A Mentat Among Us

[georgiedenbro]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shakuntala ... hievements" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

I guess the first step would be to figure out how she does this and to try to replicate it. After that the next step would be to translate the numerical quantities into factual data and to allow the number processing skill to be applicable to non-mathematical data. This latter step would likely require the construction of a new language that codes information digitally and is learnable by a human.

Just give it 20,000 years, we'll get there

[Naïve mind]

Actually, ask anyone working as a games developer, or who works in robotics; just being able to see things, do things like depth perception and recognize individual objects require vast amounts of calculation. We're able to coordinate many different muscles to fractions of a degree at very high speeds. Hearing sounds ... well, the same goes for that. Most mammals have these abilities, and therefore that computing power.
There's no doubt our brain has the processing power of a fairly impressive computer even by today's standards. And that's not even including higher cognitive functions.

We just don't have conscious access to our brain's ability to perform those calculations. Instead, we have to replicate it in a slow, deliberate way when we try to do it consciously.