An Autistic Dominant Society

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What do you think would be different if we all lived in an Autistic Dominant society? A few of my thoughts...

-Silent Dinners would be a completely normal thing, instead of a dining fad
-The only clothing with tags would be in prisons
-Public transport and self driving cars would be much farther along in terms of development and societal readiness
-A shower/bath that doesn't have hot water for a warm shower or bath would be considered a plumbing emergency
-There would be childless flights available
-Criminal sentences for violent crimes would likely be harsher
-Bullying would probably be less tolerated in schools
-There would be quiet dark places to retreat to at public gatherings (such as ComiCon) and in work places
-It would be even easier to order things online
-Pink razors would likely cost exactly the same as blue ones
-Ingredients in cosmetics might actually be regulated (I'm looking at you lipstick with lead)
-Castile soap would be more widely available
-Nobody would even bother asking if you really needed that dog/cat/lizard/parakeet as a support animal, as long as it was safe
-Pet drinking fountains would be right below all human drinking fountains
-Instant Messenger would still be a thing
-Nobody would ask about your children if they saw you buying the bubblegum flavored toothpaste and frozen dinners with veggies snuck in or the pouches of smoothies that are intended for children
-Hospital checks on patients would be performed by silent drones/robots with night vision
-Sex robots and vibrators and other items in that industry would likely be far less stigmatized
-More votes for elections would be by mail-in ballot
-Hairdressers and other aestheticians would not expect small talk or consider you rude for not engaging/participating in it (same with doctors, dentists, etc.)
-Hair removal would be viewed more like a form of out patient surgery than a basic grooming procedure
-Buzzing/flickering lights would be immediately tended to and the situation resolved
-The office Christmas party would cease to exist
-telecommuting would not be a novel concept at all
-Every library in the country would have JSTOR access
-Home automation would be farther along
-Alarms for emergencies would be different, less likely to paralyze someone with light/sound sensitivity
-Phones would be permitted in more schools
-Headphones would be permitted in schools and offices without permission unless the job necessitates listening
-Takeout and ordering by app. would be more widespread
-Businesses would have to run 24 hours instead of 9-5
-There would be public tracks for adults to run on
-The consumer reviews on bed linens and towels would be very serious things that could make or break a business
-Constantly barking dogs and shrieking children would prompt an immediate investigation
-Apartments would have much thicker walls
-There would be more pedestrian bridges or tunnels
-Mass transport and self driving cars would be farther along
-Long distance trains would have to have quiet cars as well as loud cars
-Planes might not have attendants, but at least there would be leg/shoulder room
-There'd be more outlets in general- have to keep those communication devices charged
-GPS and a rear back-up camera would be just as much a requirement as airbags if buying a non-self driving vehicle
-Seatbelts would be re-designed
-Doctors would still do home visits
-Virtually everything would change about giving birth
-Schools would emphasize team building less and skill building more
-Class sizes would have to shrink
-School dances probably wouldn't be a thing
-School re-unions would just die out
-Construction work, cleaning, re-stocking would only occur with sufficient advance warning so that interested individuals could plan on finding an elsewhere to be (a sign, an app., I don't know...)
-There'd be more green space with individual chairs instead of picnic tables or benches
-Parent teacher correspondence would be online
-Parents could monitor their child in the classroom by computer connected camera if they felt the need
-Music, art, and recess would never have been cut from any school
-Public pools would have loud hours and quiet hours, as would skating rinks
-Tire swings would be standard in playgrounds
-There might be adult playgrounds
-The Drive In would never have died out
-Dungeons and Dragons would be less stigmatized. In fact, there would probably be D+D cafes.
-Bars would never have been a place where you meet people
-That awesome Spin Class at the gym would take on whole new meaning
-Job applications would be more portfolio or exhibition of abilities based and less interview/test based
-Job applicants could elect to be hired for a test period so they and their potential employer could determine compatibility based on actual compatibility rather than projected compatibility
-There would be sensory museums (where one could touch velcro and silk and sand and beans and such, and listen to different birdcalls and heartbeats and languages and music, etc.)
-Even more information would be conveyed by visual medium
-You would have entire choirs of pitch perfect performers with absolutely no facial expression
-Acting would look completely different in terms of facial expression and portrayal of body language, but at least they'd probably know all their lines
-If we still had sarcasm, it would have its own font. If.
-Therapy would likely look a lot different- granted I’ve never had any, but based on tv, movie, and book portrayals…
Person A by text or letter or email:: “He always wants to talk about his feelings, like right when I’m focused on something. He just comes up to me and starts unloading all these words. He never wants to just write it down simply or correspond about it by email or save it for a specific time. I just don’t know what to do here. And I keep somehow stressing him out and I don’t even know why- it’s like he expects me to read his mind or something. And then I get so stressed out by that that I start swimming to calm myself, and that just makes him madder. It’s like he doesn’t even want to try.”
Person B, by video chat ”I feel so overwhelmed. This is so stressful. I don’t know what to do. I can’t make this work.”
Therapist to Person B: There are other ways of dealing with your emotions than just talking about them. Person A finds that many words to be overwhelming. Have you tried just spinning around for a while, or rocking, or snapping rubber band on your wrist, or rubbing a strip of fleece or velcro? Then maybe try writing your thoughts down so Person A can read them?
Person B by video chat: “Ugggggggh! Nobody understands me! Why does everything have to be so hard?”
-Networks would need a majority vote from their audience before they could cancel something. And those votes would be part of a serious system. There would be Filibusters. You know there would be Filibusters.
-Children would all wear tracking devices, and since the devices likely would have been designed by someone who understands an autistic/Aspie kid, the kid might be more likely to keep it on
-Fashion would be completely different- fewer itchy materials, more options for ultra drapey and ultra tight clothing options
-All designs (cups, clothing, etc.) would have samples stored in a doomsday vault, just in case someone became addicted and ran out of the item
-There would be quiet channels and loud channels and/or quiet TV subscriptions and loud TV subscriptions
-If fashion stores continued to exist outside the internet, there would be couches, tea/water, personal shoppers, and in-store models to demonstrate the clothing. Once the customer had decided, an email or a currently fitting set of clothes would be sent to the store for size to be established, and the new clothes would be delivered or available for pickup.
-Relationship agreements and roommate agreements would be real things and not a joke
-Fireworks shows would be subject to tight regulation
-MTV would finally, once more show music videos. Because MTV stands for Music TV.
-International aid wouldn’t be about relationship building/diplomacy. It would be about irrigation, and sharing seeds. It would be about just sending technology, brains, and brawn to solve problems.
-Annual fall festivities would include the gathering of the leaves and resulting leaf piles for diving and rolling in

Anybody agree/disagree with anything here? Anybody have any other ideas?

The big political divide would be over defining who is autistic and the amount of neurotypicals allowed.

Instead of solitary confinement the punishment would be or resemble a crowded room of noisy people.

The best we can do is expose the dumb, weak and stupid and promote the intelligent, for them to pick up the lead.

Last edited by B19 on 25 May 2017, 5:49 pm, edited 1 time in total.: Off topic comment (politics)

I wish I could edit my original post to add:

Customer Service would consist of a voluntary post-purchase survey with a few relevant questions and a clear number ranking system. Live people fielding live complaints or complaints by phone? Not so much. You might be able to get hold of a personal shopper if you ask for one, but security surveillance would be the exclusive domain of cameras and guards/police. You wouldn't have a sales person following you around asking if you need assistance every 3 feet.

Home Economist would still be a job. Because someone should be paid to plan out the most efficient, easy to clean, and attractive kitchen layout. Someone should be paid to plan entire months and years worth of meals with attention to nutritional content, seasonal availability, dietary restrictions of possible guests/family members, caloric intake, cost of materials, etc. We shouldn't be stranded in a endless sea of stainless steel and we shouldn't have to play guess and check with our diets and settle for something unhealthy because we don't have time to plan.

I love the idea of adult playgrounds!
When my daughter was little, I was using play equipment with her, so I had a perfect excuse, but now she's not keen on playgrounds (and big enough to play with other kids without my constant supervision) I feel a bit... deprived.

I'd love a place full of all sorts of bouncy things, climbing frames, ball pits, swings (swing and jump on a foamy platform!), spinners, rocking equipment, tunnels full of sensory stimulating stuff, fluffy surfaces to roll on...
I can almost imagine it and I want to be there

It would probably be WAY more advanced, there would be MUCH higher levels of happiness, and depending on how close we're going to actual countries, adequate GDP per person. There would also possibly be a HUGE economy, because people with ASDs are able to focus on one thing and stick with a group. We may suck at talking with the normal people but we're really damn good at communicating in a group when everyone knows what they're doing. It would be fluid.

In terms of visuals I'd imagine it would incorporate lots of different environments. We'd have HUGE cities in some areas and other areas with small villages being taken over by nature. The wide variety and diversity of world views of people with Asperger's and Autism would ensure proper subsidization of arts and music, sciences, technology, etc. Psychology would also be held to high regard because it is the ultimate vehicle for understanding the human mind, and typically ASD desire more understanding of the human mind. Additionally, Philosophy would be of great importance, because it would be required to keep us motivated and give us reasons for existing.

Some side effects might arise though: Being around people so similar to yourself and being so high above the rest of humanity would cause some narcissistic sentiment towards other nations. We'd exclude lots of people. Tourism might even die. We'd become very closed to the outside, which might damage the progress being made. Precautions would have to be made to make sure things don't go in one direction too much, or one field of society dominates while the others decay, and we'd turn into the USSR. ASD typically value some things over others, and that's what we'd need to be extra careful about.

Thanks, this was great. My favorite one was about the therapy:

Therapist: "There are other ways of dealing with your emotions than just talking about them."

Aw shoot. Auto-correct changed stimming to swimming and I didn't notice before. Person A was supposed to be autistic and person B was supposed to be what we'd call NT when I envisioned that. I'm really glad you liked it though.

I think it would probably suck, to be honest. Part of autism is a lack of executive function, which is necessary to keep society running smoothly. I think we're necessary, but only as a small segment of the population. We're good at working on complicated problems in-depth, not at large-scale organization. We don't see the big picture well enough.

I'm often shocked by how much worse I am at weighing information and making good decisions than NTs are. But maybe that's just me.

That's definitely true, and it's a major issue I'm trying to remedy right now...BUT in a society where the population can identify it's own direction rather than base it off of tradition and conservatism, perhaps executive functioning wouldn't be such a big asset. Most of the stuff we're required to do on a daily basis require executive functioning because they're mandated to us by another entity. For example, the WHOLE (And mostly American) education system is founded off of discipline and subordination. It's idiotic really, because neither of these things are needed in a natural setting. We're taught that we're always going to be below someone else and that our main and only purpose is to sit silently and binge study all the s**t that's made up and outdated from 200 years ago. Half of the information we learn in schools aren't even needed, and a lot of it is just political opinions given by the ruling political party. And get religion OUT OF THE SCHOOL SYSTEM!

Not just in an Autistic only community, imagine a society with anyone who's NOT a sociopath where people live together in little huts. We each design our own homes and we have different jobs of our choice in a small and safe community. Not much would get done by some people but others would pull the weight, and they would do it because they WANT to. There would be no forced tradition like school or employment which we have in our own society. It would progress gradually and consistently, children would be raised into a natural, open, friendly world and peoples lives would progress until death, without wars or pain or suffering which we are force fed every day by people who live in luxury at the top of the social hierarchy. Rid it of tradition and stupidity and you'd have a very stable and long term society.

But how do you think it would be the same/different?

Yes and no. Society could lose its basis in tradition and conservatism, and this would reduce a decent amount of the need for conformity. It would also make the human race more "high risk/high reward", in that it would be less stable yet also advance faster.

For instance, to take something from my own area of biology, say we didn't have an authority like the FDA that regulates drugs, or rather than any such authority is only concerned with fraud (in other words, someone sells something as substance X when it's really substance Y). In such a society, anyone could have a theory that a certain substance does whatever beneficial, could present data supporting this, etc., and others could buy/use it for whatever purpose they see fit. You'd almost certainly see a lot more people doing all kinds of self-experimentation and some would go down dead-end paths that could ruin their lives, whereas there would be some who would make a breakthrough that under a more conservative system could take decades. This is just one example, but this same principle applies in some fashion to all areas of society. It's sort of like in an organism if you allow more mutations, there's more outliers at both the low and high fitness end.

On the other hand, executive function I see as much more general than conformity. It's the ability to keep things that you already know fixed in your mind. Like if you're doing an experiment and have put one chemical in some tube, it doesn't help if you're so preoccupied with the range of possibilities of what your experiment will show that you forget what you put in that tube. In an autistic-dominated society, there would almost certainly be a much greater role of computers in personal organization. People would use computers as a kind of "brain replacement" to keep track of the mundane things they need to remember.

There is the question, though, if us autistics (especially the more creative ones--which actually surprise me how rare they are, even though I'm definitely one) benefit from having others who are able to "keep the wheels turning" and convert our ideas into things that are viable in the real world. I'm not totally convinced that computers can entirely take over this role.

But how would an autistic dominant society be different/the same as the NT dominant society we now live in?

This one sounds scary, kind of like Nazi Germany in the 1930s but with NTs instead of Jews.



Many Aspies do have narcissistic tendencies, despite the fact that they are themselves scared of being seen as "different and not equal". If Aspies ruled and dominated some nation, their narcissistic sentiments could get out of control.

This could lead to discrimination of NTs.

Just see what ASPartOfMe posted, he suggested NT quotas and forcing NTs to wear identifying marks.



I'm NT and I will list which of your ideas I like, which I dislike, and which I'm not sure what to think about.

1) Ideas I like (approve): 55 out of 79 (= ca. 70%)

-Public transport and self driving cars would be much farther along in terms of development and societal readiness
-A shower/bath that doesn't have hot water for a warm shower or bath would be considered a plumbing emergency
-Bullying would probably be less tolerated in schools
-There would be quiet dark places to retreat to at public gatherings (such as ComiCon) and in work places
-It would be even easier to order things online
-Pink razors would likely cost exactly the same as blue ones
-Ingredients in cosmetics might actually be regulated (I'm looking at you lipstick with lead)
-Castile soap would be more widely available
-Nobody would even bother asking if you really needed that dog/cat/lizard/parakeet as a support animal, as long as it was safe
-Pet drinking fountains would be right below all human drinking fountains
-Instant Messenger would still be a thing
-Nobody would ask about your children if they saw you buying the bubblegum flavored toothpaste and frozen dinners with veggies snuck in or the pouches of smoothies that are intended for children
-More votes for elections would be by mail-in ballot
-Buzzing/flickering lights would be immediately tended to and the situation resolved
-telecommuting would not be a novel concept at all
-Every library in the country would have JSTOR access
-Home automation would be farther along
-Alarms for emergencies would be different, less likely to paralyze someone with light/sound sensitivity
-Phones would be permitted in more schools
-Headphones would be permitted in schools and offices without permission unless the job necessitates listening
-Takeout and ordering by app. would be more widespread
-There would be public tracks for adults to run on
-The consumer reviews on bed linens and towels would be very serious things that could make or break a business
-Apartments would have much thicker walls
-There would be more pedestrian bridges or tunnels
-Mass transport and self driving cars would be farther along
-Long distance trains would have to have quiet cars as well as loud cars
-Planes might not have attendants, but at least there would be leg/shoulder room
-There'd be more outlets in general- have to keep those communication devices charged
-GPS and a rear back-up camera would be just as much a requirement as airbags if buying a non-self driving vehicle
-Seatbelts would be re-designed
-Doctors would still do home visits
-Construction work, cleaning, re-stocking would only occur with sufficient advance warning so that interested individuals could plan on finding an elsewhere to be (a sign, an app., I don't know...)
-There'd be more green space with individual chairs instead of picnic tables or benches
-Parent teacher correspondence would be online
-Music, art, and recess would never have been cut from any school
-Public pools would have loud hours and quiet hours, as would skating rinks
-Tire swings would be standard in playgrounds
-There might be adult playgrounds
-The Drive In would never have died out
-Dungeons and Dragons would be less stigmatized. In fact, there would probably be D+D cafes.
-That awesome Spin Class at the gym would take on whole new meaning
-Job applications would be more portfolio or exhibition of abilities based and less interview/test based
-Job applicants could elect to be hired for a test period so they and their potential employer could determine compatibility based on actual compatibility rather than projected compatibility
-There would be sensory museums (where one could touch velcro and silk and sand and beans and such, and listen to different birdcalls and heartbeats and languages and music, etc.)
-Even more information would be conveyed by visual medium
-Networks would need a majority vote from their audience before they could cancel something. And those votes would be part of a serious system. There would be Filibusters. You know there would be Filibusters.
-Fashion would be completely different- fewer itchy materials, more options for ultra drapey and ultra tight clothing options
-All designs (cups, clothing, etc.) would have samples stored in a doomsday vault, just in case someone became addicted and ran out of the item
-There would be quiet channels and loud channels and/or quiet TV subscriptions and loud TV subscriptions
-If fashion stores continued to exist outside the internet, there would be couches, tea/water, personal shoppers, and in-store models to demonstrate the clothing. Once the customer had decided, an email or a currently fitting set of clothes would be sent to the store for size to be established, and the new clothes would be delivered or available for pickup.
-Fireworks shows would be subject to tight regulation
-MTV would finally, once more show music videos. Because MTV stands for Music TV.
-International aid wouldn’t be about relationship building/diplomacy. It would be about irrigation, and sharing seeds. It would be about just sending technology, brains, and brawn to solve problems.
-Annual fall festivities would include the gathering of the leaves and resulting leaf piles for diving and rolling in

2) Ideas I'm not sure if I like or not: 20 out of 79 (= ca. 25%)

-Criminal sentences for violent crimes would likely be harsher [my note: they are pretty harsh already]
-Silent Dinners would be a completely normal thing, instead of a dining fad
-The only clothing with tags would be in prisons
-There would be childless flights available
-Hospital checks on patients would be performed by silent drones/robots with night vision
-Sex robots and vibrators and other items in that industry would likely be far less stigmatized
-Hairdressers and other aestheticians would not expect small talk or consider you rude for not engaging/participating in it (same with doctors, dentists, etc.)
-Hair removal would be viewed more like a form of out patient surgery than a basic grooming procedure
-The office Christmas party would cease to exist
-Businesses would have to run 24 hours instead of 9-5
-Constantly barking dogs and shrieking children would prompt an immediate investigation
-Virtually everything would change about giving birth
-Schools would emphasize team building less and skill building more
-Class sizes would have to shrink
-Parents could monitor their child in the classroom by computer connected camera if they felt the need
-You would have entire choirs of pitch perfect performers with absolutely no facial expression
-Acting would look completely different in terms of facial expression and portrayal of body language, but at least they'd probably know all their lines
-Therapy would likely look a lot different- granted I’ve never had any, but based on tv, movie, and book portrayals…
-Children would all wear tracking devices, and since the devices likely would have been designed by someone who understands an autistic/Aspie kid, the kid might be more likely to keep it on
-Relationship agreements and roommate agreements would be real things and not a joke

3) Ideas that I don't like (disagree with): 4 out of 79 (= ca. 5%)

-School dances probably wouldn't be a thing
-School re-unions would just die out
-Bars would never have been a place where you meet people
-If we still had sarcasm, it would have its own font. If.

================
So we mostly agree.

Edit:



I like this idea as well.

OK, to be clear:
By "agree," I mean, do you think my predictions (for want of a better word) would be accurate
By "disagree," I mean, do you think my predictions (for want of a better word) would be inaccurate

I don't think these things are all good or all bad. I just think they're what we'd have if we lived in an autistic dominant society.