Stories of People With Unbelievable Memory

From the woman who never forgets a face to the London taxi drivers who have to know all of the city’s streets, we’ve included five of our most memorable stories in this reel.

Video Script:

[Music] I'm Stephen Wiltshire hi dude joins Stephen is an artist who creates incredibly intricate drawings of cityscapes I love drawing tool buildings tools skyscrapers skylines street scenes and he does this entirely from memory when Stephen was three he was diagnosed as autistic he was completely mute and lived entirely in his own world early on Stephens teachers noticed he loved to draw he had found his way to connect with others Stephen has the ability to look at a subject once and then draw an accurate and detailed picture of it including panoramas of entire cities based off just a quick look I'll go up on their helicopter and then memorize it and then after being on a helicopter and straight back at the hotel and then starts to talk his incredible talent launched an artistic career that has taken him around the world Los Angeles Dubai Houston Texas and Tokyo in Japan and that's just to name a few New York's my favorite Empire State Building Chrysler Building and there lots of yellow New York taxicabs and steven has no plans of stopping anytime soon someone told me that people like me joints feel good always being happy about it [Music] I can see someone I knew as a child and immediately recognize them as an adult or I can see someone who worked at a store that I used to go to ten years ago and see them on the street and recognize them is that Clerk my name is Jennifer Jarrett and I'm a super recognizer I remember just about every face I see I don't have to have an emotional attachment to people to remember them I really started to recognize it when I went to college I would meet people I would always remember them and then a couple of months later I'd be at a party and people would say oh do you two know each other and I'd say yes and the other person would say no so then I sort of started to learn what was a memorable encounter and what wasn't in terms of being a super recognizer so far I haven't really found any way to utilize it at my last college reunion my friends were so excited because you know everybody worries that they're gonna go to a reunion and not remember who people are so people were sticking to me like glue so I could tell everyone who was in the room [Music] imagine remembering every single day of your life all in perfect detail for those with highly superior autobiographical memory or H Sam for short this is their reality I remember everything that's personally happened to me since I was born that's Rebecca sharukh I was fascinated by this condition so I called her up to find out more hi Rebecca hi how are you going I'm doing all right it's very wet Saturday morning here how are you going side note in this moment I just realized Rebecca will remember that this day was a wet morning forever so you remember everything in great detail people can remember what they did last Saturday but I can remember what I did Saturday 10 years ago what about a memory from when you out of the baby when I was 12 days old I was lying down on the fur car seat in my parents car and I was staring up at the steering wheel and I thought what is that Rebecca is one of only 60 people worldwide to have been identified with having hate sin all through my teenage years I thought that everybody remembered in this kind of way I thought it was completely normal it wasn't until she was 21 when her parents decided to submit her to the University of California to undergo two years of testing after this she was officially identified as having H Sam since memories can come to mind unexpectedly any time of day a negative memory like this can make living with HCM difficult mum was porting me in this Ichi satin dress and I was crying because I didn't like it and mum gave me this Minnie Mouse toy and I couldn't say anything at the time but her face terrified me but on most days eh Sam as a gift Rebecca can recall happy memories and moments when times get tough but good memory it makes me so thankful about having this kind of patience and memory thanks for chatting Rebecca yep [Music] let's say you're in London you need to get from the London Eye to Buckingham Palace taxi please we would leave one hour right Belvedere Road left chilli street oh wait you know the whole group already what we have to all London black cab drivers have to have completed their knowledge we need to know all the straights of modes in London to provide that service okay let's go see with the Queen lips [Music] London is famous for its black taxis you need to get to somewhere no sweat because every black cabbie has to pass an insanely hard test known as the knowledge like this guy hello my name is Peter Allen up in your London taxi driver for nine years okay all the knowledge is the test that you have to pass in order to become a London taxi driver it's the toughest taxi test in the world the first thing you have to do is learn what's called the blue book as a cab driver it's your Bible you have to learn 320 routes around London so that's six hundred and forty quarter of a mile areas you have to learn 25,000 streets and roads within a six-mile radius or two Fabri Square in London you have to learn every single point of interest place of interest apartment building housing the stylee station lost synagogue is a few moments later why furniture shop I want to show it club our restaurant everything anyway aware of pain passion you might want to go okay then let's go to the exam center my name is Katie channels and I'm the knowledge of London manager so the exams are several phases of all appearances it's basically an interview type situation where you describe the streets and roads attempting to use the shortest distance between point a and point B at the beginning we might ask them the name of a theater where that theater is and by the end of their knowledge with it expect them to know boys actually showing at that theater what on average it takes 2 to 4 years to learn the knowledge the best way to study is to go out onto the streets on a scooter isn't that right at us my name is a bass actor you'd be studied knowledge for about four and a half years now and my next appearance is in about three weeks time it's like a full-time job you wake up in the morning go out on your by a couple of hours come to the college study study study here sit while sleeping and studying as well yeah one in five who attempt the knowledge actually pass that's the same success rate as the US Navy SEAL GPS and Sat Navs are banned in the exam but why not use them on the streets my GPS is here and if we get somewhere and we see a roads closed we need to say right that's closed but I know if I go left here that would take me there I'll go right here that would take me there we need to be able to do all that as well as having a conversation with the person in the back and solving the world problems at the same time Leicester Square to Big Ben please so you'd leave Leicester Square by Irving straight to Charing Cross there are 43 quintillion possible combinations now imagine you have no websites no books and no one to show you how to solve it because you invented it but you didn't invent the rubik's cube this guy did my name is anaerobic was born here in this beautiful city of Budapest it was 1974 30 year-old Erno Rubik was just beginning his career in academia I was lecturing design and architecture very similar in age with the students ambitious to find new ways to teach them especially about space and three dimension I made a cube as a teaching gate and for my son to learn something from it once the physical cube was put together ernõ began hunting for its secrets and the question was not it is possible to solve it but the question was it is possible to find a method to do that there is 26 small cubes it looks the same but in the structure of the cube they have different rules ernõ racked his brain first strategy twisting and turning the cube in his hands and his head to unlock his creation after I started to understand the nature of this actual movement I found a way for a solution it's not that straight way and after a month he cracked the code but the story doesn't end there I had the feeling the potential of the object I found it very simple to manufacture and the result of that it can be an object what is available for everyone in 1980 Erna would finally bring his cube to the world and from there it took off becoming one of the best-selling toys of all time because of the content of the cube the world discovered is not a gadget it's something that is more valuable more long life and after almost 40 years Rubik's Cube has seen a comeback with hundreds of competitions every year across the world for ernõ the cube that bears his name is more than just a toy it's a reminder to never give up there is always a way for a solution at all their way to find something else something new something different or find the result of you if today is not everything is good it doesn't mean to can not be better depend on you [Music] you