Kim Peek vs Daniel Tammet
Two savants, compared on what is actually documented: field, era, country and record. No invented numbers.
The record, side by side
| Kim Peek | Daniel Tammet | |
| Field | Science | Science |
| Sub-field | Biology | Biology |
| Born | 1951 | 1979 |
| Died | 2009 | living / not documented |
| Country of birth | - | ENG |
| Star sign | Scorpio | Aquarius |
Who they are
Kim Peek
Kim Peek is a savant from United States. American 'megasavant' who was the inspiration for the main character Raymond Babbitt in the 1988 film Rain Man.
Daniel Tammet
On 14 March 2004 — Pi Day — Daniel Tammet sat down in the Museum of the History of Science in Oxford and began to recite. For five hours and nine minutes he spoke the digits of pi, one after another, while observers checked him against the printed value. He stopped at 22,514 digits, a European record. To Tammet it had not felt like recall in the ordinary sense. He was not retrieving a list. He was, he said, describing a landscape he could see — pi as a rolling sequence of shapes, colours and…
Full biography of Daniel Tammet →
What they share
- Both are held here under Science.
- Same sub-field: Biology.
- Their lifetimes overlap.
Where they part
- 28 years separate their births (1951 and 1979).
Questions people ask
- Who came first, Kim Peek or Daniel Tammet?
- Kim Peek. Kim Peek was born in 1951, Daniel Tammet in 1979.
- What field is each of them in?
- Kim Peek is filed under Science (Biology). Daniel Tammet is filed under Science (Biology).
- Were they contemporaries?
- Yes - their lifetimes overlap.