Different ways of knowing | Daniel Tammet

Prevodilac: Miloš Mladenović Lektor: Ivana Korom

I'm a savant,

Ja imam detaljno znanje o nesvakidašnjim stvarima,

or more precisely,

ili tačnije

a high-functioning

ja sam visoko-funkcionišući

autistic savant.

autistični poznavalac neobičnih stvari.

It's a rare condition.

To je retko stanje.

And rarer still when accompanied,

A još je ređi kada je,

as in my case,

kao u mom slučaju,

by self-awareness

propraćen samosvešću

and a mastery of language.

i izvanrednim vladanjem jezikom.

Very often when I meet someone

Često kada upoznam nekog

and they learn this about me,

i oni saznaju o mom stanju

there's a certain kind of awkwardness.

dolazi do određene nelagodnosti.

I can see it in their eyes.

Ja to vidim u njihovim očima.

They want to ask me something.

Oni bi hteli da me pitaju nešto.

And in the end, quite often,

I na kraju, vrlo često,

the urge is stronger than they are

nagon bude jači od njih

and they blurt it out:

i oni počnu da brbljaju:

"If I give you my date of birth,

'Ako vam kažem datum mog rođenja,

can you tell me what day of the week I was born on?"

da li možete da mi kažete kog dana u nedelji sam rođen?'

(Laughter)

(Smeh)

Or they mention cube roots

Ili pomenu kubne korene

or ask me to recite a long number or long text.

ili traže da im izrecitujem neki veliki broj ili dugačak tekst.

I hope you'll forgive me

Nadam se da ćete mi oprostiti

if I don't perform

ako ne budem danas izvodio za vas

a kind of one-man savant show for you today.

neku vrstu sveznalačke solo predstave.

I'm going to talk instead

Umesto toga,

about something

ja ću govoriti o nečemu

far more interesting

daleko interesantnijem

than dates of birth or cube roots --

od datuma i kubnih korena --

a little deeper

o nečem malo dubljem

and a lot closer, to my mind, than work.

i mnogo bližem mojoj svesti i mom poslu.

I want to talk to you briefly

Hteo bih da vam ukratko govorim

about perception.

o percepciji.

When he was writing the plays and the short stories

Kada je pisao svoje drame i kratke priče

that would make his name,

koje su ga učinile slavnim,

Anton Chekhov kept a notebook

Anton Čehov je imao notes

in which he noted down

u kome je beležio

his observations

svoja opažanja

of the world around him --

sveta oko sebe --

little details

male detalje

that other people seem to miss.

koje ostali ljudi, čini se, ne primećuju.

Every time I read Chekhov

Svaki put kad čitam Čehova

and his unique vision of human life,

i njegovu jedinstvenu viziju ljudskog života,

I'm reminded of why I too

ja se prisetim razloga zbog kog sam ja takođe

became a writer.

postao pisac.

In my books,

U mojim knjigama,

I explore the nature of perception

ja istražujem prirodu percepcije

and how different kinds of perceiving

i na koji način različite vrste percepcije

create different kinds of knowing

stvaraju različite vrste znanja

and understanding.

i razumevanja.

Here are three questions

Evo tri pitanja

drawn from my work.

koja su proizašla iz mog rada.

Rather than try to figure them out,

Umesto da vam tražim da nađete tačan odgovor,

I'm going to ask you to consider for a moment

tražiću od vas da se na trenutak

the intuitions

prepustite svojim intuicijama,

and the gut instincts

instinktivnim reakcijama

that are going through your head and your heart

koje vam prolaze kroz mozak i srce

as you look at them.

dok ih gledate.

For example, the calculation:

Na primer, ova računica.

can you feel where on the number line

Da li imate osećaj gde će na brojnom kontinuumu

the solution is likely to fall?

najverovatnije biti rešenje?

Or look at the foreign word and the sounds:

Ili pogledajte ovu stranu reč i kako zvuči.

can you get a sense of the range of meanings

Da li imate osećaj za raspon značenja

that it's pointing you towards?

na koje vam ona ukazuje?

And in terms of the line of poetry,

I kad govorimo o stihu u poeziji,

why does the poet use the word hare

zašto pesnik koristi reč 'hare' (zec)

rather than rabbit?

umesto reči 'rabbit' (zec)?

I'm asking you to do this

Tražim od vas da to uradite

because I believe our personal perceptions, you see,

zato što verujem da su naše lične percepcije, vidite,

are at the heart

u suštini toga

of how we acquire knowledge.

kako mi dolazimo do saznanja.

Aesthetic judgments,

Estetski sudovi,

rather than abstract reasoning,

a ne apstraktno rezonovanje,

guide and shape the process

vode i oblikuju proces

by which we all come to know

kojim mi saznajemo

what we know.

sve što znamo.

I'm an extreme example of this.

Ja sam jedan ekstremni primer toga.

My worlds of words and numbers

Moji svetovi reči i brojeva se

blur with color, emotion

prelivaju jedan u drugi bojom, osećanjem

and personality.

i karakterom.

As Juan said,

Kao što je Huan rekao,

it's the condition that scientists call synesthesia,

to stanje svesti koje naučnici nazivaju sinestezija,

an unusual cross-talk

je jedan neobičan dijalog

between the senses.

među čulima.

Here are the numbers one to 12

Ovo su brojevi od 1 do 12

as I see them --

kako ih ja vidim --

every number with its own shape and character.

svaki broj sa svojim posebnim oblikom i karakterom.

One is a flash of white light.

Broj jedan je eksplozija bele svetlosti.

Six is a tiny and very sad black hole.

Šest je mala i veoma tužna crna rupa.

The sketches are in black and white here,

Ovi crteži su ovde crno-beli,

but in my mind they have colors.

ali u mojoj glavi oni imaju boju.

Three is green.

Tri je zeleno.

Four is blue.

Četiri je plavo.

Five is yellow.

Pet je žuto.

I paint as well.

Ja takođe slikam.

And here is one of my paintings.

I ovo je jedna od mojih slika.

It's a multiplication of two prime numbers.

Ovo su pomnožena dva prosta broja.

Three-dimensional shapes

Trodimenzionalni oblici

and the space they create in the middle

i prostor koji oni stvaraju u sredini

creates a new shape,

stvara novi oblik,

the answer to the sum.

koji je rezultat njihovog zbira.

What about bigger numbers?

A šta je sa dužim brojevima?

Well you can't get much bigger than Pi,

Nema dužeg broja od Pi,

the mathematical constant.

matematičke konstante.

It's an infinite number --

To je beskrajan broj --

literally goes on forever.

bukvalno se nastavlja zauvek.

In this painting that I made

Na ovoj slici na kojoj sam naslikao

of the first 20 decimals of Pi,

prvih dvadeset decimala broja Pi,

I take the colors

uzeo sam boje

and the emotions and the textures

i osećanja i teksturu

and I pull them all together

i pomešao sam ih

into a kind of rolling numerical landscape.

u neku vrstu odmotavajućeg numeričkog pejzaža.

But it's not only numbers that I see in colors.

Međutim, brojevi nisu jedina stvar koju vidim u boji.

Words too, for me,

Za mene reči takođe

have colors and emotions

imaju i boju i emociju

and textures.

i teksturu.

And this is an opening phrase

Ovo je prva rečenica

from the novel "Lolita."

romana 'Lolita'.

And Nabokov was himself synesthetic.

Nabokov je takođe imao sinesteziju.

And you can see here

I možete da vidite ovde

how my perception of the sound L

kako moja percepcija zvuka 'L'

helps the alliteration

pomaže da aliteracija

to jump right out.

bude očigledna.

Another example:

Još jedan primer:

a little bit more mathematical.

malo više matematički.

And I wonder if some of you will notice

I pitam se da li će neki od vas primetiti

the construction of the sentence

konstrukciju rečenice

from "The Great Gatsby."

iz 'Velikog Getsbija'.

There is a procession of syllables --

Postoji čitava parada slogova --

wheat, one;

pšenica, jedan;

prairies, two;

prerije, dva;

lost Swede towns, three --

izgubljeni gradovi Šveda, tri --

one, two, three.

jedan, dva, tri.

And this effect is very pleasant on the mind,

I ovaj efekat je jako prijatan za um,

and it helps the sentence

i pomaže da rečenica

to feel right.

stvara dobar osećaj.

Let's go back to the questions

Hajde da se vratimo na pitanja

I posed you a moment ago.

koja sam vam postavio pre neki momenat.

64 multiplied by 75.

64 pomnoženo sa 75.

If some of you play chess,

Ako neko od vas igra šah

you'll know that 64

taj će znati da je 64

is a square number,

kvadratni broj

and that's why chessboards,

i zato šahovske table,

eight by eight,

osam puta osam,

have 64 squares.

imaju 64 kvadrata.

So that gives us a form

I to nam daje formu koju

that we can picture, that we can perceive.

možemo da zamislimo, možemo da je percipiramo.

What about 75?

A 75?

Well if 100,

Dobro, ako 100,

if we think of 100 as being like a square,

ako mislimo o broju 100 da je kao kvadrat,

75 would look like this.

75 bi izgledalo ovako.

So what we need to do now

Dakle ono što mi treba da uradimo sada

is put those two pictures

je da spojimo ove dve slike

together in our mind --

zajedno u našoj glavi --

something like this.

ovako nekako.

64 becomes 6,400.

64 postane 6.400.

And in the right-hand corner,

I u desnom uglu,

you don't have to calculate anything.

ne treba ništa da računate.

Four across, four up and down --

Četiri vodoravno, četiri gore i dole --

it's 16.

to je 16.

So what the sum is actually asking you to do

Tako da sve što je potrebno da uradite za zbir

is 16,

je 16,

16, 16.

16, 16.

That's a lot easier

To je mnogo lakše nego

than the way that the school taught you to do math, I'm sure.

kako su vas učili u školi da radite matematiku, siguran sam.

It's 16, 16, 16, 48,

To je 16, 16, 16, 48,

4,800 --

4.800 --

4,800,

4.800,

the answer to the sum.

toliki je zbir.

Easy when you know how.

Lako je kad znaš kako.

(Laughter)

(Smeh)

The second question was an Icelandic word.

Drugo pitanje je bila reč na Islandskom.

I'm assuming there are not many people here

Pretpostavljam da nema mnogo ljudi ovde

who speak Icelandic.

koji govore Islandski.

So let me narrow the choices down to two.

Dozvolite mi da suzim vaš izbor na dve mogućnosti.

Hnugginn:

Hungginn:

is it a happy word,

da li je to srećna reč,

or a sad word?

ili tužna reč?

What do you say?

Šta kažete?

Okay.

Dobro.

Some people say it's happy.

Neki ljudi kažu da je srećna.

Most people, a majority of people,

Više ljudi, većina ljudi

say sad.

kaže da je tužna.

And it actually means sad.

I ona zapravo znači 'tužan'.

(Laughter)

(Smeh)

Why do, statistically,

Zašto, statistički,

a majority of people

većina ljudi

say that a word is sad, in this case,

kaže da je reč tužna u ovom slučaju,

heavy in other cases?

teška u drugim slučajevima?

In my theory, language evolves in such a way

Prema mojoj teoriji, jezik evolvira na taj način

that sounds match,

da se zvuci podudaraju,

correspond with, the subjective,

slažu se sa subjektivnim,

with the personal,

sa ličnim

intuitive experience

intuitivnim iskustvom

of the listener.

slušaoca.

Let's have a look at the third question.

Hajde da pogledamo treće pitanje.

It's a line from a poem by John Keats.

Ovo je stih iz pesme Džona Kitsa.

Words, like numbers,

Reči, kao i brojevi,

express fundamental relationships

izražavaju bazične odnose

between objects

među objektima

and events and forces

događajima i silama

that constitute our world.

koje sačinjavaju naš svet.

It stands to reason that we, existing in this world,

Racionalno je očekivati da ćemo mi, živeći u ovom svetu,

should in the course of our lives

u toku svojih života

absorb intuitively those relationships.

intuitivno shvatiti te odnose.

And poets, like other artists,

I pesnici se, kao i ostali umetnici

play with those intuitive understandings.

igraju sa tim intuitivnim razumevanjem.

In the case of hare,

U slučaju 'hare',

it's an ambiguous sound in English.

to je jedan dvosmislen zvuk na engleskom jeziku.

It can also mean the fibers that grow from a head.

Može da znači 'zec' ali takodje i vlati koje izrastaju iz glave.

And if we think of that --

Ako malo razmislimo o tome --

let me put the picture up --

dozvolite da stavim sliku --

the fibers represent vulnerability.

vlakna predstavljaju ranjivost.

They yield to the slightest movement

Ona reaguju na najmanji pokret

or motion or emotion.

ili emociju.

So what you have is an atmosphere

I tako na kraju dobijete atmosferu

of vulnerability and tension.

ranjivosti i tenzije.

The hare itself, the animal --

Sam zec, životinja --

not a cat, not a dog, a hare --

ne mačka, ne pas, već zec --

why a hare?

zašto zec?

Because think of the picture --

Ako zamislite sliku,

not the word, the picture.

ne reč, već sliku.

The overlong ears,

Preduge uši,

the overlarge feet,

prevelika stopala,

helps us to picture, to feel intuitively,

pomaže nam da zamislimo, da intuitivno osetimo,

what it means to limp

šta je to hramati

and to tremble.

i drhtati.

So in these few minutes,

Nadam se da sam u ovih nekoliko minuta

I hope I've been able to share

uspeo da vam predočim

a little bit of my vision of things

mali deo načina na koji ja vidim stvari,

and to show you

i da vam pokažem

that words can have colors and emotions,

da reči mogu da imaju boju i osećanja,

numbers, shapes and personalities.

a brojevi oblike i ličnost.

The world is richer,

Svet je bogatiji,

vaster

veći

than it too often seems to be.

nego što to često deluje da jeste.

I hope that I've given you the desire

Nadam se da sam izazvao želju u vama

to learn to see the world with new eyes.

da naučite da vidite svet novim očima.

Thank you.

Hvala.

(Applause)

(Aplauz)