Today Jason Padgett is a famous mathematician. But not so long ago, he was selling sofas in his father's store and was not distinguished by an outstanding mind. A blow to the head changed his life.
American Jason Padgett has never been known for his love of mathematics. Rather, on the contrary, he considered it a stupid theoretical science divorced from reality. Padgett dropped out of college and worked for a long time as a salesman at his father's furniture store. He was only interested in noisy parties, girls and his favorite red Chevrolet Camaro. Jason, 31,'s life changed dramatically after two criminals attacked him outside a karaoke bar in Tacoma.
First symptoms
Padgett was relaxing with his friends that evening. Unidentified persons appeared when he was returning home. They hit him on the back of the head and robbed him, even taking away his torn jacket. After the impact, Jason saw a flash of light and for a long time did not understand what had happened and where he was. He was rushed to the hospital. The doctors decided that the young man had received a concussion, gave him an anesthetic injection and released him that night. Soon Jason became terrified of the street and stopped going to work. He developed obsessive-compulsive disorder.
To minimize contact with the outside world, he covered the windows with blankets and towels, and filled the cracks in the front door with polyurethane foam. He still had to go outside the house, because he had to eat something. At the same time, Jason Padgett developed a fear of germs. By that time, he broke up with his beloved - the question of who their common daughter would remain with was being decided. Sometimes the girl had to visit her father. On such days, Jason obsessively washed his hands until he turned red and dressed her in clean clothes. But that was not the most surprising thing. Padgett's perception of the world has completely changed.
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Large pixel rainbow
After the attack, the young man allegedly acquired a new vision. He saw any curved objects like square objects from computer games of the early 90s. Water flowing into the sink, clouds, puddles, rainbow - for Jason, it all now consisted of large pixels. “I was surprised and confused. It was beautiful, but at the same time scary,”Padgett later admitted. Since at that time Jason did not go out anywhere and did not communicate with anyone, the Internet became the main source of knowledge for him. The man came across a site about fractals. This concept can be explained by the example of a snowflake, consisting of many interconnected smaller snowflakes, which in turn consist of many others - and so on ad infinitum. The fractals seemed familiar to Padgett. He was fascinated by this mathematical concept, but could not explain it in words. Then Jason picked up a pencil.
Drawings, college and psychiatrists
At first Padgett drew by hand, then began using a ruler and compasses. This is how about a thousand fractal drawings appeared. He began to go out more often, each time taking a notebook with him. Jason was sure he had the key to understanding the universe. During one of the walks, a passer-by noticed his drawings and appreciated their high mathematical level. The man turned out to be a physicist. He advised Jason to get serious about mathematics. Padgett took the blankets off the windows and went to college. After three years of hermitage, it did him good.
Jason attended lectures, worked with psychiatrists and soon met his future wife. And in the evenings, he spent hours on the phone with Dr. Berith Brogaard, a neurologist at the University of Miami. She assumed Padgett had synesthesia. This is a phenomenon in which stimulation of one sense organ produces sensations that are characteristic of the other. In other words, the brain confuses signals from different senses. Synesthetes can sniff text, hear colors, and see music. This condition was recorded in only 4% of people. Some are born with this rare ability, while others acquire it after injury, stroke, or severe allergic reaction.
Syndrome of genius
According to Berit Brogaard, the traumatic brain injury triggered a special form of synesthesia in Padgett, which caused some objects to cause him to see mathematical formulas and geometric shapes. To test this theory, she invited Padgett to Finnish Aalto University for a detailed study of the brain. The assumptions were confirmed. Researchers have discovered that the American has access to certain parts of the brain that ordinary people do not have. In addition, an MRI scan showed that his visual cortex works simultaneously with the part of the brain that is responsible for mathematical calculations.
In Finland, Jason Padgett received answers to many of his questions. He was diagnosed with acquired genius syndrome, or savant syndrome. After that, Padgett published his autobiography Struck by Genius and began selling fractal images. He is one of the few people who can draw them. Now Jason talks about math and his extraordinary experiences while traveling the world. Padgett's goal is to help other people who, like himself, have encountered similar rare phenomena. He writes down their stories to turn them into a script.
Belated remorse
Familiar things in the eyes of 48-year-old Jason Padgett turn into complex crystal patterns and form geometric shapes. “I see it everywhere. You would constantly walk around in amazement that such a thing is possible in principle,”he shares. It is also difficult to imagine how an injury received at the door of a karaoke bar turned a sofa salesman into a real mathematical genius. Padgett identified the perpetrators who attacked him 17 years ago and sued them. But they were never punished. And yet one of them, years later, sent a mathematician an apologetic letter in which he admitted that he had long ago become a different person.
ULYANA SMIRNOVA