Superhuman

For other uses, see Superhuman (disambiguation).

"Superhumans" redirects here. For the documentary television series, see Stan Lee's Superhumans.

Superhuman can mean an improved human, for example, by genetic modification, cybernetic implants, or as what humans might evolve into, in the near or distant future. Occasionally, it could mean an otherwise "normal" human with unusual abilities, such as psychic abilities, flying abilities, unimaginable strength or exceptional proficiency at something, far beyond the normal.

Superhuman can also mean something that is not human, but considered to be "superior" to humans in some ways. A robot that easily passed the Turing test, and could do some things humans cannot, could be considered superhuman. A very intelligent or strong alien could be considered superhuman. In its most basic sense it means anything beyond (typical) human capabilities, e.g. a tiger may be described as having "superhuman strength".

Naturally superhuman people

There are a handful of people with an extremely rare condition known as savant syndrome that have superhuman mental capabilities. Almost always these individuals also have some kind of mental disability however, which has led to the belief that in order to have these abilities some sort of trade-off is required. Nonetheless, many of them have extraordinary talents, and some, known as prodigious savants, are relatively normal and functional with only mild or even no impairment in some cases. Also superhumans may have advanced abilities such as more powerful minds with a wider understanding of knowledge.

Examples of such individuals include the following:

• Kim Peek, the basis for the character played by Dustin Hoffman in the movie Rain Man, was one of the few people ever verified to actually have an eidetic memory, and was also a speed reader and calculator. He remembered about 98% of everything he read and memorized approximately 12,000 books in his lifetime. He was also able to recall music he had heard decades before and sing it, as well as play it on the piano to a limited extent. However, he is also believed to have had developmental disabilities, as he had very poor social skills, scored low on IQ tests and had limited physical dexterity. Originally believed to be autistic, it was later speculated that Peek probably had FG syndrome.

• Daniel Tammet is a savant said to have Asperger's syndrome^{[citation needed]}, a form of high-functioning autism. He recited Pi from memory to over 22,000 digits in a little over five hours. He reportedly speaks 10 languages. He learned to converse in Icelandic in a week.

• Derek Paravicini is a blind autistic^{[citation needed]} savant and musical prodigy. He was born extremely prematurely at only almost half the duration of a normal pregnancy (25 of 40 weeks). As a result of oxygen therapy during this time, his eyes became non-functional and his developing brain was affected, causing his severe learning disabilities, on top of his already present autism. As Paravicini grew up he learned to play the piano and it slowly became apparent that he had an amazing gift for music. He has absolute pitch and can play a piece after hearing it only once. He also has prowess in improvisation and can create a piece instantly as he goes along.

• Matt Savage is an autistic^{[citation needed]} savant and musical prodigy with a number of talents including extremely high intelligence, hyperlexia and perfect pitch. He was precocious as a baby who began to walk early and learned to read by the age of 18 months. At the age of three, he was diagnosed with pervasive developmental disorder, a form of high-functioning autism. Though he initially did not like noises or music as a child, when he was age six, he taught himself how to read music and began playing the piano. With no formal instruction in music composition, Savage became a professional musician and by 18 years old, he had released 9 albums and performed with Chaka Khan and other popular singers. He is currently enrolled at Berklee to advance his music career.

• Stephen Wiltshire is an architectural artist and savant who is moderately autistic^{[citation needed]} and has an eidetic memory. Nicknamed "the human camera", he has gained worldwide notoriety from creating massive panoramic drawings of large cities such as Tokyo, Rome, Hong Kong, Frankfurt, Madrid, Dubai, Jerusalem and London with astounding detail and accuracy after only taking brief helicopter rides over them.

• Orlando Serrell is an acquired savant who, at the age of ten years old, was struck on the left side of his head by a baseball. After falling down, he got up and continued to play baseball, but following the incident experienced a headache that lasted for a long time. Eventually, the headache ended, and Serrell quickly noticed that he was able to do calendrical calculations of amazing complexity. He can also recall where he was, what he had done, and what the weather was like for every single day since the incident.

• Rüdiger Gamm is a mental calculator with no apparent disabilities whatsoever. By 21 years of age, he attained the ability to calculate complex mathematics in his head, usually through memorization. He can also speak backwards and calculate calendars.

• Some individuals with blindness develop sensory substitution and become extremely adept at hearing and auditory processing. In rare cases, they may learn to use echolocation, an ability in which they use echoes to detect where objects are in their surroundings, to navigate their environment. They create echoes often by clicking their tongues or tapping their canes. Several notable echolocators include James Holman, Daniel Kish and Ben Underwood. Alternatively, as demonstrated by the case of Derek Paravicini described above, people with blindness may become extremely skilled in music.

Artificial super-humans

Further information: Artificial intelligence

Super-human is one of the stages in classification of progress in artificial intelligence and denotes where an entity of artificial intelligence performs better than most humans do in a specific task. Examples of where computers currently are super-human include backgammon, bridge, chess, reversi scrabble, and even Jeopardy!.

See also

• Savant syndrome
• Aspergers syndrome