Some people are smart in the sense that they are very logical. Others are great predictors of how people will behave, I would call those smart, too. I'm not in that group, but feels wrong to dismiss it as "not smart". Just different smart.
Interesting cases, thanks for sharing. I didn't know what real-life inspiration the movie "Rain Man" came from. However, the two people seem to be worlds apart socially. While Peek seems to be extremely "stunted" in his social development, Flansburg appears to be coping well with his position as a speaker, which I always thought to be rather unusual for people with autism spectrum disorder.