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Editor's Note: The first extract of this story, originally published in the December 2005 issue of Scientific American , is being made at one's fingertips in light of the just out cessation of Kim Decorticate.

When J. Langdon Down primary described savant syndrome in 1887, coining its prestige and noting its camaraderie with astounding powers of memory, he cited a steadfast who could relate Edward Gibbon’s The Run out of steam and Plunge of the Roman Empire precise. Since then, in verging on all cases, savant honour has been linked to a established domain, such as music, art or mathematics. But astonishing thought is itself the skill in a 54-year-old man named Kim Peep. His friends reprove him “Kim-puter.”