Total brain power
I had a depressing thought recently. Actually, it's not depressing in as much it undoes a hopeful thought I've had for years. It all started when the movie rain man came out and all the news shows were about idiot savants. I used to think there is some way to unleash that power in every one, the key is to keep the savant part but lose the idiot part. My new theory (actually just conjecture, because it's not based on anything) is that the two parts (idiot/savant) can not be mutually exclusive because they are confined in a finite space. My new thought is that the brain has a finite functional capacity. I say functional, because it isn't based on complexity of computations or calculations, but based on amount of brain power necessary to be able to do the task. A good example is walking, which takes immense computer power to emulate, but minimal brain usage to carry out. But, chewing gum at the same time takes little processing power, but can render some people's walking skills shaky at best.
The total thinking and working part of the brain can be broken up into some small unit. This could be the smallest physical amount of brain matter necessary to store information or preform a task - perhaps it will measure a single neuron, (but probably be bigger than that). If we call this unit a "T" (for a "thought") then, my theory goes, every one has the same total number of T's in their brain (barring a specific defect or disease).
Now everyone will not have the same exact total, just like every one is not the same exact height, but the deviation from the norm is tighter than the range for intelligence. This is because intelligence has the added variability of allocation of T's. Some people seem much smarter than others because they happen to use more T's for things associated with smarts and less on things that aren't defined that way (i.e. math T's vs juggling or Star Wars trivia.)
So if you have a savant that can count cards or can "see" 96 toothpicks without counting them they are using many more T's for these tasks than the average person. For this to work, though, those T's can no longer be used for something else, and must take away from some area where normal people have used them such as emotions or understanding the concept of a dollar.
The total thinking and working part of the brain can be broken up into some small unit. This could be the smallest physical amount of brain matter necessary to store information or preform a task - perhaps it will measure a single neuron, (but probably be bigger than that). If we call this unit a "T" (for a "thought") then, my theory goes, every one has the same total number of T's in their brain (barring a specific defect or disease).
Now everyone will not have the same exact total, just like every one is not the same exact height, but the deviation from the norm is tighter than the range for intelligence. This is because intelligence has the added variability of allocation of T's. Some people seem much smarter than others because they happen to use more T's for things associated with smarts and less on things that aren't defined that way (i.e. math T's vs juggling or Star Wars trivia.)
So if you have a savant that can count cards or can "see" 96 toothpicks without counting them they are using many more T's for these tasks than the average person. For this to work, though, those T's can no longer be used for something else, and must take away from some area where normal people have used them such as emotions or understanding the concept of a dollar.