Could Aspergers Be A Positive Evolutionary Trend?
TTRSage
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Joined: 30 Aug 2010
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The other day I was watching some documentary about autism. This documentary did not fail to mention the often quoted 6000% increase in autism in recent years along with the usual unscientific claims by all the Johnny Do-Gooders like Jenny McCarthy and mob that MMR causes autism. That 6000% figure is well known though and is often claimed to be the result of increased awareness and diagnosis. Then I began thinking that the possibility is certainly there that only part of this percentage is due to awareness and that there may in fact be a net increase in the number of people who actually have some form of autism. Nobody really knows for sure.
As I continued with this line of thought, I began to think about Aspergers as the true gift of nature that I see it to be (well, we all have our excess baggage too). Then the thought occurred to me that Aspergers just might be a positive evolutionary trend. Certainly it could not become dominant as the result of natural selection, since the marriage rate is rather low among Aspies (I read something like 1% in one article here) resulting in fewer offspring than all the NT baby factory types in this world. However, when you take a look at the many advantageous Aspie traits, it is not difficult to imagine that it is a definite step forward in this world compared to all the bar-hopping jocks who make so much noise while cheating on their mates, battering their kids and dissolving their brain away in alcohol. Such a thing just might have happened through some random genetic mutation that is trying to establish itself via natural selection without enough success for it to really become predominant.
Take a look at the way in which the world has always reacted to anything that is different from the status quo such as the idea that the world is round instead of flat or the idea that the sun and planets did not revolve about the earth. The world always tries to eliminate such things so that it can return to the same old status quo rather than seeing new possibilities that may exist. This is the reaction that you might get to the possibility of various fictitious alien species such as ET, the Roswell aliens or the spindly aliens in Close Encounters since humankind views itself as a superior species, even above those that might be far more advanced than we are. This is the reaction that you might get to a notion that any change in human behavior is for the worse simply because it is different. This is the reaction that the NT world would automatically see in any possibility that Aspergers just might be a step forward, simply because it is not the same old stale thing that has been true for eons. Eliminate it, stifle it, cure it, ignore it and if not possible then confine it so as to not interfere with the static flow of society. You must open your eyes in order to be able to see.
Admittedly this is all only my own speculation and maybe I am way out in left field, but who is to say if it just might be true or not. Maybe there are a few of you out there with special interests in genetics or evolution who might care to take this farther. I just wanted to put this idea out there to spawn some additional thought.
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I have considered the evolutionary aspect of Asperger's. While it's true some Aspies have helped to advance mankind in science, and if you want to add in the "supposed" Aspies in history, then the majority of progress is caused by Aspies.
However if Asperger's is the start of an evolutionary branch off, it's going to be a dead end. Aside from the supposed number of 1 in 150 is a tiny fraction of the population. You also have to consider the lack of the social skills and, even with some, the desire for social contact. This pretty much means that the small number of people with Asperger's lack the social skills and or the desire to find a mate and to pass on the Aspie genes.
That's not including the people who are low functioning Asperger's who can't do math or sciences let alone being the progress pushers. Asperger's might be an evolutionary branch off, but it's a dead end, unless, some how, it becomes popular to have Asperger's children and specialized classes on training them for social skills.
Molecular_Biologist
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Culture is not static and has changed rapidly
It could have become dominant in the past when mating customs were far different from what they are today, when pure sucess in some area was enough to secure a spouse and provide for a family.
We now live in a hyper-social world where social skills are the end all and be all of mating success.
If our world is to become like the society in "Idiocracy" it not just because the smarter yuppie couples are having less children.
Its also because of the prevalence of the welfare state. Nearly 50% of the households in the US are on some form of public assistance.
As the government provides all the essentials, there is no need to choose the geeky but prosperous mate.
With wealth redistribution, the geeks have lost many of their advantages over the smooth talkers in the mating game.
When the smooth talker abandons you for the next fling after siring multiple children, just raise taxes on the geeky guy to pay for your brood.
Last edited by Molecular_Biologist on 18 Sep 2010, 2:41 pm, edited 2 times in total.
Aspergers in my understanding is a discription of common behaviours associated with underlying neurological differences (PDD). These underlying neurological differences are genetic in origin, but to have a meaningful discussion you must seperate the neurological causes from the behaviours that result to cope. The Genetic mutations that allow creative use of neuropathways and the development of different neurostructures within the temporal lobes create conditions such as Temporal Lobe Epilepsy (of genetic origin) and Synaesthesia.
Synaesthesia is one example where the autistic brain is capable of function impossible for the NT brain. It is also possible that the creative use of pathways allows the survival of seizures that might have killed "normal brain".
I believe we are evolving to become a different sort of human.
I see the differences between Aspies and NT's as being not unlike comparing Dogs and Wolves.
Dogs are highly evolved with many "special abilities" though they have no discernable genetic difference from wolves - they are the same "species" by mdern taxonomy. Yet the wolf or dog will recognise substantial eneugh difference that the wolves are much more likly to kill the dog than to accept or include it.
Similarly NT`s have been torturing and killing people exhibiting difference in Temporal Lobe function for well over 1000 years - epileptics were tested through `Trail by Ordeal` and executed as witches.
Yet despite persection and a comparitivly low birth rate, the Mutant Genes are dominant and persist. Now that the NT`s aren`t allowed to kill us off as overtly we have seen a surge in the rates of Autism.
When you see any species grow to these numbers and begin to exhaust their resorces, you will see mass extinction and evolution occur.
I think this is a good thing.
NT`s are dishonest, intollerant and irational. Aspies tend to be supirior in many ways right down to our dominant genes! So if the NT`s won`t let you work or participate - so be it.
They appear to be breeding themselves into good little slaves ahem I mean employees, maybe someday Aspies will be the dominant species and we can keep specially bred pet NT`s
I think NT`s make great pets, servants etc.
(Some of us who get home care already have a few NT slaves haha!)
This concept comes up quite often around here. I consider it an 'evolutionary' alternative 'trend' if anything at all. One is not superior to the other, they are just different, and each would type have a place in a balanced and understanding society.
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MrDiamondMind
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However if Asperger's is the start of an evolutionary branch off, it's going to be a dead end. Aside from the supposed number of 1 in 150 is a tiny fraction of the population. You also have to consider the lack of the social skills and, even with some, the desire for social contact. This pretty much means that the small number of people with Asperger's lack the social skills and or the desire to find a mate and to pass on the Aspie genes.
That's not including the people who are low functioning Asperger's who can't do math or sciences let alone being the progress pushers. Asperger's might be an evolutionary branch off, but it's a dead end, unless, some how, it becomes popular to have Asperger's children and specialized classes on training them for social skills.
It's not necessary that only Aspies procreate; NTs could also be carriers of the Aspie genes.
As I continued with this line of thought, I began to think about Aspergers as the true gift of nature that I see it to be (well, we all have our excess baggage too). Then the thought occurred to me that Aspergers just might be a positive evolutionary trend. Certainly it could not become dominant as the result of natural selection, since the marriage rate is rather low among Aspies (I read something like 1% in one article here) resulting in fewer offspring than all the NT baby factory types in this world. However, when you take a look at the many advantageous Aspie traits, it is not difficult to imagine that it is a definite step forward in this world compared to all the bar-hopping jocks who make so much noise while cheating on their mates, battering their kids and dissolving their brain away in alcohol. Such a thing just might have happened through some random genetic mutation that is trying to establish itself via natural selection without enough success for it to really become predominant.
Take a look at the way in which the world has always reacted to anything that is different from the status quo such as the idea that the world is round instead of flat or the idea that the sun and planets did not revolve about the earth. The world always tries to eliminate such things so that it can return to the same old status quo rather than seeing new possibilities that may exist. This is the reaction that you might get to the possibility of various fictitious alien species such as ET, the Roswell aliens or the spindly aliens in Close Encounters since humankind views itself as a superior species, even above those that might be far more advanced than we are. This is the reaction that you might get to a notion that any change in human behavior is for the worse simply because it is different. This is the reaction that the NT world would automatically see in any possibility that Aspergers just might be a step forward, simply because it is not the same old stale thing that has been true for eons. Eliminate it, stifle it, cure it, ignore it and if not possible then confine it so as to not interfere with the static flow of society. You must open your eyes in order to be able to see.
Admittedly this is all only my own speculation and maybe I am way out in left field, but who is to say if it just might be true or not. Maybe there are a few of you out there with special interests in genetics or evolution who might care to take this farther. I just wanted to put this idea out there to spawn some additional thought.
I've always thought sometimes s**t just happens. For no reason at all. And that's the way evolution works, last I checked.
Last edited by menintights on 18 Sep 2010, 2:47 pm, edited 2 times in total.
Then the thought occurred to me that Aspergers just might be a positive evolutionary trend. Certainly it could not become dominant as the result of natural selection, since the marriage rate is rather low among Aspies (I read something like 1% in one article here) resulting in fewer offspring than all the NT baby factory types in this world. .
These two sentences contradict each other. Evolution happens through natural selection.
Or as menintights put it, sometimes s*t happens for no reason at all and that's how evolution happens. The appeal to Intelligent Design from otherwise scientifically literate posters as a reason for the rise in autism diagnosis always gives me a chuckle.
Last edited by Janissy on 18 Sep 2010, 2:57 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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