Talk:Reading Steiner/@comment-174.109.207.177-20140403044637/@comment-5854191-20140404001449

In Episode 10 of the anime, Mayuri remembers when Okabe got sick with a really bad fever. This probably happened late 1999, since Okabe mentions it happened around the time of the Y2K problem.

This "sickness" that Okabe got is implied to be when he 'acquired' Reading Steiner. Of course, later on we find out that everyone has Reading Steiner to some extent. So, we could conclude that the "sickness" merely elevated Okabe's abilities above that of the normal person.

I haven't read through the visual novel yet, and I haven't seen the movie subbed yet. I also don't know if the visual novel's sequel expounds on the subject further. These are my conclusion based off the anime and articles about the VN's official guide book that I've read.