Superhuman
Encyclopedia
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.
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:
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!
.
Human enhancement
Human enhancement refers to any attempt to temporarily or permanently overcome the current limitations of the human body through natural or artificial means...
, for example, by genetic modification, cybernetic implants
Cyberware
For other uses; see Cyberware Cyberware is a relatively new and unknown field...
, or as what humans might evolve
Human evolution
Human evolution refers to the evolutionary history of the genus Homo, including the emergence of Homo sapiens as a distinct species and as a unique category of hominids and mammals...
into, in the near or distant future. Occasionally, it could mean an otherwise "normal" human with unusual abilities, such as psychic
Psychic
A psychic is a person who professes an ability to perceive information hidden from the normal senses through extrasensory perception , or is said by others to have such abilities. It is also used to describe theatrical performers who use techniques such as prestidigitation, cold reading, and hot...
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
Turing test
The Turing test is a test of a machine's ability to exhibit intelligent behaviour. In Turing's original illustrative example, a human judge engages in a natural language conversation with a human and a machine designed to generate performance indistinguishable from that of a human being. All...
, and could do some things humans cannot, could be considered superhuman. A very intelligent or strong alien
Extraterrestrial life
Extraterrestrial life is defined as life that does not originate from Earth...
could be considered superhuman.
Naturally superhuman people
There are a handful of people with an extremely rare condition known as savant syndromeSavant syndrome
Savant syndrome , sometimes referred to as savantism, is a rare condition in which people with developmental disorders have one or more areas of expertise, ability, or brilliance that are in contrast with the individual's overall limitations...
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 PeekKim PeekLaurence Kim Peek was an American savant. Known as a "megasavant", he had a photographic or eidetic memory, but also social difficulties, possibly resulting from a developmental disability related to congenital brain abnormalities. He was the inspiration for the character of Raymond Babbitt,...
, the basis for the character played by Dustin HoffmanDustin HoffmanDustin Lee Hoffman is an American actor with a career in film, television, and theatre since 1960. He has been known for his versatile portrayals of antiheroes and vulnerable characters....
in the movie Rain ManRain ManRain Man is a 1988 drama film written by Barry Morrow and Ronald Bass and directed by Barry Levinson. It tells the story of an abrasive and selfish yuppie, Charlie Babbitt, who discovers that his estranged father has died and bequeathed all of his multimillion-dollar estate to his other son,...
, was one of the few people ever verified to actually have an eidetic memoryEidetic memoryEidetic , commonly referred to as photographic memory, is a medical term, popularly defined as the ability to recall images, sounds, or objects in memory with extreme precision and in abundant volume. The word eidetic, referring to extraordinarily detailed and vivid recall not limited to, but...
, and was also a speed reader and calculatorMental calculatorMental calculators are people with a prodigious ability in some area of mental calculation, such as multiplying large numbers or factoring large numbers...
. 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 disabilitiesDevelopmental disabilityDevelopmental disability is a term used in the United States and Canada to describe lifelong disabilities attributable to mental or physical impairments, manifested prior to age 18. It is not synonymous with "developmental delay" which is often a consequence of a temporary illness or trauma during...
, as he had very poor social skills, scored low on IQIntelligence quotientAn intelligence quotient, or IQ, is a score derived from one of several different standardized tests designed to assess intelligence. When modern IQ tests are constructed, the mean score within an age group is set to 100 and the standard deviation to 15...
tests and had limited physical dexterityFine motor skillFine motor skills are the coordination of small muscle movements which occur e.g., in the fingers, usually in coordination with the eyes. In application to motor skills of hands the term dexterity is commonly used....
. Originally believed to be autisticAutismAutism is a disorder of neural development characterized by impaired social interaction and communication, and by restricted and repetitive behavior. These signs all begin before a child is three years old. Autism affects information processing in the brain by altering how nerve cells and their...
, it was later speculated that Peek probably had FG syndromeFG syndromeFG syndrome is a rare genetic syndrome linked to the X chromosome and causing physical anomalies and developmental delays...
.
- Daniel TammetDaniel TammetDaniel Tammet is a British writer. His best selling 2006 memoir, Born On A Blue Day, about his life with high-functioning autism and savant syndrome, was named a "Best Book for Young Adults" in 2008 by the American Library Association.Tammet's second book, Embracing the Wide Sky, was named one of...
is a savantSavant syndromeSavant syndrome , sometimes referred to as savantism, is a rare condition in which people with developmental disorders have one or more areas of expertise, ability, or brilliance that are in contrast with the individual's overall limitations...
with Asperger's syndrome, a form of high-functioning autismHigh-functioning autismHigh-functioning autism is an informal term applied to autistic people who are deemed to be "higher functioning" than other autistic people, by one or more metrics. There is no consensus as to the definition. HFA is not yet a recognised diagnosis in the DSM-IV-TR or the ICD-10.The amount of...
. He has extraordinary skills in both mathematicsMathematicsMathematics is the study of quantity, space, structure, and change. Mathematicians seek out patterns and formulate new conjectures. Mathematicians resolve the truth or falsity of conjectures by mathematical proofs, which are arguments sufficient to convince other mathematicians of their validity...
and languageLanguageLanguage may refer either to the specifically human capacity for acquiring and using complex systems of communication, or to a specific instance of such a system of complex communication...
. Tammet is a calculator able to work out complicated mathematical equations in his mind in a very short amount of time, and in a demonstrated event, was able to recite PiPi' is a mathematical constant that is the ratio of any circle's circumference to its diameter. is approximately equal to 3.14. Many formulae in mathematics, science, and engineering involve , which makes it one of the most important mathematical constants...
from memory to over 22,000 digits in a little over five hours. He speaks 10 languages including EnglishEnglish languageEnglish is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...
, SpanishSpanish languageSpanish , also known as Castilian , is a Romance language in the Ibero-Romance group that evolved from several languages and dialects in central-northern Iberia around the 9th century and gradually spread with the expansion of the Kingdom of Castile into central and southern Iberia during the...
, FrenchFrench languageFrench is a Romance language spoken as a first language in France, the Romandy region in Switzerland, Wallonia and Brussels in Belgium, Monaco, the regions of Quebec and Acadia in Canada, and by various communities elsewhere. Second-language speakers of French are distributed throughout many parts...
, GermanGerman languageGerman is a West Germanic language, related to and classified alongside English and Dutch. With an estimated 90 – 98 million native speakers, German is one of the world's major languages and is the most widely-spoken first language in the European Union....
, FinnishFinnish languageFinnish is the language spoken by the majority of the population in Finland Primarily for use by restaurant menus and by ethnic Finns outside Finland. It is one of the two official languages of Finland and an official minority language in Sweden. In Sweden, both standard Finnish and Meänkieli, a...
, LithuanianLithuanian languageLithuanian is the official state language of Lithuania and is recognized as one of the official languages of the European Union. There are about 2.96 million native Lithuanian speakers in Lithuania and about 170,000 abroad. Lithuanian is a Baltic language, closely related to Latvian, although they...
, RomanianRomanian languageRomanian Romanian Romanian (or Daco-Romanian; obsolete spellings Rumanian, Roumanian; self-designation: română, limba română ("the Romanian language") or românește (lit. "in Romanian") is a Romance language spoken by around 24 to 28 million people, primarily in Romania and Moldova...
, IcelandicIcelandic languageIcelandic is a North Germanic language, the main language of Iceland. Its closest relative is Faroese.Icelandic is an Indo-European language belonging to the North Germanic or Nordic branch of the Germanic languages. Historically, it was the westernmost of the Indo-European languages prior to the...
, WelshWelsh languageWelsh is a member of the Brythonic branch of the Celtic languages spoken natively in Wales, by some along the Welsh border in England, and in Y Wladfa...
and EsperantoEsperantois the most widely spoken constructed international auxiliary language. Its name derives from Doktoro Esperanto , the pseudonym under which L. L. Zamenhof published the first book detailing Esperanto, the Unua Libro, in 1887...
, and was able to learn Icelandic in a week. He has even created his own new language, which he refers to as Mänti. Tammet has exceptionally vivid visualVisionVision or visions may refer to:* Visual perception, interpreting what is seen* Visual system, the sensory mechanism of eyesight* Vision , inspirational experiences* Hallucination, vivid conscious perception in the absence of a stimulus...
synaesthesia, a condition known to enhance memoryMemoryIn psychology, memory is an organism's ability to store, retain, and recall information and experiences. Traditional studies of memory began in the fields of philosophy, including techniques of artificially enhancing memory....
and mental calculationMental calculationMental calculation comprises arithmetical calculations using only the human brain, with no help from calculators, computers, or pen and paper. People use mental calculation when computing tools are not available, when it is faster than other means of calculation , or in a competition context...
s, and attributes much of his abilities to it.
- Derek ParaviciniDerek ParaviciniDerek Paravicini is a blind English autistic savant and a musical prodigy. He lives in Surrey.-Biography:Paravicini was born extremely prematurely, at 25 weeks . His blindness was caused by oxygen therapy given during his time in a neonatal intensive care unit...
is a blind autistic savant and musical prodigyChild prodigyA child prodigy is someone who, at an early age, masters one or more skills far beyond his or her level of maturity. One criterion for classifying prodigies is: a prodigy is a child, typically younger than 18 years old, who is performing at the level of a highly trained adult in a very demanding...
. He was born extremely prematurely at only almost half the duration of a normal pregnancy (25 of 40 weeks). As a result of oxygen therapyOxygen therapyOxygen therapy is the administration of oxygen as a medical intervention, which can be for a variety of purposes in both chronic and acute patient care...
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 pianoPianoThe piano is a musical instrument played by means of a keyboard. It is one of the most popular instruments in the world. Widely used in classical and jazz music for solo performances, ensemble use, chamber music and accompaniment, the piano is also very popular as an aid to composing and rehearsal...
and it slowly became apparent that he had an amazing gift for music. He has absolute pitchAbsolute pitchAbsolute pitch , widely referred to as perfect pitch, is the ability of a person to identify or re-create a given musical note without the benefit of an external reference.-Definition:...
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 SavageMatt SavageMatthew "Matt" Savage is an American autistic savant musician. Born in Sudbury, Massachusetts, he is the son of Diane and Lawrence "Larry" Savage.- Background :...
is an autistic savant and musical prodigy with a number of talents including extremely high intelligence, hyperlexiaHyperlexiaHyperlexia was initially identified by Silberg and Silberg , who defined it as the precocious ability to read words without prior training in learning to read typically before the age of 5. They indicated that children with hyperlexia have a significantly higher word decoding ability than their...
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 disorderPervasive developmental disorderPervasive developmental disorders is a diagnostic category refers to a group of disorders characterized by delays or impairments in communication, social behaviors, and cognitive development.Pervasive developmental disorders include Autism, Asperger's syndrome, Rett's syndrome, Childhood...
, 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 KhanChaka KhanChaka Khan , frequently known as the Queen of Funk, is a 10-time Grammy Award winning American singer-songwriter who gained fame in the 1970s as the frontwoman and focal point of the funk band Rufus. While still a member of the group in 1978, Khan embarked on a successful solo career...
and other popular singers. He is currently enrolled at BerkleeBerklee College of MusicBerklee College of Music, located in Boston, Massachusetts, is the largest independent college of contemporary music in the world. Known primarily as a school for jazz, rock and popular music, it also offers college-level courses in a wide range of contemporary and historic styles, including hip...
to advance his music career.
- Stephen WiltshireStephen WiltshireStephen Wiltshire MBE, is an architectural artist who has been diagnosed with autism. Wiltshire was born in London, England, to West Indian parents. He is known for his ability to draw a landscape after seeing it just once. He studied Fine Art at City & Guilds Art College.-Early life:Wiltshire was...
is an architecturalArchitectureArchitecture is both the process and product of planning, designing and construction. Architectural works, in the material form of buildings, are often perceived as cultural and political symbols and as works of art...
artistArtistAn artist is a person engaged in one or more of any of a broad spectrum of activities related to creating art, practicing the arts and/or demonstrating an art. The common usage in both everyday speech and academic discourse is a practitioner in the visual arts only...
and savant who is moderately autistic and has an eidetic memoryEidetic memoryEidetic , commonly referred to as photographic memory, is a medical term, popularly defined as the ability to recall images, sounds, or objects in memory with extreme precision and in abundant volume. The word eidetic, referring to extraordinarily detailed and vivid recall not limited to, but...
. Nicknamed "the human camera", he has gained worldwide notoriety from creating massive panoramic drawings of large cities such as TokyoTokyo, ; officially , is one of the 47 prefectures of Japan. Tokyo is the capital of Japan, the center of the Greater Tokyo Area, and the largest metropolitan area of Japan. It is the seat of the Japanese government and the Imperial Palace, and the home of the Japanese Imperial Family...
, RomeRomeRome is the capital of Italy and the country's largest and most populated city and comune, with over 2.7 million residents in . The city is located in the central-western portion of the Italian Peninsula, on the Tiber River within the Lazio region of Italy.Rome's history spans two and a half...
, Hong KongHong KongHong Kong is one of two Special Administrative Regions of the People's Republic of China , the other being Macau. A city-state situated on China's south coast and enclosed by the Pearl River Delta and South China Sea, it is renowned for its expansive skyline and deep natural harbour...
, FrankfurtFrankfurtFrankfurt am Main , commonly known simply as Frankfurt, is the largest city in the German state of Hesse and the fifth-largest city in Germany, with a 2010 population of 688,249. The urban area had an estimated population of 2,300,000 in 2010...
, MadridMadridMadrid is the capital and largest city of Spain. The population of the city is roughly 3.3 million and the entire population of the Madrid metropolitan area is calculated to be 6.271 million. It is the third largest city in the European Union, after London and Berlin, and its metropolitan...
, DubaiDubaiDubai is a city and emirate in the United Arab Emirates . The emirate is located south of the Persian Gulf on the Arabian Peninsula and has the largest population with the second-largest land territory by area of all the emirates, after Abu Dhabi...
, Jerusalem and LondonLondonLondon is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
with astounding detail and accuracy after only taking brief helicopter rides over them.
- Orlando SerrellOrlando SerrellOrlando L. Serrell is an "acquired savant" — someone who exhibits savant skills after CNS injury or disease, as opposed a person born with autistic disorder or other developmental disability....
is an acquired savant who, at the age of ten years old, was struck on the left side of his head by a baseball bat. 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 calculationCalendrical calculationA Calendrical calculation is a calculation concerning calendar dates. Calendrical calculations can be considered an area of applied mathematics.Some examples of calendrical calculations:* The number of days between two dates....
s 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 GammRüdiger GammRüdiger Gamm is a German "mental calculator". He attained the ability to mentally evaluate large arithmetic expressions at the age of 21. He can also speak backwards, and calculate calendars...
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 blindnessBlindnessBlindness is the condition of lacking visual perception due to physiological or neurological factors.Various scales have been developed to describe the extent of vision loss and define blindness...
develop sensory substitutionSensory substitutionSensory substitution means to transform the characteristics of one sensory modality into stimuli of another sensory modality. It is hoped that sensory substitution systems can help handicapped people by restoring their ability to perceive a certain defective sensory modality by using sensory...
and become extremely adept at hearing and auditory processing. In rare cases, they may learn to use echolocationHuman echolocationHuman echolocation is the ability of humans to detect objects in their environment by sensing echoes from those objects. By actively creating sounds – for example, by tapping their canes, lightly stomping their foot or making clicking noises with their mouths – people trained to orientate with...
, 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 HolmanJames HolmanJames Holman FRS , known as the "Blind Traveler," was a British adventurer, author and social observer, best known for his writings on his extensive travels...
, Daniel KishDaniel KishDaniel Kish is an American expert in human echolocation and President of World Access for the Blind, a non-profit founded in 2000 to facilitate "the self-directed achievement of people with all forms of blindness" and increase public awareness about their strengths and capabilities, which has...
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
Super-human is one of the stages in classification of progress in artificial intelligenceProgress in artificial intelligence
Artificial intelligence has been used in a wide range of fields including medical diagnosis, stock trading, robot control, law, scientific discovery and toys...
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
Backgammon
Backgammon is one of the oldest board games for two players. The playing pieces are moved according to the roll of dice, and players win by removing all of their pieces from the board. There are many variants of backgammon, most of which share common traits...
, bridge
Computer bridge
Computer bridge is the playing of the game contract bridge utilizing computer software. Following years of limited progress, at the end of the twentieth century the field of computer bridge has made major advances. In 1996 the American Contract Bridge League established an official World...
, chess
Chess
Chess is a two-player board game played on a chessboard, a square-checkered board with 64 squares arranged in an eight-by-eight grid. It is one of the world's most popular games, played by millions of people worldwide at home, in clubs, online, by correspondence, and in tournaments.Each player...
, reversi
Reversi
Reversi is a board game involving abstract strategy and played by two players on a board with 8 rows and 8 columns and a set of distinct pieces for each side. Pieces typically are disks with a light and a dark face, each face belonging to one player...
scrabble
Scrabble
Scrabble is a word game in which two to four players score points by forming words from individual lettered tiles on a game board marked with a 15-by-15 grid. The words are formed across and down in crossword fashion and must appear in a standard dictionary. Official reference works provide a list...
, and even Jeopardy!
Jeopardy!
Griffin's first conception of the game used a board comprising ten categories with ten clues each, but after finding that this board could not be shown on camera easily, he reduced it to two rounds of thirty clues each, with five clues in each of six categories...
.