Famous people with aspergers

Post Reply New Topic

Some famous people with aspergers:

Satoshi Tajiri – Creator of Pokémon



Satoshi lived in Tokio as a young boy, and liked to collect bugs from the surroundings of his suburb house. He didn’t like school, and his father wanted him to be an electrical utility repairman. Along with some friends he founded a magazine called “Game Freak”, and later founded a game developing company by the same name. He later went to work for Nintendo and spent 6 years working on Pokémon. “Pokémon has since become the second most successful and lucrative video game-based media franchise in the world, behind only Nintendo's Mario series”

Bram Cohen – Creator of the BitTorrent Protocol



At 5 he learned BASIC, and in highschool he qualified for the United States of America Mathematical Olympiad. Bram Cohen is the creator of the BitTorrent protocol, which is a P2P (peer-to-peer) file sharing system. BitTorrent basically lets people share large files by downloading them from various computers at the same time; the trick is that the same people downloading the file, are also uploading the parts that they have already received.
In 2005 he made it into the TIME’s yearly 100 most influential persons list.

Vernon L. Smith – Nobel Laureate



Vernon Smith was born January 1, 1927 in Wichita, Kansas. Smith received his bachelor's degree in electrical engineering from Caltech in 1949, an M.A. in economics from the University of Kansas in 1952, and his Ph.D. in economics from Harvard University in 1955.
In 2002 he received the nobel prize in the field of economics for “having established laboratory experiments as a tool in empirical economic analysis, especially in the study of alternative market mechanisms"
Currently he is professor of economics at Chapman University School of Law and School of Business in Orange, California.


if youd like to contribute, plz put a little biography and a photo of a person (i used http://www.freeimagehosting.net/ )

Daniel Edward "Dan" Aykroyd, CM (born July 1, 1952) is an Academy Award-nominated and Emmy Award-winning Canadian-American comedian, actor, screenwriter, musician, and ufologist. He was an original cast member of Saturday Night Live, an originator of the Blues Brothers (with John Belushi), and has had a long career as a film actor and screenwriter.

For a time, Aykroyd was engaged to Star Wars actress Carrie Fisher (who hosted the Saturday Night Live episode in which Aykroyd and Belushi gave their first polished performance as the Blues Brothers, and had a role in the Blues Brothers film). He has been inducted into Canada's Walk of Fame and maintains his Canadian roots as a longtime resident of Sydenham, Ontario, with his estate on Loughborough Lake. In 1994 Aykroyd received an honorary Doctor of Literature degree from Carleton University. In 1998, he was made a Member of the Order of Canada.

Aykroyd also received a dubious honor in 1997, when the Committee for the Scientific Investigation of Claims of the Paranormal "awarded" him the Snuffed Candle award, for "contributing to the public's lack of understanding of the methods of scientific inquiry." CSICOP did this in response to Aykroyd's program Psi Factor.

He is also a Reserve Commander for the Police Department in Harahan, Louisiana, working for Chief of Police Peter Dale. Aykroyd carries his badge with him at all times.

Sir Isaac Newton...maybe

founder of calculus; classical mechanics; born in Woolsthorpe, England.

He never knew his father. Early life showed no indication of being a child prodigy. College years showed the greatest fruit of his labors.



Einstein...maybe

Generalized the laws of physics to speeds near that of light, etc..

Was inspired by a compass at age 5. Began to speak around the same age. Married twice.





Richard Feynman...maybe

Don't know much about him except he invented this division puzzle (basically being a deduction game - which many physicists seem to enjoy ( I know of two so far).

Here's something from wikipedia:

"Richard Phillips Feynman was born on May 11, 1918,[6] in Far Rockaway, Queens, New York.[7] His family was Jewish and, while not ritualistic in their practice of Judaism, his parents attended synagogue every Friday. Feynman (in common with other famous physicists, Edward Teller, Carl Sagan and Albert Einstein) was a late talker; by his third birthday he had yet to utter a single word. The young Feynman was heavily influenced by his father, Melville, who encouraged him to ask questions to challenge orthodox thinking. From his mother, Lucille, he gained the sense of humor that endured throughout his life. As a child, he delighted in repairing radios and had a talent for engineering. His sister Joan also became a professional physicist.[8][9]"

He also authored some books to the general public. He was a prankster.

Ahhh I LOVE Richard Feynman! From reading his books, he sounds like a typical Aspie to me.

I HIGHLY suggest you check out "Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman!" FANTASTIC book.

I forgot the creator of Pokemon is an aspie. A lot of musicians such as Prince and Stevie Ray Vaughan have been hypothesized to have AS, but I don't know if they really do/did.

George Lucas - Filmographer



Born in Modesto California May 1944 (63 years). Lucas is the author of films such as American Graffiti, THX-1138, and of course, Star Wars.

George Lucas may or may not have aspergers, im entering the realm of speculation here (impossible to avoid in a famous people with aspergers post). But if I had to put my money on one guy that has aspergers id put it in Lucas. Just watch a biography of him and how people describe his personality (specially in the days of Star Wars "4th episode"). My second best bet would be on Isaac Newton.

The only two people that I know are confirmed are Gary Numan and Craig Nicholls.

Martin Bryant (diagnosed with AS): killed and injured a whole heap of people (35/37)
Adolf Hitler (speculated): killed around 46 million people

Heather Kuzmich:

Reodor_Felgen,

There's a fairly convincing argument for Hitler possibly having AS. An autism expert said such too; it's just as likely as Einstein, or anyone else who is dead.

I'll be famous in 20,000 years.

Paul Dirac, (1902-1984) British physicist. Developed relativistic quantum field theory, the basis of modern particle physics. Predicted the existance of anti-matter.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Dirac

Roger Bannister, English miler and neurologist-first man to break the four minute mile-54 years ago today!

I can't leave the assertion that Australian serial killer Martin Bryant was diagnosed with AS uncorrected. A diagnosis of AS was considered when Bryant was being assessed by a psychiatrist after he was arrested, but I believe this diagnosis was ruled out. As far as I know Bryant wasn't formally diagnosed with anything except low IQ. There is a long report on the internet somewhere of Bryant's psychiatric assessment if you wish to look for it and read it. I believe it was done by some expert.

A while ago I read the chapter about Bryant in the recently-published Australian book "Inside their minds: Australian criminals" by Rochelle Jackson. It is abundantly clear that there is something seriously and profoundly wrong with Bryant's mind, and it can be traced back to his earliest years, but he doesn't have the odd-looking appearance that one often finds with genetic syndromes that impair cognition. I don't believe he has autism or anything on the autistic spectrum. Clearly Bryant is intellectually disabled in some way in addition to something terribly wrong with his personality. This type of thing is not particularly rare; I believe many criminals are mentally impaired. I think it is the severity of Bryant's condition that makes him a rare case. There is a sterotype of intellectually disabled people as harmless and innocent people, but this is often far from true. Bryant has a history of clearly sadistic behaviour. He apparently seriously assaulted a friend and could have murdered before the massacre. I am not sure that he fits neatly into the category of psychopath, but to be fair, the area of psychopathy is still being researched and the scientists are still trying to define that condition. If I had to make a guess as to what is wrong with Bryant, I'd say there might be a big empty space in his frontal lobes where essential brain matter should be. I would guess some type of prenatal environmental cause might be to blame; alcohol exposure, lead exposure, prenatal vitamin D deficiency??? The great tragedy of Bryant's life was that he wasn't institutionalized when he was a child. His parents unwisely but admirably tried to raise a son who was always destined to be a serious danger to all.

And as for Adolph Hitler being a psychopath, there is one problem with that idea. Not long ago I saw a documentary on TV about Hitler in which they said Hitler was absolutely devastated when his mother died, a weeping mess apparently. Apparently he said himself that he loved his mother but (only) respected his father. Hitler's grief over his mother's death was interpreted as evidence of some type of mental disturbance, but I think it's possibly the most normal behaviour of Hitler's that I have ever heard about.

I think people are much more complex than labels and categories, including the most evil and damaged people.