Horizon - What makes a genius?

Best of the three episodes I've watched over the last few weeks. I was totally engaged with this last night, from start to finish it was absolutely rich in content and fantastically balanced. It left you feeling optimistic but deluded about what the human brain is capable of.

Part 1 - Maths Genius! Not quite sure about the process this guy used but it wasn't similar to Daniel Tammett! It was actually mathematically worked out.... amazing. He gave a very good explanation of how he does what he does. He says he's not a genius, a genius he associates with creativity, where as what he does is mechanical. He "plays the piano well and there is a difference between a skill and something that is immensely creative." This is similar to Matt Damon's character in Good Will Hunting. He says as far as he can remember he's just always been able to play. It's not so much creating art but more letting art flow through you because you are tuned in, where others aren't.

Part 2 - The experiment that tested the intuitive estimates of which colour has more dots on a screen was rather interesting. This test allows us to predict the mathematical potential of children and rather accurately too. It also indicates certain precognitive skills and ties in nicely with Malcolm Gladwell's work in Blink. Malcolm discusses snap decisions and how they often prove more accurate than thought out ones. The presenter actually stated when the analytical part of his brain fought the intuitive part he started to struggle. Was this because the intuitive was weakening and the analytical role was being forced due to necessity?

Part 3 - Learning gene identified in mice - Seems slightly cruel (probably not in comparison with some experiments they probably do) but necessary I guess.

Part 4 - Chess - Been playing a lot of chess lately, used to play a lot when I was younger. Obviously very good for coaching your brain to think 10 steps ahead in all realms of life. Are some people blessed or is it the wiring of their brain? Very interesting section about a former player that spent 20 years training to be a chess master, he never broke through and became obsessed with the reason why. He became a neural-scientist and researched brain activity and concluded that chess masters are born, not so much created. His final statement seemed a bit jaded but may have been fairly accurate. People can become great, but the status of genius has to have been something they were born with.

Part 5 - Spotting genius. The IQ test about the "termites" was something I read about recently. Can't remember where, may have been in Gladwell's work. This section helped to open the alternative viewpoint that we can mould our brain to fit our environment. We lose parts of out brain that are not used and strengthen neural pathways that are useful to us. Our brain in this way is like ever changing dictionary that will bring out new editions based on the life and times of its existence. We specialise for our environment but of course, there are some environments that because of our genes, we will excel in more.

Part 6 - Mozart/Stevie wonder - Derek is a remarkable piano player that can her a piece of music once or twice and know how to play it, adapt it slightly to his on whim. The superhero notion of other senses strengthening to compensate is something that has quite often been considered a myth. But it's more a case of the brain re-wiring to adapt in making sense of the world. There is another example of a lady later on who can see through sound. Much like the young boy (name forgotten) who could see through making clicking noises with his tongue and using the vibrations. The book I read on this indicated it could be possible to actually see through your skin based on re-wiring of the brain. Our senses are wired in a certain way based on evolution and it is not technically written in stone in terms of how our brain develops. It is versatile and undoubtably the most unique thing about all of us.

Part 7 - Smartening up through electricity and water! - Yeah I was a bit...errr as well! An experiment here to again improve cognitive skills and intuitive response time which helps to create new path ways as quickly as 30 minutes later. After about a day, it will become functioning. Structural alteration after a day!! Amazing.

Part 8 - Brain Plasticity - This section really complimented the book I read about Brain Plasticity about a year or so ago. A lady explains how she can see through technology that encodes sounds from her brain and allows her to produce images based on the re-wiring of her brain. These pathways have been there since we were babies. Evolution dictates a certain path because it is the most successful in survival for the majority.

Part 9 - The greatest minds combine Knowledge with creativity. "Imagination is more important than knowledge" Einstein. A man had a brain hemorrhage and has been painting ever since, literally. He can't stop, his description of this had a very similar feel to the TLE descriptions Tony has mentioned. This section boasts the paradox of Genius. You need to be open to many things to allow creativity to take effect, but closed enough to focus on that one piece of art, whatever form it may take. Dr Mark Lythgoe of university college London gives a very interesting explanation of this. The walls are higher for some people than others and this can cause problems at either end.

I plan to turn my wall into a window, 95% of it all will apparently go right through.. ;)

Best thing I've watched in a while, highly recommend it. Should be available on i Player. Go watch it. Now!