not explained by saying "God made it." Likewise, I do not think the mystery of "autistic savants" is explained by saying, "God is giving them their skill/ability, etc…”

I suspect that memory, focused narrowly, plays a central role for most "autistic savants." I rarely Goggle, but have considerable store of information in some areas in memory, while being very ignorant in others. I think that the total amount of information I have in memory if focused into a very narrow field would permit the performance exhibited by most autistic savants.

For example, I expect that the "what day of week" savant could easily memorize, probably without any conscious effort* or conscious awareness* that he was doing so, 520,000 dates that were Sundays. That would mean only a very slight (no more than seven steps) required to tell the date of any day in the next 10,000 years. I am sure, I have much more than 520,000 corresponding complex facts or pieces of information in my memory. I am not suggesting that this is how the "day of week" savant does it, but it is possible and compatible with your report:

"I asked him how he did it, and he said it comes to him like a memory."

There are all sorts of patterns and things like "casting out of 9" that some skilled in math know consciously. Humans (and many other animals as well) are fantastic automatic correlators, picking up patterns without conscious efforts* or even knowing they have done so.*
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*I recall one psychological test which proves humans unconsciously form memories and then also unconsciously make correlations** among this memory data, but I only vaguely remember details, so I will make some up to illustrate:

Computer screen displays four rows with five playing cards per row on each "trial" and the college student subject is to guess which of the 20 cards is "special," but he is not told what makes it "special" as he is to discover the pattern or rule that makes it "special." He is told that half trials will just be a random display of 20 cards, so he can expect to be wrong at least half the time, even if he has discovered the pattern.

Student is motivated to try to discover the pattern by a financial reward, initially $50, but decreasing with each trial by 1 cent. I.e. no prize left after 5000 trials, but he can stop when he wants to tell the pattern. He also gets 50 cents on any trial in which he picks the correct card and loses 1 cent when he selects a wrong one. Thus, on average, in every 40 trials, a "special card" is displayed 20 times and he will pick it, by chance once, earning 50 cents, but he will lose 1 cent on average on the other 39 trials. Thus, if he thinks he knows that pattern and stops after 400 trials, the prize is worth $46 and his random winning are about $1.10, however, if he views 2000 trials before deciding he has discovered the pattern the prize is $30 and his "random gain" is $5.50

Each trial takes 3 seconds, or 20/ minute, so it will take 100 minutes to do 2000 trials or hour and 40 minutes to earn $35.50, if he has the pattern. Student earns $13.75 on average if he views all 5000 trials, but that will take 4 hours and 10 minutes or earns only $3.30/ hour compensation, so most stop early and tell the pattern they have discovered, hoping for the prize.

When the subject has done several hundred trials, he is usually begining to perform significantly above chance (perhaps 0.5 sigma). His gain relative to chance is displayed to him on the screen also along with the current value of the prize. As they see the prize diminishing and note they are well above the "chance reward," most stop in less than two hours and tell the pattern, but not one (of several 100) in the study I read, had correct pattern, CONSCIOUSLY. Most thought they had the pattern correct, or nearly so, when they chose to stop. All of the guessed patterns were built on the card colors, suits and values, sometimes relative to the prior trial, or where the last correct guess was located, etc. but the pattern was actually related to the last digits*** of the monetary displays. As almost all were significantly above chance earning, so they UNCONSCIOUSLY remembering this information ands were UNCONSCIOUSLY correlating their correct guesses with memory of the monetary display digits, but none realized what they were doing.

Point is that humans are great correlators,** but often unaware of doing so. I suspect this is particularly true if focused in a narrow field of skills, as is the case with all savants.

Thus, it does not surprise me that savants do not know how they do what they do and often say it comes to them like a memory. As far as I know, none say: "God told me."
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**I have never seen it discussed, so it may be an original idea of mine, but I think this unconscious capacity combined with the fact that the "social lower class" more often have undesirable jobs, turns to crime, poor health, etc. is a strong factor in the mechanism by which prejudice in social systems (often racial) is established and maintained. For example: Indian "untouchables" clean toilets. Toilets are dirty. Unconscious correlation: "Untouchables are dirty" and the social structure then makes sure this is true, on average. Why do you think the typical prisoner in US is black?

***For example if LSD of dollar reward display is even number, then is a no "Special Card," SC, trial. If that LSD is 1, then SC is in column 1, and if 3, SC is in column 2 ... if 9, SC in column 5. If the next to LSD of reward display were used instead of LSD, then 10 "no SC" would alternate with "10 SC trails."
Row of SC is set by a digit in expected chance earnings etc. The SC might be shown after wrong guess at random intervals etc. Different students got different details to avoid collaborative cheating. As none got the prize, all got paid a little more than $3.30/hour for their time.

It's indeed an interesting subject, and forms the staple for news magazine shows. I don't know how many times I have seen a program about them, with the interviewer incredulous that the person doesn't know simple things but can play the piano or something. Invariably, they mention the hope that normal people could someday accomplish the same things. I wish people would get over the awe factor, and start to think more deeply about the autistic phenomenon in general. Autistics are often lacking in social skills, and that part of the brain is used for other tasks. In fact, social interaction, which most people take for granted, is far more complex and difficult than, say, knowing what day of the week it is on any date.

So whats you're point ghost? While the autism is interesting, are you getting at the idea that I could believe in Jesus enough, and grow wings a fly?

Ironically, it's the conformist culture of western religion that inhibits the full expression of individualism.

One of my friends has Asperger's Syndrome (a milder form of autism) and teaches life skills to the severely autistic. He met the guy that the rain man character is based on. My friend walked into the conference room, and this guy immediately went right over to him (he was ignoring everyone else). They talked about their pet cats. My friend later sent a photo of his cat to the real rain man, who's name I forget, and got back two watercolors, very nice and detailed.

So whats you're point ghost? While the autism is interesting, are you getting at the idea that I could believe in Jesus enough, and grow wings a fly?

The point is this:

Mark 9:23 Jesus said unto him, If thou canst believe, all things [are] possible to him that believeth.

Jesus [Who reportedly walked on water and raised the dead] said that this is the way things really are. And things really being this way, I offer it as an explanation of why savants can do what they do. Because they believe they can without a doubt.
All paranormal occurences from Chi Kung experts breaking bricks with a slap, to healing by faith and the laying on of hands, to psychic phenomena, are activated by the person being able to believe that he can do it without a doubt.
Note: [If you doubted and ceased to believe that you could move your right leg, then you would be unable to move it. This is called a psychosomatic illness, and is well known in psychology and medicine.]
Debunkers of the paranormal, that doubt, are simply shutting themselves off from the paranormal by doubting. The doers of the paranormal believe and don't doubt and they have the abilities.

Ghost, I'd like you test this theory in the name of science and all that is good.

Go to your local supermarket and buy 100 glass bottles (you'll be able to claim the money for these back from Sciforums at a later date). Take them home, drink the contents (optional), then smash them all and put them in a pile. Next, take off your socks and shoes, put on a CD of your favourite song and dance on the bottles until the music stops.

Tell yourself before doing so that you're not going to come to any harm and that God will protect you. I feel confident that this will be the case. It's all a matter of faith.

I'm only joking. Don't do it, ghost, you'll never walk again. Ghost, don't do it.. Ghost... where are you going!? Come back!!

Is the only reason people can't fly because they are told that they can't, and they believe it?

Is the only reason people can't fly because they are told that they can't, and they believe it?

many a tripped out, acid head have been convinced to their very marrow that they can. Unfortunately they're no longer around for a debrief into their aerodynamic shortcomings.

I really am getting worried about him now - he's not been seen since my last post 3 days ago.

I just hope he got lost on the way to the supermarket.

Ah shoot. I was really excited until I saw the Jesus thing. :(

Ah shoot. I was really excited until I saw the Jesus thing
I know.

Total disappointment.
I've been around for about 4 years and this gem was the only thread on Autistic Savants I've ever encountered here; the thrill until reading it.

Now, I'm hooked.

What fascinating people these are. Its not Kim Peek that can read two pages simultaneously or memorize every phone in the Nynex that is fascinating. What is fascinating is how little we know about the only thing in the world that claims to know everything- the human brain.

Consider the following:
http://socrates.simbiose.com/files/St_Pancras_Station_Stephen_Wiltshire.jpg

This is a drawing of St. Pancras in London. It was drawn by a 12 year old boy named Stephen Wiltshire only an hour after seeing it- notice the clock. It points to 12:20, exactly the time it was when he passed it.

Consider this one:
http://www.linesandcolors.com/images/2006-03/trehin_450.jpg

This was drawn by an artist and novelist named Gilles Tréhin, who constructed a highly detailed world named "Urville" complete with meticulous records of its history and culture. He's drawn hundreds of pictures as detailed as that one capturing a completely fictional place in his brain, making Tolkein look like his kitchen wench.

Both these people are autistic savants. Of course, no one really knows exactly how and why these people function they way they do but consider the following.

Draw a house. What is the first thing that came to your mind? The answers I got from those I asked was "Well...a house"
"What do you mean by a house? Whose? Where?"
"Well, no one's and nowhere. Just a house. You know, walls, windows, a door and a roof. A house"
"A-ha!"
"Please calm down, you're scaring me"

What they drew was a schematic classed as 'house' in their brain. People like Temple Grandin (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Temple_Grandin) , however, automatically think of their neighbor's house or a house they pass every morning and draw that, down to the broken tricycle and 2 dogs on the porch.
One boy was asked to draw a tree and he unexpectedly replicated a biblical scene he saw of Adam and Eve standing in front of the Tree of Knowledge where the majority of children his age would draw a prototypical, consummate, predetermined entity their minds have conceptually classed as 'tree'.
Where those people drew a house, she draws the house.

The next step is to imagine the mind trying to function without these cognitive shortcuts. Where before the brain could flow from one subject to another, adapting to each situation like a house or a tree it never saw before, fitting each novelty to the preconceived category of objects already classified in its cortex, the mind is now caught up in details, crawling by bit by visual bit processing the new information.
Maybe this is why a savant is so exceptionally gifted yet mentally retarded- their brain is still typing out every phrase in the Old Testament word for word while you and I are copy pasting.

And maybe this is why you and I cannot replicate the intricate tapestries of the savant, in terms of both art and memory but maybe we're not all together different in kind but degree.

We record information in chunks, but what if we could condition our minds to tap into the unconscious world of detail and nuance that the savant apparently lives in?

Carl Jung thought that tapping into this unconscious we would find gods and fairies and archetypes, but what if the only thing you found there was the stitch pattern on your boss’s hemline you never noticed before, or the way your lover sticks his tounge out when he's reading, the hives on her neck, the pattern of bottle caps in the asphalt, or the delicate arabesque patterns of leaf carved on the church you've been going to for years?

Take for example a condition known as prosopagnosia. Prosopagnosia is usually associated with accidents where the brain is damaged and the victim suddenly loses the ability to recognize a familiar face, even their own. This is the case of a 32 year old man who after a car accident....

..complained, exclusively, of an inability to recognize faces, even those of his wife and children. Not a single face was familiar to him, but there were three he could identify; they were workmates: one with a en eye-blinking tic, one with a large mole on his cheek, and a third because he was so tall and thin that one else was like him"
Source (http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0684853949/002-4313039-7520046?v=glance&n=283155)


This man that was once perfectly "normal", who thought in chunks like the rest of us, was suddenly left in a world he could only recognize in pieces- the mole, the tic, the height- the way autisitics apparently do. He had to train himself to recognize himself as himself over again, since he could not do so in a flash, like we do, anymore.
His face was no longer "John's face" the way mine is "Gendanken's". His face was now a detailed account of hair color, facial outline, and "two moles on his left cheek" and what a catastrophe that we don’t have a sample drawing from him before and after his accident.

Of course I just looked up and noticed the length of this post and somwhere out there in the digital oceans of ones and zeros is the quiet roar of you snoring..........


-Gendanken

Not snoring no...equally amazed. Please post anything else you find on this subject

Has anyone else read Mark Haddon's The Curious Incident of the Dog in ihe Night-Time?

It's I found it fascinating and believable, but I'm not sure whether it gave a good portrayal of an autistic savant's experience. It's a great read, anyway.

Has anyone else read Mark Haddon's The Curious Incident of the Dog in ihe Night-Time?

It's I found it fascinating and believable, but I'm not sure whether it gave a good portrayal of an autistic savant's experience. It's a great read, anyway.

I loved it but you're right; I don't know how accurate it is. The author apparently works with autistic kids so it might be.

Try Thinking in Pictures and Animals in Translation by Temple Grandin

Just so everyone knows. Kim Peek, the inspiration behind Rain Man, is not autistic. His diagnosis is "developmental disorder not otherwise specified."

He is a savant. But not an autistic savant.

Interestingly, he has no corpus callosum (among other abnormalities.)


Sam,

Try Thinking in Pictures and Animals in Translation by Temple Grandin

Thinking in Pictures is a fascinating read from cover to cover. I think that two simple things caught my attention most in the book.

One is what Gendanken has already mentioned. How autists think in specifics rather than generalities. Or, rather, they go from the specific to the general rather than the general to the specific.

The second is even more interesting.

It's her use of metaphor.

There are two specific metaphors that I recall. The door metaphor which she used as a transition. She says that change is difficult for her, so to facilitate change, she goes through doors. A physical door. In a ceremonial sense. This helps her to accept the change and the need for change in her life.

Fascinating.

The other is the window pane for getting along with people.
"At that time I still struggled in the social arena, largely because I didn't have a concrete visual corolloary for the abstraction known as "getting along with people." An image finally presented itself to me while I was washing the bay window in the cafeteria (students were required to do jobs in the dining room). I had no idea my job would take on symbolic significance when I stareted. The bay window consisted of three glass sliding doors enclosed by storm windows. To wash the inside of the bay window, I had to crawl through the sliding door. The door jammed while I was washing the inside panes, and I was imprisoned between the two windows. In order to get out without shattering the door, I had to ease it back very carefully. It struck me that relationships operate the same way. They also shatter easily and have to be approached carefully. I then made a further association about how the careful opening of doors was related to establishing relationships in the first place. While I was trapped between the windows, it was almost impossible to communicate through the glass. Being autistic is like being trapped like this. The windows symbolized my feelings of disconnection from other people and helped me cope with the isolation. Throughout my life, door and window symbols have enabled me to make progress and connections that are unheard of for some people with autism."
This, to me, is crucial to the understanding of the operation of the human mind.
The penchant for analogy. Metaphor.
Symbolism.

Autistics have difficulty thinking in symbolic terms. They think in specifics rather than abstracts. Those autistics who, like Grandin, are highly functioning have symbolic skills lacking in their lower functioning counterparts.
But this description by Grandin is... really something.


This whole thing reminds me of a concept I've only just read about recently.
It's called "me".

No. Not Me as in I. But "Me".
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Me_%28mythology%29

It's a Sumerian concept.
Enki, god of words, was the guardian of the Me until Inanna tricked them away from him while he was drunk.

The Me were concrete manifestations of the abstract principles that made civilization possible.

Some have likened them to algorithms. Such as how to bake bread. But, there are more abstract entities in the Me. Such as Enship (lordship.) Justice. Fairness. Etc.

The Me were, quite possibly, one of the earliest methods for dealing with the abstract.

The evolution of the human mind is the story of the abstract. The distillation of the abstract from the concrete.

Autistic savants are, in some ways, throwbacks. (Strike the savant. Autistics are like throwbacks.)

They exist in a world, not without the abstract entirely, but one in which the Me are once more physical entities that can be stolen from one god by another god and carried through the sky in a sky boat and shown to the people in the new city.

The symbolic as object.

The abstract as specific.

I’ve always been called an …idiot savant.
Okay…that’s not true.
I’m called an idiot and I add the ‘savant’ to make myself feel better about it.

Has anyone else read Mark Haddon's The Curious Incident of the Dog in ihe Night-Time?

It's I found it fascinating and believable, but I'm not sure whether it gave a good portrayal of an autistic savant's experience. It's a great read, anyway.
I liked it, although the main character was just autistic, not a savant. Although I'm not as autistic as him, I could see parallels with how we think, sometimes too literal, and I could relate to his mystification about some typical human behavior, and how learning social rules is a slow process. There are all kinds of autistic people who can be very good as some specific thing, but don't quite get the savant status.

invert nexus:

All I can say is Wow!!

There are some who think autism, especially the highly functional, are not throwbacks, but rather a recent mutation that is no longer selected against. It's interesting that silicon valley has a proportionally higher percentage of autism than other places. Our society is increasingly fragmented, and survival depends more on attaining a marketable skill than fitting into the community. Autistics or those with Asperger Syndrome (aspies), tend to have a greater ability to grasp complex systems. I don't think it's a matter of the specific verses the abstract, although I could see how abstract things like feelings would elude them (us), since their own feelings and responses are atypical. "Distilling the abstract from the concrete" I interpret to mean the same as "pattern recognition". Such tasks are more easily accomplished with systems that follow consistent rules. Social interaction does not follow consistent rules, as the antics of Data in Star Trek trying to fit in with the crew demonstrate.

I find the abilities of the artistic savants not that surprising. They are not expressing feelings or high minded artistic concepts, but rather the relationships between shapes and shadow, color and light. I had never considered myself particularly artistic until in high school we had a drawing class, and I soon produced a picture of the skull we were all drawing that could have been used as a medical illustration. I'm not attracted to the art world, though, since a large part of it involves social interaction, and my career now is in 3-D computer modelling. As an artist you are as much a focus of attention as the art, and I think most autistics would stress out about that.

The last time I spoke about 'savant syndrome' was a year ago with water so I can't remember much on the topic although I've read quite a bit on the topic. But I remember somewhere reading about regular test patients who had their left brains temporarily disabled or something of the sort (i really can't remember the specifics) and very temporarily they were able to show savant like abilities. i bet invert nexus could give us some help there. the book/article showed pictures drawn before the experiment and afterwards and there was a remarkable improvement in quality and accuracy.

if i remember correctly, there was also one case of a savant who did NOT suffer social paralysis (as is often associated with the condition) (i think her name was nadia?) and if i remember correctly again, the author made concluding comments that the inability to interact socially was not an effect of savant syndrome (or something like that).

sorry i can't be any more specific but these are memories over a year old. i'll have to read up tomorrow and maybe this weekend so that i can contribute better.

Autism comes in various degrees from mild to extreme. In its mild form, it enables the individual to concentrate on one specific activity, and the individual may achieve some exceptional results. For non-autistic people, it is more difficult to achieve the level of concentration that a mildly autistic person can achieve. Once again, I'm sorry I can't name the article or its author.

many a tripped out, acid head have been convinced to their very marrow that they can. Unfortunately they're no longer around for a debrief into their aerodynamic shortcomings.

I don't think that a tripped out acid head has enough control over his own mind to not doubt. Any wavering of doubt will prevent the miracle or paranormal occurance from happening, as Jesus said.

I've read in Scientific American that autistic people have damaged or ineffective "mirror" neurons. When we see people perform some motor activity or maneuver, it activates those specialized motor/mirror neurons in a normal observer. For someone with autism, however, the neurons (if they're there) don't activate properly. Scientists believe these special neurons are important for learning through observation and also effectively interacting and relating to other people.

It requires a lot of energy and thought power to relate and function with people normally, even though normal people do it very well and with such apparent ease. Perhaps this takes away from a more raw general form of information processing, which may account for why autistic people cannot relate like normal as well as their ability to concentrate on certain things. Because autistic people's emotional systems do not motivate them to focus on interpersonal relationships/endeavors, their brain bandwidth is free to concentrate on other things.

....Interestingly, he has no corpus callosum (among other abnormalities.)...can you give a reference to that?

Also in view of your interest in old views /origins etc. you should know about J. James' Origins of Cosncioousness ... For brief summary see:
http://messageboard.cinescape.com/phenomenamagazine/forums/archive/index.php?t-114.html

Note I only skimmed this summay as read the book years ago when it came out. (I even own it).

Scientific American. December 2005. Inside the Mind of a Savant.
http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?articleID=00086B76-CFA5-137C-8FA583414B7F0101


The same article is also printed in Sciam's June/July Mind.

As to Origins of Consciousness. Consider it on the to be read list. I think I've heard of it before.