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ruveyn
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03 Dec 2012, 8:21 am

Robert A. Heinlein captured some of the characteristics of Asperger's Syndrome in "Stranger in a Strange Land". He had a fictional profession -- The Fair Witness.

Here is what a Fair Witness is:

Fair Witness

Fair Witness is a fictional profession invented for the novel, "Stranger in a Strange Land". A Fair Witness is an individual trained to observe events and report exactly what he or she sees and hears, making no extrapolations or assumptions. An eidetic memory is a prerequisite for the job, although this may be attainable with suitable training.
In Heinlein's society, a Fair Witness is a highly reputable source of information. By custom, a Fair Witness acting professionally, generally wearing distinctive white robes, is never addressed directly, and is never acknowledged by anyone present.
The character Jubal Harshaw employs a Fair Witness, Anne, as one of his secretaries. Unlike the other secretaries, she does not use dictation equipment when Jubal speaks, and can keep track of several works at once, despite Harshaw's frequent switching among them.
Fair Witnesses are prohibited from drawing conclusions about what they observe. As a demonstration, Harshaw asks Anne to describe the color of a house in the distance. She responds, "It's white on this side"; whereupon Harshaw explains that she would not assume knowledge of the color of the other sides of the house without being able to see them. Furthermore, after observing another side of the house would not then assume that any previously seen side was still the same color as last reported, even if only minutes before.

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maglevsky
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24 Aug 2015, 4:23 pm

Necrobump! :skull:

I read Stranger in a Strange Land a few years ago (before I knew anything about autism), and it just occurred to me that the character of "Smith" could perhaps be construed as an elaborate metaphor for autism? It would be nice to re-read it with that in mind, but due to lack of time that's not gonna happen anytime soon.

Anyway, what do you think? Am I spot on or completely off my trolley?


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0_equals_true
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26 Aug 2015, 6:48 pm

To poor cold water on this, I don't really see the connection.

The job of the fair witness is primarily to be neutral in his or her duty.

I don't think being on the spectrum makes the person any more suitable for this role. Nor is it a particularly good analogy for autism.

I see in my father some of these traits. He is not neutral by any stretch, however in his career with FCO there were aspects of his job were he was expected to be more neutral, and he did believe in service (this was before the career diplomat era). As a civil servant, his career spanned many political terms, and foreign secretaries. He didn't like all of them but was dutiful. This is not for everyone, and majoriy of the people on the forum wouldn't pass muster.

Such enforced neutrality takes a lot out of you over time. It is not that natural, arguably it is needed in some situations, but in other situations that are alternative models of having a balance.

I certainly don't think, I'd be able to do it.

I hate simplistic connections. I really don't agree we can be neatly be put into a box like that. I don't even find in as the compelling as a sub-type exclusive to autism.

I also think this could be missing the whole point of the book, and this idea is somewhat of a side show.

I think the idealising of the spectrum is not only inaccurate, it is bad advocacy. If you sugar coat something is no better than demonising it. Both are misleading.

I don't think you can make assumption that we are more a. neutral, b. logical from a non-self interest perspective.

So in conclusion: I don't agree :lol:



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26 Aug 2015, 7:05 pm

Even objectivity and empiricism in a population is not all that uniform, and where it occurs it can be in specific areas and disciplines.

I often say: "Those that believe they are logical probably aren't, and those the believe thy are right because they are logical are often wrong".

The latter is to do with the nature of deductive reasoning, the capacity to do layered analysis and that there are few definitive answers in nature that couldn't be further analysed. If you believe you are right because of you are logical, your logical capacity might be limited. Whether you are logical or not, at some point you have to choose when you exit the analytical loop to form a conclusion. This in itself is a skill, so logic is only part of it.



RhodyStruggle
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26 Aug 2015, 9:48 pm

Stranger in a Strange Land is one of my all-time favorite books, but I don't see the autism metaphors myself, either with respect to the Fair Witnesses or to VM Smith. If anything I identify more strongly with the Martians.


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maglevsky
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27 Aug 2015, 1:50 am

Quote:
If anything I identify more strongly with the Martians.

Interesting. I tend to see VM Smith as basically a human with strong Martian influences, and myself as somewhere between AS and NT (I'm not diagnosed but my scores on Leif Ekblad's Aspie quiz are: Aspie 102, NT 110).
So if you're "further along" the spectrum than myself, it would make perfect sense that you identify more with the Martians and I more with Smith.


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RhodyStruggle
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27 Aug 2015, 7:24 am

maglevsky wrote:
Quote:
If anything I identify more strongly with the Martians.

Interesting. I tend to see VM Smith as basically a human with strong Martian influences, and myself as somewhere between AS and NT (I'm not diagnosed but my scores on Leif Ekblad's Aspie quiz are: Aspie 102, NT 110).
So if you're "further along" the spectrum than myself, it would make perfect sense that you identify more with the Martians and I more with Smith.


Curious if you ever read Heinlein's Red Planet? It was written for younger audiences than Stranger but features the same Martians.


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maglevsky
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29 Aug 2015, 9:15 am

No I haven't read Red Planet.
One more to add to the reading list ...


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29 Aug 2015, 6:39 pm

I'm sorry to say I've never read any of Heinlein's novels, though I recall reading a short story or two of his years ago. My late father really loved his fiction.
But for the thread at hand - I think that while we Aspies tend to have a bit of an idealized notion of ourselves as being fair and impartial, the truth is, we're about as prejudiced toward our own views as anyone else; and perhaps even more so, as no one is as obsessive about an opinion or a topic as we are.


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